Tower of Druaga #(-01) — Gonzo… You Baffle Me

April 5th, 2008

 

I’m taking you to the flip side!

Impressions:

So, Druaga had two different versions today. We had Gil’s dream sequences which was the ‘normal’ version that aired on television stations and ended up streamed… and we had this version which got streamed through the lonely GyaO for reasons which nobody seems to understand. One might almost think it was a mistake and they aired the second episode or something… but… it was marked as episode 1… god only knows. It takes place alongside the dream episode… Gil is shown multiple times asleep and spouting lines from the other episode. I think if I ever get to the point where I can understand Gonzo’s inner machinations, I’ll shoot myself.

And yes, I am going to keep calling Gilgamesh Gil. Not Jil. How did Gonzo even turn Gilgamesh into Jiru anyway? I’m fighting the good fight for mythology everywhere! Don’t let them corrupt our heathen gods!

Anyway, this is much closer to what you’d normally expect from them. It was still clearly pretty light hearted, but there really weren’t any parodies to speak of and it ended up trying to be much more action/adventure oriented. As usual, Gonzo’s hamhanded direction and excessive CG use got in the way of things. As the heroes are running from swarms of monsters… SUDDENLY PINK HEARTS! Or my favorite… CG dice followed by a stack of CG money. Actually… that’s a lie… the waddling CG soldiers were my favorite use of terrible CG. To be fair to the art and animation, the video quality and sound was awful. The tinny feedback made my teeth ring. This was stolen off of NND so… yeah… the screenshots are uuggggggggggggly and tiny.

Basically then, this episode was nowhere near as entertaining and far far more generic. It certainly wasn’t overly serious, but I’m honestly not certain what they’re going for here… especially given the other first episode. Instead of parody, the humor was of the "ha ha, this priest casts spells like he’s golfing" variety… or the knight terrorized poor Horie Yui with scary stories about stuffed animals while they sat trapped in a pit surrounded by minotaurs. It’ll probably get much worse too. Hell, it ended on the wonderful overdramatic exchange:

"Huh? Where are we?"
"How could you forget?"
"Druaga… NO TOU!"
–zoom out and dramatic music–

Which is distinctly different when prefaced by drama instead of slapstick.

So yeah… basically… I have no idea what is going on… which show is the ‘real’ show. I imagine this one since it actually had the full cast in some form or another. I’ll stick around another episode or two… assuming there isn’t a (-2) episode next week too… to at least find out what the hell this show is doing, but if next week is similar to this one… I probably won’t cover it… or pay too much further attention.

Posted in Anime | 9 Comments »

9 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Tokkan says:

    Jil is not Gilgamesh, where’d you get that idea?

  • Ice says:

    Lawl, where can you find this version because I can’t find it at all…

  • Hinano says:

    You know someone on my blog told me about a 2nd version. Wow that sucks, maybe they played the humor version to lure in the audience but in reality the show really is gonna be serious business and it’s gonna basically suck.

    That’s a shame, the humor one was great.

  • totali says:

    Nobody likes serious business.

  • sage says:

    MONGRELS

  • Gil says:

    I’m Gil, wtf!!!!

    Who’s this pretty lady in the tub? O_O

  • Aroduc says:

    Jil is not Gilgamesh, where’d you get that idea?

    The hero of the Druaga games is Gilgamesh, out to rescue Ki. Granted, it’s not meant to be the same as the Sumerian king, but he shows up in more than a few games and his name is always explicitly stated as Gilgamesh, though it’s called Gil.

    You could make a case that they’re corrupting things slightly (Gil -> Jil, Ki -> Kaya) but pfft. If it looks like a fish, smells like a fish, etc…
    Edit: TMYK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_Druaga

  • Ragna says:

    Wikipedia states:
    “# An anime series titled “Druaga no Tō ~the Aegis of URUK~” (The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis Of Uruk) premiered on April 5, 2008 with simultaneous streaming on You Tube, Crunchyroll and Bost TV. The series is set 60 years after the events of the original arcade game (and by extension, its sequels) and features an all new story, with a new cast of characters.”

    The “Jil” in the anime is a bad play-on-words. This is set 60 years after “Gil”gamesh destroyed the Tower as stated in the opening monologue of the mainstream version ;x

  • Question man says:

    I dont understand about the OP though, why is there a sort of “real world” aspect to the characters, and it is not touched upon in the actual anime. I know the anime so far doesn’t take itself too seriously and also goes as far as to classify characters as there err, classes. The logic in this anime is making my head hurt (more than anime usually does I mean)