DVD Corner

The Tower Of Druaga: The Aegis Of Uruk DVD Review

The comedic moments of “The Tower Of Druaga” hampers the series.

GRADE:

CONTENT: C+

PICTURE: B+

AUDIO: B+

EXTRAS: C+

THE SERIES

 “The Tower Of Druaga” revolves around Jil, a young man whose goal is to defeat the dark God Druaga. In this 12 episode anime series, Jil and his companions Kaaya, Ahmey, Melt, and Coopa must help protect people, escape and survive traps, and battle creatures, a dragon, and eventually, Druaga. On top of that, Jil hopes to find the much sought after treasure called the Blue Crystal Rod. ‘Druaga’ is based on an arcade game of the same name.

Coming into ‘Druaga,’ I was expecting an action-packed fantasy series. While it is an action-packed fantasy series, there is an unexpected comedic element to the series. To be quite honest, the comedic tone feels really out of place here. If you look at the plot, it looks like a typical, serious video game fantasy quest tale. However, the story turns out to be very goofy and filled with pop culture references (such as “Star Wars”), sexual innuendos, jokes about death, references to the original arcade game, and even freeze frame subtitled introductions to characters. The comedy personally took me out of the story because it comes off as a distraction (even if the series is meant to be a parody).

Now, I’m not saying the show is a complete wash. While repetitive at times, the series does have an engaging storyline and the writers manage to throw in a few surprising moments at you like the death of a major character and an intriguing cliffhanger ending in episode 12. To me, ‘Druaga’ is definitely at its best when it’s more serious.

Another positive element, as I previously mentioned, is the action. Action fans will no doubt fall in love with the sword fights and the various battles the main characters engage in.

PICTURE AND AUDIO:

The widescreen picture quality is fairly sharp looking (especially the environments and character models).

“Tower Of Druaga” contains both an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track and a Japanese Stereo track.  The English track contains a lot of annoying (and exaggerated) voice work, so I would recommend playing the Japanese track instead.

EXTRAS:

* Trailers for “Dragonaut,” “Dragonball,” “Evangelion 1.01,” “One Piece,” “Bamboo Blade,” “Nabari No Ou,” “Dragon Ball Z,” “Spice And Wolf,” and “El Cazador de la Bruja.”
* An annoying episode 5 commentary by two voice actors and a voice actress for the English dub. The three just chatter on and on about random topics.
* Textless opening and closing songs.
* “A Tale Told Twice: An Alternate Look At Episode 1: The Quest Of Jil”- An alternate cut of the first episode. 

http://www.amazon.com/Tower-Druaga-Part-Aegis-Uruk/dp/B002MXZYH2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1258156595&sr=1-1

November 13, 2009 - Posted by nicklyons1 | 1 | The Tower Of Druaga: The Aegis Of Uruk DVD Review