Dual

Original Title: デュアル!ぱられルンルン物語
Romanized: Dyuaru! Parare-runrun Monogatari
Literal: Dual! Parallel-happy Tale

Plot Synopsis

In the near future, Kazuki Yotsuga is a quiet but relatively normal high school kid. Relatively normal, that is, except for one thing: Fighting in the streets, battling outside his school, destroying skyscrapers, he watches giant, ghostly robots silently wage war, writing down the drama that only he can see. It never gets him anything but shunned by his classmates until one day Mitsuki, the most beautiful girl at his school, takes an interest in him. It seems her father, a mad scientist with a theory about parallel worlds, thinks there's something special about what he sees... and it's not long before poor Kazuki is stuck in the middle of a war in a mysterious parallel world!

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-07-16

Yet another ensemble comedy by the makers of Tenchi Muyo, superficially following the same oft-used harem formula. This one also happens to neatly parallel Evangelion in the basic premise and character descriptions, and while this is no doubt intentional it's actually much more of a light Pioneer re-make than a parody. While the series isn't entirely successful at blending relatively low-key character drama and humor on the subtler side of wacky, it offers enough vague background plot, fun, modern characters, and interesting variations on the theme to ends up being a generally enjoyable series. Attractive AIC visuals (including a sufficient helping of giant robot action) and a quality Japanese voice cast round out the picture.

It's not a memorable series, but if you like El Hazard-style ensemble comedies with a healthy dose of drama, light giant robot shows, or are wiling to give a light but straight-faced Pioneer take on Evangelion a shot, you might get a kick out of Dual.

US DVD Review

The DVDs are among Pioneer's better discs of this vintage. They include crystal clear Japanese and English 2-channel soundtracks and more or less flawless video. As an extra each disc includes several detailed data files on various characters or robots from the series, written from the perspective of the characters. There are also sketches, and on the fourth disc a very cool little interview with the Japanese voice actors and a couple of Japanese TV spots. Plus, as an added touch, each of the inserts that list the episodes and chapter stops has a simple recipe based on one of the four main girls' cooking style.

Content Guide

Pioneer rates it 13-up, but with a few bits of mature humor and some violence being the only objectionable material, for most episodes that's probably too strict.

Violence: 1 - A lot of hugely destructive and dramatic battles, but in the entire series nobody dies.

Nudity: 2 - Nothing significant, except for the last episode.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Mostly nothing at all, but a couple of early episodes feature relatively mature humor as does the final one.

Language: 1 - Not bad.

Notes and Trivia

The original Japanese subtitle, "Parare-runrun Monogatari," is an odd play on words combining "parareru," a Japanization of the English "parallel," and "runrun," an Japanese onomatopoeia meaning "happy" or "bubbly." If anything, it sounds sillier than the series actually is.

The first 13 episodes were originally aired in Japan on the cable network WowWow, but the off-the-wall (and somewhat raunchier) 14th "bonus" episode (aptly titled "Final Frontier") was a separate special.

Availability

Available in the US from Geneon (originally Pioneer) on four hybrid DVDs. Was also originally available on four subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes, now all out of print.

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