episode twenty-six
While the main plot of Dragonaut is resolved in the twenty-fifth episode, an exclusive "episode twenty-six" was made available on the ninth (and final) DVD volume. The episode was not broadcast on television and has no relation to the greater content of the series. It is purely fun and fan-indulgent, a reward for those who have purchased the entire series on DVD (they deserve a medal, really). The episode itself is divided into two distinct parts, each portraying a different scenario (although they are linked — the first segment is one of the movie trailers that the characters have apparently been stuck watching on the island in the second segment). In its format and comedic approach, episode twenty-six is very similar to the Drama and Characters Songs CDs that were released in conjunction with the anime.
kitajima in part one
Howling Star transfers to Thanatos Academy and immediately starts kicking ass and taking names. Only Toa can soothe his savage heart, but when she is kidnapped before they can be together, Howling Star must fight in order to reclaim his love!
The whole first segment is fiction, a movie trailer that appeals to Howling Star's desire to be a famous hero. At the beginning of part two, Sieglinde reveals that they've been subjected to "watching the same movie trailers over and over" while stuck on the island. Kitajima appears (briefly) as one of three school girls being threatened by a gang at Thanatos Academy. She, Machina and Garnet are set to be abused until Howling Star rescues them. Interestingly, Kitajima is the only one who attempts to say anything meaningful to the gang (composed of Kiril, Sakaki, Yonamine, and Nozaki) when she warns them that they "won't get away with it".
The portrayal of Kitajima, Machina, and Garnet in this scene could be considered blatantly out-of-character in the general scheme of things, except this segment is quite clearly work of metafiction (here, a self-referential text within a text) and the ideas of canonical characterisation can only be considered to a point.
kitajima in part two
The cast have escaped together to an island retreat. Unfortunately, bad weather has left them stranded in the facilities for most of their trip. A CSS field originating from an old lab on the island prevents the dragons from Actualizing, but after a lightning strike, it starts reversing dragon personalities as well. Howling Star becomes scared of thunder, Amadeus starts acting like a street punk, and Toa becomes a flirtatious catgirl. The humans, desperate to get the zany dragons back to normal, team up to smash the CSS generator and restore order.
Kitajima appears part-way through the segment, alarmed by the changes she's observed in the dragons. She works with the other humans to formulate a plan that will get things back to normal. At the end of the episode, while having tea with Raina, Akira and Sieglinde, Kitajima reveals that the CSS set-up on the island was originally developed by an ISDA research team working parallel to her own. The group were disbanded after the continued failure of their project, the CSS facilities remaining untouched on the island until the recent storm.
english language differences
The English language version of episode twenty-six (as dubbed by FUNimation), is the only episode of the series that deviates from the original Japanese dialogue in any substantial way (as in, beyond general FUNi rewrites). While purists might be unsatisfied with this track, to be perfectly honest I found it rather amusing. The gist of the story is maintained (movie trailer + CSS generator makes dragons go nuts) but little bits and pieces are changed along the way for laughs. For example, in the Japanese language track it is mentioned that the cast are stuck in an ISDA island facility. In the English language track, it is suggested that everyone is hanging around in an "abandoned old folks' home".
Kitajima only has a handful of lines over the course of the episode, but some of her key pieces of dialogue were subject to lulz-ification by the FUNimation team. Here are some comparisons between the original Japanese lines and their English language counterparts.
sexual harassment
Japanese
Kitajima: You think you can do this, and just get away with it?
Nozaki: Now, stop your griping and what do you say we all have a good time together?
English
Kitajima: You think you can do whatever you want with impunity? You're never going to get away with this! We are going to tell someone!
Nozaki: I don't care what impunity means, but it sure sounds like a lot of fun!
sieglinde explains
Japanese
Sieglinde: Here's the cause. Look at this spot. It's been removed from even the official ISDA records now but before, there used to be an ISDA research facility here. There's no doubt that this unusual behaviour has something or other to do with the equipment at work in there.
Kitajima: That makes sense. So you're saying it's acting on its own, and reversing the Dragons' personalities?
English
Sieglinde: Here's our problem. I found it by looking at this map. But the ISDA has purged its existence from all official records because it used to be a research and development centre, that conducted some pretty weird experiments that always went terribly wrong.
Kitajima: That makes perfectly convenient sense. Especially since that's the only antique ISDA map you have in your collection.
css origins
Japanese
Kitajima: A team I wasn't aware of was apparently developing it in parallel. But it didn't work right, so their project was dropped.
English
Kitajima: A team we were never aware of was developing it in parallel to ours. But it didn't work right, so they had to scrap it. Theirs totally had better funding than ours though, which kinda makes me pissed.