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skysenshi (11.03.2002)
Need Dragon Knight? Just play the game...
This anime is based on the bishoujo
RPG of the same title that was released by ELF. Just a
minor warning for those of you who intend to play the game:
this anime contains a major spoiler that is considered one
of the game's biggest twists.
Unlike the game, whose point of view is that of Kakeru's,
Dragon Knight 4 the anime is done in the point of view of
the mysterious knight Edo. His identity is already known within
5 minutes of show time, which really leaves nothing else if
you're expecting to be surprised by more plot twists. The
story has a lot of potential as it has elements such as time
travel, cursed dark fog, betrayal of comrades and what have
you. Unfortunately, whoever wrote the script didn't seem to
know what direction he's supposed to go into.
The dark fog that turned people to stone was never explained.
The head villain's purpose was vague at best. You don't even
understand why he's after Kakeru. What's really confusing
of all is that in the first part, Maureene specifically asked
Kakeru to make sure that Natasha, Kakeru's childhood sweetheart,
must also remain alive. Truth be told, I don't really know
what the significance of that request is, as Natasha did little
else other than be decorative. You can actually kill her and
it wouldn't have affected the flow of the story at all.
There were so many characters introduced into the anime,
but they're also dead in a matter of minutes. It sort of reminds
me of X the Movie (See Otaku Fridge for reference), where you never really get to sympathize
with the characters when they die because you never really
got to know them. You only know that they're there to be eye
candy and to serve their obvious purpose in a hentai production.
Edo, lucky bast that he is, gets to sleep with the women,
which usually results in the digression of the plot. See,
without these virtually useless sex scenes—I say "useless"
because they don't even show the vital body parts—the
writers might have been able to concentrate on making a stronger
storyline. Basically, with too many characters and too many
detours, you have one heck of an anime that has been spread
too thin.
It's really too bad because I think Kakeru is a pretty good
character. He isn't as sexually depraved, or as immature,
as his father Takeru (of Dragon
Knight 3 fame) and he does make good use of his gray matter.
I find the ending quite amusing, though, because Edo has taken
advantage of so many women that when it's time for him to
go back to where he came from, all the ladies expect him to
marry them (or something of that sort). Tsk tsk.
Dragon Knight 4 doesn't really elicit any positive response
from me, except probably when it comes to the beautiful art
and animation. The sounds are passable. If you're really looking
for something with more depth or if you have been a fan of
Dragon Knight for ages, I would recommend you either play
the game or watch the earlier
animated installments.
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