Blue Dragon, Volume 1

Joseph Luster October 15, 2008

Blue Dragon was a really enjoyable game, but it’s understandable that reviewers were a little caught up in all of its traditional RPG trappings. The constant (that can’t be emphasized enough) battles alone were enough to drive a man bonkers, and although they weren’t random, they might as well have been. What Blue Dragon really excelled at was the creation of its world and the endearing characters that populated it, and the Blue Dragon anime does an admirable job of conveying these aspects to its young audience in a new way.

Which immediately brings us to one of the interesting things about this version of Blue Dragon: the way it veers from the story of the game. While we’re still introduced to the same principle players, everything from the way they meet to the way their powers are introduced is completely different. For the most part, this is a good thing. After all, watching an animated adaptation of something you’ve already read or played can seem more or less pointless if it rigidly follows the established order of events.

In the anime, Shu runs into Zola and her traveling companion, Jiro, while hoping to find the Knight Master that’s rumored to be passing through his village. He quickly learns that there’s more to these two than meets the eye, and gets an eyeful of their shadow power after the village falls under attack. This power summons forth massive shadow monsters that fight in unison with their host. Zola’s is a killer bat, Jiro’s is a bull, and, as he’s about to find out, Shu’s is the titular Blue Dragon.

Once the heat of battle forces Shu to unleash this power he never knew he had, it quickly rages out of control, thrashing the enemy while Shu flies along behind it, attached to the shadow by the feet and screaming in terror. After everything settles down, Zola and Jiro reveal that the Blue Dragon was exactly what they’ve been searching for and, after some hero-on-the-cusp whining, Shu joins them on their journey to stop the nefarious Nene and his Grankingdom from world domination.

The rest of the first volume covers the initial leg of their journey. Shu and Jiro develop a major training rivalry that only serves to make them both stronger, they meet the tiny but loud Marumaro, and their foes become a bit more intimidating as Shu continues to struggle with the control of Blue Dragon. While this take on the adventure isn’t quite as potent or sprawling as the game’s, it’s a refreshing alternate look at a pretty varied cast of characters and the powers that make the IP tick. Things should pick up even more in the following volumes as we get more face time with Nene and his evil minions.

What really helps sell it all are the designs by Akira Toriyama. While they don’t carry over to ancillary characters as well as something like Dragon Ball—where every single farmhand and citizen looked very “Toriyama”—they’ve still got that magical flair to them that makes them memorable. Even with Toriyama’s tendency to swap hairstyles around on different faces (Shu basically sports a Chrono Trigger ‘do with a ponytail), it’s as successful here as it was in the game.

Though Toonami recently experienced its broadcast death knell, you can still check Blue Dragon out on Toonami Jetstream, I believe, and it’s a much better kids show than 90% of the stuff out there. Shu’s voice can get kind of annoying sometimes, but the dubbing is pretty decent otherwise, and there’s no card battling or endless monster collection to speak of: just an adventurous quest against evil that’s off to a pretty spirited start. If kids can stomach the American theme song, which I’m pretty sure is trying to outdo everything before it in the purely generic Saturday morning department, then we should be seeing a lot more of Shu over here.

Studio/Company: Viz Media (vizkids)
Available: Now
Rating: A (All Ages)