Dragonaut: The Resonance

Summary: The world is in danger. Two years ago, a mysterious asteroid, named Thanatos, collided with Pluto, destroying the planet. Since then, the asteroid has held a steady orbit around the sun. Around that same time, however, an accident occurred on Earth, when a passenger shuttle, launching to space, was destroyed by three falling objects. The shuttle had a lone survivor; Jin Kamishina, who has lived a lonely life ever since. That is, until one night he stumbles upon a strange creature, in the middle of a violent act, and his life is changed forever.

Review

Plot: Most of the mysteries the show attempts to present are solved and revealed very early on. Those three objects? They are Dragons, sent from Thanatos to Earth with a secret purpose all three basically ignore. An organization, the International Solarsystem Development Agency (ISDA), is placed in charge of researching these Dragons, and through their research realizes that Thanatos is an alien life form. Using their own created Dragons, the ISDA creates an elite unit, the Dragonauts. Dragonauts are humans who have formed a bond, called resonance, with a Dragon. The basic rule of these bonds is that a Dragon cannot disobey their master, but some pairings are unhappy with this concept, and long for there to be a deeper meaning to resonance between a human and Dragon. The key to this search is Jun Kamishina, and his bonded Dragon, Toa. As the journey of Jin, Toa, and others, takes shape, it forms into a battle for the right to be free, the right to love, and of course, to save the Earth. Something that was bothersome though was that, while the show, on occasion, delved into the deeper meaning of resonance, in general it was very fluffy and nonchalant about the whole thing. Only once did a character ever question whether or not a Dragonaut and Dragon felt their emotions because of their bond, or because they truly cared for one another. The answer, like many of the series events, was horribly unsatisfying. "It doesn't matter."

Characters: The large, and mostly diverse cast, of Dragonaut: The Resonance at first seems to be a wonderful and redeeming factor. However, this is merely a mirage. The characters are all stereotypes. Just to give a few examples; Howlingstar is all about taking action, Amadeus is a proper gentleman butler, and Asim is the insane man in love with death. While there are a lot of characters, most act according to their stereotype, and not much else. Even Jin, the show's main character, does virtually nothing but declare his love for Toa, and that he will protect Toa. There is one episode where there is real tension between the two of them, and could create angst in the plot, but it is resolved so quickly, it's hard to tell why the creators bothered. Toa herself is entirely one minded, thinking only of her love of Jin and her desire to protect him. Gio is the only character with any internal conflict, but even he rarely truly contemplates his problems. Gio is a Dragon who bonded with Jin's hate filled friend, Kazuki Tachibana, only to forego him in favor of friendship with Jin and to better protect Toa. His struggle comes from his feelings for Toa conflicting with his friendship with Jin, but it's a conflict that, like so many other other aspects of the show, feels like it's never truly developed, and eventually forgotten.

Presentation: The animation is a mixed bag. Characters are smooth and move naturally when not in combat, but their proportions, especially the women, are disturbing. It's not uncommon for women in anime to be well endowed, but the extent it went for some characters in Dragonaut: The Resonance was just wrong. In combat, the animation was more dicey. The CGI rendered Dragons were certainly unique, but watching them in action did not create a feeling of power and awe, as one associates with the mythical creatures. Instead, I felt like I was watching bad mecha combat, with each Dragon having a single special move that ended with lots of explosions from whatever enemy they were fighting. The opening theme is called "perfect blue", and was catchy enough to consider listening to again. The two ending themes weren't worth listening to more than once, and the animation for both the endings and the opening was standard fare.

Entertainment Value: Unfortunately low. The first half of the series has promise, but around the halfway point, it becomes apparent that none of that promise will be realized. The characters never really develop, the plot goes off on tangents, and the action is mostly boring. By the last handful of episodes, I was just counting down the time til the series would end. The cliche ending did nothing to change my opinion. Even the fan service is sub-par, and cannot be considered a focal point of the show, despite the ample amount of it. The best part of the series was the OAV episode. The first half was about a combat school, and was completely ridiculous. The second centered on an energy emitter which altered the Dragon's personalities. Unfortunately, it was difficult to enjoy the OAV after watching the rest of the show.

Rating: 5/10 - Dragonaut: The Resonance doesn't do anything really well, but does just enough that someone might find value in it.

Series Title - 25 episodes + 1 OAV

Note: I watched Dragonaut: The Resonance on DVD. The series has a manga adaptation of a single volume, never released in the United States. The show has an Internet radio show as well, but I am unsure how long or how many episodes it is.