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...the slapstick, the cheesy word plays, the cast full of idiots, and even the constant switching of character designs is all designed to make you laugh.

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Dragon Half

Essential Anime Collection

Review by Matthew Anderson

2 Episode OVA series

Company: ADV Films

Running Time:60 minutes (2 episodes)

Region: 1

Rated: PG-13 (Violence, partial nudity, language and Adult situations)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Mink your normal teenage girl, living in a kingdom far away. She loves rock superstar Dick Saucer, helps provide for her family, and likes to hang with her friends Luffa and Pia. The only problem she has is when people make fun of her tail and horns.

Wait a minute! Tail and horns?

You see, Mink is a dragon half. Born of a dragon mother and a dragon hunting father, Mink has her mothers strength and her fathers...... well she has her mothers strength.

The evil king of the land wants to marry Minks mother. With his aid Rosario, the king hatches a plot to use Mink as bait to draw out her father and kill him. Thanks to his plan, Mink finds herself the target of idiot knights, the king's daughter Vina, vengeful demon children, and even her beloved Dick Saucer, a dragon hunter himself.

Will Mink survive? Will Dick Saucer fall in love with her? Will anyone be able to sing the closing theme with out passing out? Find out in the tale of "Dragon Half"!

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: A very well done transfer. The colors are perfect, there are no pixels, no wrinkles, no defects. This looks a lot better than their VHS release. The washed out look is gone.

AUDIO: The remastered 5.1 sounds great. The entire soundstage gets a work out, with the voices coming from the center, the music from the back, and the sound effects from all around. Compared to the 5.1, the Japanese 2.0 is no where near as good. It's quieter, with almost no directionality.

For the audio commentary on episode 2, the voices project from the front speakers, while the English dub plays in the background.

EDITS: The clean close was used, and the Japanese credits have been replaced with English ones. On the first episode, the original Japanese episode title has been poorly overlaid with an English title. On the second episode, the original artwork for the episode title has been replaced. A freeze frame with another crappy overlay is used instead.

EXTRAS: There is the clean close animation, commentary with Director Matt Greenfield and Voice actors Tiffany Grant, who played Dug Fin and Brett Weaver who played Damaramu.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: Writer and director Shinya Sadamitsu is a master of absurd comedy. Full of crass humor, over the top sight gags, and clever word plays, this is the zaniest anime you will ever see.

ACTING: The acting on both versions is absolutely sublime! I could dedicate a whole page just talking about how great the cast is. For this review, I will concentrate on my personal favorites.

Kotono Mitsuishi frantic sputtering for Mink will have you in stitches. There is a reason why she was chosen to voice Excel, and "Dragon Half" is it. Jessica Cavello is also amazing. How she can cram in so many words in to one sentence is truly a mystery. Again, you can see why she was chosen to voice Excel in the dub version.

Aiko Otsuka and Brett Weaver are perfect as Damaramu. Both play the character so straight, it makes every thing the idiot does even funnier.

FAN SERVICE: Well, when the girls are in "normal" form, they are quite lusty. Mink does give us a blink and you miss it topless shot somewhere in the second episode. There is also an interesting angle shot of Dick Saucer.

FINAL EXAM

In the early days, a very different anime title hit US shores. In this bizarre little anime, the characters would change from normal to super deformed versions in a snap. The comedy was so over the top, you nearly wet yourself laughing. The characters were all loons, the show was set in this miss-mash of modern day and medieval times, and the normal rules of continuity went out the window. This anime was called "Dragon Half", and America was never the same.

This is one of those titles that shouldn't be as popular as it is. The animation is very cheep, there is no plot, the comedy is two steps up from "South Park", and the characters switch from normal to rare-gag with out rhyme or reason. So why do people love it?

Because it's funny. Actually, because it's damn funny. Everything about it, the slapstick, the cheesy word plays, the cast full of idiots, and even the constant switching of character designs is all designed to make you laugh. Toss in a cast of talented voice actors who can handle the absurdity, and you have a winner.

Never would I have expected to enjoy the English dub. I found their readings just as good as their Japanese counterparts. It wasn't until the credits rolled that truly I understood why I loved the dub. There was Jessica Cavello (Excel) as Mink, Brett Weaver (Nabashin) as Damaramu, and Paul Sidell (Rikdo) as the king. It was like an "Excel Saga" reunion, and that's a good thing. This is one of the best dubs out there, period.

The disc is well done. The audio commentary with Matt Greenfield, Brett Weaver and Tiffany Grant on episode two was an absolute joy to listen to. Brett and Tiffany had the entire DVJ staff giggling and laughing at some of their off the wall comments. "Yay, boobies!"

"The Egg Song" is perhaps the best closing theme in the history of the art form. Where else but in Japan would they marry Beethoven with a nonsensical song about eating eggs. Kotono Mitsuishi really shows how great a vocalist she is, able to perform this crazy song with out getting tongue tied.

By the way (for those that listen to the audio commentary), there is one other anime theme that uses Beethoven. J-Metal group "Feel So Bad" took Beethoven's "Ode To Joy" and transformed it into the kick ass "Mighty, Mighty, Strongest #1" for Hell Teacher Nube.

With only two episodes, to say anymore about "Dragon Half" will spoil all your fun. Thanks to the price drop, you too can own one of the funniest anime of all time. Unlike Damaramu, you will never regret watching this one.

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