Audience reviews
13 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
Shinji-Spark
In a far future post apocalyptic world where robots rule and everything has been turned in to a desert wasteland, this is a story of two opposing robots that meet up to have a grudge match. The art style as mentioned in the other reviews is gritty, and the world is pretty standard desert wasteland. The character designs are pretty standard for the time and I got heavy vibes of the old comics from Heavy Metal magazine.
Overall I would say this a decent show, the episodes overall short running time is my main complaint. There is a live action sequence at the beginning and then an ending credit scene where they are showing the crew working on the robot etc. other than that if you want to watch a short show that doesn’t eat up much time in your day than I would say give it a shot.
Read at the sourcearisael
The art is gorgeous, obviously, but more than gorgeous it is all directed to an aesthetic idea which (despite what others here say) could only be conveyed in a medium like anime or manga: The robots here are people, not in spite of being robotic (think Iron Giant, which anthropomorphises the lead, makes him special & through his specialness more human than the rest), but through being robotic. The machinery stays alien the whole way through, keeps strong to the grit & meticulousness of 1977's Star Wars; but the machinery is human without any concession to the machinic or human aspects of the characters. Others call the stark contrast of the female lead & everyone else jarring, but it is only jarring for as long as you don't give into the OVA's basic conceit: the alien is the normal, precis…
Read at the sourceMilkyPumpkiny
From the opening scene to the final minutes, the anime assures you that it will not waste any of your time. If you remove the non-anime-related scenes, you are left with 20 minutes of pure action-packed mecha anime, and not even a single minute feels wasted.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the characters' motives, the anime feels rather banal. However, that's okay because, honestly, who cares about that when we have godly designs that even my childish brain can recognize as incredibly well-crafted? The only design I didn't particularly like was the main character's suit, but since it only appears in one or two scenes, it's not a big issue.
Lastly, I have to mention the creativity of the opening scene. It was so good that I don’t even have any fancy words to describe it.
Read at the sourceAeroGunz
“Dragon's Heaven” is what happens when You mix “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” with “Gundam”… minus the good story and plot.
Listen, I’m not going to sit here and tell You this is a hidden gem of storytelling with an amazing plot and gripping story. It’s not. To be honest this 24 minute OVA is more like a proof of concept than anything else.
The plot itself is as bare bones as it can get. A young girl named Ikuuru encounters a robot (that for some reason hasn’t been discovered for a thousand years it was there) code named “Shaian”, befriends him, get to know him by the ancient way of small talk, teams up with his and fights antagonists that have a conquest and murder boners .Yes. It’s that basic.
To be honest, even for just about 24 minutes this show has a lot of illogical decision…
Read at the sourceCaptainSalty
The art style of the movie was very pleasing to look at, the detail of anything covered in sand or rust was good. Some of the music reminds me heavily of Metal Slug (which didn't release for another 8 years). The story, characters, and world however, were very bland. The designs of the robots were very cool though. It had a good grit feel to it but the tone was extremely light hearted despite some of the things they attempted to tackle. A good easy watch but it doesn't offer much besides some eye candy and great music, mixed feelings overall.
Read at the sourceMephistoPan
I gave 5 starts not because the show is average, I would say it is worse than that. However I didn't give 4 stars because calling it bad isn't exactly true. There's the need to take into consideration this animation was done around 1988. I love the old school animations, I really do. The art style could be a bit better but it satisfied me enough. There are basically 2 things that I absolutely didn't like: 1 - The plot is very poor and even somewhat cliche. 2 - The main character (the girl) has a "way over the top" sort of personality which makes me cringe.
Read at the sourcehagrid1994
I loved it.Made me feel warm and fuzzy at the end and I would recommend it to old-school-style fans.
I watched the English sub version on Youtube.I don't know if there is an English dubbing to this anime.
But there are 2 things I need to address:
1)According to MAL this is a 24 minutes piece.It is about 30 or 42 if you would include the credit scene.I hope someone would see and fix this.
2)I felt like I'm watching a pilot for a show.An unfinished work so to speak.The story felt rushed and could have been much more.The final fight didn't make much sense.
Read at the sourceephemerry
The beauty of the "Dragon's Heaven" passion project is unfolded within the span of a thirty-minute runtime: scenic deserts, strange Giger-inspired towers of machinery, sand-covered robots, and a young woman — standing in the zeitgeist of it all. Dragon's Heaven is short OVA, that makes me miss the beauty of experimentation in Japanese animation. Most productions seem so formulaic, nowadays! This style seems similar to GAINAX's unconventional "Daicon Film" — made during the group's university tenor. Something strange, powerful, and rare radiates from projects like that and "Dragon's Heaven"!
⚠️ This review will have spoilers ⚠️
—Story/Characters
This OVA has a very short run-time, but is dense with a Mœbius type of "je ne sais quoi"! The beginning sequence reminded me of Vega's backstory…
Read at the sourcejadedXotaku
Here we have an anime that only saw a vhs release in Japan. And that's really unfortunate. Released in 1988, Dragon's Heaven is but a brief 40 minute OVA based on Makoto Kobayashi’s manga of the same name. With such a short running time, it's unsurprisingly light on plot, but gives you just the right amount of character for you to care, and more than anything, has a aesthetic style unlike what's ever seen in anime.
Developed by design studio ARTMIC (who also produced such OVAs as Genocyber, Bubblegum Crisis, and the anime the kicked off the OVA boom, Megazone 23), the art style very accurately mimics that of mangaka Kobayashi’s, which has a gritty and rough style that's reminiscent of French artist Moebius. Something of which gives it a visual flare more akin to the 1981 animated film He…
Read at the sourcematthigh
There's really only one reason you would want to watch this one-shot OVA: The artwork. It's like nothing else you are going to see anywhere else in anime or manga (with, maybe the exception of some of the ancient tech of Hayao Miyazaki in the Nausicaa manga). The art style is much more reminiscent of eighties European comics. More in the tradition of Heavy Metal or Epic Illustrated, heavily leaning on Jean Giraud or Pepe Moreno.
All of the artwork, that is, except for the main female character. Which is designed in a much more standard stereotypical anime design. The juxtaposition between the two is very, very jarring, and because the running length of this is less than 30 minutes, you never have the time to get over it. It's annoying all the way through.
The story is nothing worth wri…
Read at the sourcenexoscore
Dragons Heaven is a movie that I would recommend only if you are looking for an anime purely for it's art style. The style is amazing and should be your reason to see it, with its gritty texture and feel. The story starts off very interesting but when it gets going, the story becomes very bare. The character interactions fell real but the villain fells a little over the top and not enough explanation for his motivation besides just wanting to take over the world and being evil. I fell that if it had another thirty minutes, it would benefit a lot with being able to flesh out the characters and world to get more invested in what is happening. Overall would recommend and implore you to make up your own mind on this interesting OVA.
Read at the sourceRockoDyne
Somewhere out there has to be an artbook that is far more interesting to read than this is to watch. Given that the first few minutes of the show are shots of their human-sized, model robot articulating, the priority of the OVA is almost exclusively on the mechs to the detriment of everything else.
Honestly, the biggest criticism of Dragon's Heaven I have is that there just isn't anything to it. It's a post-apocalyptic setting, but it boils down to a desert that is a featureless Tatooine (and that isn't the only thing that looks ripped off from Star Wars). Our protagonist is a cute, spunky, 80's anime girl, and the most important thing about her character is... hold on, I'm sure there was something... she takes a bath? She's out in the desert and wakes up a robot. The robot follows her h…
Read at the sourceAbsoluteTheory
If you love that style of gritty, garage, 80's mecha anime, this lost, unpolished gem might be right up your alley.
It's clear that they only had the production budget for a short one-shot, so the story seems to be very condensed. Still, I love this kind of stuff.
The live-action opening breaks the animation fourth wall, but years later it still sticks in my mind.
Read at the source