Dragons of Wonderhatch

Dragons of Wonderhatch is the most fantastic story I have ever watched in my life. When it was first announced at the end of November 2022 as a Disney+ Japanese original series, it got me interested with the category of a live action x anime hybrid series and I thought it would be good. And I was right! The story was great with the slow buildups to the climatic event of the last episode. The character arcs of Thaim, Nagi, Aktha, etc., were well paced and emotional. As for the anime world of Upananta, it was dazzling from the dragon riders trying their best to save the people as they can during the worlds collapse to learning the truth of the world. Although it should have had more spotlight to learn more about the characters and the world. Anyways, the exciting finale left a couple of clues of the show having a second season, and I can't wait to see more! This is the true Disney magic everyone should have felt as it stays true to the Disney name and Walt Disney should be proud of the team that made the show.

Dragons of Wonderhatch is a Japanese series that blends animation and live-action into a fascinating tale about a teenager named Nagi (Sena Nakajima) who has always felt disconnected from the world and has visions of another universe within her dreams where fishes swim through the air and islands float in the sky.

The delicious world-building from writers Kyohta Fujimoto, Takamasa Oe and Anna Kawahara is captivating as we are exposed to the animated alternate land of Upananata, it's inhabitants communicate in their own dialect and dragon riders are the protectors of the people. When their civilization is on the verge of collapse, they uncover a portal to planet earth. In hopes of discovering a solution and saving the place they call home. Dragons of Wonderhatch is one of the most original stories that I have ever seen and it's no surprise that a second season will be on the way since the storytelling is too ambitious to not have it's own franchise. The characters are very likable, the action sequences are superbly choreographed and the CGI is some of the best that I have witnessed in a television-show. Although, the script can be rough around the edges. The lore should have been more properly established in the pilot episode. Various concepts are not fully explained so confusion can make-or-break audiences once you are introducing them to a new universe. For those who still want to be immersed in a breath-taking experience, I believe it's worth overlooking since the narrative does become easier to comprehend as we progress. However, the conclusion for the season is bound to be divisive amongst viewers since it feels completely rushed with many unanswered questions that remain unresolved. Leaving events on a cliffhanger that only serve as detrimental to this season, with an otherwise magical storyline.

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This review is only from the first 4 episodes as the entire season has not yet aired, so it may need to be updated once I see the culmination of all creative decisions for the show. But as it stands now, I think the merging of animation and live action is done incredibly well. The thing I like most is that the directing style in the live action components portray a tone of fantastical wonder which perfectly pairs with the unbelievability of there being an entirely separate anime world. As such, it makes the show feel cohesive and the characters feel consistent in both the anime and live action segments even though by all accounts they shouldn't. Also, the VFX on the live action dragon so far is very well done and once again lets you immerse yourself in the show without poor special effects taking you out of the show and it just not feeling real or right as many live actions have done before. Additionally, the writing of the characters so far has laid a lot of well-thought-out groundwork and left the door open for a lot of complex character development if done right. So overall, a great start to a show.

This is wonderful for a few reasons, most notably that it's not based on another source. It works as an anime and effortlessly transitions into live action. Mackenyu continues to prove what an accomplished actor he is; not just an extraordinary action star. Even as a voice over he gives his character punch. His acting is a very grounded, dramatic performance in the live action world and stands apart from the fantasy/anime part in a perfect way giving the character a sense of mystery in the live action world and a sorta anti-superhero hero. It's quite brilliant.

The anime part itself is an exciting adventure that can stand on its own and fits perfectly with a Disney audience. In fact, Disney could just as easily turn the anime world into a live action sequel since the adventure itself is great as a standalone. Once into the real world these hero's from another world help teenagers face all the problems of being a teenager and that gives the fantasy series that wonderful feel good Disney feeling we all remember as children.

I was curious about the way they want to mix animation and live-action in 1 show, but result was underwhelming.

First thing first - I do not see any benefits from live-action in the show. The way it's done is that one world is an anime, and the other one is live-action. Makes sense, but you can replace live-action with CGI and it would be practically the same thing.

I am comparing the show to what "Rabbit Roger" and "Space Jam" did, for example, where "animated world" was breaking the rules of the "real world". In Wonderhatch, though, there is a clear wall between the two. Yes, 2nd episode suggests that it's not as strict a divide, as it was shown in 1st episode, but it still does not feel that important.

But this probably just my taste (I would have preferred animation with different style to live-action). Objectively, live-action is fine, definitely not as bad as some Japanese TV shows I tried to watch in the past. Somehow felt closer to K-Dramas even. What prompted me to drop this is that it's just not that interesting.

The animated world seems to have something to do not so much with dragons, but rather hearing, including "hearing of souls". So far this "feature" has not been explained at all. It's just "you can hear things, but then you can't hear some other things, usually special humanoids". Sounds seem important to fights, too, but that's also really unclear. Also the way they switch between Japanese and the other language in animation world is weird and not explained in any way.

Overall the world-building is... Not there, really. It's fine with the show starting in the middle of action, but when you do not properly explain the basics of what's going on during your first episode - that's bad. Yes, some bits of information are added in 2nd episode, and probably more stuff will be explained in 3rd episode, now that more people got into the real world, but... That's too late, especially considering that episodes are ~40 minutes. Even more "especially", considering that we start with animated world (there is a short live-action sequence in the beginning, but that's mostly unimportant).

In the end, this show feels undercooked to me. They should have spent more time on polishing the original concept and the order of switches between worlds, too. Probably do shorter episodes with 5 minutes of 1 world and 15 minutes of the other world, gradually building them both. Or maybe even do something like "Dreamfall: The Longer Journey", which was also about 2 worlds "colliding", and was a way better story in my mind.