Dragon's Dogma

I thought this anime was brilliant. It was very entertaining and each episode had a moral philosophical meaning embedded within it. I found the story very profound and the overall message that if we as human beings do not operate out of love we will succumb to our desires. If we stop using our hearts and allow our worldly desires to consume us, we become the very same monsters that we detest.

Overall, it is a short entertaining anime series with a fair amount of wisdom contained within it. I definitely recommend watching it and hope there is a second series. I almost did not watch it because when I checked the reviews they were fairly low. It was good enough to warrant me making an IMDB account in order to provide it with a more respectable rating.

I'll preface by saying I'm a huge fan of the game, and I cannot help but approach the show in a manner that reflects that bias.

Dragon's Dogma, the game that is, is classical kind of fantasy. Adventurer's home is besieged by a dragon, he goes on a mission to slay it and many more monsters along the way, save his love, etc. Kind of boiler plate plot wise but lifted up by some interesting characters, fantastic dialogue, cool lore, and second to none gameplay.

When I heard of the show I was... skeptical, but hopeful that they could capture the mostly upbeat action romp adventure the game was. I was disappointed in that way. Besides the titular Dragon, there were absolutely 0 characters which made it to the show from the game. The Netflix adaptation of Dragon's Dogma takes itself far too seriously. Where there were once silly asides of being paraded around in a jester's cap, there's now a protagonist fueled by rage and brooding. In all honesty Ethan seems like the sort of character a 15 year old would role play in his D&D game. I know because I did the same thing. With such little resemblance it's a wonder why it bares the same name at all, it may as well just be called "Dragon Slayer."

For a show with several seasons planned apparently it also has a serious problem of telling, not showing, it's plot to you. Ethan's tragic backstory eluded to in a couple of glimpses but is ultimately told to the audience by some unnamed kids. The show attempts to provide an ending to the first season with some kind of philosophical malarkey about 'human nature' and the various sins for which the episodes are named after, but it comes across as extraordinarily forced and just plain nonsensical.

More minor complaints include the fact than several monster's models, including the dragon itself, are not textured very well at all. In fact they may have looked better just being copied and pasted from the game itself. Lighting is lacking, and many animations are stiff and floaty, very much unlike other cg animations like Beastars.

Unfortunately it turned out to be a show based on a great story, but not capturing the spirit of it at all, and I can't imagine people seeing it as anything more than your average power-fantasy.

Animation is very slow, like watching a movie in slow motion. So i suppose they simply slow down the CGI to get 32 minutes per episode but render only 16 minutes. This technique is very old and used for lousy productions. It is very lame, and you can clearly count each frame sometimes.

The story, the dialogue, the characters ... are pfffff forgettable at best.

And the most important: D.R.A.G.O.N.S Dogma DRRRAAGGGOONNNNS You know what ? It is the most horrible, awful animated, ugliest dragon i ever seen -_- How is that possible to give us something like that when you get so many incredible dragons this last years in Game of thrones or Lord of the Rings ... My god, a correct dragon in 3d cost at most 600 $ GODDAM IT and looks like Game of Throne in real time !

And the animation... sometimes it is very good! MOST of the time looks like automate. In 2020 this is very bad. The rendering (aspect, pictures) is good, but sometimes and 100% when a dragon is on screen it is very very bad. The colors do not even match the backgrounds. Seriously guys ... i can do better by myself !!

Hey NETFLIX, put your money into The old Guards II or Castlevania, but please forget this awful thing. Total waste of money for you, total waste of time for me.

BAD animated TV show.

Between the style changes (between 2D and 3D animation) throughout the series and the bad monster 3D models, it's hard to believe Capcom green light this for even the seven episodes it had.

This is a fan fiction at its worst.

Just play the game, it has a plot.

Preface: 7 out of 7 episodes watched.

Dragons Dogma Dark Arisen video game that this show is based off of never had a fantastic story. It was always ambiguous and that added to some of the atmosphere. It is interesting to try and base an anime off of the super ambiguous story that is DDDA.

While most action scenes are rather successful, the show likes to add some amount of shock value. While some shock is welcome and spices up a good story, some of these shocks seems out of place and unnecessary in an attempt to be edgy.

The aesthetic of the CGI is pretty distracting. While I can get used to the animation of the main character and pawn, the side characters are at times laughable and a major distraction from the show. A traditional 2D style of animating would have done wonders for the feel and emotional portrayals of side characters. While the CGI of the monsters remains distracting, the motion of the actions during fights does feel well enough done.

Most characters besides the pawn (Who is devoid of all emotion) tick me right off with their logic. I found myself having difficulty connecting to any of the characters or understanding any of their decisions.

TLDR: Action is good. Non-action is not good.