Blue Dragon: Volumes 1 & 2
LABEL: Manga Entertainment
RUNNING TIME:198 minutes approx
RATING: 12
VIDEO FORMAT: 16:9
AUDIO FORMAT: English 2.0, Japanese 2.0
SUBTITLES: English
DVD REGION: 2
AVAILABLE: 1st June 2009
If you’re reading this review then you could be here due to one prominent reason; Blue Dragon is an adaptation of a video game – we should get that clear from the start. However, it isn’t just any adaptation of a well-known RPG, as Microsoft unusually snapped up Blue Dragon as an exclusive title for their XBOX 360 system. Perhaps they saw it’s potential to be a mass-market franchise?
However, a game like Blue Dragon will always remain under the shadow of Final Fantasy, so perhaps Microsoft were wise to let the series expand while they focused on the most famous RPG of all. Blue Dragon, wandering freely, has appeared on the DS and now in animated form on Japanese TV and potentially your DVD player…However, does Blue Dragon have the quality to break into this market?
Firstly, I ought to say I didn’t give the demo of the video game much of a chance, being raised on higher pedigree, but I decided to provide leniency towards this title – a 51-episode series. So here goes! Ooh, look, the visual style is just like Dragonball. Can’t wait for the epic battles! Any hardened Japanophiles will likely have those thoughts running through their head as they watch the first episode. Yet quickly you’ll realise – oh dear – something fell through the cracks…
Virtually no attention has been paid to the show’s design. Sure, Dragonball’s Akira Toriyama provided his talent for character designs – but that only goes to show the squandered potential, as the show begs us to endure trips to generic town after generic town to fight another set of generic robots – seemingly stolen from a famous hedgehogs arch nemesis…
Clearly I’m not a fan. I wanted to be, because I’ve been disappointed with many of the recent anime that claim to be genius but don’t warrant it (‘cult-hit’ Desert Punk, I’m looking at you!) I feel that Blue Dragon is riding on the cash-flow provided from its video-game forefather and that any tangible hook is missing. Being the luddite I am, watching the same battle over and over just gets – using a word reserved for tired oldies who can’t stand a bit of Jason Statham style action – repetitive.
Evidently, it is more than not being a fan, I really dislike the show – yet this is just because of the show’s utterly wasted potential. There were actually some nice little jibes at the tropes of the video game that only an addict like me would notice, such as when Zola says ‘Do you think I’m going to wait for you?’ as the enemy, in true-RPG style, slowly presents it’s transformation into a near unbeatable form for its traditionally static audience. However most of the jokes revolved around breasts, which awkwardly slotted into the innocent, wide-eyed Pokemon style view of the world.
Towards the end of the show, I was granted a little solace in the fact that someone smart seemed to realise this. In fact, there was potential for it to become better than the meandering, ever-lasting show that is Pokemon, through the amalgam of a story arc in the vein of long-running shows such as Naruto and the variations on a theme that Pokemon is clearly missing – the penultimate episode is, interestingly, a twist on a supernatural mystery…
So there you go. I gave this mega-franchise a chance and it slapped me in the face. But, as you know, I always give second chances, so perhaps I’ll be able to see Blue Dragon settle into its shoes as, what could potentially be the next Japanese series to become a successful mass-market franchise.
Video: Beautiful video consistently, however the Computer Generated Graphics are like most TV anime, fitting in not awkwardly against the anime but merely rather blandly – the budget seems to be low in both the design and the CGI department…
Audio: The show falls down here, sadly, due to the fact that it replicates the worst of Japanese RPGs – irritating MIDI-like music and a rock. Coupled with pretty atrocious English and Japanese voiceovers, prepare to cringe!
Extras: There are only the trailers, which is extremely disappointing considering the breadth of material that could be included, for example featurettes on Blue Dragon’s journey from video game to anime, featurettes on Akira Toriyama’s involvement in the show or maybe just the average textless opening and closing credits?!
Blue Dragon: Volumes 1 & 2 is available from Amazon, Play and other major retailers from 1st June 2009.
Reviewer: Lee Millington
The Slayers Next: Vol.2 and Vol.3
Running time: Both discs 175 mins approx (7 eps per volume)
Classification : Both 12
Distributor: MVM
Region: R2 PAL
Video: 4:3
Audio: Japanese 2.0, English 2.0.
Subtitles: English.
Release Date: Vol 2 – 8th June 2009, Vol 3 – Early July 2009.
RRP: £15.99 each
Overview, Volume 2:
Returning to Amelia’s homeland of Seyruun doesn’t turn out to be the happy homecoming that the young princess was hoping for. It seems that her father, Crown Prince Philionel, has been murdered leaving his brother Christopher next in the line of succession. Could Amelia’s uncle be making a power play for the throne and has he made a contract with a monster in order to do it? Not if Lina Inverse has anything to say in the matter After all, there could be a tasty reward in it for her.
Overview, Volume 3:
Still on the trail of the Clare Bible, Lina and the gang find a temple that purports to hold a complete copy of this fabled tome. The only trouble is that, as the Clare Bible holds “limitless knowledge”, the copy’s so large that it’s a full three day journey through the temple just to reach the particular page that Lina’s after. When the group are attacked by one of the five most powerful monsters known to man, Xello’s cover is blown and it’s revealed there’s a lot more to this simple “travelling priest” than meets the eye. There’s yet more revelations in store when an off hand comment from their guide makes Lina realise that she and Gourry may be more than just friends.
Episode list, Volume 2:
Ep 7, Sudden Cooking! Follow the Phantom Dragon!
Ep 8, Be Eternal! The Day Prince Phil Died?
Ep 9, Hidden Ambitions! The Shocking Confession?
Ep 10, On a Journey With a Pack of Scoundrels?! Take Back That Magic Power!
Ep 11, Voices from the Darkness! Slash ’em to Bits, Laguna Blade
Ep 12, The Unexpected End? The Shocking Truth!
Ep 13, Impending Fall! The Moment of Ambition’s Defeat!
Episode list, Volume 3:
Ep 14, The Forbidden Dance? Where is the Strongest Spell?
Ep 15, A Big Crash! The Battle at Artemay Tower!
Ep 16, Bitter Curve Balls! Gutsy Fast Balls!
Ep 17, They’re Talking About a Girl Named Zelgadis?
Ep 18, The Temple of the Sand! The Secret of the Giga Slave!
Ep 19, Disclosure at Last? Xellos’s True Form!
Ep 20, No Other Choice! Set Course for Dragon Valley!
Comments:
Still old as the hills, still corny as hell, still a darn sight funnier than 90% of the new comedies coming out today and, with a full 7 episodes per disc, still great value for money. These discs take us though the middle of The Slayer’s second season where there’s a mix of semi-serious arc episodes laying down the set-up for the final confrontation with this season’s big boss, and a whole host of silly and surreal stand-alone episodes. The silliness about peaks when a character by the name of “Rudo Balzac” (yes, that’s his name; just try saying it quickly) drags Lina and her rag-tag group into a magical tennis tournament where winning seems to involve smashing each other in the face with their balls. Or there’s the episode where Lina and Amelia are required to dress as magical girls (in the frilly dress and heart-shaped-baton sense of the word) in order to perform a mystical protection spell that requires them to dance around and sing… in Japanese. Lina’s abject displeasure with the entire fiasco is just priceless.
MVM are still pushing these Slayers releases out not just quickly (roughly a month apart) but also cheaply (they’re usually less than a tenner each on most websites) and here’s to hoping that they’ll carry on this admirable trend and release the third Slayers series, Slayers Try, in the same manner later on in the year.
Extras:
There’s a pair of trailers on each disc but that’s it I’m afraid.
The Slayers Next: Vol.2 is available from Amazon, Amazon and Play roughly a month later. Our review of The Slayers Next: Vol.1 can be found here.
Reviewer: Penfold