Sum-up of my findings on the various downloads (prices, resolutions, etc) are after the review!

• Title: Tower of DRUAGA ~the Aegis of Uruk~
• Studio: GONZO
• Genre: Fantasy/Comedy

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥½
• Animation: ♥♥♥
• Characters: ♥♥
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥½
• Overall: ♥♥½ (Warning: This date may or may not be representative of future dates.)

Thoughts:
Secondary warning: this review will, of necessity, contain spoilers for the first episode. Read with caution! I’m also including full details on how to get the different versions of the episode at each of the three sites hosting it. They’ll be after a jump at the end.

Right, then, on with the show. As promised: the high-quality version that Crunchyroll is selling for a minimum donation of $0.01 (NOT for free as previously reported– sorry guys) is both DRM-free and reasonably high resolution (854×480). It’s not HD, but it’s perfectly acceptable. The subs are good-quality, simple white text tucked at the very bottom of the video, virtually never in the way of the action. It is at least as good quality-wise as your average fansub.

The show’s visuals are as expected from GONZO: pretty decent-looking both in terms of art and animation. It’s generally a little bit softer and rounder than Romeo x Juliet, but otherwise similar. The art styles change when they’re parodying something specific, which brings me to the plot.

With the exception of a brief bit at the beginning, the entire first episode is a particularly glorious dream-version of what might happen, imagined by the main character, Jil. It’s actually all pretty amusing, especially the references to Gurren Lagann, Evangelion, and tentacle porn. I really enjoyed the episode as its own thing.

However, it made things really unclear in terms of where the series is going. It introduced the main character to us, and a few side characters, but it’s hard to get a grip on those side characters based on Jil’s imagination-versions of them. Also, I couldn’t help but notice that the group of character you see Jil with during the ending credits is not the group you see him with for the episode (although the episode-group appears in the clever opening video).

So, while I found the episode pretty fun, I have no clue what’s going to happen from here on out. Will it be a bit more serious? Stay a comedy? Continue parodying other shows? Noooo idea. So, sorry folks, I can’t really recommend whether to watch the series or not based on this episode! I’m definitely going to pick up the second one to see where this goes, though.

Now, as promised: I actually went through the process of all three sites’ Druaga episodes and have full instructions and details after the jump. I also included an image from each so you can compare the quality. I hope they don’t screw up the layout.

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