Dragon Half (1995)

[ドラゴンハーフ]

Volume 7

Author/Artist: Ryusuke Mita
Publisher: Fujimi Fantasia Comics

Synopsis:
Mink and Saucer clear the final obstacles before the showdown with Azatodeth.

Story/Characters:
Damaramu has to get one last go in before we can face the real final boss. There's a revelation about Titan that I feel undermines the dramatic edge his character had, but this isn't a grimdark series, so I guess I can give it a pass. I do like that Azatodeth calls Mink out on the wholly selfish motivation behind her quest. Perhaps because Mink is surrounded by so many horrible people, you forget that she's challenging a demon king just so her crush will like her. However, Mink shows what she's really made of and we get to close on a happy note. (That's not a spoiler because we have a two-page color spread that tells you exactly where things are going.)

Art:
The cover art is fairly ghastly and you'd be forgiven for thinking Mita had gone completely off the rails, but fortunately nothing inside the covers is quite so bad. Yes, proportions have been increasingly exaggerated to the point where the non-SD females don't have much room left in their torsos for internal organs, but for the most part it never gets quite so off-kilter. (There's an otherwise excellent panel of Mink in the Dragon Half Z short that's marred by the fact that she's been given something like a ten-inch waist.) Also, in the last few chapters, we see the sort of sharp, convex cheeklines that showed up a lot in the 90s that I really don't like.

Setting that aside, we get suitable bang for our buck with the final battle. The epilogue also has some decent visual payoff.

Other:
That two-page spread from the previous volume gets the full-color treatment here. We also get fanart, the Dragon Half Z short set eight years after the finale starring Mink's daughter Pink, a retrospective on the series' 8-year run, a few pages of character designs, some commentary from Kotono Mitsuishi (who voice Mink in the OAV), ads for other Dragon Half goods, and a hastily drawn afterward by Mita.

Conclusion:
While the series isn't high art, it never pretended to be anything more than a gag comic. It actually had some moments of genuine drama and gravitas amid all the silliness. It's not a bad romp and the conclusion warrants a read.

Rating:
Read It