A Great, Wonderful Joke: Dragon Half (1993 OVA)
Hi, I am the Eclectic Dude and I review it for the lolz.
Well, It’s Holiday Break and you know what time is it? Why, yes, to
look at another wacky fantasy OVA from the 90s. Last December, I looked at
Detatoko Princess, which involved the wacky adventures of a magical princess
and her band of friends. This year, well, is Dragon Half.
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| DVD cover |
Dragon Half is based off of a manga created by Ryusuke Mita, who has
done other stuff but none of that ended up in the States, sad to say. The manga
ran from 1988 to 1994, making this the second series that’s as old as I am.
Good dear Haruhi, I am getting old. In 1993, a 2 episode OVA came out, quickly
licensed in North America by once-old reliable ADV Films soon after. This
review will have details of the plot in it, so if you don’t like spoilers, to
put it bluntly: oh well.
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| Mink and her two friends, blonde elf Luffa and little girl Pia with her pet |
The first episode is titled “Mink’s Journey”. This serves as an
introduction to Mink and the world she lives. Mink is a Halfling, result of a
marriage by a once famous knight and a red dragon (the most dangerous kind it
appears). She is terrifyingly obsessed with Dick Saucer (heh), the kingdom’s
male idol singer and dragon hunter. Her titular journey is get to his recent
concert in the big city, since she lives out in the boonies. A subplot emerges as the king and his sorcerer
scheme to kill Mink’s dad, then later Mink, so they can get the female red
dragon. But it doesn’t amount to much, so nothing else will mention on that.
Anyway, Mink goes to the big city, which is a mix of medieval fantasy
and some extraneous elements, like an airport and TV and other such things.
There, she runs into Princess Vina, daughter to the king who also has a crush
on Dick Saucer. A scuffle ensues, with Mink crashing into a window and kissing
Dick Saucer by accident. OF course, then Vina points out that Mink would never
get Dick Saucer’s affections since he is a dragon hunter and she is a
half-dragon: “You would end up on his wall then in his bed” as Vina puts it.
So, Mink goes on a journey with her two friends to get the famed ‘people potion’
when can turn the user into a full human. It turns out, through flashback, that
Vina is a half-slime who learned dark magic to be human. However, Mink’s journey
is sidelined until the next and last episode.
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| Mink during the low point of the tournament |
The second episode is “The Brutal Killer Martial Arts Tournament”. Mink
and her friends run into Dick Saucer (his mic is also a dagger as well-must
make concerts where he would throw his mic into the crowd rather dicey affairs).
A rather one-sided fight ensues and doesn’t really resolve. The rest of the
episode turns into a tournament episode, much like how much one entire arc of
YuYu Hakusho devoted to this. It features not just Mink, Dick Saucer, Princess
Vina and some other monsters with bad-ass fighting skills. Though, Mink has to
go through an initial Test-fight against Minotaurus, which is easy won despite
Minotaurus looking like a scary dark RPG reject. There is one hilarious bit
with the king’s sorcerer accidentally giving ex-lax to Dick Saucer and other
failing schemes. The various matches are short and sweet, thank goodness.
Though, I suppose if this show got full series, they could have stretched out
each fight per episode. Mink, of course, ends up beating all of her enemies
(totally pawning Princess Vina). Her final match is against the prince of a
Warlock. Much wanton destruction ensues. But at the end, Mink wins the
tournament. And there was much rejoicing (and fan service lol).
Now, here are the good things about the Dragon Half. Like most fantasy
OVAs of the decade, it shares many traits with those titles: Simple plotting, Humor
aplenty, goofy monsters and characters, cheap looking yet charming. The plot is
as simple as it gets. Much like Rune Explorers, simple is often best. There are
plenty of humor, both in the visual imagery and in the script. Humorous images include
Ye King’s Anger being a giant rock, the sorcerer carrying around bucket of ice,
Princess Vina being really OTT, Damamaru the stupid knight of the king (any
scene will do) the warlock prince timing out the match against Mink to watch
the first episode on VHS (oh wow that makes this OVA show its age). The script
is loaded with lots of funny lines. Here is just a sampling:
“Love has overcome my common sense”
“Well, I’m the product of very strange circumstances”
“A demon doesn’t consider story continuity”
The characters are goofy as are the monsters. Then again, medieval
fantasy by necessity is inherently ridiculous anyway. But, that’s what I like
about it. Again, the main cast of characters is just a step up from being caricatures.
However, the humor more than makes up for the deficiencies in character or plot
in this OVA.
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| One of many chibi moments (kawaii xD) |
Finally, this OVA is cheap looking yet charming. Even on the DVD that I
watched this on, it still looks cheap. The animation also has a tendency to
shift from semi-competent animation to full-blown chibi/SD and then back again,
even within seconds. Yet, it has a certain endearing charm to it. It’s like the
production team was like ‘Well, we only got 2 episodes and the budget of next
to Nil, but dang it we will make it fun and entertaining’. This applies to the
ending song nicely. It is a wacky adaptation of Beethoven’s Ninth, written by
Kohei Tanaka (really amusing), with completely nonsensical song lyrics of
course.
On a final note, the dub is pretty fecking hilarious. Granted, it is
another 90s ADV dub, featuring Jessica Calvello, Amanda Winn Lee, Aaron Krohn,
etc. The English dub goes above and beyond with the humor that is in the
original Japanese.
This leads into the only real downside: There are only the 2 episodes
of this series animated. Originally, it was slated to be a 4 episode OVA but
since the first 2 episodes bombed in Japan upon original release, the other 2
never got made. ADV Films bought the license and distributed it, where it has
gained quite a cult following in the anime community. They were hoping of
continuing the series, but that got dragged into production hell. Now, since
ADV went under, I doubt that will ever happen.
That is quite frankly a shame. I once showed this OVA at the local
anime club meeting a few months ago. The other members were laughing their
pants off, as was I (and I’ve seen it before). Then the end of the second
episode came, and some of them asked me “Is that it?” and I replied flatly, “Sadly
yes.” Granted, there is still the manga which is lurking on the web somewhere I’m
sure.
In short, Dragon Half is funny and hilarious, yet cheap looking and too
short. If you got a hour to kill, then this is a suitable use of that time I’m
sure. If you like wacky fantasy anime, then you’ll enjoy it a lot. Well worth
the look.
Next Up:
Christmas Special (TBA), released on Wednesday December 26 2012
Laterz
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