If theres one thing that Ive learnt over the course of the past few years its 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. In short its pure... 220https://i.pin.com/474x/79/b8/76/79b876254975b45492d4dbffb97dbf9e.jpg The Dragons Heaven OVA is an 1988 adaptation of the 1986 manga by Makoto Kobayashi. If youve looked up some of the images youll probably immediately notice that the artstyle feels very familiar and thats natural: Dragons 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 Mbius Giraud author of several works of scifi 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. 220https://rictus.info/IMG/jpg/746.jpg These are some big influences if I may say so and while I have yet to take a look at the original media this OVA left absolutely not doubt in my mind: as soon as the corny goofily theatrical display of the real life animatronic props that are meant to represent the fight between Shaian and El Medine comes to an end were treated to some downright gorgeous detailed artstyle with this very organic almost Western feeling that reminds you of Nausicahttps://anilist.co/anime/572/ or Heavy Metal while never feeling like a cheap knockoff. In fact the sakuga never falters in this short work and those very outlandish environments illustrated with pure shading awesomeness as well as some very appreciated grain during the flashbacks/historical perspectives certainly are a boon for any person sensitive to aesthetics and beauty. One thing to note in particular is the robots designs. While Shaian is closer to your average mecha/robot from the 80s El Medines appearance is very much unusual with its abnormally large head its tendrils and small claws feels more buglike or at least crustacean in essence. The contrast is certainly striking and could have been used to denote the technological differences between two empires. Alas there was no time for that. 220https://tavernadolugarnenhum.com.br/wpcontent/uploads/2024/10/MV5BMTFkNTAyMzktNDE5Yi00NzliLTkzMDUtMTZiZDc3NWY4OWUwXkEyXkFqcGc.V1.jpg If the visuals are certainly a reason to watch this OVA the same cannot be said of basically any narrative part of this work unfortunately. I should just be honest: no matter how much I enjoyed this OVA and I did it is simply too lacking in the story and characters departments for me to give a very good mark in good conscience. In fact its ESPECIALLY because the base of this work is so appealing and the overall product could have been so much more that it is even more of a shame that they stopped so fast. When it comes to characters we really have only 3 of them: our robotic protagonist and star of the show Shaian who seems to have a gentlemanly noble personality with a strong sarcastic side. Our human protagonist is Ikuuru a young brash sexy girl whos a bit of a Daredevil. Its hard to say whether or not they have a good chemistry but it did look like they could have been a nice cop duo with a bit of romance on the side. The third main character is El Medine Shaians worst enemy and nemesis. Having been active for the past millennium its become a strong robot working for the Brazilian empire and is a conniving individual but proud enough to underestimate its foes. Again there hasnt been much in terms of events for me to talk about thats just how it is. 220https://m.mediaamazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmYzNWMzNTAtMDE4OC00NWNjLTkxYTYtOGQwMDVhZGY1NGQ0XkEyXkFqcGc.V1.jpg Dragons 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 theres no more obvious sign of that than the aforementioned introduction sequence. This one was very much inspired by other Japanese liveaction and American movies use of practical effects. And even if you dont buy it not even a second you cant help but find it charming. Seemingly this intro was made entirely on director Kobayashis 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 otakustyle almost chuunibyoulike 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 Ultramanhttps://www..com/watch?v=DccY2560nW0 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 itd be disrespectful to not acknowledge their passion as they made the thing they truly wanted to make and were happy about it. 220https://rictus.info/IMG/jpg/552.jpg All in all itd be stupid to ignore Dragons Heaven just because it didnt leave a mark on the OVA landscape or isnt fleshed out. Who knows maybe watching this will spur you to go back to that one amateur project youd been working on but put aside for XYZ reasons. Sometimes a good concept and enough heart are just what you need to proceed to the next level.