Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan

Dragon Pilot's trailer enticed me to the series because it reminded me of How To Train Your Dragon, still an excellent animated film. It shows a girl who gets picked by a dragon and doesn't understand what is happening at all; it seemed like it'd be funny, and at 12 episodes, it wouldn't hurt to watch it. What I got was a highly original concept, some stunning art and animation from legendary studio, Bones, and some solid voice work--not to mention a killer soundtrack. The Story: Some characters come off as tropey in the beginning, but do not discount them yet. There is a lot of growth to be had between them all, and it seems like there are some more stories to be told here. One of the characters aspires to be a combat pilot, what of her dream? Hopefully a season 2 comes soon. Overall the plot is wholly original, and i will not spoil what happens, but it does echo HTTYD in a lot of respects. Animation: Smooth overall, not many noticeably lower quality cells. Sound: Voices are good, some of my personal favorite American VAs are present here, such as Christine Marie Cabanos of K-On! and Squid Girl fame, Erica Harlacher of Persona 5 and Toradora, not to mention Bryce Pappenbrook from Attack on Titan and Durarara. Soundtrack is great, the big standout is the credits song.

tl;dr good anime if you liked How To Train Your Dragon. Prepare for a bit of an "earn your happy ending" though.

I thought that Dragon Pilot was pretty good. Yes, Dragon Pilot has more than it's fair share of issues, but overall I had a pretty good time watching it.

The characters are a bit archetypey, (and before you ask of course I looked up whether that was a word or not before I typed it) but I like all of them just the same. There were a bunch of characters that were made into unnecessary villains, which immediately after their villain phases were turned into friends throughout the show. These characters were only villains to add conflict, and I don't love that because it felt unnecessary, but it's whatever.

I think that overall this show just had too much stuff in it. It was very ambitious, and I can respect that, but it definitely bit off a little more than it could chew. I know this doesn't really happen, but if this show were 8 or 9 episodes and they cut a lot of the filler stuff they had, it would feel a lot more like a complete and thought-out product. There were just some things that I thought that were completely unneeded.

Another thing this show tries, and fails, to do, is to add drama. The drama isn't the worst I've ever seen, but I really feel like it clashes a little with the tone of the show. There is some serious stuff in starting maybe a little before the second half of Dragon Pilot, which I just found to not fit in with what they had established the show to be like. It had mostly been a funny, coming of age type story until they added in the drama, and it stuck out. Yes, every story needs at least a little drama here and there to be really excellent, but it did feel a little forced into this show.

One thing I don't have too many complaints about is the ending. I'm sure that other people do have a lot of complaints, but *spoiler* I'm a sucker for a happy ending. Honestly you don't really get more of an anime-esque ending than this one. It does clash a little bit with the more original and unique vibe that the show is going for, but I didn't really find it too disarming.

One thing that this show is not lacking is originality. Anime can be weird, and this is far from the weirdest anime I've seen, but dragons that turn into fighter jets sounds like a pretty cool concept to me. I also absolutely love the art, I think it works extremely well. Art is not the first thing I look for when watching an anime, but when it is unique I really appreciate it. If it just looks like any other anime I don't hate it, but it's just a lot better when it has its own look. Some good examples of this that I have seen are flip flappers, AOT, Mob psycho, Kobayashi's dragon maid, kill la kill, March comes in like a lion, and others. It just makes the show more memorable in a good way when the art is different. I don't even mind if it looks worse than a typical anime, as long as it's different, and this is something this anime does well. I have no complaints with the music, either.

I know I took some jabs at Dragon Pilot, but overall I liked it and thought bit was worth watching, and I think you should give it a try too. It's not going to blow your socks off, but it's a solid show and it is pretty unique as well.

The premise is... odd, to say the least. But then, this is anime. Girls piloting dragons from the *inside* is no more strange than girls who are half battleship. Comes with the genre.

What I found most difficult to handle was the English voice-over of the lead character. I don't believe I've heard a more annoying, screeching portrayal of a female voice in any anime. The series may have been more enjoyable if not for that one, constantly annoying issue. It seriously took 6 episodes to get used to it enough that it wasn't annoying.

The plot is basic: new and hesitant recruit tries to fit in with the establishment and bond with her team mates. She's clueless, naive and unskilled beyond belief, but was chosen by her dragon so what can anyone do about it? That's the core foundation of the plot and it works to an extent. However the final two episodes throw all sense out the window and ends on a barely-scrapes-by finish. One wouldn't have to try all that hard to come up with a better finale.

The animation is questionable. Obviously someone really likes fighter jets; they have that down pat. The dragons on the other hand, as well as the rendition of the characters themselves, are well into the realm of goofy. Still, if they'd looked "better" perhaps a sense of the humor would have been lost. But truthfully, I think the only time I actually laughed in this is when she punched her dragon in the "gizzard" (or whatever that organ was). The dragon's reaction was pretty funny. Other than that, it simply wasn't funny.

Overall not an exceptional anime. I'm sure some will find it cute. Others won't find it worth reviewing. Many people won't make it past the first episode or two. Value of this anime will be largely open to personal taste and willingness to ignore gaping plot holes.

I've watched the show a good few times, and me being somebody who loves dragons and fighter aircraft, I can say I loved the show. The story, while not what I initially expected, wasn't bad by any means, but as somebody on the internet said at some point, "It looks like it exists solely to fulfill somebody's dragon vore fetish fantasy." Which I agree with in some capacity, but the characters are fun, unique, and have very obvious flaws that make their eccentricities all the more great.

My only regret is knowing this probably isn't popular enough to receive a new season, because twelve episodes just didn't feel enough. Overall though, I recommend at least trying it, because I was surprised when I first watched it as well.

Everything I love about anime plus dragons. Total win!