Dragonar Academy Episode 3
What They Say:
A dangerous rogue dragon runs amok in the town of Ansullivan. Which young dragonar will step up to face it, and can the mighty creature be defeated?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The introduction of Eco in the first episode, which was expanded upon a lot in the second episode, admittedly went with mostly familiar territory when it came to Ash’s partner. She’s the kind of character that fits the archetype well in that she’s got the superior dragon attitude in a human body, something that’s highly unusual for someone to get as a parr, and she takes a controlling nature with the relationship that gets created between her and Ash. That makes him somewhat subservient, mostly because of her force of will and personality, but it also gives them a chance to find some balance when he does the right things to protect her. That helps her to understand there’s a good working relationship that can exist here and softens her up a bit towards him, though there’s still plenty of moments where she lords her existence over him.
With this episode, things turn quickly to battle as a rogue dragon starts hitting the streets and we get various dragonar’s ready to go up against it to keep the peace. That plays out quickly at first, especially as we see Rebecca go through her sexy and blunt transformation sequence to deal with it, and that gives us a look at how the powerful dragonars and their parrs handle situations. This and some of the light time between some of the characters makes for a good bit of fun, especially when we get the initial material between Rebecca and Ash, but it all serves to set up the second half of the episode when the rotting and really dangerous rogue dragon shows and the whole town of Ansullivan takes on a black and ashen feeling about it.
This battle is interesting to watch unfold since it reveals some of the inner workings of how magic works here as Eco gets taught in a way and Ash gets to understand it some as well, but it’s the kind of piece that while interesting is just about creating its own internal logic to allow it to do what it wants to do. It’s definitely interesting though and shows a new layer to the dragons that might not have been there otherwise. As it shifts more into the battle itself with some nice support from the princess and Rebecca, we see how Ash really starts to master his role as a dragonar, both in his physical appearance with the armor and weapon but also his mindset. He didn’t come across as a milksop during the first two episodes, but he also didn’t really feel like a leader. We get more of a taste of that here.
In Summary:
Dragonar Academy hasn’t really grabbed me in full from the start, but I like some of what it’s doing and it’s moving at a decent pace here to shake things up a bit. It’s still a bit superficial in some ways and a little predictable, but I’m slowly coming to like the characters, which is helped by the animation style and character designs. This episode helps to cement a bit more of the internal logic of the world and the relationship between Ash and Eco, which definitely goes a long way towards making that pairing a bit more interesting. It’s still not fantastic, but it’s growing in that fun kind of way that makes it an enjoyable and light experience.
Grade: B-
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.