Druaga no To ~Aegis of Uruk~ Final Impressions
Oh GONZO, why am I not surprised. (Warning: Spoilers etc)
Summary:
Needless to say I was pretty much expecting an ending like this. Le’see what happened in these final few episodes?
So, Kally died, and then Ahmey dies trying to kill Druaga. The remaining climbers (minus, Pazuz and Neeba the fheg) band together to defeat Druaga. Only its not actually Druaga, its the guardian. Of what? A key to the “mythical tower”. Kaaya obviously betrays Jil, and Needba used Fatina like a cheap whore. The series wraps off with Neeba and Kaaya entering the “mythical tower” and everyone else getting flushed out of the tower.
I’m not sure if I can call this a final impression. Nothing feels complete since its only the “halfway point”, with the other half airing sometime in 2009??? So mixed feeling here. The last episode did not only NOT answer any of the questions I had earlier, but it created even more! One thing we know is that King Gil has the Blue Crystal rod, but I’m not sure why he had to kill his advisor, Marf (or so that’s what I think his name was).
Oohh blood! blissmo is gonna have a field day
Also, Pazuz is not dead (wow yeah I didn’t see that coming /sarcasm). And they even threw in a mysterious loli for good measure.
Nice. As if we don’t have enough annoying lolis already.
Storyline aside, I applaud GONZO for their brave step. I mean the responses on Crunchyroll and Youtube is generally positive, except YouTubers got shafted the last few episodes. First, with hideous distracting ads telling them to go to CR to watch the show. Then after a large amount of negative responses, GONZO instead uploaded the first five minutes of each episode on YouTube, forcing the viewers to go to CR to finish the episode. However, they did a good job as I think alot of hardcore and casual anime fans OUTSIDE of Japan all know about the show, and are excited about the next season.
edit: I just checked GONZO’s Tower of Druaga page and they have replaced the said videos above with the full episodes. Good for you GONZO.
I think this “online experience” model is a good start for GONZO. What will it lead to? How will this shape the future of fansubbing? WILL it even affect fansubbing? These are some of the things I will keep an eye on in the comming months. Could it use improvements? Yes. But at least GONZO is willing to listen.
Tower of Druaga ~Aegis of Uruk~ scores (scores in brackets for those too lazy to count):
Overall: 
(6/10)
Story: 
(4/10)
Art: (4/10)
Character: (6/10)
Enjoyment: 
(8/10)
Story: As I said above, the story was intriguing. However, kinda mad that next to nothing was resolved at the end of the first season. Redeeming factor is that there will be a second season. 2009.
Art: Nothing special stands out about the animation. It was definitely on the bottom tier when compared to other shows this season (ie R2, Macross F, Kurenai, even Zettai Karen Children). The commercial break animation could of used more attention, I mean Jil playing with his shield on a blue-white gradient is nothing to rave about. Lacking in details. Terrible battle scenes. I guess you could defend it with “but that’s Druaga’s animation style”. Well then, this “animation” gets 4 cans of Coke Zero.
Redeeming factor is that the animation, while not superb, was also not bad absolutely terrible. And it was consistent throughout the series, at least.
Character: Characters were, I dunno. Some were likable, some were annoying and some were disposable. We don’t learn much about anyone, but that’s kind of expected from a 12 episode series. Wasn’t expecting much on this front, and I got what I expected (hey that’s not really a bad thing… I could of been disappointed).
Enjoyment: The show does what it was meant to do at least. It WAS enjoyable, and it even had epic moments I daresay. Highlights include : Awesome OP, first episode, ‘traps’ episode and Druaga arcade episode.
A lot of people had hoped Ururk would do for GONZO what Gurren Lagann did for Gainax. Although I would have been pleasantly surprised if that were the case, a quick reality check after the first three of four episodes told me otherwise. However, Uruk was a solid show, and I am willing to watch the second season (which cannot be said about some of GONZO’s recent works). I think because of the second season, I was more generous in the first season’s evalutaion with things like “oh maybe it’ll be resolved next season, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt” and stuff.
Upcomming from GONZO: Along with Blassreiter, Strike Witches TV (premiering July 3rd 2008) will also be posted online as it airs.
I will have to disagree about the animation but it would vaires for each person, the action scene were guite epic but thats just me and I’m actually surprise that you could have predicted an ending as this, a cliff hanger one in fact I don’t think anyone on the net saw it coming or else there wouldn’t be the 200+ comments on the ending itself on CR and Youtube.
I was hoping for a season two and positive it was ending at 12 but I’m glad its having another season, they were too many lose end to tied up with just 12 episodes.
As for Pazzu being alive it didn’t look that way to me, it seems more like a robot asking its creator why am I here, the meaning of life sorta question or else they going to have to explain how he survived the an attack in the head, I going to assume his not human if thats the case.
I like how you summarized everything in one paragraph, Cokematic!
Haha, blood makes me happy
This wasn’t really a good show by most measures, but for some reason I couldn’t stop watching it, and I eagerly awaited the next episode. Why was that? I have absolutely no idea, but it seems like many other people (yourself included) agree with that.
Either way it will be a while until 2009. I guess we can expect more of the same, and the ending will probably have Kaaya redeeming herself at the very end (or even before that). I hope for another awesome OP next season!
Epis last blog post..Code Geass – Episode 11
I guess they haven’t seen Code Geass yet (yes I know, different studios). But still.. They kept hinting at how defeating the Druaga was not the end etc. But they weren’t even close to done at episode 8. Their other alternative was to to have a super crappy ending, but I think Druaga is a series GONZO wants to invest in longterm (they are comming out with a MMORPG and the posted above Jil and Kaaya’s head in the OP suggested something in 2009).
And you could be right about Pazuz, although I thought the robot talking was that thing that flew off (a few things fly away before the closeup on the loli). Maybe the loli was talking to Pazuz’s dead body. Cause they do that sometimes.
@blissmo : haha I doubt many people reading this are here for the one week late summary anyways. So I thought I’d instead focus on my thoughts of the show instead
@Epi : Yeah… can’t really pinpoint WHY I want to watch the second season. But I probably will. I hope they dont spend 90% of the next season on Jil and friends reclimbing to the top (if that’s even possible anymore since summer of Anu had ended). I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
You know, if they managed to end it properly in this episode instead of extending it till next year, I’d probably have a better impression of the show overall than I do know. I was pleasantly entertained enough by these 12 episodes, but I’m not too sure the next 12 will deliver the same. GONZO prove me wrong?
issa-sas last blog post..So Long S.A., Thanks for the Tadashi
WHO DOES FATINA END UP WITH?!
@blissmo
NO-ONE! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
After the train-wrecks that were recent Gonzo shows, Uruk and Blassreiter turnesd out surpsingly decent in my opinion. If Blassreiter had less emo funks, it could have been one of my favourites, as the action scenes were quite good and I’m a sucker for fast, shiny things ^_^.
Omisyths last blog post..Kurenai: Review and Retrospective
Wow, I was expecting more from this anime than you did, Cokematic! The first episode just made me go ‘… what’s going on?’ and all, but I thought maybe it would make more sense! And considering it ‘raised more questions’ at the end, I guess I would have to wait for the next season: I hate waiting.
A nice final impressions, I dare say.
@Omisyth:
Oh hell no …. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
“One thing we know is that King Gil has the Blue Crystal rod, but I’m not sure why he had to kill his advisor, Marf (or so that’s what I think his name was).”
While I’m not positive myself, it’s going to be speculation from here on, first you need to rewatch Druaga episode 8 from 4.29 to 6.00. from the flash back it is clear that there’s a revolt happening from behind the scenes and one of the king’s advisor/ministry are behind it. This action also caused the king to lose his eldest child and the aftermath force Ki to make a decision in the process. Fast forward to episode 12’s ending, I’m going to assume the person the king killed is also the same one who causes the demise of his son, call it revenge perhaps. You know the old saying “you keep your friends close but your enemy closer”.
In episode 3 his minister/advisor knew of the kings immortality, this could came from either they were good friends or he has attempt to assassinate the king more than once before. It’s pure speculation since I can’t be positive if the person shown in episode 8 giving money to the man wearing the cloak is the same person lying dead in episode 12.
P.S I fail at using tags
If you have played a Tower of Druaga game or at least the optional dungeon in Tales of Destiny you would know that the coffins contain the Knights that served Druaga during Gil’s quest and Pazuz’s incantation proves this. They were the Red, Blue, Black and Mirror Knights if I recall correctly so hopefully one of them kills Neeba. Seeing that one of them is a loli, seems Gonzo took their liberty in the designs…
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