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Ragna Crimson (TV).




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Tony K.
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2023 5:17 pm Reply with quote


Ragna Crimson (TV)

Source: Manga (ongoing @ 12 volumes, by Daiki Kobayashi)

Demographic: Shounen

Animation Studio: Silver Link

Genres: action, adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, psychological, supernatural

Themes: aristocracy, dark fantasy, dragons, factions, gore, medieval, revenge, sorcery, swordplay, superpowers, transformations

Plot Summary: Dragon hunters: warriors armed with special silver weapons who kill their prey for bounty. Lowest among their ranks is Ragna, who forms an improbable partnership with the young genius Leonica, a master dragon slayer with more kills to her name than almost any other. All Ragna wants is to stay by Leonica's side, but his dream is shattered by an attack from the deadliest dragon imaginable.

Air Date & Platform:
September 30, 2023 (Saturday)
Available on: HIDIVE

Episode Count / Runtime: 24 episodes
----------------------------------

Ugh, HIDIVE. Their streaming bitrates are crap. From what little research I did for this, it sounds like Goblin Slayer, but with dragons. Looks like a pretty good voice cast, too. Future Ragna is OG Guts from Berserk. Always wanted to hear him in another revenge role.


Last edited by Tony K. on Tue Jan 09, 2024 3:06 pm; edited 3 times in total
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Blood-
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Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23772
PostPosted: Tue Sep 12, 2023 6:13 pm Reply with quote
Heck, if I enjoy this even half as much as I did Goblin Slayer, I'll consider it a win. Will sample.
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Bargain Hunter



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PostPosted: Sat Sep 30, 2023 6:10 pm Reply with quote
Episode 1

So far, so good. I'm engaged with the story and interested to see where it goes.
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Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 1121
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 7:25 am Reply with quote
From what I can tell just from previews, it looks like the anime industry is dialing back on factory floor isekai and bringing in several VR and time travel anime to fill the void this fall season, and I'm all for it. I thought this anime was pretty good. I had a few moments of "Why couldn't they make Leo a sexy 23 year old instead of a 12 year old who looks like an 8 year old?" Not out of virtue signaling or because I'm unfamiliar with the anime obsession with youth, but just because from my unenlightened perspective, I feel this anime would be so much better if she were hot. But at least the two leads were acting more like orphans with a sympathetic brother and sister vibe that was age appropriate than anything else, and the threat posed by the dragons was genuinely chilling. I'll put this one on my hopeful list.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 10:54 am Reply with quote
The series is called "Ragna Crimson", not "Ragna Leo", and it looks like Crimson is indeed a hot woman. A hot fire witch by the looks of it but it's too early to tell much from just the opener.

The double episode 1: "It's a fantasy? OK, dragon che... nevermind, check. That was quick."

This series is weird on a number of levels and I love that. Future Ragna knows two things: Leo dies and his life sucks; I should get around to watching Berserk but I feel this show is trying to "fix" that doomed to be awesome hero guy who gains power to late to save in his past. Ragna imported his future perfected skills and powers to his past self... at a cost of his "own life", whatever that means... and managed to save Leo. OK, future changed, now what? Knowing the future is only as good as the past stays constant and he already set a new world in motion in the first use of his power. Leo also seems to be under a constant Death Flag as saving her the one day you know she dies to the weakest of the Dragon Lords won't save her from the second weakest tomorrow....

However, there is a third constant thing Ragna knows, which I think is the whole thrust of the show; "Find Crimson".... who seems to be using Ragna to send a message to her past self at the cost of his life. Maybe?
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Velorien



Joined: 28 Oct 2021
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 08, 2023 9:10 pm Reply with quote
I've just watched the second episode. Could someone familiar with the manga describe the general feel of the series for me? I was here for spoiler[Determined small fry struggles with the realities of a mercenary lifestyle alongside his heroic surrogate little sister]. I'm less here for spoiler[OP edgelord #427 cuts his way through a queue of quirky bosses, with no meaningful relationships other than his haughty villainess #32 mission control]. If spoiler[Leo gets put on a bus] the way it looks like she will, I'll need a good reason not to drop the series altogether.
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Animegomaniac



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PostPosted: Mon Oct 09, 2023 8:28 am Reply with quote
Episode 2, The one where Ragna meets Crimson. But what is Crimson? A dragon who shapeshifts into female and "female" humans. Don't ask me who Elizabeth is, that's a question for later as far as I'm concerned. "That's just a guise Crimson wears." That's already a guise, having two is weird.

But old Ragna insists Crimson is male regardless of what Crimson says but neither of them is strictly male.
.... OK, that's suggestive of something else.

Unsurprisingly, Ragna sent Leo packing but the reason did surprise me, because it's what I thought it should be. I don't count Leo out of the story but.... here's the thing...

Having Leo still alive gives Ragna a reason to live and having Ragna around gives Crimson a reason to live. Both being creatures of duality, their plan of mutual destruction is doomed to fail even before it began.
Creatures of Duality?
Osaka: OH MY GAHD. We've already seen a guy absorb a silver sword and a guy absorb his older self so why stop there when magic is involved?
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 09, 2023 5:02 pm Reply with quote
Episode 2

I hope that Ragna and Leo's separation doesn't last long. In any case, so far my instinct that I'd probably like this show is holding true but I still haven't reached the "yep, in this to the end, for sure" mindset.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
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Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 4:30 am Reply with quote
With the ridiculous amount of shows coming out, I kind of expected after the first episode I would probably not watch the rest. But following the second episode, the inclusion of a secondary main character that is as such androgynous, pretty much means I have to watch.

Even if the basic character is pretty cool, that is I think general traits point to Crimson being genderfluid, it is a little frustrating that other parts keep on needing to say that they are really a man or something. The series seems to think a binary clarification is necessary, which is honestly really outdated. I guess that considering magical natures of a shapeshifter (a wish of many genderfluid people), they could still identify as male when transforming into female forms and just lie about being a woman.

It still feels a bit shitty for an apparent fluid character to have their current gender be ignored, perhaps being treated as some trick. Sure, probably confusing if they expected to be treated with different pronouns to different forms, but real life G-F people, we tend to be accommodating. I would think that a dub should probably go gender-neutral pronouns, if not changing them up.
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Velorien



Joined: 28 Oct 2021
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 10, 2023 6:44 am Reply with quote
Right now, I have a sense that the anime doesn't know what it's doing with this. "You can be any gender and age you like, but you're actually a man pretending to be a woman" sounds nonsensical. I hypothetisise that the former part is just meant to be "look how powerful and magical Crimson is" without the author actually pondering the implications.

If it's a power of dragon monarchs in general to be whatever gender they want at any time, it's weird that they should have a humanlike conception of gender identity to begin with. It feels like Ragna/the author is a fish saying, "Oh, humans can both walk and run whenever they like, so obviously that guy over there identifies as a walker and that guy as a runner".
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Tony K.
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2023 2:42 pm Reply with quote
Episodes 03 & 04

The appearance of those cultist dragons was an interesting twist. The one that can control pieces (if not all) of time could lead to some possibly crazy scenarios. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, since future-Ragna already came and merged with his present day self, so time manipulation must be some kind of important running theme. Maybe future-Ragna or Crimson somehow got hold of a more powerful version of that ability and used it as a one-off to try and change things in the past?
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2023 8:43 pm Reply with quote
Crimson is an anti-hero and the Dragon Monarch is an anti-villain... which is weird seeing how utterly monstrous the other dragons are.

Crimson doesn't care if the people live or die as he experiments with them but seemingly has a plan for every Dragon Lord. The Dragon Monarch... is on a mission from God to bring peace to all, peace of the grave to people as per God's wish.

Not vindictive or manipulative, just... She can cast time stop and kill everyone one person at a time, what's going on? In fact, she uses her time powers to save the king so.... uh...

As per most anti-villains, the first question I always ask... are they insane? The answer is usually yes and they are usually zealots.

I find both characters very compelling for different reasons
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Gina Szanboti



Joined: 03 Aug 2008
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2023 10:27 pm Reply with quote
Apropos of nothing, I just wanted to say I'm very impressed with Ayumu Murase's Crimson. Guy's got more range than I was aware of. He's also the seiyuu for Haikyuu's Hinata, Dr. Stone's Ginro, Faraway Paladin's Meneldor, and Iruma-kun, not to mention no fewer than 21 characters in the weird little Bananya franchise. Very Happy

More on topic, I'm still not sure how I feel about this series. I do not like Crimson. I'm fairly indifferent to Ragna, but Crimson really rubs me the wrong way, which I think is probably intentional, but still makes it hard to engage with this. Also, I couldn't watch the whole scene between the angel Dragon and the king, because her voice kept making me zone out and I'd realize a minute or so had passed and I hadn't read a word she said. So I'd rewind and try again, and then again, until I just gave up. I pieced together that she thinks she's on a mission from God to kill everyone peacefully or some nonsense. I hope nothing else really important happened. -.-
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