Dragon Half (1989)

[ドラゴンハーフ]

Volume 1

Author/Artist: Ryusuke Mita
Publisher: Fujimi Fantasia Comics

Synopsis:
Half-dragon Mink dreams of meeting idol singer Dick Saucer while being targeted by the lackeys of King Siva.

Story/Characters:
A lot of American anime fans, particularly those from the 90s, remember the Dragon Half OAV. In a time when we had a lot of these two-shot OAVs with stories that were set up and never developed further, this one tended to stand out for being a lot of silly fun (to say nothing of its memorable ending theme). I was aware there was an original manga and for a long time I wanted to check it out and see the rest of the story, but not being a big-name property, you're not going to just find a copy by casually walking into your neighborhood secondhand bookstore. An electronic version is available these days, but I went to the trouble of getting my hands on a physical copy.

Well, with all that out of the way, let's talk about the story itself. We establish most of the recurring cast fairly quickly and set ourselves on the course of Mink's quest to become human via the Pido Potion. For those familiar with the OAV, I have to say it's a lot tamer than the manga. There's a higher ecchi factor here, which comes more into play in the later volumes, and the level of comedic sociopathy is higher, particularly with characters like Rufa and Rouce, who have few redeeming qualities. This may hamper your enjoyment a bit, but I like the self-aware humor, the video game references and the overall gag style of the story. Mink is fairly appealing as a lead and if she were less capable of taking care of herself, things would be considerably more uncomfortable.

Art:
The art style is going to change significantly over the course of the series, but here at the start, the art is rather appealing. The character designs at this point remind me a bit of Kenichi Sonoda. There's a fair bit of fanservice, but this is offset by frequent shifts to SD. There is rather good timing on the sight gags.

Other:
This and all other volumes in the series start with several full-color pages. Naturally, given the nature of the series, these pages tend to play up the fanservice angle. Because this is a standard feature of the series, I won't go out of my way to mention it in the reviews of subsequent volumes.

Conclusion:
If you're intrigued by the idea of a self-styled RPG (role-playing gag) comic, this might be for you. I found the humor to be pretty good and there's a lot of fun to be had with a fairly standard fantasy setting. I'd say it's worth a read at the least.

Rating:
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