Dragons Heaven 1988 Two things about the Dragons Heaven OVA stand out most I think first being the liveaction scalemodel opening and the second being the Moebiusinfluenced style of manga artist Makoto Kobayashi upon whose work this OVA is based. As usual I cant discuss the quality of this anime as an adaptation but the story is a straightforward war story told very quickly with a lot of action and attention paid to the robots. What caught my eye most was definitely visual style with the animes designs right after. That isnt to say that the characters dont work but with only 20odd minutes of animation the time is mostly spent on scenesetting and battles. There are a few passages devoted to dialogue ones that function beyond exposition but for the most part I think Dragons Heaven excels at the visuals. As many OVAs can. 220https://thereviewheaphome.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/vlcsnap2022082516h11m45s064.png Above I do mention battles but theyre usually a little short you could say that some are pretty much explosions because the dragons fire that main characters Shaian and Ikuuru use is really mammoth stuff. Speaking of Ikuuru she reminded me of a more snarky Nausicaa in some ways but like her partner she doesnt have a character arc or a whole lot of impact beyond the confines of the plot. While the detail and care that has gone into the models at the beginning of the OVA is very clear I dont know if Dragons Heaven would have suffered without it. On the other hand thats part of whats so fun about the era creators seemed more able to just try stuff out. And finally its interesting to have a largely nonhuman cast and both hero Shaian and villain Elmedain have designs that seem unlike a lot of other robotfocused anime but I think you might be disappointed if you seek this OVA out hoping for a multifaceted story. Instead I think its worth seeing at least once anyway just for the art design and animation alone and I definitely add this to my list of anime where I wish there had been more. 4 Stars So apparently this review was too short until I added the useless paragraph that youre reading right now Okay thats not enough either heres some more: An OVA can be: An animated film or series made for release on video rather than for broadcast/theatrical screening Generally high budgets that can mean visual qualities are better than a typical television series No fixed length nor broadcast timeconstraints when it comes to storytelling To some extent created outside regulation and so they have a reputation for anything goes when it comes to restricted content Often but certainly not always based on original scripts rather than being adaptations Long wait times between episodes/installments for some OVAs First OVA to be described as such was 1983s Dallos from Mamoru Oshii The ONA Original Net Animation is an obvious more modern equivalent