Metal Armor Dragonar

 Metal Armor Dragonar is one of the most iconic mecha series in 80s which has been in my watchlist for a long time since my exposure to it from Another Century Episode. Back in its time, Dragonar is probably intended to be possible Gundam successor and it certainly got what it takes to be a top tier Mecha Anime considering Sunrise definitely tried to make good use of their accumulated knowledge of Mechas from the 80s. However many things went awry with Dragonar which unfortunately make this series turns out to be another wasted potential in the end, which is partly the reason why Gundam is still running to this day.

 Metal Armor Dragonar storyline is loosely based Mobile Suit Gundam where the main protagonists fights under losing faction with prototype mecha that ultimately changes the tide of war considering the series is used to be testing the water whether it would be a possible Gundam successor. The difference between Gundam and Dragonar is the direction that the latter take. While Gundam had overall darker tone with its share of war tragedy, Dragonar in contrast goes with more lighthearted if silly approach, glorifying war at times. Overall the Dragonar's story is inconsistent, majority of the episodes are bad to mediocre but at times it does have good one yet it fails to capitalize on them. Just like ZZ Gundam, Dragonar had rather shaky start because wacky adventure of teen misfits doesn't work well to start a real robot story but it gets better around 25th to 35th episode and then went downhill on 40th episode onward. The arc where Kaine's mother kidnap used as the plot device had to be one the worst part of mecha anime i had watched.

 To me the main reason why Dragonar Tv Series didn't reach its fullest potential is because it doesn't embrace its strength which probably stems from conflict of interest between Sunrise Studio and Sponsor yet again. Dragonar had a good setup to be a great Real Robot mecha series and showed it is capable of doing so. But in order to attract kids as the main audience in order to sell toys as many as possible, many of things are dumbed down by far margin. In particular the main protagonists doesn't act like a professional soldier even after going through their ordeals and if it was a real life military setting, they would have been shot as capital punishment for their insubordination. In some way because Dragonar took less serious atmosphere for their story direction, there are not so many room for character growth considering Real Robot series tend to need some good amount of tragedies in order for the protagonist to mature.

Perhaps to begin with the production staff doesn't have a clear vision for the main protagonists development which left their Character development rather stunted compared to its predecessor that it tried to emulate. But if it is any consolation, i think Kaine probably ended up in a much happier life than Amuro.

 Despite plenty of its flaws, there is a reason why Dragonar is still quite regarded for a mecha series. The main reason would be the cool mecha design. While Dragonar's mecha design is initially made by Okawara, its potential is fully realized by Obari and probably still remains one of his best.

 In terms of character, the caramaderie of the Dragonar Trio is somewhat better than the original gundam trio even if their character growth is stunted. Meio Plato is the actual MVP of Dragonar who is also one of the better Char Clone out there leaning on the stoic type who had even better character development compared to Kaine. Lastly Dorchenov the main villain from the series is a very good villain actually, someone who is easily despised.

After finishing the series, my appreciation toward Dragonar had been better than itu used to be. I think the series deserve another appearance in SRW since it has been absent for quite a while already. Dragonar might not be as good as some of the Gundam titles but if you can bear the cheese, it is still an enjoyable ride. At some point i will try to find myself a copy of Falguen's Robot Damashii