Much like a combination of the competition in Angelic Layer and the virtual reality premise of Hack//Slash, Dragon Drive 6: Emerging Evil, was the story of a young slacker drawn into a virtual reality game where fighting various opponents was a means to an end. The lead character, Reiji, has supposedly built up his statistics by fighting a number of other characters, some of whom befriend him over the course of the series. The trick here is that the computer analyzes your DNA and invents a dragon (yes, as in fire breathing, fantasy role playing, dragon) to match your strengths. As you win matches against other dragons, your dragon's abilities grow and you move up the rankings. The ultimate goal appeared to be obtaining something called "Dragonite" by winning the championship but it was unclear as to the specifics that entailed.

In volume six, the story seemed to shift gears a bit with the secondary cast members, Daisuke, Rockaku, and Maiko going on a journey to prepare for battle with Kouhei while lead characters Chibi and Reji do likewise in order to prepare for battle against Ri-On. Along the way, the two leads assist another guy, Kohryu, who needs their help fighting an evil dragon bent on draining his town dry of anything valuable as tribute (not to mention the sacrifices). Reiji and Chibi continued to train after that but chance meetings with Kohryu make them wonder if he has been on the level with them. For those keeping track, the episodes were 19: Rebirth, 20: Rites of Passage, 21: To The Legendary Mountain, and 22: Runaway.

The episodes weren't bad but they still seemed aimed at a very young audience and lacked the kind of complexity needed to draw me in. I'm going to rate this one as a Rent It for those who enjoy the Pokemon type fighting shows but there were significant limitations to the show and you'll want to watch the volumes in order to fully appreciate what's going on here. If you have kids that are under 12 years old, they'll probably like this one a lot better than I did but that's a guess based on previous shows (and the children of past girlfriends that were admittedly a bit twisted, much like their mothers).

Picture: Dragon Drive 6: Emerging Evil was presented in the usual 1.33:1 ratio full frame color that it was original produced in when made for Japanese television. The colors were bright but the animation techniques employed were the kind you'd find on a syndicated show on cable (making Pokemon look sophisticated by comparison). The backgrounds were almost completely static and the movement of the foreground characters very limited as well. Otherwise, the transfer was okay but nothing special and my overall impression of the show was that it was produced on a very low budget, very quickly, in order to cash in on some contemporary shows that it borrowed heavily from.

Sound: The audio offered the same choices as most anime series do these days with the standard (and original) 2.0 Dolby Digital Japanese track as well as a 2.0 Dolby Digital English language dub. The vocals of the original track were superior in many ways; from the timing to the manner in which they sounded but I have to give some measure of credit to the dub cast since they apparently had less to work with (by this I mean the translation was dumbed down a bit). Otherwise, the music of the dub seemed slightly different, maybe a bit heavier on the bass (and treble amazingly enough), but certainly better. The same held true for the special effects, almost as if Bandai had enhanced them for our market (much like ADV Films is known for doing).

Extras: The extras included a heavy plastic prism card (the size of the DVD case) of the dragon Canopus, a paper insert, a few trailers, and a very short production sketches sequence.

Final Thoughts: Dragon Drive 6: Emerging Evil was probably a good show to keep kids happy for a viewing or two but it failed to satisfy my needs in entertainment so I rated it as fairly as I could. My impression of the series is that it was rushed on a low budget but I could see how a less sophisticated viewer (typically a small child or somewhat retarded teenager) might get some kicks out of this show. On a positive note, this volume contained four episodes so at least it wasn't as lean as the last one.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003 and Best Of Anime 2004 article or regular column Anime Talk