Dragons have long been considered to be a symbol of power and grace. For years, dragon Pokemon have been respected for their powerful strength, and that fact is evident in this volume of Elements. In fact, the only Pokemon that have more raw power than dragons are the legendary Pokemon.
Many great trainers possess these dragon Pokemon, including the champion of the Orange League. During Ash’s challenge against Drake, the champion of the Orange League, he defeats all but one of Drake’s Pokemon, but the best is yet to come. Drake's last Pokemon is a Dragonite, the strongest dragon-type Pokemon there is. Although Drake only has one pokemon left, the battle is only just beginning.
Not all Dragons start out big; a lot of times they are quite small. Just because they are small, though, doesn’t mean they aren’t frightening, as Ash learns first-hand. One day, while Ash and his friends are walking beside a cliff, a Bagon just appears from nowhere, jumping from the cliff. Of course they find no reason to be worried, because the Bagon lands head first.! Normally, landing head first would be considered a bad thing, but for Bagon, not even the large boulder that it lands on is any match for its helmetlike head.
Overall
Although dragons are a symbol of power, I found this volume of Elements somewhat weak. Although Dragon Pokemon are really cool, this feels like it only shows a part of what dragons truly are. Especially with two of the episodes about Dragonite, there wasn't a broad enough range of all the dragons, and they could have been more creative with the selection of episodes. A dragon fan would have had other favorite episodes to pick for this volume.
Only having three episodes works very well for the Pokemon All-Stars, where it was only showing the best of one pokemon. Although with Elements, three just isn’t enough to show the best of this type of pokemon. That is mostly because even though two pokemon may be the same element, that doesn’t mean that they are the same.
I like the idea of themed volumes, but I had greater expectations for this one, which weren't achieved. Although this group did not showcase this element Pokemon to its fullest, they are still very enjoyable episodes and worth watching.
ComicsOnline gives Pokemon Elements Volume 8: Dragon, 2.5 out of 5 Dragons
This DVD is now available at Amazon!
