ドラゴンズヘブン

DRAGON'S HEAVEN

OVA

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
1
RELEASE
February 25, 1988
LENGTH
43 min

DESCRIPTION

In the year 3195, there was a war between an army of robots and the humans. When Shaian, a sentient combat armor, lost his companion in battle, he shut down until his internal systems spotted a new human. It's now almost a 1000 years later, and Shaian's greatest enemy is still alive and doing battle in Brazil. With a new friend`s help, Shaian may be able to stop this evil force before another war rages over the continent.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

Ikuuru
Yuuko Minaguchi
Shaian
Iemasa Kayumi
Elmedain
Kei Tomiyama
Orionis
Daisuke Gouri

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | |

Not available on crunchyroll

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REVIEWS

arvin30p
80/100
An OVA that lacks in the story department, has more than enough animation prowess to make you say wow.
Have you ever seen an anime that has style and art but lacked substance? Surely you have but... but have you ever seen an anime where art and the style triumphs despite the lack of a very solid story? I am sure there are some out there but this time around, let me tell you an experience I didn't think I would even document.

Dragon's Heaven OVA starts off where our main protagonist, a sentient robot that is in the middle of the war. His partner, or rather the pilot that works in tandem with him has just been killed a with such, the protagonist decided to stay behind and hibernate since his fellows started to retreat as the war is nearing it's end. A thousand years after the war, he woke up from his slumber after detecting life in the form of a female human.

Right away, they got to know one another; albeit weirdly to my standards. And he asks about the existence of his nemesis since he knew that he should be alive at this moment. The female companion didn't know if she knew that said robot but she did heard that the name of the general of a very strong force bears similarities to him and such, our protagonist hypothesizes that he must be the enemy he is looking for.

The next day, our protagonist robot asked the female companion if she has learned everything about him and as much, she replied that she does since she came from a family that does handle machine work. Later that night, they were greeted by the enemy force who were about to destroy the nation where they reside and our MC and the female companion decided to intercept them which resulted to them winning the battle without much any resistance. Our MC however got damaged during that engagement.

The next day, his arch-nemesis arrived but was intercepted by the female companion which resulted in a large scale damage of the enemy fleet. She was now equipped with a power armor to suite with the fighting style of our robot protagonist. Surprisingly, the enemy survives and tries to negotiate with the female companion to give him the weapon that destroyed their fleet but she refuses as she blows them all up to pieces.

The robot MC arrives as he received the distress signal from his female companion and then, they had a one-on-one showdown with his long-time enemy and in the end, he won the fight while sustaining moderate damage (or light since there wasn't much any dent from him anyways).

In the end, both the robot and his female companion goes back to the city.
.

Dragon's heaven certainly has suffer from a terrible fate of being badly written. The robot MC was made to be piloted by a human and such it's potential can be reached if he had a partner to work with but likewise, in the end; he defeated his nemesis by just shooting at him making his statement unnecessary in the end.

Likewise, The concept and the designs of the robots themselves are quite amazing and spectacular. The animation quality is totally something that modern studios cannot replicate at this day and age given how consistent the art is (asides from the changing hair color of the female companion).

This show, which has been elevated itself to the realms of anime that looks good but does lack in the story department. but likewise, imagine if they got a competent writer who can make it work? this would be a rather exquisite work of art.

Likewise, while I am the type of reviewer who heavily weighs my score more on story rather than the art, This one says otherwise as the premise itself is not too bad, the execution is just a bit bad at worst. You can say that this show is a product of someone's overly passionate love for building robots.

You can watch the OVA in Youtube.

You can also blame Kenny Lauderdale for making me watch this, but I am thankful for this nice recommendation.

Score: 8/10
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thereviewheap
75/100
I think it’s worth seeing at least once – mostly for the art design and animation
Dragon’s Heaven (1988)

Two things about the Dragon’s Heaven OVA stand out most, I think – first being the live-action, scale-model opening, and the second being the Moebius-influenced style of manga artist Makoto Kobayashi, upon whose work this OVA is based.

As usual, I can’t discuss the quality of this anime as an adaptation, but the story is a straight-forward war story told very quickly, with a lot of action and attention paid to the robots.

What caught my eye most was definitely visual style, with the anime’s designs right after. That isn’t to say that the characters don’t work, but with only 20-odd minutes of animation, the time is mostly spent on scene-setting and battles. There are a few passages devoted to dialogue, ones that function beyond exposition, but for the most part I think Dragon’s Heaven excels at the visuals. (As many OVAs can).

Above, I do mention “battles” but they’re usually a little short – you could say that some are pretty much explosions because the ‘dragon’s fire’ that main characters Shaian and Ikuuru use is really mammoth stuff.

Speaking of Ikuuru, she reminded me of a more snarky Nausicaa in some ways, but like her partner, she doesn’t have a character arc or a whole lot of impact beyond the confines of the plot.

While the detail and care that has gone into the models at the beginning of the OVA is very clear, I don’t know if Dragon’s Heaven would have suffered without it. On the other hand, that’s part of what’s so fun about the era – creators seemed more able to just try stuff out.

And finally, it’s interesting to have a largely non-human cast, and both hero Shaian and villain Elmedain have designs that seem unlike a lot of other robot-focused anime, but I think you might be disappointed if you seek this OVA out hoping for a multi-faceted story.

Instead, I think it’s worth seeing at least once anyway – just for the art design and animation alone, and I definitely add this to my list of anime where I wish there had been more.

4 Stars

So, apparently this review was too short until I added the useless paragraph that you're reading right now!

Okay, that's not enough either - here's some more:

An OVA can be:
- An animated film or series made for release on video, rather than for broadcast/theatrical screening
- Generally, high budgets that can mean visual qualities are better than a typical television series
- No fixed length, nor broadcast time-constraints when it comes to storytelling
- To some extent, created outside regulation – and so they have a reputation for ‘anything goes’ when it comes to restricted content
- Often (but certainly not always) based on original scripts, rather than being adaptations
- Long wait times between episodes/installments for some OVAs
- First OVA to be described as such was 1983’s Dallos from Mamoru Oshii
- The ONA (Original Net Animation) is an obvious more modern equivalent
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