Seikoku no Dragonar

As a general rule, I try to find more than one good show each season, so I check the schedule, pick anywhere from three to five shows to watch, and check them out when I get the chance.

...I think I've pretty much described what practically everyone does, but whatever, it's a workable segue.

Other than Captain Earth, I have a couple shows that I want to look into this season, one of which being Seikoku no Dragonar.

Seikoku no Dragonar is the anime adaptation of the light novel/manga series by Shiki Mizuchi and it's about war, dragons, magic, school life and harems.  The light novels are 14 volumes strong and still ongoing while the manga is 4 volumes in (also ongoing).  Dragons are, by and large, cool, so this show seemed pretty promising.

So let's talk about episode one.

The show starts with a scene of two unconscious children and what I can only assume is some kind of dragon goddess.  There was an accident of some sort and the boy (one Ash Blake) is missing an entire arm.  The dragon goddess takes pity on him and works her magic, makes everything alright, and then roll opening.

pay attention to the girl, she's important

A pretty solid start, could be interesting.

We then follow Ash into a dark dreamworld where he is paralyzed and gets systematically molested by a dragon woman.

"...with my mouth".  I shit you not, people, that was the next line

...wait, what?  WHAT?  [inarticulate confused frustration]!  The synopsis didn't say anything about this shit.  I was promised a wholesome show about a boy and his dragon...girlfriend (?), not this uncomfortable, clumsy attempt at softcore porn!

Whatever, let's move on.  This only happens twice in the episode, and as far as I can deduce there won't be any more.  There's still going to be sick as heck dragons and cool stuff to look forward to.

...Oh.

So yeah...it looks like most of the dragons are...actually scaly horses.  Okay, I can work with it.  Besides, there are some winged dragons, so maybe they can change modes or something.

Anyways, Ash goes to his dragon school where people look down on him because, though he has the brand of a dragon rider, his own personal dragon never appeared.  While at school a new student shows up, the fourth princess of their country.  She's pretty uptight, isn't a fan of Ash and rides a white flying dragon named Lancelot.

See?  Told you she was important

They get off on the wrong foot, she bets Ash that she'll beat him in the upcoming dragon race (he borrows his friend's dragon) and then it's race time.

Racey racey plot plot, Ash stumbles across some ruined war craft, meets a masked man who uses his real name and the most flashily dressed ninja I have ever seen.

Like...where is she planning on hiding?  The Gryffindor common room?  Fuck!  Anyways, in the scuffle Ash falls off a cliff and his dragon finally emerges and saves him.  Except, instead of a dragon--scaled horse, badass winged, or otherwise--it's a girl.  And the episode ends.

I'm not saying this show was awful, but I really don't think I'll be watching any more.  Based on the first episode, I wouldn't recommend it.  You could do a lot worse than watching this show...you could be smoking crack or something.

I think your time would be better spent watching or rewatching Sword Art Online.

call me unprofessional, but I just...can't stress enough how much better this show was.