Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk

The Japanese studio Gonzo introduced a breakthrough in inter-continental television when it announced that two shows this season would be released online with English subtitles the same night as they premiered on television in Japan. So apparently they got my letters….Gonzo 1, Santa 0. Tower of Druaga can be found (and bought) legally by download or watched on the site at www.crunchyroll.com for fewer than three dollars an episode. Spoiler: it’s worth it!
Revolutionary marketing set aside, I found Tower of Druaga to be a magnificent classic high fantasy setting with memorable characters, ground-breaking scenery (gotta put a penny in the pun jar again), and a masterfully told story. This twelve-episode first season now owns my heart, hugging, teasing and scratching it like a middle school relationship.
Druga centers on a land ruled by King Gilgamesh, who, ages ago, scaled the Tower of Druga, the epitome of evil, and by using every cliché in the book, saved the princess and became king. Problem was the Tower still stands. Cities live in constant threat of the monsters that poor out of it, and much of the population dedicate themselves to becoming Climbers, adventurers who seek to climb the monstrosity and claim the Blue Crystal Rod on top.
Sounds like the set-up to every video game besides Pacman, doesn’t it? It is. In fact, Druaga was made in homage to an 8-bit video game of the same name. Just like in every story, our main character is a bright-eyed, loosely drawn “I-wanna-protect-my-friends-no-matter-what” type named Jil, whose only strength is his physical resilience and unbreakable shield. After being dumped from his powerful yet cold big brother Neeba’s party, Jil gathers a rag-tag band of losers in hopes of scaling the tower and becoming a hero.
This is a world filled with classes but no leveling up, magic but no MP. In short, Druga is a world where the video game is the world. Jil is joined by a dark-haired priestess named Kayaa, her patient powerhouse partner Amrey, the boastful aristocrat mage Melt and his assistant, Coopa, who is the greatest intern of all time. Once their party is assembled, they must compete with Uruk’s national army, a guerilla army of other Climbers, Neeba’s epic gang, and a malicious wind sorcerer.
So how did the script writer for Full Metal Panic, the character designer of Burst Angel and the director of Last Exile handle such material? With the tact, charm and humor of true fans. There are dramatic episodes which are well-written and full of pathos, but the true majesty of this series comes from the comedic episodes, which not only make video game references but turn the world into a classic 8-bit parody of the original game! I recommend episode five. That is all you need to know. Do not be scared away by the ridiculous delusion that was the first episode; it’s the greatest parody of action/fantasy anime I have seen this year.
Fantasy fans are in for a treat. Cosplayers should start milking this teat before next year’s season two premieres. Anime fans will have a great series to introduce their fantasy friends into anime. Why? Because the script, specifically its humor and ability to transform old jokes rather than rely on stereo-types and repetition. I stand in awe of Coopa’s comedic timing and golem-like strength that never gets addressed seriously. The animation is so pristine, I’d almost accuse Gonzo of putting all their eggs in one basket. Shading and weather effects are gracefully added, though the occasional computer-rendered monsters (Druaga himself, ew) prove distracting.
It’s a great climb, full of danger, magic missiles, dragons, knights, wizards, wizard interns, backstabs, and meaningful demises that builds up to the single most evil cliffhanger since the first season of Code Geass. Tower of Druaga wins, finds the Master Sword and obtains epic status.

Slayers - Spells, Swords and Slapstick at its Best

Every fantasy anime falls into many formulaic pitfalls: spells with English names, guys with big swords and even bigger hair, and demon beast resurrections. Slayers, the mid-nineties classic anime, has long ago been recognized as the standard for fantasy/action/comedy. There are many good reasons for this.

Newer fans may be interested to learn that Slayers was announced last month to begin production of a new season, hopefully airing next year. So the excitement has actually yet to begin. Think of this review as bringing an old friend into a new light before that friend is exhumed and revamped by today's computers to remove those unsightly wrinkles and mummy bandages.

Explaining the plot to Slayers would waste more time than the filler arcs of Naruto. Simply put, Lina Inverse is the young, powerful sorceress who can claim more adversaries than Vash the Stampede. She and her badass (though thick-headed) swordsman companion, Gourry, traverse the land avoiding bandits, robbing from the rich to give to their stomachs, and blowing up everything else in between. Every thirteen episodes, an evil monster is reborn to destroy the world until Lina smashes it.

The first season, a convenient boxset sold by Funimation, can be found pretty cheaply these days, which only adds to the bargain of owning this series. Slayers, though slightly younger than Record of Lodoss War, plays through standard adventures with a barrage of zany characters that grow on you, delivering as many laughs as it does explosions. It features that old school cell-framed animation that your grandpappy remembers, which only contributes to the vintage pacing. One of my favorite situations takes place in a city populated by self-proclaimed “champions of justice.” As people charge forward to collect the bounty on Lina’s head, she and Gourry take turns keeping track of how many “champions of justice” they blow away in one blow, knocking down adversaries until Lina proves herself not to be the bad guy. Which is like selling pot to your parole officer.

What I love about the characters is how stereo-typical they can be while breaking the molds at the same time. Though morality is very clear-cut (good versus evil) anyone who proclaims themselves a force of either ultimately turns out to be false. Initially, the homunculus Zelgadas (eat your heart out Moonlight Knight) quickly shifts from villain to ally. The Red Priest Rezo is a world-renowned White Mage/Mother Theresa only until he can cure his own blindness. And best of all, Lina and Gourry never claim to be good or evil, just hungry.

I’m a sucker for old anime humor and mayhem on a medieval scale. Sometimes the pacing brings the action to a rough halt, especially when Lina explains the intricacies of the three schools of magic, but these scenes are few and far between. Slayers loves nothing more than blowing up the monster and getting to the next one. The voice acting is a very early job, one of Crispin Freeman and Lisa Ortiz’s firsts. Just for that, I’m gonna cut them a lot of slack on the mediocre production value.

Not the fantasy genre rewriter that Scrapped Princess turned out to be, but a Hellsing of a lot funnier. Grab your friends and dive into Slayers. Okay, so start at episode five, then grab your friends and dive in.