
a review by Kuma187

a review by Kuma187
If there's one thing that I've learnt over the course of the past few years, it's that OVAs, whether they wind up being terrible or great, are usually the result of pure, undistilled, unadulterated passion. The kind of devotion to art, fun, props, that creates new concepts, immense machinery, entire worlds, and a true love letter to any and all kinds of narrative media.

The Dragon's Heaven OVA is an 1988 adaptation of the 1986 manga by Makoto Kobayashi. If you've looked up some of the images, you'll probably immediately notice that the artstyle feels very familiar, and that's natural: Dragon's Heaven is a hommage to early Hayao Miyazaki works, as well as the works of fairly obscure yet very appreciated (in the right circles) French cartoonist Jean "Mœbius" Giraud, author of several works of sci-fi who became a big influence among some famous Japanese mangaka (including Jiro Taniguchi and Go Nagai) and who would even take part in certain very popular works of fiction, like Alien or Masters of the Universe.



Dragon's Heaven is the perfect example of the average passion project, with a lot of amateurism, probably not a lot of budget, and yet so much love poured into it and there's no more obvious sign of that than the aforementioned introduction sequence. This one was very much inspired by other Japanese live-action and American movies' use of practical effects. And even if you don't buy it not even a second, you can't help but find it charming. Seemingly, this intro was made entirely on director Kobayashi's decision, vision and personal dime (as we can see in the making of) in order to bring his own paper creation to life. Such corny, otaku-style, almost chuunibyou-like presentation were not unusual back during that time, as evidenced by other creators such as none other than Anno Hideaki himself and his old, amateur Return of Ultraman movie. These people truly loved the craft, the tech, the feelings, no matter how silly they were, or perhaps BECAUSE it all looked so silly. Times have changed, the technology has changed, filmmaking has changed, our standards have changed, but I believe it'd be disrespectful to not acknowledge their passion as they made the thing they truly wanted to make, and were happy about it.

All in all, it'd be stupid to ignore Dragon's Heaven just because it didn't leave a mark on the OVA landscape or isn't fleshed out. Who knows, maybe watching this will spur you to go back to that one amateur project you'd been working on but put aside for XYZ reason(s). Sometimes, a good concept and enough heart are just what you need to proceed to the next level.
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