Xanadu: Dragon Slayer Legend (1988)
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Director: Atsutosi Umezawa
Studio: Toei Animation
Starring: Ryo Horikawa, Maria Kawamura, Joji Yanami
Episodes: 1
Synopsis:
A 21st Century soldier is transported to a fantasy world where resurgent black mages seek to gather the three royal treasures of Xanadu and revive the Dark Dragon.
Impressions:
I may have run across this a few years ago and didn't get past the first few minutes. I don't know if exposure to the game series this is based on will help or not. The isekai element of the initial setup is unique to this adaptation, I believe, but because the main character Feig is an amnesiac, his past doesn't have all that much impact on the story (and what impact it does have could have easily been replaced with something else). Although this isn't one of those two-episode pilots common to the era, it has a similar feel (and similar runtime). We close on a cliffhanger that'll never be followed up on, and what we get is a fairly stock story left undercooked. I can't really compliment it in any respect, but it feels like there are some kernels of decent ideas that don't get properly developed. Although there wasn't much that I liked, about the most amsement I got out of this was a scene where the big bad takes offense at getting called a monster... after transforming into this big mass of tentacles. That gave me a chuckle, but other attempts at comedy mostly fall flat. Except as a curiosity from the time or perhaps a point of interest for fans of the original game series, you probably won't get much out of viewing this. It just narrowly squeaks out a verdict of take it or leave it.
50/50