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EP. REVIEW: Chaos Dragon


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 9:38 pm Reply with quote
I'm on the fence on this one. It's a hit or a miss but mostly a miss with what's shown so far. The deaths, generic stuff, and overall tone of the story seems like it's been done before.

Music is nice though and some action scenes are well done. But the story so far is a bit a of a mess. Not sure if this can improve but I guess we'll see.
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Sahmbahdeh



Joined: 05 May 2015
Posts: 712
PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 10:20 pm Reply with quote
So, against all odds, I'm actually kind of enjoying this one. I'm taking what seems to be Hope's approach and thinking of everything that goes on in terms of it being an RPG. I loved the moment when Nasu's character tries to enthusiastically get everyone to start the adventure already and everyone just shuts him down. I imagine Nasu sitting there, white-knighting it up, and then everyone says "nah, I'm good", while Urobuchi trollishly giggles in the background.

Also, the second and third episodes were much better than the first. Big improvements in animation and storytelling. Kagrabah (sp?) is entertaining in both concept and execution so far, and I actually quite like Sweallow's ability/curse.

When I was talking to my brother (who plays table-top RPGs far more than I do) about this series and the crappy first episode, he mentioned an interesting point: the first session of any campaign is almost always the sloppiest, and once the ball gets rolling, it improves. I think that summarizes the progression of Chaos Dragon pretty well so far in these first 3 episodes.

In any case, I'll be following this for now, if only for RPG shenanigans and probably Narita's character.
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navycherub



Joined: 26 Oct 2007
Posts: 233
PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 10:53 pm Reply with quote
Sahmbahdeh wrote:
When I was talking to my brother (who plays table-top RPGs far more than I do) about this series and the crappy first episode, he mentioned an interesting point: the first session of any campaign is almost always the sloppiest, and once the ball gets rolling, it improves. I think that summarizes the progression of Chaos Dragon pretty well so far in these first 3 episodes.


Yep, totally agree with this. Everything about the first episode screamed "GM giving tedious backstory excuse for adventure" to me, and now the characters finding each other and even the newest episode's "let's talk out our next actions in the forest outside the town" is all scarily (and strangely entertainingly) reminiscent of tabletop RPGs.
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:13 pm Reply with quote
I call her Urobuchan myself.

And as for everyone trusting the Obviously Evil Lou, that's probably a holdover from the actual campaign, in which everyone was immensely suspicious of Urobuchi the moment he did anything, but had no reason to doubt him IC and thus were all smiles in the campaign.
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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2201
PostPosted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:26 pm Reply with quote
All this does is remind me that Ryo Mizuno did this far more competently with Record of Lodoss War in translating a pen and paper campaign into a competent narrative.
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Merostay



Joined: 19 Oct 2014
Posts: 108
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:35 am Reply with quote
AiddonValentine wrote:
All this does is remind me that Ryo Mizuno did this far more competently with Record of Lodoss War in translating a pen and paper campaign into a competent narrative.

well, maybe the actuall light novels are better... its not like Anime never dropped the ball and ruined or missused source material

wouldnt bet on it though



you can see where the anime got the idea of the hit list at the end of each episode
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AnimeAddict2014



Joined: 16 Feb 2015
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:39 am Reply with quote
what can i say.. chaos dragon is like a new dish at my usual restaurant..

not many series like this out there..

it's not like the the typical shovel wares that came out every season..

I'm looking forward to the next episode.. see who will be the next one to be crossed off the picture..

"kill one to save many"

pretty much said it all for me

i'm bored of the same series with "save the world" theme with happily ever after ending.... at least this series offering something that is a bit more realistic..

the price you have to pay for peace...

having party members with their own hidden agenda is also a plus..

since most anime or rpgs tend to have people who will join you on your journey out of the blue and tend to be trusting and loyal right of the bat for no legit reason... which is kind of weird for me..
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maoyen



Joined: 11 Dec 2007
Posts: 170
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 2:51 am Reply with quote
Like I said in the preview thread, the reason the show feels disjointed is because the first episode was originally a 90 minute special. Everything they have shown Is actually the same episode, they just cut it into pieces. What happens beyond this point will be the real determining factor.
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AholePony



Joined: 04 Jun 2015
Posts: 330
Location: Arizona
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 3:02 am Reply with quote
I agree with hope that this one is a bit messy. I'll keep watching it though, lets hope the narrative smooths out as it gets going.

As to the art, I think it would be worth noting that this is a "Silver Link, Connect" product. That group has traditionally done shorts and Strike the Bood, so the budget might really not be there. The parent, SILVER LINK, is one of my favorite newer studios so I feel I gotta defend them Wink . They are doing Non Non Biyori this season after all and it looks glorious.
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bobob101



Joined: 28 Jun 2013
Posts: 201
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:08 am Reply with quote
I'm not saying you are reading too much into this show Hope, because all your analyses do make sense. But of all the shows that could be covered critically, I feel this show isn't supposed to be on that list. Episodes 1 and 2 were absolutely rough, 3 was definitely better but no where near enjoyable.

Then again having your analysis is much better than some other bloggers/reviewers who just focus on the boring "what" not the slightly interesting "why"
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JacobC
ANN Contributor


Joined: 15 Jan 2008
Posts: 3728
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:17 am Reply with quote
bobob101 wrote:
I'm not saying you are reading too much into this show Hope, because all your analyses do make sense. But of all the shows that could be covered critically, I feel this show isn't supposed to be on that list.


Well, it did pretty well in the poll, so somebody hadda do it. Anime hyper All I can do is talk about anything interesting that arises.

I mean, I got through Rail Wars! just fine, so this is a walk in the park all things considered.
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Yause



Joined: 10 Dec 2013
Posts: 97
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:36 am Reply with quote
AholePony wrote:

As to the art, I think it would be worth noting that this is a "Silver Link, Connect" product. That group has traditionally done shorts and Strike the Bood, so the budget might really not be there. The parent, SILVER LINK, is one of my favorite newer studios so I feel I gotta defend them Wink . They are doing Non Non Biyori this season after all and it looks glorious.


They aren't really separate studios. Nevertheless, the budgeting and subsequent use of poor CG has nothing to do with the Connect team, who are actually the main reason that Silver Link is a large and strong company today.
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killjoy_the



Joined: 30 May 2015
Posts: 2457
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 6:24 am Reply with quote
Really nice review, really sums up why I'm still watching this even though I gave all of the episodes a low score. There's potential there, it just hasn't been shown yet.
I'm excited for an eventual Sweallow/Lou fight, like there is in the cover art. Also, did Nasu take Takeuchi as his assistant or something during the campaign? Is that Sweallow has a badass maid? Laughing
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Chipp12



Joined: 30 Mar 2012
Posts: 300
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 9:53 am Reply with quote
Merostay wrote:
you can see where the anime got the idea of the hit list at the end of each episode


Nah, that's from the novel adaptation of anime.

AholePony wrote:
As to the art, I think it would be worth noting that this is a "Silver Link, Connect" product. That group has traditionally done shorts and Strike the Bood, so the budget might really not be there. The parent, SILVER LINK, is one of my favorite newer studios so I feel I gotta defend them Wink . They are doing Non Non Biyori this season after all and it looks glorious.

It's a product of both Silver Link and Connect, they are the separate studios. Also Imawa no Kuni no Alice would be a better example since both of directors have worked on it as well.
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:46 am Reply with quote
killjoy_the wrote:
Also, did Nasu take Takeuchi as his assistant or something during the campaign? Is that Sweallow has a badass maid? :lol:

Hahaha, despite the chignon, no Takeuchis here.

When all of the players rolled for life circumstances, Nasu rolled a slave. Since Swallow isn't the type of character who'd have a slave, Nasu negotiated with Sanda, the DM, to have a maid instead who Sanda would play.

And thus Meryll was born, and the fandom rejoiced.
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