Dragon Circus Volume 0 Review

Dragon Circus 0 is the prologue of a new sci-fi series that will be released this summer. It introduces  the story and the characters.

Dragons suddenly appear in our world and destroy major cities, causing thousands and thousands of deaths, including Dr. Abe’s fiancée. As the sole survivor of the attack, Dr. Abe swears revenge against the dragons and becomes a pioneer in robotics engineering to defeat the dragons for the New United Nations (NUN) command centre that’s established to fight against this common enemy. However, dragons aren’t the only mythical beings who make themselves known, as elves, vampires and witches have been living secretly among humans for years. It’s the dragons’ appearance that makes all the different species cooperate.

Shikigami is the latest weapon created by Dr. Abe after his disappearance. Shikigami is a robot that  resembles a young Dr. Abe and whose mission is to annihilate all dragons. Shikigami works alongside Princess—another robot—in NUN missions to kill dragons. They are at the front line, while humans stay in the back to give support. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the appearance of Shikigami and the disappearance of Dr. Abe, which I hope will be explored once the main story starts. In fact, in this volume readers find out how the Dragon Slayer unit, made up of supernatural creatures of various kind, is formed.

Dragon Circus 0 introduces the main characters who will take centre stage in the main series, with the release of Volume 1. It’s not easy to figure out who the protagonist is until the second half of the volume. The story starts when the dragons make their first appearance and shows how they set the stage for Dr. Abe to get his revenge. The story frequently shifts between the present day and the past when everything began. I thought that Dr. Abe would be one of the protagonists, but although he’s the switch who aids the formation of the Dragon Slayer unit thanks to Shikigami’s creation, he’s not. Shikigami is, together with Princess, a vampire, a dead ogre with its owner and a human soldier who leads them and who also seems to be a cry-baby. Much is still to be revealed and this volume seems more like one of those previews that author and publishers release to entice the readers to give the story a try. Although Volume 0 has a standard length for a manga, there’s not much more information than a preview would give.

The illustrations are detailed and as there are a lot of fighting scenes, there’s a lot of movement as well. However, the art is busy and at times has too much detail. The dragons are well specified  as multiple types of dragon are depicted. Their killing is shown, but although body parts and blood are drawn, it is not gory.

While the main genres of the story are sci-fi and action, a more subtle theme is the mystery surrounding Shikigami and Dr. Abe and the dragons. Why did those beings appear and start to destroy humanity? Other supernatural creatures live peacefully with humans, so what distinguishes the dragons? I found this volume a little bit underwhelming, however, my expectations for the first volume in the story are still quite high and I hope that when Volume 1 comes out, the set-up of volume 0 will make more sense to me and that we will get the answers to the questions raised.

Dragon Circus is written and illustrated by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi, best known for the sci-fi manga Ultraman, and it’s published by Vertical in the English language with Jonathan Thumas’ translation. This series starts with this  prologue volume, with the first volume of the main story releasing in July.

Read a free sample on the publisher’s website here. 

Our review copy was supplied by Turnaround Publishing Services. 

• DRAGON CIRCUS © Eiichi Shimizu, Tomohiro Shimoguchi/HERO’S INC.