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[Crunchyroll promo art]
AKA: イクシオン サーガ DT
Genre: Fantasy action comedy.
Length: Television series, 25 episodes, 24 minutes each
Distributor: Currently available streaming on crunchyroll.
Content Rating: PG-13 (Violence, fanservice, mature elements, juvenile humor.)
Related Series: N/A
Also Recommended: Excel Saga, Tower of Druaga.
Notes: Based on the online game Ixion Saga.... apparently.
Rating:

Ixion Saga DT

Synopsis

During what Kon Hakaze thinks is a regular ol' online gaming flirt, he makes the (arguable) mistake of making a promise to a stunningly gorgeous female in the game to help her with a grand mission. Seconds later, he lands straight on top of an assassin going for Princess Ecarlate Juptris Saint Piria's life. He promptly joins the Princess and her entourage -- which consists of a cat-crazy huge swordfighter and a transsexual, pistol-wielding maid attendant -- mostly because they're his best lead for getting back home.


Review

Among the many crazy comedies out there, a few choose to feature a main plot thread that kind of ties everything, however unrelated together. Ixion Saga DT is one of those. I say this because regardless of how normal the synopsis might make it sound, make no mistake about it; Ixion Saga DT is completely bananas. It's crude, absurd, moronic and goddamned hilarious.

Well, most of the time anyway.

In a sense, I can't really find flaw with the logic of Ixion Saga, as a lot of the comedy is centered around how a teenager would react in the extremely unlikely event that he'd be pulled into his favorite game. Kon takes this as well as one would expect; he takes his time coming to terms with it, and then acts like a complete boob about it afterwards, whining and complaining to anyone who'll listen. And the first point of his agenda is finding his way back home, now that his game has turned fatally dangerous.

When it comes to the rest of the comedy, I... don't even know where to start. Sure, Ixion Saga has a common plot thread, but the show is easily as random as Excel Saga, and twice as immature. Most of the episodes tend to be centered around the cast making various stops at random locations so that they can do the gag reel of the episode, whether that be a particular person or something said town is famous for. Occasionally, they run across the members of Incognito, whose leader Kon faced and testicles he crushed during his journey. No, seriously; Kon quite literally crushes the guy's balls, visual aid and all, and so we get the motivation for the main antagonists to antagonize team Kon. Oh, did I mention the guy's name is Erecpyle Dukakis? Because I'm certainly not making that up.

For all its infantilism, the show is curiously respectful towards Mariandale and her transsexuality. Granted, they do the whole "changing voices" gag at times for shock value directed towards its targets once she loses her temper during situations of duress, but nobody seems to be particularly bothered about her "secret", least of all the men flirting with her at the beach. (And yes, there is a beach episode.)

Aside from the ballcrushings and the hilarious crossgenderisms, most of the comedy is centered around Kon's immaturity, Sanglain (the big sword dude) and his kitty fetish (as in actual cats), the Princess's sarcastic nature and cowlick-related mood swings, but to cover everything else, I would need so much time and space. Kon becomes the head of a religious order in one episode, and bumps into a completely psychotic (and naive about it) happy-go-lucky girl who causes anyone who gets within arms reach great physical harm. It's.... not my favorite couple of episodes.

Thankfully, bad episodes tends to be the exception in this show rather than the rule. Ixion Saga DT has proven itself quite adept with run-on jokes, gags, random dialogue and general stupidity put to great effect. It also helps that they don't go completely overboard with the characters. Kon is, as mentioned, a very typical teenager. Sanglain isn't just some dumb musclehead, but he's generally not driven by his eccentricities either. And Mariandale is, as mentioned, less about her transsexualism and more about her balls-out (not literally) attitude rather than any stereotypes transsexual characters tend to fall into. Even the Princess is less a tsundere and more like those smart-alecky kids of old.

And team Incognito rounds off the most flamboyant cast lot of them all. You'll not often see a more dapper bunch of young gents firing off everyone's gaydars without actually being gay. Many of the episodes are actually centered around the team and their many failed attempts at offing Kon from this strange world, or even them taking a break and getting involved in family affairs. Or showing up in the most magnificently homoerotic manservice during the end credits for around half the show. You know... a little something for the ladies.

As juvenile and stupid as things can get, Ixion Saga DT turned out to be a surprising amount of fun. Even better, the stuff I didn't like in this show were mostly limited to particular episodes, all of which can safely be skipped without losing anything from the total experience. As long as you don't mind the plot being the backseat driver in comedy's car, you shouldn't have any problems with watching this show.

Crazy and fun. Crazy fun!Stig Høgset

Recommended Audience: Most of the violence in Ixion Saga is non-fatal (though this is not always immediately obvious.) Some of said violence is quite cringeworthy to look at, though, and I'm not necessarily talking about Erecpyle's... semi-unintentional neutering.

Fanservice is generally average, but the show makes no secret about why Kon chose to help the mysterious woman out. Added to that, the juvenile humor that makes up a grand deal of the comedy makes it the most appropriate for teenagers.



Version(s) Viewed: Digital stream from Crunchyroll, Japanese with English subtitles.
Review Status: Full (25/25)
Ixion Saga DT © 2012 Brains Base, Pony Canyon, Ixion Saga DT partners
 
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