Dragoon is good old mindless, generic fun. It finds itself adrift in the teeming ocean of 90s fantasy OVAs, and exists as the platonic form of that particular genre, indistinguishable amongst the crashing tide, stumbled upon only by mere chance, be it in the back of a video rental place back in the day, or deep in the internet's virtual recesses today. Beginning with the story, it is, like I said, extremely generic. A boy finds a mysterious magical girl with amnesia and goes on an adventure to find out about her past- with his father's sword in hand hegradually accumulates an adventuring party made up of various common tropes, all while fighting against an evil empire that has advanced technology. I could have told you the rest of the story as soon as I finished the first episode. Despite this, Dragoon is still passingly enjoyable, and if it were to randomly come on TV somehow, I'm not sure if I'd change the channel right away. Notably, there are some ecchi elements that feel a bit out of place in the rest of the story, which were for sure included to sell some more copies of the OVA. At it's core, it's still a good old adventure story, and while it doesn't stand out, it doesn't really do anything wrong, and follows the well-worn footpaths of its formula well.

The art is that familiar, warm 90s style, complete with a visually interesting, if somewhat generic, fantasy setting. However, it leaves something to be desired in terms of animation, which feels stiff and rigid throughout.

The sound, like the rest of the anime, meets all basic standards for quality, though the voice work is distinctive.

The characters are pretty much all tropes, with Sadi being your young idealistic swordsman with dark blue hair, Myuu being the mysterious amnesiac magical girl with white hair, Prince Rain being the long-haired blonde aristocratic gentleman, Lilith being the red-haired tomboy with fire powers, and so on. Despite how tired and predictable this is, the characters are still my favorite part of the show, given that their interactions feel engaging, and at times, natural. Of them, my favorite was the villain Bashua, as he was badass whenever he was onscreen, and had cooler lines than pretty much anyone else in the show. Overall, Dragoon is a fun, paint-by-numbers 90s romp that almost feels like you took all the other ones, blended them together, and diluted the essential principles of what was left into a short OVA series. While it's not a must-watch by any means, and there are certainly much better anime out there, it must be said that if you particularly like the genre, or are just looking for a way to kill some time, it might be worth a watch.