The past Winter Season was a dark season… for Studio Deen in any case. They came out with more series than any other series, and all of them were disappointing even despite my low expectations. I mean, I am a fan of them and all, but the reason for that is most definitely not their consistency!
I originally wanted to be a bit more generous with my rating for this series, but the more I thought about this show, the more I realized that it just doesn’t have anything redeemable. There’s no reason to watch this thing; everything it does has been done better a thousand times already. Dragon Crisis at heart is a boring cliche-fest that lacks any sort of ambition.
The structure of this series consists out of six two-episode arcs. This show somehow manages to do the impossible and become progressively worse with every successive arc. Seriously, just when you think that this show couldn’t get any worse, it manages to finds some way to prove you wrong until at the end, the creators just outright give up. Every arc is pretty much focused on adding someone to the lead guy’s harem. Yeah, that loses its charm really quickly.
Beyond that the writing is just outright stupid. This is the kind of show that was written by people who think that teenagers (its target audience) have the mental capacities of a lobotomized squirrel. Characters act solely on what’s convenient to the plot and make the most bizarre leaps in logic at times. Any attempts of this show to become genuine is overshadowed by their complete stupidity. Add that to a plot that is just chockful of plot evices, deus ex machinas and inconsequential techno-babble that too make no sense whatsoever. All of that really is not helped by a really annoying cast of cliches and stereotypes that are supposed to be characters in which hardly anyonee stands out.
One of the big eslling points of Dragon Crisis looked to be its animation, with Masashi Ishihama (the guy behind the gorgeously animated Read or Die and Welcome to the Space Show) as its animation director. But even factoring in the lower budget that this series received, the animation is surprisingly bland: it’s not used well, the characters are all carbon copies of each other with just different hairstyles and despite a relatively high framerate for Studio Deen’s standards, none of the visuals stand out as particularly impressive.
The reason why I still consider a series like Fractale to be good, despite the way in which it too has a lot of flaws, is because it still is a very enjoyable adventure. There is absolutely nothing enjoyable about Dragon Crisis. None of the drama works, its stories are completely void of any creativity, its characters are just there to get in the lead guy’s pants and it just had no intention of trying to do anything even remotely interesting.
Thats the big problem with Studio Deen: they’ve been losing their talent left and right and just aren’t trying hard enough most of the time. They need some incentive: something to really get them to produce the really good stuff again, because this… this just is a complete waste.
| Storytelling: | 4/10 – Completely unambitious, doesn’t know what it wants to do and therefore is full of deus ex machina and plot induced stupidity. |
| Characters: | 5/10 – None stands out. It’s just one big harem with all the cliches in place. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Not as good as you’d expect, but doesn’t cause this show to get any worse than what it already is. |
| Setting: | 5/10 – This show looks like it adctually has a complex background with its dragons and rare artifacts, but in the end it’s nothing but mere cliches and techno-babble. |
Suggestions:
– Dragonaut The Resonance (Yes, I’m actually recommending Dragonaut over this one. At least that one had some ambition!)
– Fractale
– Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou
Whoa ! Something that is NOT rated 82,5/100 ?!
Incredible ! Amazing ! Totally unheard of !
Goddamn it DEEN…. just… GODDAMN IT.
“This is the kind of show that was written by people who think that teenagers (its target audience) have the mental capacities of a lobotomized squirrel.”
Sorry, but I couldn’t help but laugh at this. I love this comment you made, psgels! You almost sound a bit like the Nostalgia Critic (and I mean that as a compliment)!
@karry: psgels often gives low ratings… it is just that he is one of those who don’t bother with bad series so such ratings are rare 😛
BTW, what was the last good series that DEEN made… or should I say did not screw up? :S
LOL,the little girl had to be the most clingy loli ever, were they tring to go for the perv crowd? I don’t mind fan service but it just struck me as annoying not moe.
The bottom line seemed to be they didn’t know what story they were telling.
I hate to be so critical and all, but I really really tried to like the show and couldn’t.
Klingon Moe
@Nayrael
What about Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?
I am having a Deja Vu: I felt the same way with Ookami Kakushi. Despite how much I wanted to like it, the show was some pretty bad job. Same story here. This Dragon Crisis is not that bad as I really saw worse stuff, but there is anything that stands out of mediocrity. It’s not as bad as Korezombie to be called at least ‘peculiar’ and It didn’t turn to the right direction such as Fractale did not to be a complete disaster at the last moment. So what? Shrug I’m just going to forget this even existed pretty soon anyway…
hmm…Giant Killing??
and…Seitokai no Ichizon if you’re watching it…
I could tell how much of a steaming pile this would be right from the first episode
And it will still be popular just because Rie is voicing the girl, sigh
I never finished the first episode xD I’m glad you’re reviewing this pile of shit 😀 Wasn’t Shion No Ou from studio DEEN, because I watched this one and love it 😀
I feel like Deen is turning into the new Gonzo…
Anywho, that is the lowest score I’ve seen you give to a series since I started reading you’re blog! I feel like this is a big moment for me!
Aren’t you glad that you changed to following Gosick instead of this?
Anyway guys, easy on the Deen bashing. They honestly are not that bad. Hell, Shaft has a worse track record than Deen.
Wow! One of the lowest ratings I saw here. I do agree with the rating number.
If there is anything positive to say about this show it’s that they somehow managed to make Rose cuter with each successive episode.
Ouch, that is a bad score from your perspective.
5/10 form me because the opening theme, which i really like.
man I totally agree what a take the mickey and waste of my time. Had all this possible richness but just stuck with cliches the opening is good and had some solid animation but was just so weak especially the ending. Wonder if the light novels are better they usually are.
55 IS ALREADY GENEROUS
And yet it is, for some reason, strangely compelling…
Then again, I dropped it the instant I saw “Blue Dragon” ticking a box on the ‘List of Magic Elements’ the show was fast running out of, alongside my patience. That Childhood Friend character was beyond annoying too – naturally we just end up seeing more of here ffs.
It did have some potential, really. Even mass produced parts can be made into something exceptional, and Deen didn’t do this for whatever reason – and honestly, they could have done their own thing and I find it hard to believe anybody would care.