Trip Report: The Tower of Druaga
So it seems my reintroduction into anime would start sooner than I anticipated, and the show would be very recent rather than the retro shows I was expecting to catch up on. After I posted the thread in particular about my aims at reviving my anime fan-itude, I noticed that my friend Audra had posted the first episode of a show called The Tower of Druaga: the Aegis of Uruk. The name sounded familiar to me for some reason. I must have skimmed over it while looking at a list of this season’s up-and-coming shows during my search for something to watch. What I found neat was that the studio producing the show, GONZO, is legally releasing episodes online simultaneously with their Japanese airing, complete with English subtitles. You can access them on YouTube or stream some better quality feeds off of Crunchyroll. I find this concept absolutely awesome. It seems like a great way to spread word about the show without working out a TV broadcasting deal and hopefully drum up some DVD sales for those concerned with compression, especially since GONZO produces some really beautiful animation.
The great thing is that this particular show is actually based on a video game. The Tower of Druaga was released by Namco in 1984 for Japanese arcades. It was a big hit over there but not well received over here. This is what it looked like (pictured left). Basically the game consists of a 60-floor tower with pre-determined maze layouts, but randomized keys and items. The player, Gil(gamesh), must find the Blue Crystal Rod, reach the top floor, defeat the demon Druaga, and rescue the maiden. Pretty straight forward hero stuff. The game has lead to many sequels and ports, which leads us to today.
GONZO is currently heading a cross-media promotion with this anime and their recently launched The Tower of Duraga ~ the Recovery of BABYLIM MMO. I’m not sure about any release of the game for the States as of yet, but with Gonzo freely promoting the anime in English I would not be surprised to hear about it down the road.
The show itself is actually quite wonderful. It is foremost a parody- and a hilarious parody at that. Especially the first episode. Any RPG/game cliche you can think of is present; most watchers who are familiar with the genre will notice them. I was laughing aloud quite a few times. Once the first episode comes to a close the true situation and tone of the show becomes clear, but that doesn’t stop later episodes from being just a tongue-in-cheek. So far I find this approach way better than any of the other too-serious game-related animes I’ve seen in the past; i.e. .hack and Ragnarok the Animation. The setting also reminds me a lot of Etrian Odyssey because of how the designated explorers go about exploring the massive dungeon.
Even the opening sequence is a parody in and of itself, showing all of the main characters as if they were taking part in a school drama-dy- which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot at all. It could possibly even be a throwback to GONZO’s popular Full Metal Panic!. And I find the ska-like song addictive.
I found a review of the first episode on an anime blog- though I don’t agree with the guy’s overly-critical stance on the parody aspect the review includes some nice images and will give a general idea of what is going on in the show if you would like more information. I also find it interesting that as of Saturday night (when I was powering through the episodes) The Tower of Druaga didn’t have a thread on SA, hence my not considering it in my quest for what to watch, but one appeared today just as I was about to resort to making one. So it seems word is getting out, which could be good in regards to the possible MMO tie-in. I’d at least give the MMO a shot. Because of watching this I just ordered the PS2 game, Nightmare of Druaga: Fushigi no Dungeon for super-cheap from Amazon because I’m a big fan of Chunsoft and their Fushigi no Dungeon games; I was pleased to find one for Druaga existed.Six episodes have been released so far since its premiere last month, with more coming each week. I definitely plan on keeping up with this one.
Originally published at glitzy bad. You can comment here or there.