Chaos Dragon: Sekiryuu Senyaku – 11-12 [END]
I wonder if the game is any good?
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Once again with the Quick and the Dirty: Good, Bad, and Ugly style…let’s put this thing to rest! |
This is Where We Came In…
Episode Eleven
Pardon me, I’m having a moment….
The Good: I’m tempted to give a hearty, derisive, yeah-who-are-you-kidding-skylion laugh – and then move on. But I can eke out at least one or two interesting points. I kinda like the weird Dragon-coming-out-of-her-mouth moments. It’s macabre, it’s mysterious, it’s kinda inspired in it’s own way. But really. this episode manages to come back full circle by the end, showing us how the characters got there to that grand sweeping moment the first episode gave us. It’s suitably done, and somewhat epic, and reminds us that we’ve been waiting for a story to build up to just the right moment. But…
The Bad: Holy cats where to begin? Well, Inori is crazy for…reasons. The biggest being that the Red Dragon needs to be crazy. Just for a Hero Moment. So yeah, no real investment there. The political situation would be farcical, if any real thought was put into it. As it stands, the rulers of all three nations treat the on-going conflict, and the upcoming Final Battle like a spectator sport. With no real bets to make it more interesting. So no investment there. Then there is Setsurun, the immortal LOLi queen of Kouran. She has a back story that would be much more interesting to watch than this one, and the implication that it’s not all about Dragons being powerful; their national symbol being a Queen Bee. Nice of them to pull that out during the penultimate episode…
The Ugly: Eiha. Wow, the most precious person in Ibuki’s life. Too bad Ibuki is written to be as sharp as a bag of hammers, and an emotional wet blanket to boot. That relationship could have gone somewhere. But really, the ugliest moment wasn’t even spelled out, as Ulrika’s death and sacrifice was only there to make Swallow look all distant and cool…Nasu’s character usually have some odd and twisted depths, but no one writing this show understands how that is supposed to work…
Well, ain’t they a pair…
Warning! Dragon Power is not be be taken internally…
The love triangle no one wanted…
…she was in Nil Kamui for the free dog food…
This is Where We Leave…
Episode Twelve
…it’s OK…she gets better…
The Good: ::hearty, derisive, yeah-who-are-you-kidding-skylion laugh:: Well, it’s over. We can say that for certain. ::scratches head:: Well, I guess this is the last moment that I can say I feel that Inori and Setsuren’s characters had some interesting things to say. For all the good it does…
The Bad: Again, spoiled for choice about where to begin. It was par-for-the-course during this show, but the animation was never above mediocre-to-average quality, and it’s direction never really hung on anything solid. So as usual, the combat scenes felt muddled and muddy without much clear purpose. Fighty things, exploding things, dull colors, smoke, stuff happening! The asspull of the airship was quite stupid, and Lou hung around for no real story purpose other than to put a road block and possible danger zone for Swallow and Meryl. But then, Lou never really had a story purpose if you look back on her…
The Ugly: Geez. This will be one of the few times I will drop an F-bomb in a review, so here goes. Fuck you writer. Yeah, I know that can cover the general sense of the story but I have something specific in mind. So, Ibuki makes a bargain with the Red Dragon. He will sacrifice Eiha to take out crazy Inori, but on one condition. That being, take what is left of Eiha’s flying dog mount Val’s life force and add it back to Eiha, so she can have a life, even a short one, after all this crap is over. Hey, I got a better idea. Sacrifice Inori (or better yet, Lou or Ka Grava or Swallow), and ask that Inori come back without any insanity, so everyone can live happily ever after. I mean, if your going to make conditions on an asspull equivalent exchange, then make it count!
Inori did nothing wrong…
The 1000 year old Queen Bee and her Bee Pants…
Things happened in this shot….can’t you tell?!
Yeah, like she deserved that…
He learned a valuable lesson, that was payment enough… ::facepalms again::
…and the adventure continues! OMG KILL IT WITH A HDD REFORMATTING!
…and they both lived happily ever after…
Oh, Ibuki was crowned King of Nil Kamuia by a unilateral agreement of all the nations. The End. So what do we say about this show that hasn’t been said already? Especially when this style of review leaves out quite a bit; grist from the mill really…
Well, it was a very bad show, to state the obvious. Which is a pity. It had some potential. The parts were all in place, but the sum total never quite got up to speed. The animation was pretty lousy, but had the story been better, that wouldn’t have been much of a concern; we are prepared for that sort of trade off all the time. In short, whatever raw material the producers, the directors, the writers, and staff got from that four night session of the Red Dragon TRPG games back in 2011, they didn’t end up making much of it. I stand by the principal that there is no such thing as a bad idea, just poor execution. That includes shallow characters and go-nowhere plot points.
In composition, the story didn’t give the audience the proper time to invest in anything. It was too much to soon, and too little way to late. Way to much to unpack given the time frame Again, that’s a shame, as the background reminds me of some favorite games I’ve played in the past. The Kara-Tur section of Forgotten Realms, the esoteric design of Ebberon, and the long range and scope of Birthright. Potential, but very poor execution.
I don’t typically do numbered ratings, so I don’t think I’ll start here. But I can go with: Unless a Fall 2015 show sucks even more Chaos Dragon is the All Time Worst of 2015/10
So in leaving, I want to thank both Samsura and IreneSharda for joining me on the show’s First Impression. I also want to thank the lurkers and commenters for supporting my posts as they came out; seriously I got nearly 500 hits per post, that’s pretty good for such a bad show. Aaaaaand that’s a wrap folks. I got two more shows in the works, so our Summer anime season is not quite ready to close down shop…I’ll see you around…
About skylion
All around nerd that enjoys just about any anime genre. I love history, politics, public policy, the sciences, literature, arts...pretty much anything can make me geeky...except sports. Follow me @theskylion
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Cute RORis are Teh Best. Speaking of which, back to the other cute RORi show!
PS. IMHO, Nasu&Co were smoking some really good designer stuff.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
Well, IMB(etter)O…blaming Nasu and company for this is like blaming the cotton for how bad the denim jeans fit…or maybe blaming the people who payed taxes to support US Cotton Subsidies? Something like that….
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 105 comments
Wow. Chaos Dragon is stunningly, supremely, astonishingly, epicly awful. Almost every confusing decision a show can make to be as bad as possible was done by Chaos Dragon. I haven’t seen a show fall apart this gracelessly in such a long time. Honestly, all this show is missing is a terrible dub and you have a piece of pure golden trash. Sky, you are a hero to us all soldering through the wreckage of what could never have been a good show.
But in the end, I rather watch this flaming disaster of a show than some of the lame average stuff that is put out every season. Chaos Dragon sure left a great impact on me, and I do believe this show will be a punching bag for much discussions going forward.
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10998 comments
All in all, I’m a completest. I finish what I start. I will argue that a smaller supporting cast, and perhaps a different way to frame both the Expedition and the other countries might have given us a cleaner slate. But that is a whole ton of tangle to untangle…