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Daina Airan Review by: Richard E. Rae "Daina Airan" (Dinosaur Island) is a SegaSaturn CD-ROM (or "soft", as the Japanese call it) which was released on February 14. It's a Game Arts product that can be described as a great follow-up and semi-sequel to Izumi Takemoto's previous success for the MegaCD, "Yumimi Mix", released for the Saturn as "Yumimi Mix Remix". Takemoto's artwork and style will be familiar to those who loved "Yumimi Mix", with cute, engaging characters, and a fun story. As a matter of fact, there are dozens of little "in-jokes" and references to "Yumimi Mix" in this game, with Rie Morishita and Yumimi Yoshizawa showing up here and there as well as some of the alternate-dimensional creatures that infested that anime-game!! "Daina Airan" (Dinosaur Island) is billed as an "interactive comic" on the spine sleeve, but this little gem is more than that!! It is actually FULLY animated, with visual effects, eyecatches, and other things usually associated strictly with TV or movie anime. As some animation is done "direct to video" this could be said to be done "direct to Saturn" as the Saturn processing engines handle EVERYTHING. The colors are beautiful, the artwork engaging, action smooth and perfect, and the simple "shoujo"-style story is fun and lighthearted. This is leaps and bounds beyond what was done in "Yumimi Mix". The premise of the story is what I think of as the "opposite" of Jurassic Park! A group of contemporary explorers in Iceland enter a deep, long, cavernous corridor... and discover a lost world of dinosaurs still existing in the center of the Earth! Seems these dinosaurs are soon moved to the Equatorial regions as an experiment, and easily assimilated into modern society. They are soon put to work doing every odd job imaginable... and they'll do anything willingly, as they're easily controlled by music!! So on a southern island, an academy is created where music training is all-important and high-schoolers are trained to develop the talents necessary to direct and manipulate these ancient beasts... The heroines of this story are the redheaded Emily Ito (Ikue Ohtani- Himeko from my favorite "Hime-chan no Ribbon") and the blonde Angie Ito (Miyuki Matsushita- Erika in "Wedding Peach"), twin sisters attending the academy. Emily is a mild-mannered, meek, cute "every-girl". Her sister Angie is a bit hot-tempered and strong-willed, and she often states her convictions loudly! The male classmate lead is Riron Mizushima (Akira Ishida- Seiya Uzaki from another favorite, "Ririka SOS"). Riron is a funny character who is always laughing (sometimes to the point of getting bashed by Angie)! The story follows their adventures as they learn the skills necessary for dinosaur control, pursue their lessons and projects, and, during an egg-retrieving project, they ultimately encounter some things completely unexpected on the island which may change everything!! What things do they discover? That's the beauty of this anime-game! While "Yumimi Mix" had a number of decision paths and alternate scenes and happenings, they didn't really alter the base story too much. "Daina Airan" is closer to "Sakura Taisen" in this regard, as so far I've seen entire segments of the storyline change with at least four or more completely different paths to different endings!! And these paths aren't simply "variations"- they're completely different story tracks! And there are branches on branches, so who knows what the final product can be! Some paths make the game short and somewhat weak, others are quite strong and VERY interesting!! But they're all fun and all very entertaining, and all part of a greater whole. There must be hundreds of scenes and lines of dialogue yet to discover... so this too can be an anime that isn't the same twice. It's very complicated and has HUGE depth of storytelling! It has elements of fantasy AND magical girl series in it, too. Here's a detailed example of the branching.... The teacher has told the class members to individually pick an instrument for a class examination, but he's kept the subject a secret. Emily has a choice between a trumpet, a flute, and a ukulele... you choose which one, and Emily picks it up and comments on her choice. Angie (narrow-eyed) says "Really??" Then you get a second chance to confirm. You soon find out that the exam is riding a small bipedal dinosaur and controlling it along a marked course just by playing the instrument! This is a very funny scene, as the class members with cellos [like Angie], tubas, large taiko, etc. wail in dismay and those with small, easy to handle instruments smile with joy. We see a couple of rather humorous attempts by her classmates that don't succeed... then it's Emily's turn! No matter what instrument, she starts out fine, the creature loping along smoothly as she plays. She then worries what to play to move it along and change direction... and another decision balloon! These scenes ALL are differently handled for each instrument and each style, and are wonderfully funny!
For example, if she has a flute, Emily plays slowly, and the dinosaur gets sad
and slows. [Choice]. She plays a bit more peppily, and the creature suddenly
goes and eats out of a tree as Emily wails! [Choice] But one final, gentle tune
change brings the beast back in focus, and it lopes back to start
This sort of thing goes on for the rest of the game, with the multiple levels
and decision paths taking a player on a ride with any number of combinations
possible!
The control interface is MUCH better than in Yumimi Mix! In that game, you
only could save up to 10 positions and only at a decision point. In "Daina
Airan", you are controlling the action as if it were a digital editing
console!! You can pause, play, "skip" forward a few seconds, "skip" backward,
and save at ANY time during the episode in progress. Controls appear in an
on-screen window you can open, though "skips" are performed with the R and L
buttons also. Saving is also great, because you have 20 storage spots (all in
minutes/seconds), 10 for the system and 10 for a data cartridge. As with
Yumimi Mix, you can "replay" a story from start to finish with the game
remembering the decision points you chose, and thus can watch the "anime" from
start to finish!! The many, many branches in the game allow the story to be as
short as 45 minutes, or (so far) as long as 90 minutes! There's a lot of
exploration and scenes to seek for an avid player.
As I mentioned earlier, the graphics are stunning. Izumi Takemoto's art is cute
and stylish, and all animation is as smooth and detailed as it would be on TV,
or in a movie. It's marvelously directed with excellent staging and seamless
flow.
We can't neglect sound, either. Besides a great OP song (sung by the leads Ikue
Ohtani and Miyuki Matsushita), there's LOTS of great BGM, several excellent fun
songs IN the story, and a marvelous ED song as well. Sound effects are perfect,
and dialogue is smooth as silk and perfectly synched with mouth movement. As
mentioned, every word is spoken and the line between "anime" and "game" totally
disappears except when a choice must be made. Put it in replay mode, and even
that distinction is gone.
This "anime-game" is a true interactive "anime" that will keep you interested
for a LONG time to come- there are lots of things to be discovered and enjoyed,
it's fun to watch, gorgeous to look at and listen to. It's great to see such a
cheerful, uplifting story in an anime game.
If you have a Saturn (and can play Japanese games), seek this game out. If you
like shoujo anime, great comedy, or "magical girl" series, you'll love this!!
If you want mecha action or something violent, don't bother... but this is a
VERY enjoyable product that I am looking forward to playing for a LONG time!!
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