Drifting Dragons Season 1 Review
One of my goals for 2025 is to read manga and watch anime out of my comfort zone. As I tend to stick principally to the shojo and josei genres, when I got the chance to review something different from my usual, I took it… and I’m so glad it didn’t disappoint!
Drifting Dragons (based on the manga by Taku Kuwabara) can be considered a seinen series, with not a touch of romance at all, but surprisingly, the story, the characters and the art grabbed me nonetheless.
In a world where dragons exist, drakers are the humans who hunt them aboard floating ships. It’s a dangerous job that only thrill-seeking people would do…or people who don’t care much about their lives…or Mika. Mika is one of the members aboard an airship, the Quin Zaza and he’s quite the peculiar character. He loves eating dragon meat and he can smell the creatures a mile away. He’d do anything to eat a juicy dragon, so he’s the first to jump into a fight to capture it. Takita is the newest member of the ship and she still has a lot to learn, but since she joined the crew, the Quin Zaza hasn’t known a moment’s peace. As she’s exuberant and outgoing, she has livened up the ship with her presence, and she’s especially close to Mika, so the two get into trouble quite often. It’s up to Jiro to keep an eye on them to make sure that they don’t end up in too much trouble. Vannie as well tries to keep her crew mates safe, but she can’t always succeed, so the next best option is to join them to make sure they come back alive. There are more members in the crew, and they all work together in harmony (kind-of) to hunt dragon after dragon and of course, eat them afterward!
Although the Drifting Dragons Collection Blu-Ray mentions Takita in the blurb, which in my opinion indicates she’s the main character, I would disagree in this as each character in the crew has their own role to make the story progress. The blurb for the manga mentions Mika instead as if to indicate he’s the main character, together with Takita. Sure, some characters are mentioned more than others but it’s the whole crew itself that takes the spotlight. The crew and the art, actually. The art reminds me of a mix between Castle in the Sky and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind by Studio Ghibli. The series is fantasy with some sci-fi elements, such as the flying ship, the weapons for hunting dragons, and the rest of the flying devices. The dragons are different from what one would imagine when the word ‘dragon’ is mentioned…it would be an overgrown lizard with wings, am I right? Well, you’d be surprised as the dragons in this series are not even remotely related. If I need to compare them, I’d say they resemble deep-sea fish with their mouth and fins, only slightly more good-looking thanks to their bright and light colours. The story reminded me slightly of Delicious in Dungeon, although in Drifting Dragons it is normal for people to eat dragon meat and Mika and the rest of the crew find different ways to cook the meat and enjoy it after a hunt. Eating is a big part of the series and shapes the personalities of several characters.
The series doesn’t shy away from the truth of hunting, such as killing and butchering the prey, as the viewers can see blood splatter on the characters, but it’s not gory. The fantasy story takes on some other realistic elements as well—killing a pregnant mother and being left with the baby, the danger of getting hurt when hunting and also figuring out if this is the path the characters really want to stay on. While it might seem like a serious show, it is not as it faces some difficult topics in a light and humorous way.
While I enjoyed the series, I need to say that it felt more like an introduction to a story that is yet to come. In this twelve-episode boxset, we get to know the Quin Zaza and the crew and how they work together. We find out why some people decide to become drakers, but a lot is still a mystery. There are mentions of the Quin Zaza being an illegal draking (dragon-hunting) ship and that there is a confederation of drakers. Takita as well is mentioned as having joined the crew on impulse, but we don’t know anything about her background at all. There also doesn’t seem to be a captain for the Quin Zaza, just an acting captain who admits he only got the role three years earlier. So what happened to the actual captain? So many questions and so little answers, which I hope will get resolved in future seasons. There is no official information about a possible Season 2, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will happen.
Drifting Dragons Collection Blu-Ray contains the full twelve episodes of the first season, with nine episodes on the first disk and three plus special features on the second disk. The special features include the promos of the series available and the OP “Gunjou” by Yoh Kamiyama and the ED “Zettai Reido” (Absolute Zero) by Akai Kōen. The soundtrack is by Masaru YOKOYAMA (Fruits Basket TV2, Tsurune, Your Lie in April).
The series has been dubbed in English and is also available in Japanese with English subtitles. I watched it in the original language, and it’s easy to follow along with the subtitles as both white and yellow colours are used on the subtitles to help differentiate who’s speaking and what’s going on in the background. The series is also currently available for streaming on Netflix (it’s a Netflix Original Anime).
Our review discs were supplied by MVM.
