Japanese animation (anime) - ドラゴノーツ -ザ・レゾナンス-

Name: Dragonaut - The Resonance
Episodes: 25 eps
Vintage: 2007
Style: Ação Sci-fi Romance Drama

ドラゴノーツ -ザ・レゾナンス- - Preview

Preview

In the distant future, mankind faces a grave danger: A moon-sized creature called "Thanatos" hits and destroys pluto. Soon the ISDA (International Solarsystem Development Agency) starts the D-Project aiming to destroy Thanatos before it's arrival at Earth by using nothing less than Dragons. It's just so that a pack of Dragon eggs were found at Earth, and now the ISDA is able to develop Earth-born Dragons controlled by human masters (and while in their "communicator" form, a Dragon is pretty much like a human). However, the existence of Dragons and Thanatos appearance seams related.

3 years ago, when Kamishima Jin is on route for a moon trip with his family on a shuttle piloted by none other than his father, a Thanatos attack accidentally hits the shuttle at take-off, mysteriously killing everyone but Jin. The answer for this might be on the pretty girl who saves Jin when he is attacked by a strange creature on present day his way home, Toa.

Pacing

"Dragonauts" focus on Jin and Toa, and their predicament and complicated relationship as Toa, A.K.A. Album by ISDA, is somewhat related to the Dragons and Thanatos. While the earth-born dragons fight alongside the ISDA to counter any menace and find other possible dragons, several organizations aim to get hold of this amazing technology, all at the same time as Thanatos approaches.

However, something must be clear to prevent you from watching Dragonauts with the wrong mindset:, It's all about the relationship between dragons and humans, about love transcending form, friendship over prejudice. The title deals with it using the usual humane subtleness put to create a complex character development while all the Thanatos and "war" behind it are just settings for this drama, and indeed, you won't see many battles, and Thanatos itself don't even play a role until much later in the show.

While Humans riding Dragons who have a human form but "actualize" into big dragon-like (emphasis on "like") creatures, the title manages to keep a believable plot and most events are coherent, though in several episodes, there is a sudden change in mood and the viewer finds himself wondering if he missed an episode - don't worry, you didn't, it's just they fast forward without telling you, and more often than not, they will later explain the changes in a flashback or on-the-fly explanations. Unfortunately, however, this brings down the story-telling quality.

Jin and Toa romance is somewhat dragged, and while most of the first part of the show it's not a serious issue, it get old really fast, and the viewer might get tired of so much "I love Toa"/"I love Jin" rhetoric on later episodes - however, the whole point of the show, as mentioned, end up being about love and human relationships, and while annoying at times, one can see where this is important for the closure. Do not watch expecting an action thriller, this is not the point.

Be warned about huge breasts and also at random personality changes on Kazuki character.

Conclusion

Pushing the limits of reason a little far but maintaining one feet on the ground, "Dragonaut"'s mythology and events are somewhat believable, and the characters are interesting enough to make you skim thru with little worries (except when they start to die, and you are again left with the weird plot with some random pacing issues). The romance is pleasant and some secondary characters manage to steal the focus most of the time, like the little cute Sieglinde, master of dragon Amadeus, or pretty Machina, dragon of tomboyish Akira.

While the title have some degrading issues with pacing and a bad direction, both plot (about relationships) and characters partially make up for it. The visual art is also usually a plus, though Gonzo should know better when NOT to use CG, and some dragons look like they came from late 90's video game because of the overly used 3DCGI's. If Toa and Jin romance does not manage to make the title interesting, the issues that fall into the Dragonauts and the relationship themes eventually manage to raise some good points, and the final sequence also deploy nice issues, and while the theme is nothing new during the last episode, the show have a convincing closure with some positive twists.

If not much, Dragonaut boasts a good ending and some entertaining fights for the fan addict (though most of the title is focused on character development and not action), while also covering enough drama and romance on its secondary characters to please most fans.

A standard gonzo-like anime with a lot of eye-candy, charismatic characters and a plot you can get on board with. However, exactly because Dragonaut strong points are at characters and their relationships, it might not connect to some action lovers. Usually, a die-hard fan of less demanding titles like Gurren-Laggan or Gundam will not be pleased by "Dragonaut" proposal. Otherwise, if you can connect to the characters and don't mind a polemic plot, Dragonaut is a welcome sci-fi with real people as victims and villains on an epic battle. It's very unfortunate that the direction failed so much in so many passages, damaging the pacing of this title.

Be sure to read our essay on the polemic this title has caused

For several reasons, several people hate Dragonauts. It's an interesting phenomenon that deserves an essay while covering the true intention of the title.

Dragonauts boats a message on love transcending form. It was there all the time from the first moment. It was NEVER about big moon-sized creatures attacking the Earth or whatever nonsense they come up next (if you found yourself bored because Thanatos stood there idle until episode 20, you where watching for the wrong reasons), it was NEVER about big mecha fights or Dragon fights, it was NEVER about a big interplanetary war. It was, in fact, about human relationships, about prejudices on love and friendship, prejudices on form and content. It was about Toa and Jin.

Not only several people watch Dragonauts expecting a sci-fi flick of action thriller base with memorable fights, some also end up degrading the series because of the unfortunate use of gigantic breasts (hello Garnet!). They are distracting, but let's face it, Garnet is a secondary character that is only really on screen in the mars arc, and she dies half-way the series, so that should not be a good reason to depreciate the series worth. People shouldn’t let their prejudices of form to influence their judgments - and I am even going as far as saying those gigantic breasts are the on-the-fly proof-of-concept the title boasts: will people look past this ominous gigantic breasts and see the real character behind it, or will they get judgmental and dislike her and the title because of that? "Look past the boobs". Another nice title which might have a similar attempt to get people past the looks is "Divergence-EVE" where ALL female characters have breasts twice the size of Garnet, and yet, boasts a very solid sci-fi plot.

Adding to the prejudice over form, I have even read people commenting on "how ridiculous" it was for a man (Jin) to kiss Toa as if she was a woman, and that it would be even more ridiculous if she was in her dragon form when they kissed. Again, that's just a huge prejudice against form and looks. So is that bad to love and kiss something different? I fear people who think like that might be racist.

Unfortunately, Dragonauts indeed lacks a good story writing and directing, which is what several viewers will nag more about. Some episodes have rushed events that don't connect, and there are one or two episodes where one might need to take a look at the previous episode just to be sure they are watching the series in the right order (like when all of the sudden the Dragons are been hunted down) - these continuity issues are a problem, but they are usually non-events as they do not make you not get what is going on afterwards. There are also some issues with Kazuki's personality. Sure they aimed to get him "good" in the end. Widow always gave him judgmental looks and promised to stay with him and help him “regardless the cost”. Kazuki never hated Jin, it was all jealous and love, however Gonzo flew too high on his insanity and spoiled what could have been a realistic reaction. Probably aware of their own mistake, they realized nothing "normal" would make Kazuki come back to a normal reasoning, so they had to kill Widow for that. It still does not click as right and his change is sudden, but that was the most they could do to try to show a proper personality twist. Very poorly written, and somewhat a plot hole, but Kazuki was never a main issue to the plot - though his awakening for the fact he needed and cared for Widow (but unleashed his anger on her) was somewhat related to the whole relationship issue the main plot deals.

Another nice aspect is how Jin's Stock Personality works for the best. He fits perfectly the anti-villain role required for the "dumb moron" who can't see the dangerous war just enough to keep fixated at his love feelings (would never work if he was smart) - again, the whole point of the show was his feelings. Humans, ISDA and even other Dragonauts make fun of him, call his feelings artificial. He gets to Mars, just to get more rhetoric on how ridiculous it is to fall in love with a Dragon, or that his feelings are artificial. Yet he raised enough awareness for some people to note what he meant, enter Akira and Machina. They alone prove his point since they are not in love with each other (plot hole, their assimilation should have made Thanatos aware of that ... oh well), but are best friends - not master/dragon. Gonzo goes on their usual killing spree and kill them off, which was somewhat necessary or the MAIN THEME about relationship would get a closure too fast. Dr. Nozaki (another Dragon) always knew that, that's why he remains on Earth and is eager to see more human/dragon relationships, but if he spoke it out loud so viewers would get it, it would spoil the show ... thus he only talks out his mind on the last episode - it's him who makes clear that there is no such thing as artificial feelings - you feel what you feel, and that's it, and that part of the theme of the show. You love a Dragon, so you love a Dragon, shouldn't be concerned with other less gifted people think.

Even the moron stock-personality Mars prince gets it ... but it's too late, since he gets it as he dies.

Sieglinde also gets it, perhaps she always knew, can't get any more subtle than her cute talk with Akira "please don't betray us" ... she knew what was going on and Akira’s interests, in fact Sieglinde was usually the most aware character among them, and in a subtle way she had the best character development among them. She never leaves her Tsurunde facade but you can read "I like you" on her "little man" remarks. She slowly treats Amadeus as a friend and not a butler or servant - the change is progressive and subtle, just like the plot is.

Howling Star and Liner are too dense and are there for the pyrotechnics (or to cause events that will trigger the main plot, like that first dragon killed), so we can forget about them. Same about Otohime, more secondary characters that don't evolve, but I didn't expect all characters to get covered by the character development. But at the end they all stick to their Dragons, and not the War plot.

Unfortunately the ending gets a little out of the world, if it wasn't enough the whole big nonsensical snake dragon, we have the Evangelion-like speech prepared, but that was expected, why? BECAUSE THAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS SHOW, NOT THE BATTLES OR "COOL" DRAGONS. The reason why so many people hate the show is because they watch it expecting action, sci-fi and space battles. Dragonaut never was about that (again, remember how Thanatos is idle and ISDA weapons are usually used in almost a non-event manner inside the show, while every character rhetoric on love and friendship get way more screen time).

And as if Gonzo knew the polemic this title would bring, they leave the last episode with a "every person is different and will think different things" (like Jin explains to Gio how his cooking tasted differently for each person), and thus, each person will love or hate this show their unique way, all depending on how you view it the first place. If you hated it, this essay will probably do little to fix that misunderstanding, but at least now you can understand why controversially there are a lot of people who praise the show.

Good Character Development is done behind the lines, in subtle passages, in glances and small words, just like in real life. Titles that focus on the plot and not character development use subterfuges like the viewer hearing the character thoughts, or big speeches to explain each action to cover the lack of real character development. Dragonaut has neither of that, and this will most likely cause people not getting this is a title about the characters, not that nonsensical moon and it's dragons.

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