This post covers both The Tower of Druaga: The Aegis of Uruk and its sequel, The Tower of Druaga: The Sword of Uruk.
The Tower of Druaga is the kind of show that I’m convinced is a masterpiece but for the life of me I could not possibly explain why. In fact, I’ve made multiple attempts to write this review over the past few months but nothing I’ve come up with so far has really captured how I feel about the show. It’s weird, silly, and nonsensical but I like it and it feels like there’s something deeper in there if I could just convince people to look past all of the admittedly less than stellar moments. What’s even worse is I have to immediately defend the entire first episode. It’s a weird prologue told in the form of the daydreams of the main character, Jil. The episode is off-putting and not a great representation of the show so I’m on my knees, begging you to just push through it and not complain too much.
The problem I have now is that I’ve made this defense of the first episode and semi-forcefully demanded it be struck from the record, but I still don’t have a good reason to give to watch it. The story, which follows two brothers as they ascend the tower with their teams, sets itself up as this epic tale but most episodes are deeply unserious. Some of them are purely gag episodes actually. Meanwhile other episodes are totally serious with cutthroat characters taking lives with no remorse. It feels ridiculous that some of these moments could be part of the same show. I’m saying all of this because I really do understand why someone might totally hate watching this. At least for me though, the two mismatched halves somehow manage to fit perfectly together. Jil’s goofiness contrasts with his bother Neeba’s seriousness as they chase different dreams and the wild swing in tone between episodes plays into that well. It feels right to have a ridiculous, fun episode closely followed by a dramatic character death because it mimic’s how Jil feels and the show is largely about his growth as a character.
Things do get a bit less goofy in the sequel show, The Sword of Uruk. There is a clear movement from as silly as possible with whatever the fuck that first episode is to a second season that is much darker and more serious overall. Interestingly I felt The Sword of Uruk was less compelling overall. They really swapped out the rather confusing gag moments for more serious but somehow equally confusing subplots and supporting characters. A move which rarely seems to work out well. However, there’s no doubt that, as the silliness is slowly squeezed out of the show, they still have something to cook with. The finale really nails the payoff for Jil’s journey and was a satisfying conclusion to the show.
So yeah, I can’t really call this a must watch show, but it was interesting. At the end of the day, I’d rather be interested than bored out of my mind watching the common slop that frequently passes for entertainment so I think you should give it a shot. It will at least give you something to talk about, even if it is just the bizarre first episode. The OP is great though and I remain dedicated to pushing my opinion that a good show has a good OP.