Ragna Crimson: Collector’s Edition Review
Ragna Crimson is based on a manga created by Daiki Kobayashi that has been running in Square Enix’s Monthly Gangan Joker since 2017, going some way to explain why so many outside of Japan haven’t really heard of it as Square Enix’s Jump! competitor magazines often struggle to find their feet elsewhere (Fullmetal Alchemist aside, obviously…) So you might be wondering just what Ragna Crimson is all about, and I think that’s the thing that sticks out the most in my eyes as in terms of genre it’s a very odd mash-up of ideas and in terms of tone it often tries to take itself more seriously than the rather off-the-wall plot allows.
The series is set in a world where humanity has been enslaved and frequently under attack from dragons, who in this case can take all sort of forms and have powers from controlling trees to stopping time as well as a weakness to a specific type of silver and to direct sunlight, so a mix of werewolf and vampire lore thrown into the mix. It’s a very confused enemy force, but clearly created to allow for a lot of flexibility in terms of how fights can take place. Our main protagonist is Ragna, who at the start of the series is a rather meek young man who relies on his master Leonica to do all the fighting, someone he has come to love deeply. He eventually starts having visions of her being killed by a dragon and just as it seemed like his vision was going to come true, he is met by a version of himself from 40 years into the future who laments being too weak to save Leonica and reveals he has found a way to fuse his human power with “Silverine” and kill dragons with a single strike. And so in order to prevent Leonica’s death he gives his younger self all his newfound powers and his memories of future events so they can free the world from dragons and change the future.
Ragna easily kills the dragon who was moments away from killing his master/love but the two soon split when Leonica resents her former lackey suddenly telling her to go somewhere safe until the war is over. It’s shortly after this that Ragna meets Crimson, a dragon who (seemingly) wishes to see their own kind wiped out and is happy to use Ragna for this purpose. A memory from his future self tells Ragna to trust Crimson… ish, and so a fun partnership is created, where Crimson creates detailed and clever plans to defeat ever-more-powerful dragons, only to see them nearly always fall apart due to Ragna’s bloodlust and being drunk on his own newfound power. One time Crimson is training Ragna on the moon (don’t ask) the next he’s trying to dissect Ragna after having poisoned him when the hothead attempted to rebel, only to fail due to Ragna’s willpower and crazy future-self powers. Honestly, Crimson is about the only character that really kept me entertained during the 24- episode run. Ragna does his job as hot-headed shonen protagonist but is rather one-note in that aspect, and the supporting cast can be interesting at times but this is one of those series that feels like repeatedly killing off supporting cast members for attempted shock value is a better idea than keeping them around and developing them long enough for the one or two times you do it to mean something.
What is a “Battle Shonen” show without battles, and Ragna Crimson has plenty. Some of them are well animated and fun to watch but a lot of them are slide-show-like or overuse some rather subpar CGI. I’ve not heard of Silver Link studio before despite how many shows they’ve apparently worked on, so I guess they’re the definition of a dependable mid-tier company, able to make a perfectly watchable anime adaptation that doesn’t draw ridicule but doesn’t have the budget/skill to break out and gain much positive buzz for themselves. The soundtrack is likewise inoffensive but not particularly memorable, leading to an end product that’s just… fine, sometimes dipping into good.
As for extras, you’re eating well with this release as the entire fourth disc is nothing but extra features. Alongside the normal clean openings and endings we have two TV specials in “Pre-airing emergency broadcast program: ‘Dawn of the Dragon Hunters’” which gets you up to speed with the lore, and “Special program: ‘The Path to Ultimate Power’” which looks into the series story and production and feature interviews and little on-stage games with the Japanese cast and crew, plus some promos and trailers. The physical product comes with booklet and art cards too, so even though the show didn’t make major waves, this release wasn’t half-hearted that’s for sure, which is great to see.
Do I recommend Ragna Crimson? If you like your battle shonen shows full of bloody angst and death (yet still with moments of comedy here and there) then this is a perfectly fine example of it. It won’t blow you away with story, animation or soundtrack, but it won’t dramatically disappoint you on any of those points either. On the other hand, if you only have passing interest in the sub-genre or are interested in getting into it I can recommend a lot of better shows to start with.
Our review copy was provided by MVM.
