Copyright © AIC / Pioneer LDC, Inc.

—by Eric "Scanner" Luce

EL HAZARD. TENCHI MUYO. Anime fans have come to expect certain things from Pioneer and its titles. Once original, new and refreshing, they have now perfected a story format in look and feel (if not plot device) that has almost become its own genre. Not to say that all anime from Pioneer follows the same formula—but there are definitely similarities in many Pioneer shows. Some of these common elements include:

	1.	A similar look to the character designs of other Pioneer series.
	2.	An unassuming male protagonist who has a special role or ability (although arguably this is common to most action anime.)
	3.	The male protagonist usually gathers a "harem" of females.
	4.	The male protagonist never indicates that he is interested in any of said females.
	5.	The male protagonist lives under what was called a "white shadow" (like a dark shadow... but light...)
	6.	A decent dose of humor, frequently with slapstick elements.
	7.	At least one high school gets destroyed in the first episode (again, arguably common to many series).

The Pioneer style is actually most often typified by a combination of 1, 3, 4, and 5. After all, almost all shows aimed at young males have ingredient number 2.
DUAL is done in this "Pioneer style."
The story opens on a construction site for a new school. A back hoe is having problems excavating the area because of a large bronze colored stone. A worker told to investigate it finds a rather curious monument with a removable plate. The two supervisors decide that they do not want to delay their schedule for an investigation, so they tell the worker to throw away the plate. As he does so, the worker wonders if that is a such a good idea and he ends up putting the plate into his pocket. Suddenly the world bifurcates around that one decision.
Twenty-two years later, Kazuki falls asleep on his keyboard while updating his web site/bulletin board. He rushes out to school as he is late. On his way to school we hear two girls comment about him. "Him? He is the one?" "Looks like it..." Suddenly shadows flash overhead and an explosion occurs right behind him. Although Kazuki flinches, the debris seems to pass right through him, as if it were not really there. In the distance two giant mecha fight. The two girls giggle. Where there should be a crater from the explosion, there is just the two girls being amused at the infamous boy who has sudden spasms and fits and claims to have seen giant robots fighting. It seems that only Kazuki can see these battles so he has taken to documenting them on a web site calling it a story. He has even named all the robots.
Later that day, the school idol Sanada Mitsuki follows Kazuki and tries to get him to tell her about the mecha because she says she knows something about what he is seeing. This leads Kazuki to Mitsuki's house where he gets to meet her enthusiastic mad-scientist father, who explains that Kazuki is seeing a parallel world. It is not enough to say that, though, and the father is intent on sending Kazuki to this parallel world.
From here on out, the story twists about but will soon settle in to a familiar plot line (at least so far it seems familiar). One thing to note about the series direction and humor are some rather significant EVANGELION parodies. From the male/female ratio of pilots to the ordering of the mecha to the control room, the similarities are there.
The story itself is decently animated. Motions are smooth, with attention paid to critical sequences. The character designs themselves, while not fresh and original, are still pleasing to look at. The various characters all have amusing and engaging personalities. You do want to learn more about these people and hope the series goes in that direction instead of just being some sort of battle of the day. Considering that out of four episodes there are only two battle sequences, this may turn out to be the case.
So even though this story has many formulaic elements and it may end up being a lot of eye-candy, so far it shows promise and its unique and amusing elements are enough to make it enjoyable. With it being a Pioneer title we should expect to see a USA release sometime soon as well. The curious can visit their web site at http://www.dual.to/ (it's in Japanese and is full of spoilers.)

13 episode television series