Synopsis
Hisone Amakusa is an innocent and straightforward girl who struggles with the fact that she sometimes hurts people unintentionally by her innocent words. She decides, in order to distance herself from people, to join the Air Self-Defense Force. Now she is a Self-Defense Force rookie stationed at the Air Self-Defense Force’s Gifu Base. It is here though, that she discovers “OTF” dragon hidden in the base and ends up being chosen as its pilot. Now she goes through the journey on what it means to be a dragon pilot.
Initial Impression
As a protagonist, Hisone is not necessarily new but is interesting in how her contrasting sides does make for a different take in terms of a character introduction. Usually, characters who have difficulty connecting with people come off as either gloomy or shy. To see her actually have this firecracker side was a pleasant surprise. With the other characters, they seemed to have an interesting potential to them and laid out the plot rather nicely. The mystery that was added towards the end also adds a nice touch to the series.
However, while the characters and the plot have their interesting points, the true highlight of the series lies in the flight scenes and scenes featuring the dragons and their transformations. From their details to the animation and the music that comes with their flight, they give a really great impact. Just the way Hisone’s first flight was presented really made the viewer feel like they were part of the moment.
In terms of flaws, there wasn’t much shown for the first half of the series other than the characters seeming to be a tad heavy-handed.
Final Thoughts
The dragons remain as a great highlight of the series, however, there are things to be noted with the characters. They do have a good amount of personality and development shown, however, their dynamics with each other could have been laid out better. Well, certain characters got a good amount of development while the others were shown to be characters with actual personalities rather than being trope figures. However, the development of these characters seems rather stretched out for secondary characters. Because of this, it makes Hisone’s comes off as rather rushed towards the end given that the attention was given to the other characters.
Storywise, there is a lot of strong points to be found, the way that it built up to the whole ritual and revealed the whole lore and history was a different but intriguing take. It was rather obvious from the start that the little old lady character would have a certain significance but it was still nice to see this unassuming woman be such a strong character. The way that the final half of the series connected the characters and their training acted as a good tie to any loose ends. However, the whole “falling in love” causing conflict in the bond between pilot and dragon just seemed a bit much to drive in Hisone’s development.
The animation and music were still good, especially when it came to revealing the great being that they were all training for. The flight scenes, the struggles against the winds were done very well. The final climax and the way things ended in the formation of a landscape was rather clever and made for a lovely illustration.
Conclusion
This is a series that had a good story and interesting characters but there is a certain feeling of underdeveloped in certain parts. There is Hisone’s growth as a character being rushed in the end and then there is the lack of character dynamics. The characters do all have strong points to them and almost none of them come off as a typical or specific type. As a series that features dragon in disguise, it does it highly well with the designs and the flight sequences. It’s an interesting series that has a solid series but has its holes basically.
Rating: 6.5/10