Worthwhile feature-length animes have been few and far between these days. There are a number of reasons for this, but I think the biggest problem is that anime has almost too many possibilities. Since everything is in the realm of imagination, it's difficult to reign it in, to keep it grounded. There's a difficulty in fitting all that possibility into two hours.
Sadly, this problem plagues Legend of the Millennium Dragon (Onigamiden in Japanese). It seems most of all confused as to whether it should be a series or a feature. It hits all the tropes of a typical anime series: a young boy, Jun, is taken from the prosaic present into feudal times and lands in the middle of a war between the Nobles and a raiding band of demons (Oni). In the Noble's camp he befriends a suicidal warrior who was once an Oni, and the powerful monk Gen'un, who tells him that he alone has the power to summon the titular dragon, Orochi.
Of course at this point you wonder when the feisty but affectionate female warrior is going to drop in on the as yet all-male cast, and, like magic, one nearly falls out of the sky, as a lone Oni is pursued and trapped. Surprise, when the mask comes off it's a female warrior, and she is feisty and (eventually) affectionate. This is where the story gets interesting, since she claims that the so-called demons are actually fighting for their own land and the Nobles are invaders. Jun is left having to make a choice as to which side he will fight for.
It is an interesting story, sort of Princess Mononoke by way of Basilisk. Trouble is, there just isn't enough time to get to care. Jun spends all of five minutes in the present day before he is whisked off to high adventure. We don't really learn anything about him other than that he's a bit of a coward. He meets characters and has to decide quickly whether or not to trust his life with them, without us getting to know them at all.
There is enough story here for a season's worth of anime (the movie was based on a series of novels), yet the movie breezes by it in 98 minutes. By the last third of the movie plot points are flying by so quickly that even Jun is clinging to his luck dragon as if somehow he'll make it through if everyone just keeps hurtling forward as fast as they can. And while there are some nice visuals, they are wasted without a connection to the characters.
But the biggest waste is how good the story could have been. Like the best sort of anime series, it does an excellent job of playing our expectations of the first half against the second half. Getting at that story, unspooling it from the unfortunate tangle this movie's left it in, makes it almost worth a watch.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Two-disc Blu-ray and DVD set. A small concept art gallery. Tons of languages.
"Legend of the Millennium Dragon" is on sale October 4, 2011 and is not rated. Action, Adventure, Animation, Fantasy, Foreign. Directed by Hirotsugu Kawasaki. Written by Takafumi Takada, Naruhisa Arakawa, Hirotsugu Kawasaki. Starring Ryuji Aigase, Satomi Ishihara, Kentaro Ito, Yasuyuki Kase.
