Dragon Pilot: Hisone and Masotan

I don't know what it is about the animation, but it nails emotion through visuals. I laugh out loud often, and love the voice actors. There are times when it does not seem to know what it is, or what direction to go, but I'm only halfway through so all may reveal itself. Either way I'm loving it.

Dragons who flies undercover with plane armor sounds like a great idea but falls flat when you notice that the big selling point (The Dragons) are almost secondary. It goes form accepting the creature to how the girls feel to each other, personal relationships, love interests and ties to the past, etc... a slice of life with a sprinkle of fantasy in time to time. The only good scenes where we can see the damn dragons in real action and the potential of the main idea is at the end of the season. Rating: MEH... Not boring but not exiting either.

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.

Not a big fan. Although its something original (out of norm storyline) but not a huge fan of the characters designs. The use of light tone and oil painting colors didnt appeal to me. The animation style reminds me of crayon shin chan and atashinchi (huge fan of those), it doesnt go well with the plot. Mediocre sound scores, very patriotical. Few actions, very comedic and can fall under scifi category. Cute ending song and typical japanese opening song. Not a fan of any of these characters especially hisone (tend to be very annoying and judgemental) and masotan was cute in unlikelable way. Anyway not my cup of tea, stop watching halfway as theres no solid plot, strong enough to keep me continuing. Worth trying.