Copyright © 1997 KSS

Top-heavy with fan service while burdened by mediocre animation and uninspired dubbing, DRAGOON is still not completely lacking in appeal. This show does offer the occasional comic moment or inspired scene, but for the most part, it just seems to be muddling through the motions of an adventure anime, dragging the viewer along like barnacles on the underside of a ship.
The plot centers around a beautiful, young amnesiac woman named May who has escaped the clutches of the sinister Garobodo Empire. The Empire is fervently hunting May down, seeking to manipulate the strange magical powers she possesses and can barely control. This Empire also enjoys a tremendous technical advantage over their rival, the Feyarudo Kingdom, as they have propeller-powered airships and firearms whereas the people of the Kingdom are forced to rely on swords and spells. A melodramatic young warrior named Sedon is the first to help May in her quest to escape the Empire and learn her history. The two are soon joined in their poorly-defined mission by his spunky sister Millie, the Prince Layne, a saucy sorceress named Lilith and her knife-throwing sidekick Bubb.
As you might imagine, much of the activity in the first three episodes of DRAGOON concerns the companions meeting each other and fighting off various Empire minions. This is often the slowest part of any anime, and I found DRAGOON to be particularly plodding in its delivery, taking far too much time building up the family life of Sedon and Millie at the expense of really exploring the threat of the Empire or May's mysterious abilities.
The animation of DRAGOON is nothing special. The character designs are fairly boring and simplistic (with the possible exception of May's funky hat), and the infrequent action scenes came across as staid and jerky. I think that the producers also overused cheap effects like putting the edges of the screen in shadow to force a hokey emotional intensity onto a scene, or blurring the focus during action scenes as a pretense of motion. To be brutally honest, I've seen animated Old Navy television commercials that had more visual appeal than DRAGOON.
With the exception of Millie, voiced by Jessica Schwartz, I believe that the dub of DRAGOON was as underwhelming as its animation style. Dina Kumari Chauhan fails to take real advantage of her character May's obvious emotions, delivering each of her lines nearly monotone even when May was clearly distressed or overjoyed. Sedon's voice came across excessively dopey as rendered by Jay Selton, more so than I felt the naïve and overenthusiastic nature of his character really deserved.
Whenever I hear lines like this I always wonder who to blame more, the original writer or the translator: "You told me my heart would seek the truth if only I would listen to it." Here's another clunker from the script: "The true of heart need never have any fear." Statements like this I think are hopelessly clichéd in modern anime if they aren't delivered during times of great emotional intensity onscreen. DRAGOON drops these phrases like bricks into a well by putting such hackneyed sentiments in the mouths of random villagers and laconic father figures.
I felt the one saving grace of DRAGOON was Millie, the one character who actually had the insight to tell her brother that he was being "corny." She is brash and hot-tempered and clearly inserted as immature comic relief, a role in which she succeeds marvelously. She is always an energetic and expressive presence on screen, serving as an interesting foil to May and Sedon's comparative listlessness. Indeed, therein lies the greatest failing of DRAGOON, it can't create enough emotion on screen to make us care about the two main characters so it is all too easy for the little sister and other supporting characters to steal the show.
I can't close off this review without commenting on the issue of fan service. You come to expect the occasional naked bosom when watching anime, but May does seem to be especially naked in this series. (In fact, she doesn't appear in any kind of clothes at all until sixteen minutes into the first episode). The most prominent character trait of Lilith is her apparent willingness to disrobe at any moment as a threat to anyone who accuses her of cheating. There is also the disturbing trend that DRAGOON does seem to cross a line by having May subjected to some form of violent sexual assault in each of the first two episodes. This is clearly not an "adult"-themed anime, yet it's not hard to see how it could very quickly become one.
DRAGOON might not be the worst swords-and-sorcery anime I've ever seen, but neither is it even close to being the best. It seems to be aiming for some middle ground between the juvenile hilarity of SLAYERS and the dramatic power of CRYSTANIA, ultimately falling well short of both. Perhaps the presentation and plot of the series improves over the later episodes, since it is sadly not off to a very promising start in this first volume.

Released in North America by ADV Films
90 minutes, VHS
dubbed: VHS DR/001D, $19.98
subtitled: VHS DR/001S, $29.95
Available now in the U.S.
Where to buy