James Nicoll Reviews

RuriDragon, Volume Five is the fifth tankōbon for Masaoki Shindo’s on-going RuriDragon modern-day fantasy manga.

Half-dragon Ruri fully embraces the sloth she (presumably) inherited from her dragon father. Despite this, she has been strongarmed into taking a prominent role in her high school festival. To her surprise, the experience is not entirely unpleasant.

Despite having used her draconic abilities to ensure clement weather for the school festival, Ruri is still expected to help out on the day, as befits a committee member. This facilitates more self-discovery, as she gets to showcase the way in which her horns change shape according to mood, and how under certain circumstances her strength is far more than human.

However, all the other kids are standard model human. Thus, the festival features just what you’d expect when teens are forced to socialize. Some teens flirt… sufficiently awkwardly that humanity would be doomed if it depended on their romantic prowess. Other teens are convinced that their peers are far more successful with the opposite sex than they are. Key to the whole process; almost none of the kids compare notes to see if their impressions are correct.

Nevertheless! Everyone has fun, even if only the fun of relentless competition. Ruri discovers, again, that socializing with other teens can be fun, despite the occasional uncomfortable conversations with her schoolmates. The festival works out about as well as it could.

Which is why it’s the worst possible time for Ruri to discover her latest draconic trait: a full-body wreath of demonic fire. Unquenchable demonic fire. Horns, weather control, and the occasional flaming burps are one thing, but how can a girl who is permanently on fire fit in?

~oOo~

Volume Five does not exist (in hardcopy, yet), as only two tankōbon for the series have been assembled and produced thus far. However, when and if more volumes are released, it’s a good bet volume five will include these particular issues. Or that I will come back and edit this to make appear that I made the correct prediction.

The demonic fire isn’t quite as bad as it sounds. It is not really demonic, and it doesn’t really seem to be fire, either. Ruri’s clothes don’t ignite and neither does the furniture on which she sits.

I’ve lost track of how many of the nine draconic traits Ruri has. Let’s see:

• Horns
• Fire breathing
• Weather control
• Venomous saliva
• Demonic fire

Her healing abilities might be a sixth trait or just a necessary ability to survive breathing fire and excreting poison. So, there are probably three or four more surprises on their way. Wait, no: two or three surprises and one defined trait she has not manifested (yet): flight.

Ruri is blindsided yet again, thanks to the adults’ policy of refusing to disclose the nature of draconic traits until they’ve become relevant… such as when Ruri set fire to the boy seated in the desk in front of hers or because she’s accidentally poisoned herself with toxic spit. While this is amusing for the readers, I wonder at what point does this cross over into criminal negligence? Some of Ruri’s abilities have mass fatality potential.

To Ruri’s credit, she’s sufficiently used to new draconic traits manifesting that she has a functional protocol to deal with novel traits that do not immediately incapacitate her¹. Of course, she has to, because the alternatives include accidentally killing herself or her classmates. While she’s a (half) dragon, Ruri is not a monster.

I cannot express how happy I am this manga is created by Shindo and not, say, Junji Ito. Shindo is telling an upbeat slice of life comedy rather than a body-horror-filled tragedy. The reader can be assured that the worst Ruri will suffer is inconvenience and mild embarrassment. In these unpleasant times², it’s pleasant to have a reliably amusing comedy to which to turn.

RuriDragon is available here (Viz).

1: Which, to be honest, is mostly running off to her mother or sensei to ask what the hell is up with her latest weird ability. The story makes clear that asking for advice is by no means a common skill amongst Japanese teens.

2: USA delenda est.