After the success of their first video game adaptation, Castlevania, Netflix has ordered a litany of other game related shows. Technically, Dragon’s Dogma is the third after the live action adaptation of The Witcher although that is more in line with the books.
The point is video games are here to stay with Netflix and there is plenty to come including Resident Evil, Splinter Cell, and maybe even The Legend of Zelda. Other companies are hopping on board too. So, how did this adaptation of the 2012 game go? Was it as good as Castlevania or did it suffer more problems in the anime conversion process? As a note of caution, there will be spoilers.
10 Best: Stays Close To The Game
One of the best things about the anime is that it doesn’t screw with the game. Sure, it leaves some pretty basic things out. Pawns aren’t really discussed even though everyone readily knows about them.That said, the original game didn’t have a lot of story to begin with. It was more about lore so in away this was the perfect video game to adapt into an anime.
9 Worst: Animation
The anime itself, in terms of literal animation, leaves something to be desired. It is certainly not the worst looking CD cel-shaded hybrid out there. The early 2000s were rough with them. It is far from the best, though. A recent anime that actually did this better was Dorohedoro, which also a Netflix exclusive.
8 Best: Action Choreography
Even though the CG animation can look rough, or more like stiff at times, the animators pulled out all the stops for the action choreography. Some of these battles have some truly breathtaking imagery in them.
Not to beat a dead horse (or in this case a dead dragon), it doesn’t look as good as a 2D anime, but it gets the job done. One of the most noteworthy battles was in episode three against the Cyclops.
7 Worst: Not Much Room For Character Growth
The battles do look cool, but it would have been nicer if the anime spent more time developing its characters. Most episodes have a setup wherein Ethan and Hannah get into a new situation and then deal with it usually a gruesome way. And these are like smash cuts from episode to episode. There are no repeaters either except one duo later on, but more on them later.
6 Best: Monster Greatest Hits
This coincides with the battles, but if one was crossing their fingers to see some of the best monster fights translated from the game to the anime, uncross those fingers because that is exactly what this anime did. Even smaller enemies like the Griffin gets a proper sendoff. Watching these Shadow of the Colossus like fights will never be as exciting as playing them. The anime comes close at least in paying tribute to Dragon’s Dogma.
5 Worst: Retreading The Same Ground
As it was hinted at earlier, two characters do come back later on in the anime: Simon and Balthazar. Most of the episode has them behave the same, but then at the end, Balthazar’s makes an unscripted left turn. This is in episode five and it is not the first time these character twists come out of nowhere. It’s one of many plot lines rehashed. The anime seemingly wanted to show the worst traits of humanity and be grim for grim’s sake.
4 Best: The Seven Deadly Sins Theming
Speaking of the the worst traits of humanity, that really is the theming of season one. Every episode is both named after, and follows, the Seven Deadly Sins. This has nothing to do with the games, but the inclusion did not seem out of left field. It was a nice little setup that unfortunately had some poor writing associated with its characters. As a theming device though, kudos.
3 Worst: Episode Six
Episode six feels like pointless filler. It is demonstratively shorter than any other episode at just over nineteen minutes. The rest of the episodes average about twenty-seven minutes. Hannah makes them stay at an Inn because Ethan is tired.
Ethan sleeps, wakes up in a Succubus plot, sees his dead wife, snaps out of it, kills the demon, end of the episode. It leads nowhere and doesn’t reveal anything either except some brief facts about how Olivia and Ethan met.
2 Best: Music
Will this soundtrack make it on the top ten anime soundtracks of the year? Probably not, but it is a nice accompaniment to everything in the show. From the epic battles to the more touching moments, the music gets viewers in the right mood even if things aren’t making sense with some of those worse than ideal character twists. If there is one gripe to be made, the anime should have either featured a new song from B'z or had “Into Free” be the theme song like the game. That track is one of the best.
1 Worst: Anticlimactic Ending
Character development be darned because this whole thing was all leading up to a giant dragon battle. That’s what people wanted to at least see paid off, right? Well, it’s sort of anticlimactic. The dragon pretty much takes a dive. How? Let’s not spoil it here even though some other stuff was already spoiled. The point is there was a lot of time that could have been spent fleshing out the story. They even had an extra episode, but the payoff just wasn’t worth it and might leave fans shrugging if they should even care if there will be a second season.