Slowpoknnnnging and Muppets

So I started watching Dragon Crisis the other day and good lord... my heart wasn't ready.  I was not in the least prepared for the most hnnnnnng Rie role I've ever seen, which contrary to Rie's usual typecasting is fully deredere from first appearance.  It's incredibly - dare I say it... cute.

In spite of the somewhat negative reputation the show has I'm really enjoying it, it'll take a lot to really destroy that enjoyment for me. I'm hoping it's just a marmite series which people either love or hate and not one with a bad ending as can sometimes be the case.

Anyway, some info about the show: a schoolboy by the name of Ryuuji steals some magical treasure from yakuza, which he accidentally opens it up to discover Rose (Kugimiya) a dragon which takes the form of a cute girl.  As stated above, she is deredere from the very second she appears and is quick to proclaim her love for the MC (reasons for which are explained as the show goes on, but honestly you shouldn't care - hearing Rie say "Ryuuji Ryuuji, ski ski ski" is a miracle of the universe).  Perhaps I should also mention that Rose is pretty badass, she can tear things up with relative ease thanks to her magical dragon powers; the MC also has some latent magical powers, but I should say no more for fear of giving away spoilers.

HNFFFNFFNFNF

Prior to watching Dragon Crisis I was expecting it to be a generic harem with magical elements, but having seen a few episodes I'm glad to say that isn't the case.  Indeed there is a harem but it all takes back seat to Rose (who is pretty much the only love interest) whilst the story presents an interesting mix of action and comedy - I guess you could say there are many parallels to To aru Majutsu no Index.  The story isn't ground breaking, but it's fun.  It's not often you can honestly say that something is just that.

I'm only watching the series on my DS (the whole reason I picked it up was that it was one of the few series available in DS MPEG) but I can safely say the animation is fantastic: characters move smoothly, fight scenes are nicely animated with plenty of things going on.  Of course since I'm watching this on my DS I don't have any screendumps (the ones in this article are all google'd ones).

So there you go, my thoughts on Dragon Crisis.  If you haven't seen already it's worth watching the first two episodes to decide whether or not you'll like it.


On to my next topic then: The Muppets.  I went to see the new Muppet film the other day in the cinema, and it was pretty decent - much better than that last crap film they did about the Wizard of Oz.

The film starts out with that fat guy from How I met your Mother (prepare for cameos from fellow cast members) who does a great job of playing up the role of an innocent adult in a kids film, which is a nice return to the classic Muppet formula (recent films had resorted to pointless airheaded celebrity insertion).  Most importantly he has a good singing voice and sings some fantastic songs, which as always are a hugely important part of Muppet fare - get it wrong and you get a mess like... that Wizard of Oz one.  There's also enough humour to keep the musical pieces going, it was pretty amusing to see them quickly sweep aside what would otherwise be cumbersome aspects with visual humour.

Long story short, this is basically a Muppet version of the Blues Brothers with Muppets playing an extended role of missing cast characters.  It's a pretty simple and perhaps derivative story, but pleasantly there enough Muppety things going on to distract from that - essentially the story proper is just a loose framework to set up Muppet Show type scenarios.  Waldorf & Statler, Gonzo doing stunts, humiliating a celebrity multiple times, and other such elements from the classic TV series are all there.

There's something pleasantly nostalgic about the film - it harks back to an age when anarchic but innocent humour were the way to go, and brings back a pleasant cast of uncorruptable characters.  Since it is a trip in nostalgia, it certainly isn't going to appeal to anyone who isn't already familiar with The Muppets (which probably explains why everyone in the cinema were adults), sadly nowadays I guess The Muppets are sadly being overshadowed by those obnoxious and vacuous 3D CGI films which get churned out in depressingly high volume.