Druaga no tó - ~the Aegis of URUK~

The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk is an immensely exciting and slightly above average fantasy adventure with slightly below average jokes, innuendo, and parodies. You cannot ignore the fact that it is an animated continuation of an old arcade game. When you find out about this, you suddenly find the part where the main male protagonist is literally controlled to replay the original Gilgamesh adventure, actually quite funny and well done. In other words, for fans of RPGs, D&D (just for those who know the adventures from old role-playing video games series like Might and Magic or Baldur's Gate), this will be familiar, i.e., it will hold almost no surprises for them. However, with its setting and atmosphere, it could be pretty entertaining. The main male protagonist makes visible progress (levels up) during each episode. Even though he is constantly told that he is nothing special, it is still clear to everyone that somehow he is going to make it, and what he cannot achieve with his abilities, and he will overcome through sheer determination. Of course, he also achieves this through cooperation with others, which is common in heroic anime series (like they have panties in ecchi that are way too skimpy). However, people will like it and it cannot hurt if it is done well (which is not the case in this anime series). As far as the other characters are concerned, there are quite a lot of them since it is basically a multi-group race. However, the anime's authors try to give us at least a minimal introduction to each player to outline their motivations. In other words, they try to help us relate to the characters so that we get upset when they die. Unfortunately, with how many characters there are and how much screen time they are given, it only affected me once anyway. Even though the deaths were always appropriately theatrical with an attempt to be as moving as possible (at one point, I was even reminded of the death of the knife expert Britt from The Magnificent Seven), I was hardly affected. I was just a bit sad only once. As far as the narrative is concerned, as the reviewer Subjektiv wrote, it is not convoluted, and it is more of a linear journey. Every now and again, we get undeniable indications that there is going to be a huge twist coming, which is going to take our breath away. However, that does not happen. Maybe it just comes across as a bit interesting, and someone like me will think that yes - I want to watch the next season because I want to know how it is going to turn out. However, being shocked, tense, looking forward - forget it! I thought this first part only deserved 6/10, but I am going to move on because the second half looks much better, according to the other reviews. (14.06.2018)