Brave Command Dagwon: The Boy with Crystal Eyes

Dagwon, certainly not my favourite entry in the brave series but nonetheless was decent overall. In terms of a continuation, I thought this OVA would be great; we'd get to see more of the dagwon team and friends (with some possible new ones) along with an expected new threat which they'd defeat in an epic finale. Sadly...this OVA isn't really that; instead it acts as a self contained story set after the events of the series which would be fine if there were more episodes, however within the 2 it had, this OVA fails to expand on any story, characters and setting in any meaningfulway. First off I'd just like to point out the upgrade in animation and art. Whilst there is little mecha to be seen (and what does appear is the main team's mecha which is used for an all new gattai/combination) the actual character designs look great. Benefiting off the strength of being an OVA, they are consistently on model and i really like the casts new outfits, as they have gotten older by 1 or 2 years i believe. Our main protagonists definetly look prettier now (along with the new shota character), so much in fact i wouldn't blame anyone for thinking it looks like a Yaoi (of which it isn't really). Somehow though, the henshin/transformation suits of the dagwon members look worse than the series. One of the few drawbacks of the OVA upgrade is that these suit now feel overly designed and detailed, with some added colours and spikey bits that just don't look as cohesive as they did in the show. Overall the I'd say the art benefited from the switch to OVA (7/10) The actual characters however....pretty much the same. En (the leader) is still a hot head, righteous shounen protagonist, Shin is still a lover boy, Kai is still an uptight older sibling figure (who suprisingly has a hot, younger gyaru sister now..oh and he's also a teacher), Yoku is still a nerd (who's quite annoying in this ova), Ryu is still cool, Geki is still a jerk and Rai is kinda just there. I'd say maria is a bit cuter now, but there's no sign of her younger brother here. Overall i was glad to see these characters again, but was really disapointed by the fact that we didn't see Gunkid or Lian (who's story could've been continued) or Luna (which I didn't mention in my show review, but she wasn't all that notable to me). Our new shota boy however (which was just more of a plot device i guess) doesn't really have much explanation to his existance and is the root of most of this OVA's problems, which are in the story. (SPOILERS AHEAD if you care...) Flashing back to En's childhood 8 years ago, him and his dog were just playing and he was zapped by some light and that was it; that's it, no proper explanation to what it was other than a half-assed one from Rai saying it was an alien called a 'deandozol' I guess. 8 years later that alien somehow became a clone of the younger En and is being chased by Rai and the space police force and when this lil boi runs into En, En unknowngly takes him in and treats him like a brother, nicknaming him Kenta, thinking he's a lost child. All im asking right now is why couldn't Rai just ask the dagwon team for help and let them know of its existance sooner, instead of keeping it secret and injuring En in the process. After trying to escape for a while (an En's house disappearing), kenta arrives at the beach with En, with him reaching a Level 4 evolution, he is about to destory earth, as the Dagwon team stare at him dumbfounded at the mistake they made protecting him (although it is mainly Rai's fault). The truth is then revealed and the dagwon crew discover that this alien is a clone of younger En. When the earth is about to be destroyed, the deandozol decides not to destroy the earth, as he grew attached to En and asks him to take his life. In true Evangelion fashion, the newly formed dagwon mecha grasps the orb like form of the deandozol in its hands and crushes it, restoring the earth (but not En's house?, because they didn't even explain it) in a bittersweet victory, as En yells to Kenta!. Overall this story is just bad in my opinion and I thought the characters acted pretty dumb (especially rai) (4/10). My final question to this OVA, is just why?; why call this a continuation if it doesn't really expand on the story of the original series in any meaningful way, otherwise I'd say its just mediocore as a throwaway episode. Very disapointed, overall a 5/10, this definetly isn't a must watch if you've already seen the dagwon series.