Panzer Dragoon

Original Title: パンツァードラグーン
Romanized: Pantsaa Doraguun
Literal: Panzer Dragoon

Plot Synopsis

In a fantasy world where high technology has given way to quaint villages and fanciful airships, three good friends wander the land, hunting for their living. But one day, out of nowhere, a dragon appears, slaying one of the three and capturing the second, leaving only our hero. But the dragon has an enemy, a blue dragon in need of a new rider, and our hero is quick to oblige. The two form an uneasy alliance and set off over the vast land, in a race to a huge tower that, should the black dragon reach it, could destroy the world.

Review

Rating: 0 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2003-04-02

When I first picked this one up and noticed that it prominently featured early computer animation, I was a little wary, and the fact that it was produced by Sega didn't help much either. Then again, the basic idea sounds pretty good--fanciful airships, and a guy and his dragon. With a cool-sounding title like Panzer Dragoon (and based on a popular game series), how bad could it be? Answer: Bad. Really bad. To be blunt about it, this easily ranks among the worst anime I've seen, and I've seen some miserable stuff.

Let's start with the plot: There isn't one--it has about as much story as an '80s-era side-scrolling action game, and doesn't even have the excuse that it's based on one. Meet bad tower and cool airship captain. Now meet happy guys and blind girl. Now meet dragons. That took about 2 minutes, and all but two scenes from then on are of the ongoing dragon chase.

It's kind of too bad, since the blind girl had the air of being a neat character. Given another, say, 12 episodes of a TV series (speaking of which, this isn't any longer than a single TV episode), maybe something interesting could have developed.

But not here.

Likewise, the uncomfortable partnership between the hero and the blue dragon could have been pretty interesting, given time to develop.

But not here.

Other than those three (who are basically the only characters in it anyway), there isn't much left to speak of. Now, in fairness to the poor fools who made this, it would've taken a heroic effort to develop much in the way of plot or character in 20 minutes. Then again, just about the only good thing about Panzer Dragoon is that it is, mercifully, over quickly.

Visually, Panzer Dragoon is unusual, but in this early attempt at melding 3D computer animation with traditional cel-based art, the result is pretty ugly. The cel animation is OK if a bit simple, but the integration of the two media is rough at best. In some places, where the background in an action sequence is done as a computer model, it isn't too bad; the computer animation is primitive by modern (or even not-so-modern) standards, but it is passably mixed. But in some other scenes, most of those with airships for example, the age (mid '90s if you're wondering) and low budget of the animation really shows--any modern video game looks much better--and it looks completely incongruent with the cel art.

The visuals are otherwise unremarkable. The character designs are OK, but not noteworthy, as are the dragons--decent looking, but awkwardly animated and their "breath" attacks look downright lame. The action, which there is a lot of, mostly consists of computer-generated flight sequences, which are pedestrian by modern standards (and were rather passe even when this was new). There are a couple of dragon fights, but even those could have been a whole lot cooler than they were.

The last thing to cover in this litany of how not to make anime is the dub, which is no better than the rest of it, and deserves to be singled out for its notably bad writing. The dialogue was supposed to be sort of archaic sounding, but comes across as awkward, stilted, and just plain badly written. The acting is bad--hardly a surprise considering the bad writing/no story combo. The minor characters (all two of them) are badly acted. The hero is really awkward (probablay because he has more lines), but at least he emotes pretty well. The dragon is kind of bland and sort of sanctimonious sounding, but his dialogue is mostly to blame there, too--somebody was (unsuccessfully) trying their best to sound deep. The only other character is the girl, and she's actually acted fairly well in the couple of lines she has. It made me wish even more that her character had been given time to develop.

The music in Panzer Dragoon is--surprise surprise--bad. It sounds pretty much like a lame video game soundtrack, and there isn't even a vocal piece at the end.

Summing up, this is bad anime at its worst. It has no plot, almost no characters, terrible dialogue, weak action, and a botched attempt at blending cel animation and primitive 3D computer stuff. The only saving grace of the whole thing is that it's over quickly. Please, don't waste your time. It's not even worth making fun of.

Related Recommendations

Almost anything is better than this, but I'd try the Final Fantasy OAVs for something that is vaguely similar in setting and almost by definition much better. Also check out Lensman for an even earlier and far more successful attempt at fusing cel art and computer animation. Of course, for an idea of what the combination of digital art and ink and acetate can do, anything by Gonzo (Blue Submarine No. 6, Yukikaze) or Miyazaki's newer films (Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away) are a far better example.

US DVD Review

None exists.

Content Guide

Nothing much unsuitable for kids, and really young ones might be entertained by the pretty colors, but probaby deserves a 10-up on account of the violence.

Violence: 2 - Some violence, but not a whole lot of blood.

Nudity: 0 - Nothing.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Zip.

Language: 1 - Nothing much.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a video game series (and apparently a decent one). This is among the first anime attempts at combining cel and computer animation in the same scenes, but if you're wondering whether this is the first anime that incorporated computer animation, it's not even close. There was a very old movie (released by Streamline long, long ago) called Lensman that featured some space battle scenes done with 3D computer models. And, although there was less of it, it looked better than this does, despite being a product of the previous decade.

Actually, this mess has one saving grace, but in a stroke of appropriate irony, it comes after the credits roll; the production sketches included after the feature are accompanied by a very nice little song, but you can't exactly count that as part of the show. If you do happen to find this video in your hands, just fast-forward past the other 20 minutes of junk to get to it--it's the only thing on the whole tape that's worth watching anyway.

Availability

Released by AD Vision on subtitled and dubbed VHS, now out of print.

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