Dragon Collection - Season 1 Episode 1

Earlier I was browsing through anime as I felt like watching something but wasn't sure what. I had seen Dragon Collection on various lists a few times, but always passed it over for obvious reasons (like it being a children's show). However, this time I decided "what the hell" and decide to start watching. I figured that, at a minimum, it would be interesting to see how it compared to Pokemon and Digimon of my childhood. So here we are.

 Oh, I forgot to mention. This series is also based on a manga series which is quite a bit different than this anime. The biggest difference being that the protagonist from the manga is a high schooler and the themes are a bit more mature compared to the anime. Both the anime and the manga protagonist share the same name (Arata) and they both have the same redeeming quality - being lucky. I'm honestly not sure if they're supposed to be the same person (probably not, as from what I remember of the manga, that Arata was just being introduced to the game and it didn't mention anything about him playing as a child).

The other major difference is that, at least for the first fifteen or so chapter, the manga focuses on the story happening in a "Real life" setting, rather than in an alternate world. Later on, the manga does transition to taking place in an alternate world, though. However, Arata in the anime is thrown into this alternate world immediately (which is where the shortness of the episode is kind of annoying - there is next to no build-up to Arata being thrown into the alternate world and it seems very rushed).

The first thing that stuck out to me was the relatively short episode length. At this point I'm not sure if it'll continue like this, but the episode lasted just eleven minutes. This is half of the average twenty-four minutes that most anime episodes last. I've been noticing stuff like this a lot in anime the past couple of years - series being released with relatively short episodes varying from three minutes to ten minutes. I personally dislike this a great deal - it just feels like I'm getting short-changed on content. However, I can understand the appeal of shorter episodes, especially in a show meant for children.

Yep, that is our Protagonist, smashing his chin into a grown mans balls.

The artwork is typical of this type of anime. Simple colors with simple shading/lighting. Not to complex, yet it still looks good. It actually reminds me a lot of the various Digimon TV series. Not just in art style, but in design, too. I wont do a side-by-side comparison, but with a simple google search you can see how they're alike. 

Our Protagonist, Arata the elementary schooler, is your typical shonen protagonist. He has wild hair, a cool outfit, and is energetic and up-beat. He also has typical leader qualities found in these types of stories. His companion is also typical - starts of cute, has a dragon-shape, is infinitely strong (as in, he's always strong enough to get the job done, no matter what). Like I said, typical protagonist.

And this is where the similarities with Digimon really start to show for me. Arata looks like he could be one of the protagonist from the Digimon series. He looks about the same (just needs goggles), his companion has the dinosaur/dragon looks. He's even been thrown into an alternate world (although not the "digital" world). Heck, the whole show and game seem kind of like rip-offs of Digimon so far. But I admit I've only seen one episode and it's still to early to tell.

The episode itself
The show starts off with Arata being introduced. Then, in the rushed fashion that the whole episode has, Arata rushes off to participate in Dragon Collection, or "DraColle" has he calls it. He was supposed to go to the arcade with his dad, but he's impatient and goes ahead. He is then sucked into the world of Dragon Collection, right in the middle of the store. His dad appears right after, just in time to notice the "Arata" card in the Dragon Collection machines card slot.

Right away we're introduced to some villains. It's your typical to-dumb-to-realize-how-bad-they-really-are bad guy group, the Green Pepper Gang (which consists of two young kids and an old dude). The screencap earlier in the article is of Arata smashing his chin into the leaders nuts. This is because Arata happens to land on the fire drake pup that the Gang was trying to capture, accidentally helping them capture it. Arata feels bad about this, and so he helps it escape.

During the last three minutes of the episode, the real meat of the series comes out. The monster battling featuring the game system that the series is based on. Basically, Arata notices a book that contains his monster cards thanks to the help of the fire drake pup he helps at the start of the episode. The pup enters the book and is transformed into a card that Arata can then summon, which he does, and thus a massive and powerful fire drake that can save the day. But only after he shouts, "guts!" and helps the drake along with his own resolve. Simple, easy, and the good guys come out on top.

That's where the episode ended and I probably wont watch the next episode until tomorrow. It's getting late (almost 2am).