Chaos Dragon

Episodes 1-3

As soon as its first episode aired, my Chaos Dragon expectations were forcibly re-evaluated, and I think that's true for pretty much everyone still watching the show by episode three. It's okay, Chaos Dragon. We know this is not the exciting spectacle packed with emotion and insanity that we might have been hoping for. We know it's all you can do to cram exposition and worldbuilding from the light novel into one season of TV, and you don't have the resources to animate almost any of it. We know those CG elephants were a bad idea, and frankly, someone else at SILVER LINK should have said something.

There's no sense harping on what could have been, so I think it's safe to say that the show's remaining devotees are here to see their favorite nerdy creators play a tabletop campaign. That's the angle I'm taking with these episodic reviews. Without addressing this story's true nature as a world populated by otaku-beloved creators and their NPC friends, these reviews could too easily become the same set of complaints over and over, interspersed with wads of uninteresting plot summary. I'm still interested in this show because I'm interested in the meta-narrative: I want to see how the players behind it see themselves, and what potential their adventure could have had if SILVER LINK had only gotten their ducks in a row. I want to explore what could have been, and help unravel the story for anyone who has trouble following it because of this anime's tortured production.

I summarized part of the plot in the first-episode review linked above, but the full story is explained much better in episode two. (And in fairness, episodes 2 and 3 are much more engaging than the downright broken first episode.) Everyone in Nil Kamui, from the indigenous citizens to their conquering overlords, has a vested interest in appeasing the Red Dragon God, who is so upset at the state of unrest in his homeland that he's decided to make it all ten times worse. He burns down cities indiscriminately and incenses giant monsters to roam free and terrorize the populace, until both friend and foe alike on the island nation have had enough. The deposed boy-king Ibuki is no sooner contacted by the rebellion army than the rebellion army themselves is absorbed by a larger quest: an olive branch effort between all nationalities to meet with the dragon and agree to peaceful terms. This is the party, with representatives from all warring sides, but not everyone in this supposedly neutral band can be trusted.

Given the formula of the series' episodes so far (and most tabletop campaigns), it's best to break the story down by party members from here: who they are, what they want, and why you should care. There are five main party members here. Two were newbies to the game, artist-friends of the three experienced players, and the anime shows this by making them the protagonists of this story, whose characters are just now being defined. By D&D logic, this makes sense, because players who have been around the world longer may have ties to more far-flung regions with completed and established backstories from previous adventures. In other words, they become the wizened supporting cast. (The game's DM, Makoto Sanda, doesn't seem to have a presence in the show, so we won't be talking about him.)

First, there's Ibuki, played by Simadoriru. Ibuki is best summed up as a tiny wet blanket, but it's hard to blame him for that. Since he's the true king of Nil Kamui, with the blessing of the Red Dragon, everyone wants him on their side, while he only wants peace for his country, at the cost of his sovereignty or even his life. He's basically a special item being passed around by all parties involved, only capable of battling in berserk mode at the cost of sacrificing one of his party members to the Red Dragon, leaving him in deep Crawling-style angst. (That's why we have that big "rebellion army" in the party. The story excuse for their presence is that they want to earn his trust as their future leader while the Red Dragon Quest party ensures temporary amnesty for all of them, but we all know the real reason is so they can be sacrificed for Ibuki to go crazy at key points in the story, leaving the central cast unmurdered. This becomes especially funny when we find out Ibuki doesn't even have to be directly responsible for the killings to count as a sacrifice. Well, that loophole is going to get twisted around for maximum pathos in episodes to come!)

The one bright spot in his Linkin Park existence is Eiha, played by Izuki Kougyoku. She's a Bounded One, a child cursed at birth to be spiritually and physically connected to a demon beast, giving her greater strength and a shorter lifespan, and forcing her outside of human society. Even her comrades in the rebellion army treat her poorly, relegating her to guard Ibuki with her life because her life is considered so disposable. Feeling powerless and misunderstood himself, Ibuki shows her kindness and love when no one else will, and soon her obligated protection of him begins to seem less obligated. (And we all know she's going to outlive those NPCs, so take that, you big jerks!) Honestly, this stuff is the closest Chaos Dragon gets to a sympathetic emotional hook. It's overwrought and cheesy as Ibuki loses friend after friend to the Red Dragon's rage, and Eiha bonds with him over treacly platitudes, but at least it's something resembling the concerns of an engaging standalone fantasy narrative.

For the three more experienced players in this loaded game, this is more than just a mission of peace. That's right, all three of Ibuki's and Eiha's so-called comrades have duplicitous intent. I'm sure that's going to over great with the Red Dragon.

Sweallow Cratsvalley, played by Kinoko Nasu, is the representative from D'Natia, the country that conquered the eastern side of Nil Kamui. While the warrior nation Kouran is responsible for instigating the war, D'Natia arguably made the whole problem worse. They were initially "allies" of Nil Kamui, but suspiciously only defended bases of strategic value to themselves during the war and have fully joined in the real estate divvying in the war's continuing aftermath. So they're opportunists, and their friendly envoy is no exception. Sweallow acts as the unofficial leader of the expedition, reassuring Ibuki with a gentle smile, but while he does seem heroic and good at heart, he only has D'Natia's interests in mind, or more specifically, the interests of their guardian deity, the Black Dragon. He plans to kill the Red Dragon when they meet as part of his contract to the Black Dragon. I guess those two lizards don't like each other. D'Natia's army will also benefit from this, if Nil Kamui can officially become the Black Dragon's territory. You could consider Sweallow a good guy (for another team,) but he's also got that insincere shit-eating grin thing going on, so it's hard to know how to feel about his ambitions.

Lou Zhen Hua, played by Gen Urobuchi, is the representative from Kouran, the country that conquered the western side of Nil Kamui. Unlike Sweallow, her overtures at friendliness are not remotely convincing, and nobody trusts her assassin's tricks, but she seems fairly secure regardless. This might be because she's not planning to betray the Red Dragon for Kouran at all. Kouran seems genuinely invested in calming the Red Dragon and seems to have sent her as an honest neutral party. No, Lou is interested in feeding the Red Dragon to her soul-eating weapon (that she keeps in a coffin on her back) for her own personal satisfaction. It's all about her, and while she's not foolish enough to declare her true intentions to the party, she doesn't seem to feel threatened if anyone figures it out. This is one of those places where the story's origin as a tabletop campaign betrays its suspension of disbelief as a story; nobody should be okay with Lou as an ally, even temporarily, but they're all just sort of ignoring how clearly evil she is, maybe because they're afraid of her.

Kaguraba, played by Ryohgo Narita, has only just been introduced in the final minutes of episode three, but is easily the most interesting character on basic principle. If Kouran and D'natia are two dogs chomping at both ends of Nil Kamui's spaghetti strand, Kaguraba is the one holding the meatballs, happy to do bad all by himself. He's an immortal golem the people call "The Undead Merchant," and he's been around for so long that he's close personal friends with the Red Dragon, although obviously not close enough to join him in his destruction of the country, deciding to join the olive-branch party instead. He's an ancient entrepreneur of sorts, in possession of 5% of the world's wealth and a neutral city called Haiga in west Nil Kamui, ruled only by his hedonistic whims. He also likes to spend his free time funding the rebellion effort for funsies. He's a Chaotic Neutral sort of guy, er, robot-guy. We know more about his history than his personality at this point, but he introduces himself by asking uninvited guests Lou and Ibuki to join him for breakfast at drill-point, so I already like him.

What kills me is that all of this stuff, all of it, could be interesting and fun and part of a really compelling fantasy story. That's not true of all tabletop campaigns, or even most of them. The world of Chaos Dragon is wild and weird and unique enough to be memorable on paper, and a party of envoys from conflicting sides who plot against each other in secret while being all smiles on the surface makes for a nice twist on expectations. This could easily be a great fantasy show, but it's a pretty crappy one instead. All of the dialogue is lore and exposition and pedantry, and even exchanges that reveal character (like my favorite one described below) are more dry and informative than they are emotional or engaging. The show's emotional core, Ibuki's need to sacrifice one friend every time he uses the dragon's power, is comically melodramatic, but could still work if it had more subtle charm and intrigue around the edges to make us care about his quest. It's really a shame that Chaos Dragon takes thousands of words to explain, but provokes no emotions or thoughts whatsoever in the telling of it all, unless you're actively thinking about how these avatars reflect their original players.

That brings us to the most fun meta-textual scene in these first three episodes: a drunken shade-throwing duel between Sweallow (Nasu) and Lou (Urobuchi) that sheds a little light on their projected personalities. Neither of these two characters trust each other, so Sweallow takes Lou out for drinks to probe her drunken brain for information (while sending his assistant to do a little digging behind her back.) Sweallow is all smiles and friendly overtures, but Lou isn't having any of it. When he asks her about her weapon "just out of curiosity," she turns his probe back on him and twists in a knife. "We are bound to one another. Tools choose their masters, and I was chosen by this blade. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you? No tool will ever love you." Sweallow's power is a sort of "Reverse Unlimited Blade Works." He can take any weapon or object and use it to the absolute fullest of its potential powers, exactly once. After that, it immediately breaks, from magical swords to sake cups. This makes Sweallow the polar opposite of Lou, whose weapon works by consuming defenseless souls, and enticing stronger ones, causing even powerful opponents to start killing their comrades to prove themselves worthy of its ownership, deepening Lou's happiness at being its true master. The verbal duel between these two frenemies ends with Sweallow getting the information he needed at the cost of his morale, as Lou's barbs take him back to a very dark place. You could see Sweallow as duplicitous, or you could see him as sincere. You could see Lou as candid, or you could see her as cruel. I think both characters' attitudes say a lot about how their respective creators see themselves, and that's enough for me.

This show is a big mess so far, but I find it fascinating regardless. If you're interested in the convoluted adventures of NasuMan, BoochiBoobs, NaritaBot, and friends, there's some novelty to be mined here. Just try not to cringe too hard at the "everything else" barely holding it together.

Rating: C+

Chaos Dragon is currently streaming on Funimation.

Hope has been an anime fan since childhood, and likes to chat about cartoons, pop culture, and visual novel dev on Twitter.