I got tired of waiting so I downloaded a raw and got my framegrabs that way.

I got used to associating Koyasu's voice with bad guys, though I think that probably isn't fair. That's why I was kind of shocked by his character in Dog Days, which has no bad guys. And, come to think of it, he wasn't a bad guy in Princess Lover, though I suspect I was supposed to think he was.

Anyway, in Seikoku no Dragonar he definitely is a bad guy, as this episode proves. It also provided us with a bunch of exposition, nicely disguised.

Seems that dragons can promote and become more powerful. How many levels there might be isn't clear, but there is one called "Maestro", and a dragon at that level can promote its master to "Archdragonar" by creating a magical suit of armor and giving it to the master.

The princess's dragon is named Lancelot and it's a Maestro (which, apparently, is why it can fly) but she hasn't received any armor yet. Rebecca, the student body president, is an archdragonar. Ash becomes one in this episode, but what that means about Eco isn't at all clear, because she still looks like a loli.

Anyway, in this episode Koyasu, who is an agent of a different country, uses some sort of technomagic to summon up a zombie dragon and set it on the town. Our harem responds.

Eco steps forward and cusses it out, and gets tentacled. (Sheesh) And her clothes start dissolving. (Sheesh again.)

Rebecca becomes a super saiyajin and tries to destroy it, but it doesn't work. She takes its head off, but it regrows.

The princess has been in shock ever since seeing the zombie. Ash slaps her and gets her moving, and she summons Lancelot (her dragon).

Eco is still being tentacled, and by this point all her clothes are gone. Good thing dragons don't care, isn't it?

And then she gets pulled inside the zombie. Oops. Except that doesn't seem to be where she ends up. Instead she's in some sort of dragon hyperspace, and Navi is there to help her. Navi is the sexy babe who was visiting Ash in his wet dreams before Eco showed up, and she says that her job is to train Eco. And right now what's needed is for Eco to create magic armor for Ash and to present it to him. It is something only a Maestro can do, and it has to be special-designed for the dragonar. We are told. ("As you know, Jim...")

Ash has the unique ability to ride any dragon, but it didn't work on the zombie when he tried it. However, with the power of the armor, he succeeds, and is able to talk to the zombie. It asks him to destroy it. And he summons up a great sword and does so.

And so on.

And at the end Rebecca recruits Ash and the Princess to become part of the Student Council.

For an action scene it wasn't bad. Emotionally satisfying. But I fear it's going to be an exception, and next ep I bet we go back to harem hijinks.

What I want: exploration of the entire business of dragons and their relationships to dragonars. (And some idea of why Eco isn't dragon-shaped, and what that means. And why she's a lot more intelligent than any other dragon.)

What I'm going to get: a loli tsundere beating the crap out of Ash because he's hanging around with a blonde and a redhead, both of whom have big tits.

Or maybe not, because the next-ep teaser promises more action.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 07:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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