Tanken Driland gets a lot of flack for being Chibi from people who have not watched it. The good news is, the Chibi style does not detract from this show at all. No. This show would be just fine if that were the only problem. The real problem is that Tanken Driland does a ton of things that we have already seen. It is filled with cliches and plot devices used a ton of times.
Tanken Driland Art
The Chibi style, as I’ve said, works well. There are some excellent backgrounds and the animations are clean. Everything moves fluidly and looks quite nice. If this had a better story, like many things this season, it would be better.
This show is serious without being heart-wrenching.
Where the Problems with Tanken Driland Start
To start with, the show is about “hunters” and a “princess” who wants to adventure. We have seen all of this before a great many times. It is not that any of it is poorly executed, it is just so bland. The characters are not interesting nor engaging. The setting is fairly standard fantasy fare. The plot twists seem like they will be predictable. Nothing about this is screaming at me, “WATCH ME”.
Is Tanken Driland a comedy?
The only interesting part was the minor amount of slapstick to be had. It was a bit funny when the princess tried to smash a monster and just slid off. But most of the show isn’t even funny. It is not that they are trying to be and failing, there just aren’t any jokes. So this show is not doing drama and not doing comedy. Is this for people from the neutral planet? If so, tell my wife, I said, hello.
Final Verdict for Tanken Driland: Not Watching
Some shows make me scream in terror. Others make me laugh with joy. Tanken Driland causes me to watch silently with a poker face. Nothing seems to be happening at all in this series. It appears that the next few episodes will be spent gathering up her party. Most of them didn’t even show up in the first episode. This show appears to be building up to something. However I seriously doubt that it will be good enough to redeem and inherently mediocre show.
