Dragonaut -The Resonance-: Mecha, Romance and Mixed Feelings

A space rock stalls over Pluto, dragons awaken from the deep, and a single choice splits a life in two—perfect ingredients for a mecha romance that should hit like a meteor. We dive into Dragonaut: The Resonance with an honest look at what soars, what sputters, and why this cult title still stirs debate years later. The hook is strong: human-dragon resonance, a secretive agency pushing weaponized bonds, and a love story tethered to the worst day of an 18-year-old’s life. The execution, though, swings between thrilling and thin, and that tension fuels our take.

We unpack the worldbuilding around Thanatos, ISDA’s D-Project, and the biomechanical dragons that blur partner and machine. Jin’s arc becomes a fulcrum: the manga’s hard-edged avenger versus the anime’s softer, reactive lead. That shift shapes every decision he makes with Toa, whose power and guilt should form the show’s moral core. Her reveal—both savior and source of his loss—ought to spark a layered reckoning about blame, grief, and the limits of forgiveness. Instead, the romance leans on quick absolution and late confessions that strain believability.

Gio changes the charge. Born to Toa’s cry, he reframes the triangle into a protective pact, aligning with Jin to keep her safe while exposing Kazuki’s slide from friend to rival. We break down how loyalty, pride, and control collide across these relationships, why the combat design favors barriers and blades over brute force, and where dated but clear visuals still deliver. We also talk pacing stumbles, an OVA that bends tone, and the genre bar for mecha romance: resonance needs character steel, not just spectacle.

If you’re curious about flawed love stories, dragon partners, and whether a 6.5 is too harsh or just right, this one’s for you. Listen, then tell us: does forgiveness here feel brave or blind? Subscribe, share with a mecha-loving friend, and drop a review with your score and favorite moment.

Transcript

Setup And First Impressions

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What up, gang? It's the Zone Podcast back at it again with another review. I'm JB, and it's another Mecha Monday for me. We are gonna go ahead and review Dragonaut the Resonance. And as I said in the last review, our main warrior at the borderline, on the borderline, excuse me. I was kind of not looking forward to this review because Dragon, not gonna lie, the first time I watched it, and maybe crazy enough, I remember the first three episodes and thinking like, okay, it's not bad. But I'm thinking, like, did I drop it at some point? Because everything else that happened, I just did not remember. But second time around watching it, I kinda like it, but there's like certain elements that piss me off. So let me just go ahead and dive right into it. So, in this world of Dragon Art, 20 years prior to the story's beginning, an asteroid headed for Earth, destroys Pluto. Due to Pluto's destruction, the asteroid, which is dubbed Thanatos, becomes temporarily stagnant in Pluto's orbit. Now, in order to avoid Earth's impending destruction, the International Solar System Development Agency or ISDA works on the D project and secretly creates weapons called dragons after finding a dragon egg in the ocean. However, they soon find out that the asteroid is not their only threat as powerful destructive dragons from Thanatos appear on Earth. After witnessing what looks like a murder by a strange creature, our main protagonist, Jane Kashima. No, hold on, wait, wait, wait. So that's why I get thrown off the uh Kamishina. In the dub, they pronounce it, they pronounce it Kamishina. It sounds weird in the English though, uh, but I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be pronounced Kamishina. And I'm gonna try to avoid saying that after this point because you know I kind of suck at pronouncing some words. I'm trying to get better, but yeah, I just don't want to feel like I had to do multiple takes just to pronounce some name, right? Trying to be perfect and shit. I'm not Mr. Perfect, y'all know me. And you know what? Who cares? Like, why the fuck do we still care about people trying to be perfect, anyways? Like, we all know nobody's perfect, so why do we still insist on the platitudes? But anyways, let me get back on topic. Jen, he's a lonely 18-year-old boy who lost his family in a shuttle accident two years ago, gets involved with the ISDA and the effort to battle the dragons for authenticals. Helping him is Toa, a mysterious girl who saves him from falling to his depth after the creature attacks him. As they delve deeper into the mysteries of the dragons, they encounter new friends and enemies and also develop a closer relationship. Now, like I said in the Ame review, this is supposed to be like the pre-Valentine's Day review. Um, because you know it would be like the Monday before Valentine's Day, and even though this was like the closest mecha romance anime that I could find on a crunchy role that counts as such, it's like, uh anyways. Oh, re-watching it, I'm like, I don't know if I liked it as much as I thought I was going to. Because here's the thing in the manga, Jin's character is drastically different compared to his anime counterpart. When dragons invaded Earth, his family was killed in the destruction of Tokyo two years prior to the story's beginning. Due to this, he seemingly becomes cold-hearted and vengeful, showing no mercy when destroying invading dragons. He's considered to be one of the most dangerous of the Dragonauts when he actualizes with his partner Toa, whom he often insults, albeit in a seemingly comedic nature. He's also shown to have some athletic abilities of his own. Despite his stoic nature, he strives to protect mankind with the power Toa he has uh Toa granted him. Now, in the anime, this dude kind of come off a little bitch made. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but listen, you know what? Maybe it'll be easier to explain once I talk about who I dare say is the biggest problem in this series. Hoa herself. Now, hear me out. She's shown to have remarkable athletic abilities, strength, accelerate, healing abilities, even shown able to heal others as well, sounds good, all that, all of which are attributed to the fact that she is a dragon from Thanatos. Uh, I did mention that this is a mecha romance series, right? So Gene is in love with Toa, but hold on, I'll get to the part where I'm pissed off. In her dragon form, she is immensely powerful, and she is able to take on more than two other dragons at a time. She's known as the album by the ISDA who wishes to capture her in order to retrieve information on the original dragons from Thanos. She's a barrier type dragon, and in her communicator or human form, like she could create a shield strong enough to repel a fully actualized dragon. In her dragon form, she mainly disables her opponents by locking them in barrier spheres. She also bears a relatively bright stigmata on her back, which signifies her impending death. The brighter it glows, the closer she gets to death. However, her stigmata disappears in the final episode. She got her name Toa after retrieving half of a bracelet that belonged to Jean's sister I. I remember his sister died in that shuttle accident. And before the accident, the bracelet had 2i engraved on it, but now it only reads 2A, which she was like, 2A, 2A. You know what? That's gonna be my new name. Uh 2A. No, no, no, no, no. That sounds stupid. Uh Toa. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, here's the part that pissed me off. It is later revealed that Toa was one who saved Gene from falling to his duck during the shuttle accident, right? And at that time, he also underwent a successful resonance with her. That's how Jean became Toa's master all those years ago. However, Toa also reveals that she too was the one responsible for the space shuttle accident, which killed Jean's family and the others. Despite this, Jean still continues to protect her. There were three dragons that came down. And one of the dragons, Toa, hit the shuttle that killed Gene's parents. She felt so guilty about that. She was like, on the one hand, she wanted to be with Jean because of the resonance thing, but on the other hand, she felt so guilty about killing off his parents and uh his uh sister. Because keep in mind, his mother and sister was like in coach or first class, second class, I don't know for sure. And his father was the pilot. The shuttle accident was blamed on Gene's father for you know incompetence type thing. But with in actual truth, it was because Toe like fucking crashed into the shuttle. And she felt so guilty about it, she was trying to distance herself from Gene. But for some reason, it's like Gene is like, no, it's okay, you know, let's just be together, you know, me, you and Gio together forever. And I'll get to Gio in just a moment. But it's almost like on the one hand, if you Google what Toa from Dragon Art looked like, you're like, okay, I kinda get it. Like, do an image search. And okay, I kinda get it. She kind of looks like a baddie, but I don't, I would at least felt some type of way about the fact that um you the one that you're the like, even though you didn't mean to crash into the show, it's like I would at least felt some type of way um being in proximity with the person responsible for it, you know?

SPEAKER_00 9:31

I mean, am I am I tripping? Like, am I tripping for that?

Kazuki’s Spiral And Consequences

Aged Design, Weak Romance Payoff

Mecha Criteria And Comparisons

Final Verdict And Broader Reflections

Sign Off And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_01 9:37

I don't know. It just felt like he was a little too forgiving in a way. Um, I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. Now, Gio, Gio is a dragon from the ISDA who is assigned to be Kazuki Takibana's partner after Kazuki successfully resonated with Gio's dragon egg form. However, despite being Kazuki's partner, Gio does not take orders from him, like uh 2 million and Charizard and OG Pokemon just not even hearing what Ash gotta say. Showing more concern for Toa, whom he states he was born to protect, because you know, it was it was kind of like uh Goku and Broly type thing. You you remember the first Broly movie where Goku was doing all that crying and Broly was like motivated to kill Goku because of all that crying. But in this case, it was more like Gio heard Toa's cries, and he awakened and it was like for some reason Gio got in his mind like, oh, I was born to protect her. Like it was her cries that brought me in. You know, it's weird, it's weird like that. But I don't think it's like romantic anyway, but it almost made it look like it's set up to be like this love triangle type thing. And that's another thing when I said Gene wanted Toa and Gio to be together forever, it's almost like because Gene trying to say Toa resonated with Gio. So Gene, I mean, Gene is also Gio's partner. Like, in a way, it's like he can Rai and Gio, and Gio seemed like he would rather just work with Gene because they both on the same wavelength as far as protecting Toa. Meanwhile, Kazaki, this guy is such an asshole that he was mistreating his uh partner widow, and he was just bugging, like he was really bugging after Gene to be like, give Gio back to me. And I'm like, bro, he doesn't want you. He doesn't want you, bro. He doesn't want that shit. Uh I'm sorry. But due to this, he's considered a failed experiment. His attachment to Toa seemed to stem from the fact that he was awakened early to Toa's cry, like I said before. Despite initially finding Dean to be a nuisance, he later forms a bond with him due to the shared feeling for Toa, like I said. After realizing how Dean and Toa feel for each other, he takes a supportive role and tries to protect the two from danger. So it's not like he has romantic feelings for Gio. It's not like Gio has romantic feelings for Toa. It's more like it's more like a knight protecting a princess type shit. Gio, it's a sword-type dragon, and he's able to create a black sword while in his communicator form, and his finishing attack as a dragon is a passing slash with a sharp horn that he extends. And check this out, Kazuki was such a dumbass that uh Gio's code number was G10 when he was a dragon egg. Kazuki looked at that dragon egg like G10. Oh, so is his name G-O? Uh G-I-O-G-O? Is that his name? Oh, like his dumb ass. You know what? Go ahead. Go ahead and call him Gio. It's gonna be your dragon, anyways. Go ahead. I swear to God, dog. Outside of that, Gio's not that bad. It's just that at first I thought that was gonna piss me off a little bit. How it seemed like they try to set up this love triangle at first, but naturality, Gio's like, okay, you know what? Like I'm gonna let y'all have that, but as long as I can be with y'all, protecting her and I guess you by default, by proximity. Now, let me explain Kosky. Koske was Gene's best friend from before the accident. They were like friends. Koske like was worried about Gene, you know, losing his parents and whatnot, all the shit that's going down. But ever since the whole Gio shit, he just started tweaking and shit. Uh he dust his hair to a more wild and crazy style to reflect his rage. Actually, the cut was not that bad. It was when he got that scar on the bridge of his nose and he tried to cover it up with an eye patch type thing. I'm like, man, take that shit off. You look stupid. I'm like, you might as well just rock the scarlet. The scar didn't even look that bad. I'm like, stop being dumb. And like I said before, he was like really mistreating Widow, who also uh lost her master, you know. So it wasn't it was after Widow's death that he was like realized that, oh shit, I might be a fucked up person for her. Like I might I might be an asshole. Like, I'm sorry, Gene, bro. Can we reconcile, be friends again? And then Gene and Tickle fast, like, hey bro, you know it's cool, bro. I'm sitting there like, bro, Gene had people trying to kill him and hating on him and avoiding him. And I'm like, no, it's just on me to kill whatever. There was a bunch of characters also that was added to the story. But I'm gonna let you see it for yourself if you haven't watched the show. I'm not trying to spoil too much. But hey, I'll tell you this much. The character designs are fairly aged, but not too bad. Like, not gonna lie, there's like some baddies in there, but just don't expect the resolution and whatnot to be all that great. But the romance element felt like it was at it late, like straight up. It seemed like G wasn't sure if he was in love with Toa until like late into the game, like maybe the whole stretch of episodes where it's like, oh, I'm in love with you. Well, it's like in typical anime fashion, but at the same time, it's like it's just it just didn't feel convincing. Like it just didn't feel the romance just didn't feel natural, it just felt more like obligation or some shit like that. Uh I don't know. Uh maybe I misinterpreted it, like maybe I need to re- I don't know. I don't even know if I feel like re-watched it all over again just to get a better opinion, but I'm just I just wasn't feeling it this time ago. If anything, it just had me wonder if Toe was worth the trouble considering she was the center of things going down, but at least they concluded the story in a good note. It had this weird ass OBA where everybody was just acting out of character. And also keep in mind that this anime did does turn 20 on October 3rd, 2027. So this was almost one of those October 3rd reviews where okay, we already did Full Mount Apollo, we're going to do Mean Girls. Crazy enough, D-Gray Man also premiered on October 3rd. So it's gonna be between Mean Girls and D-Gray Man as far as what we're gonna review on October 3rd this year. But I'm thinking, like, at the same time, if I wasn't trying to do like a Valentine's Day special, like, you know, crazy enough, I could have done Guilty Crown, but no, like I had to kind of fuck with Guilty Crown, but at the same time, you know why I do guilty crown justice, so I'm gonna give that time. So that that was almost the Valentine's Day special, but nah, hell, Data Live was almost the Valentine's Day special. It is form, it's still gonna be, but not in the way that I was initially gonna do it because for some reason live chart was counting it as a mecha anime, but hell, even back in the day I didn't see it that way. So I don't know what they're talking about. Like, yeah, mecha-like elements in there, but I just don't consider it mecha. At least in Dragon, the dragons are like, okay, they can either be like in a human form or they can come out as at least biomechanical dragon where a human can ride inside of them. That counts as the traditional mecha anime. Like, hell, Zoids, need I say more. So they don't necessarily need to look like Gundams, but at the very least, be like, okay, there's a person idling uh inside a robot, and they're fighting other robots or monsters. Okay. Fair enough, right? Fair enough. But you know what? Let me just go ahead and conclude this review. Straight up. It's feeling like a 6.5 to me. Crazy, like just I don't know. I thought I liked it back in the day. Second time around, I'm thinking somewhere along the line, it just felt like homework and also a whole bunch of back and forth between Toa not being sure if she wants to be with Gene or stay away from Gene for his own good because you know, she knows she's the problem. But like Gene keeps chasing after her, Gio keeps chasing after her, Kaz keep keep chasing after them in response to them chasing after her, ISDA chasing after her, and I'm like, you know what? I guess maybe part of the reason why it pissed me off because like it's one of those scenarios where it kind of hits closer to home when you consider how shit like the dating market works, where you have like this one girl where everybody likes her, but low-key she's the problem. And for some reason, people will like simp for her and like just lose all manners of respect for herself just to appease this woman that don't even like them that much. And they just go through hellfire just to approve their love for her, and even if you get the girl, it's like happily ever after isn't rarer, you know. Like, not always, like I'm not trying to be an asshole. Like, hey, if you're happy, like for the happy marriages and relationships, hey, I'm happy for y'all. I'm just saying, like, y'all know how it is with Disney movies where they assume that, oh, they gonna live happily ever after after all this. I'm like, that's not guaranteed. It's just that the movie's ending. So it's more like just use your imagination on what their relationship plays out. Like, but if you actually know how relationship plays out, it's a lot of work, a lot of work that a lot of people are not being upfront with people about. So you just gotta actually get out there and know the truth for yourself. And I gotta be true to myself to where I'm like, I'm just not feeling this animated this time around. But at least it was kind of worth yapping about for a little bit. But that being said, let me go ahead and get the book about here. Have yourself a good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night, whenever you're listening to this. Remember to stay nerdy and that great things are coming. But ultimately, take it easy. I'm gonna go ahead and zone about here.