Tanken Driland

Tanken Driland the anime that thinks its a JRPG. From the ugly cute monsters to the treasure hunting to the power of friendship, it has a lot of the cliches of a JRPG, and that is not necessary a bad thing.

The story.

In the world of Driland people known as Hunters search monster infested ruins and dungeons for treasure. The protagonist princess Mikoto is influenced by a legendary hunter named Bonny and decides to become a hunter as well. After being told no she runs away and becomes hunter anyways. Mikoto's attendant Wallens s her but to try and bring her back home. They are ... ed on their journey by Pollan a hunter who want to be a hero and Paan a wondering Knight. There are also hints of some great evil coming to the world and that Mikoto and her companions will have to fight it.

The Art.

All of the characters are animated in chibi style. That is they have big heads and small bodies. The monsters would not be out of place in Dragon Quest.

The Sound.

The voice acting is pretty good, each character sounds unique and it conveys their personalities very well. The opening theme is alright but I personally love the ending theme.

The Characters.

First we have rebellious princess Mikoto. Instead of sitting around and waiting to come of age to rule the kingdom of Elua, she is learning how to use a sword and sneaking out of the castle to learn how to be a hunter from Bonny. She is a bit naive and stubborn but she is also a genuinely caring person.

Next is Wallens, Mikoto's attendant, he has a mysterious past and changes the subject whenever someone asks him about it. He is also a powerful fighter able to take on monsters much larger than he is using only his fists.

The third character is Pollan the kid of the group. He wants to be hero like the ones in the stories he has grown up on. His weapon of choice is a rifle. Personality wise, he is pretty dumb and falls for some obvious traps but he doesn't like to see people suffer and tries to help when he can.

The fourth character Paan has not appeared yet.

Enjoyment.

Do I enjoy the show, yes. I like JRPGs, especially the Final Fantasy series and Breath of Fire games, so my opinion maybe a little bias but I like dungeon crawling for treasure and battling monsters.

Overall.

Tanken Driland is a light hearted adventure story that fallows standard JRPG formulas. If you are a fan of JRPGs or adventure stories then give this one a try.

Tanken Driland is a light-hearted adventure anime. Its story is one that has been repeated many times: defeat the evil villain and defend the land named Driland. The main character, an innocent little princess, is summoned by her master to go on a journey to protect Driland. The setting is that of a fantasy JRPG, where characters encounter the MC and become part of her party, and together they head out to defeat the evil with magic and swords.

Story & Characters:
The story is too simple, lacking tension, depth, and drama. Character arcs follow a repetitive pattern: it starts with the character in question ... yearning for power, then an unexpected obstacle that they have deal with leaves them with newfound strength by the end. I would have overlooked all of that if the characters had more than just their quirk and one-dimensional personality. There's also a noticeable lack of world building and character development that would have stimulated me enough to make me enjoy my time. but who am I to complain about such things when this is clearly a kids show.

Visuals & Sound:
The fights are dull, with characters merely clashing their swords and mouths. The production values aren't impressive either, each action is animated with no more than four frames, there’s no post-processing, and most effects are computer-generated. I didn’t appreciate the art style either, baby-like proportions with round cubic heads.
The OST that comes with this anime is decent. However, there is only one fighting theme that gets tiring after a while. Sound effects are also reused a lot. There are about 3 different sword sounds, that isn't much considering that you will be hearing them for the length of this anime.

Overall Opinion:
I would never have finished watching Tanken Driland if I didn't have any nostalgia for it. And I can't bring myself to recommend an anime that is obviously directed at kids. maybe it was entertaining for its time. however, I would say that it didn't age well, kids have a lot of ways to entertain themselves that are far superior than watching Tanken Driland. And even if you want to watch it, your options are limited. The only versions I know of are the original Japanese and the Arabic dub, and I could only find 19 subtitled episodes.