Kuutei Dragons
Drifting Dragons

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Ah, what can I say? I R E A L L Y liked it. It reminds me of Nausicaa for some reason; it gives me the feeling of being reading a Ghibli manga, something so imaginative and wonderful enhanced by the masterfully crafted art.

I first watched the anime adaptation and I think it is bad, really bad, specially because they use this 3D style. But reading it, it's a completely different experience.

The characters and the story are very simple (at the moment I'm writing this review, I'm only 17 chapters in), but it's a really cozy slice of life/adventure manga, something ... very simple and beautiful.

It's obvious I think it is a 9/10, but I have to give readers a warning: if you share left-wing or you think videogames make people violent, this manga will upset you for sure. You can see it already in the reviews, since people seems to have a strong hatred against Japan and various groups seems to be unable to separate a work of fiction from reality. It's a shame.

After reading 50 chapters in 9 volumes, I felt somehow compelled to write a review. This review may contain light spoilers and also, I will not talk about the "glorification of whaling" as this is neither a problem I see in this manga, nor should it influence my review for now.

To put it simplay, Kuutei Dragons had a good shot at being truly great, but sadly missed it. The best quality of this manga is its art/ artstyle, which comes across as lively and brimming during almost all of the chapters I read. In addition to that, the Cover arts are amazing and I ... love to see them on my shelf.

The reason why I only give a 6/10 is the rest of the rating points: Story, character and, as a result of the first three, enjoyment. The story could have gone much farther than it does. The world building inj this manga is good and the artstyle gives also a solid base for an adventure/explorer like story. However, this was thrown out for something that seems like a slice-of-life with dragons in it, which not only takes a lot of drive out of the story, but also makes it seem kinda dull after some time.

Secondly, the characters. The most of them are quite likeable, even though they are pretty shallow and have one or two qualities they embody. The only times we get some character development are the chapters in cities, where smaller stories focus on single characters. Background stories are not really existent at this point, if there were any, the characters could have had much more depth to them and make them more approachable or likeable.

Overall, the art does mostly carry this manga, at least fopr me. If you do not care about depth or big stories, then this manga could be a shot worth taking for you. If the coming chapters gave it more pace and actual story, my rating would probably improve to a 7 or 8, but at this point in time it is a solid 6/10.

So i bought 4 Volumes of this at once, having high hopes because the art style and the overall feeling of the manga covers reminded me of the ghibli movie 'Nausicaa of the valley of the wind' a lot..
What I expected was an adventure about a skyship and it's crew exploring the world and the dragons in it. The way they live and where they live, how it would be possible to locate and hunt them.. and ultimately how they would actually capture them in some interesting ways.

But all of this IS NOT in this manga.

We are simply following a crew of a dragon hunter ... ship, flying from place to place and killing literally every living creature they encounter on the way. The fights or rather.. the catchings are really, really boring and unexciting. They're simply shooting a harpoon onto a dragon and pull it in... that's it. Every single time.

And the whole mindset about eating dragon meat they have is purely disgusting.. because there is literally no thought behind it whatsoever.
Oh, a baby dragon? let's kill and eat it.
Oh, it's angry mother? let's kill and eat it.
Oh, a tiny dragon no one saw before? Let's kill and eat it.
Oh, a legendary dragon who leads ships out of a storm? Let's kill and eat it.

The crew (and all the people in this world in general) seem to be eating nothing but meat, meat, meat every single day. They use dragon parts for literally anything in their life.. while wasting no single thought on the creatures.
Hell, they don't even know what dragons eat?... They simply know nothing about dragons other than how to take their dead bodies apart and how to cook their parts...even brains like wtf. And they have no remorse, no empathy, they don't waste a single thought about anything.
I'ts simply disgusting honestly.
I don't know why watching a group of people slaughtering creatures and then devouring them and overindulging in gluttony is supposed to be entertaining..

There is no deeper meaning to anything in this manga.. there is no thought or story behind it (except maybe that it's okay to eat anything and everything without having to think about it. Sounds like todays problem with the meat industry, doesn't it?). It's honestly the most boring piece of garbage I have ever read and the most shocking thing is to me that this atrocity of a manga is even getting an anime adaptation right now.

I am honestly disappointed in Japan for this. This manga could be very well seen as a representation of the whole whaling and overfishing problem that Japan has..and it offers NOT A SINGLE bit of critic or any food for thought about the whole thing.
It's almost a crime to bring this hymn of devouring and gluttony onto the TV screens in fucking 2020.

That is why this piece of crap is getting a 1 from me. It is nothing but harmful and super lazy.. The pretty art can't change this at all.