(L) Dragonaut ~ The Resonance

[Guido]

A website has recently opened for Dragonaut. This is another GONZO title to premier on October 2007.

[Cai Calamigarde]

looks cool

[aardvark]

The Staff for anyone who cares:

Original Concept: Jun Maekawa
Director: Manabu Ono
Character design: Uno Makoto
Animation Director: Tadashi Sakazaki
Design work: Junya Ishigaki
Animation production: Gonzo

Notably, the animation director has done animation on Mamoru Hosoda's Digimon and One Piece films

[Kaioshin Sama]

It's GONZO. Cry, Sadness, Cry, Sadness, Cry, Sadness. Insert clever jab without explaining the problem. Oh right the whole animation fluctuation thing....hmmmm, oh well.

Um, looks, hey what is this show about by the way? Any info, is it based on a book, a manga, original, shounen, shoujo, seinen, action, comedy?

[MrProphet]

Sorry, but this whole "GONZO does bad animation" is complete bullcrap.

I'm not really looking forward to this (nothing to interest me so far except for Makoto Uno's designs), but I am not as foolish as to simply discount it because it's made by GONZO. On the contrary...

[Nightengale]

The designs look like they came out of Muhyo.

Other than it being set in space, and the Dragon looking pseudo-mecha, meh.

Besides, a Jun Maekawa concept? Cheese. I'll admit to be a crack for some of the things he's worked on in the past, namely YGO/GX and those non-manga TeniPuri crack, but those are mostly guilty pleasures at best.

[7Th]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

Sorry, but this whole "GONZO does bad animation" is complete bullcrap.

I'm not really looking forward to this (nothing to interest me so far except for Makoto Uno's designs), but I am not as foolish as to simply discount it because it's made by GONZO. On the contrary...

Well, in TV series only Kaleido Star and Gankutsuou have maintained a decent quality although it's not like most other studios are much better to be honest pretty much everyone tend to have only a few well-produced series, maybe Bones but even they go outsouce crazy at times.

[Kaoru Chujo]

It has what looks to me like a good cast: Ono Daisuke, Mizuki Nana, Chihara Minori, Gotou Yuuko, Sawashiro Miyuki.... But the only thing the director is said in ANN to have directed is Transformers:Cybertron. He directed and storyboarded episodes of Mai-HiME and storyboarded one ep of FMP.

It appears to be original, since Maekawa Jun is credited (in a post below translating the home page) with the "original concept." He wrote Prince of Tennis and the new Sisters of Wellber, among other things. But the home page doesn't yet have a "story" section. I believe the tag line is: "At that time I thought: I am not alone...." If I were to hazard a guess, it would be that this is a romantic fantasy adventure with a mixture of shounen and shoujo elements.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

Sorry, but this whole "GONZO does bad animation" is complete bullcrap.

I'm not really looking forward to this (nothing to interest me so far except for Makoto Uno's designs), but I am not as foolish as to simply discount it because it's made by GONZO. On the contrary...

Come on the "Nonsensical Complain About Gonzo-Athon" has become a staple of every new series they make, same as the Sunrise Trainwreck Predication-Athon" and "Kyoto Animation Psyche-Athon", its tradition (and kind of outdated). Anyway Johnny McHandsome and Low-Cut shirt girl appear to be standing ontop of a manta ray flying through space. I have no idea what this means mind you, but it looks psychedelic enough to be an 80's mecha anime. I can't tell if the "Space Manta" is organic or mecha though.

I really wish early press releases would give us a bit more info than the vague picture with Male Lead and Female Lead looking dramatic. Something about the main characters disposition tells me he may be a bit of a nut job. He reminds me of young Sensui Shinobu for some reason and we all know how messed up that guy was. For some reason the girl is reminding me of NoNo from Gunbuster with both the outfit she's wearing and hair colour/style. Want to no more so badly....

Hey the info guy appeared above me. Yes, yes I'm liking Gotou Yuko and Chihara Minori appearing outside of their usual stable again (Gotou Yuko is in Dancougar and Chihara Minori was in Tenjou Tenge, but they tend to be typecast in Moe series a lot of the time). Time for these girls to show what they can do in a different type of series again. Daisuke Ono is good too, though if Sugita Tomkazu appears in this series I will have to shoot myself. First person to make the generic H***H* comparison gets a cookie, but it will be a burnt one that tastes bitter and unpleasant. You have been warned, Guwahahahah, Guwahahaha, oh man too hyper tonight.

[aardvark]

While watching Tokyo Majin Gakuen etc etc, I've noticed Nakai's character designs have a huge similarity to Makoto Uno's (The eyes, the shape of the characters faces, etc etc). Just look at the designs in the picture of the first post, make the colors more drab and the designs are almost identical. Wonder if they are acquaintances...

@MrProphet: I dunno, I think Gonzo's latest productions make it hard to anticipate a show from them without thinking about huge drops in animation quality. (Or no quality whatsoever like Garakan...).

[orion]

Well, I think that Getsumen to Heiki Miina is a blast. The animation quality is prob related to their budget. People should judge them after a couple of episodes come out. Besides, if it gets corrected on the DVD version then no worries.

[MrProphet]

Originally Posted by aardvark

@MrProphet: I dunno, I think Gonzo's latest productions make it hard to anticipate a show from them without thinking about huge drops in animation quality.

Brave Story. Giniro no kami no Agito. Witchblade. Red Garden. Afro Samurai. You probably mean these crappy low budget anime, right?

Please, let's not insult each others' intelligence with nonsense.

And speaking of Witchblade, Makoto Uno is the one who did the character designs for that show, in case anyone is wondering why those characters look like they escaped from Witchbladeworld. 8)

[wao]

Ignoring the fact that Brave Story and Agito are movies, I simply fail to see how Red Garden's actual animation is particularly awesome. I'm not discounting they've put in a lot of effort into the designs, mood, backgrounds etc., but I think animation is not its forte.

Putting bickering aside, while I still generally do not look upon Gonzo's work with much confidence (I will never forgive them for Speed Grapher!), their last few works have actually restored some of my faith in them.

Although that doesn't make me particularly excited in this anyway... guess I might check out the first episode to see which animators they can bring in.

[MrProphet]

I'm not discounting they've put in a lot of effort into the designs, mood, backgrounds etc., but I think animation is not its forte.

The premise was that there is some huge drop in quality somewhere. Which is simply false.

The last two GONZO shows where it can be reasonably said that the animation was crap were Speed Grapher and Glass Fleet. Anyone who says that GONZO's animation sucks throughout and their every work is destined for failure is either blind, is lying or both. Maybe they should watch some of that anime.

Here's a list of their works. http://www.gonzo.co.jp/works/index.html I dare anyone to name at least 10% of their original productions that we can all agree is badly animated.

[DangerMouse]

Looking forwards to giving this a chance in the fall when it starts.

As a fan of many of their shows I also get tired of this being said every time one of their new shows is announced. Since the design work on most of their shows is some of the most striking, unless it gets out of hand (Speed Grapher) I usually find their works on the higher-end in terms of animation among most series and many times surprisingly good for TV (Last Exile, Vandread, Pumpkin Scissors, and many more) but with such high points the lows can be more dissappointing to some.

Other than series that are in genres I wouldn't watch, I always give their shows a shot, especially their original productions. I'm glad a new scifi show from them has been announced since I usually love their scifi.

[Scribble]

Looks interesting. It's funny, really, because if the male lead didn't look that way, I'd probably discount it as a "Shana" -a-like and not be interested.

I don't know about this GONZO thing, but it can be exaggerated sometimes I guess. I wonder if it's become necessary to cry "Oh no! It's GONZO!" even if you haven't seen many GONZO series. It's kind of like a pantomime.

I loved Red Garden and NHK, so if they're anything to go by, we should be going "Oh yes! It's GONZO!" The only reason I used to be worried about Bokurano in GONZO's hands is because they have the freedom to change the story. That's another case, however....

[DangerMouse]

Well, in TV series only Kaleido Star and Gankutsuou have maintained a decent quality

I'm sorry but there are some others, such as Last Exile and Vandread IMO.

Now that I've thought about it it hit me, the guy's look reminds me of Ryuho from Scryed, looks cool.

I like the girl's design and hairstyle/color, I hope she's the useful type and not just eyecandy or on the sidelines.

Your Shana remark made me think of how I hope this show doesn't end up over-focusing on the expectable romance arc between the two of them (especially with their dramatic poses). I thought she was really cool in the first episode and then sadly (of what I watched) became too much softer (the overly-used MOE moments also contributed) almost to the point where her coolness was overtaken by the romance plot she was part of with a boring male lead and I stopped watching, though perhaps their spring show Kaze no Stigma is more in danger of falling into that much unbalance than this.

[andromeda0201]

umm...I actually like a lot of Gonzo's works, animation aside, they always manage to provide sufficient entertainment from beginning till the end, not to mention their stories (original or adapted) are always interesting.
Probably because I have never read the mangas they adapted thats why I have no idea how the original story should be like...whatever...and enjoy how it is
Anyway, can't wait to hear how the plot is like

[7Th]

Originally Posted by DangerMouse

I'm sorry but there are some others, such as Last Exile and Vandread IMO.

Maybe Vandread, but Last Exile's 2D art was EXTREMELY SUBPAR. Red Garden was an excellent series, but I had to really put up with the animation in most episodes. Witchblade is extremely inconsistent and Afro Samurai is a super-highbudgeted OVA.

[ZODDGUTS]

Originally Posted by wao

Ignoring the fact that Brave Story and Agito are movies, I simply fail to see how Red Garden's actual animation is particularly awesome. I'm not discounting they've put in a lot of effort into the designs, mood, backgrounds etc., but I think animation is not its forte.

Putting bickering aside, while I still generally do not look upon Gonzo's work with much confidence (I will never forgive them for Speed Grapher!), their last few works have actually restored some of my faith in them.

Although that doesn't make me particularly excited in this anyway... guess I might check out the first episode to see which animators they can bring in.

Witchblade had animation touch ups in the DVD release. Afro Samurai is OVA so umm yeah. I'm just not confident when it comes Gonzo in TV series there animation quality really tend to drop big time in several episodes. NHK had several yikes moments because the animation was so off from what it usually looked like.

Well either way I'm planning to watch this.