Series Information

ANN Encyclopedia | AniDB | AnimeNfo
Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Supernatural
OP: [FRIEND] by Keita Tachibana
ED: [Fly So High] by Yu Yamada
Pierrot’s Official Blue Dragon Website

[Episode 1: Shadow, Initiate]

[Enjoyment Value: 8/10]

[Opening sequence]

OP: [FRIEND] by Souichiro Hoshi
Listen to the OP: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2 | Mirror 3

[Summary]

In a desert, two people are riding through the fog and stop at a rising. One of them, a female, observes a village in the distance. The scenes change to an evil old man named Nene who is ranting on and has some dubious plans up his sleeve. Scene change once more to a boy named Shu and his friends. Shu is a young boy who is obsessed with Knight Masters and wants to become one himself. His friend, Kluke, tells him about a rumor of a Knight Master appearing in their village and Shu hurriedly goes there in search of him. After carelessly attacking a few people who he thinks are Knight Masters, Shu runs into a young man but instantly dismisses the possibities of him being a Knight Master. Now angry, the young man begins to glow with a blue aura and a shadow begins to stretch from his feet before being stopped by his female companion. The young man, whose name is Jiro, is scolded instantly and the woman, named Zola, apologizes for his actions. As they’re leaving, Shu attacks Zola but his wooden sword is instantly shattered by her sheathed sword which causes him to go in frenzy and calls her a Knight Master.

After a little discussion between Zola and Shu, she and Jiro leave to deal with their own personal business. Later, Zola finds some hidden ruins and is intrigued by the hidden entrance she accidently discovered. Meanwhile, Shu, Kluk and the rest of their friends witness a ship of Nene’s goons attacking their village. Sensing big trouble ahead, Shu goes off to find Zola and when he does he asks for her help in defending the village. She declines and shows no interest in helping causing Shu to run off towards the village with his friends to help the townspeople. When they arrive they dispatch of two soldiers but are easily overpowered as more arrive. Before things can get any worse, Zola and Jiro appear to aid Shu and the townspeople while destroying the enemy ship in the process. Zola easily defeats the normal soldiers and attacks the head of the soldiers who quickly summons his Shadow. Zola does the same and gets into a heated battle with him. While doing so, a mass of rock is struck by a reflected beam and is falling towards the townspeople. Desperate to save them, Shu runs with all his might and in thinking about Kluk and his other friends he unintentionally unleashes a Shadow and saves them. Zola recognizes this Shadow and calls it Blue Dragon. One the Blue Dragon realizes where it is currently it begins to go berserk and lets out a terrifying roar.

[Ending sequence]

ED: [Fly So High] by Yu Yamada
Listen to the ED: Mirror 1 | Mirror 2 | Mirror 3

[Thoughts]

When I first heard of the anime adaptation of Blue Dragon, I wasn’t sure what to think of it. So, haven’t not played the XBOX 360 game, I went into this one pretty much new to things except for being familiar with some of the characters and their names. The question is: How was it? Well, I was pleasantly surprised with the first episode to say the least.

The animation, while nothing jaw-dropping was pretty good and the character designs were good as well (I’m not one of those who’re tired of Akira Toriyama’s designs). Speaking of characters, my favorite thus far is Zola. As for the music, I felt right at home because I’ve listened to Nobou Uematsu’s compositions time and time again in the multiple Final Fantasy games I’ve played.

Still, I didn’t expect Blue Dragon to be this good but it’s nice to see that a lot of effort was placed into the anime series. A while back I heard that the seiyuu cast was going to be different from the cast in the game but it wasn’t a problem for me, especially now that I’ve heard them and thought that they did a good job.

So while this probably isn’t the most anticipated series on my list (or even other bloggers from what I’ve observed) and probably won’t be the best of this season, I still found the first episode to be enjoyable. I’ll be watching the second episode when it comes out to see if it keeps up the good work and by then I’ll decide if I’ll blog it on a regular basis.

[Preview]