A Certain Writer

I want to preface this by stating that I do not identify as a furry.

I’m not a scalie either.

That being said, I really, really, really like dragons.

Dragons are so awesome. I mean, they can fly and do magic and I think that’s just the coolest thing ever. At the same time, dragons can curl up into a ball and lay on their back and I find that so incredibly cute.

I love dragons.

So of course I’ve been reading ドラゴン養ってください (Please Look After the Dragon) and of course it’s become one of my favorite ongoing manga series. The first volume was released a few days ago and now that it’s readily available in printed form, I thought I’d re-read it and obsess about it here.

Story Overview

So imagine you’re playing a dating sim. You’ve invested hours pursuing the character of your choice and after all this time, they’ve finally decided to return your affection. Everything is going well until, to your dismay, they suddenly transform into a completely different character.

This is how ドラゴン養ってください begins - with the protagonist, Murakami, leaving a negative review for a game because his dragon companion turned into a human.

His day ruined, he leaves to go shopping... only to come across an actual dragon in a park.

The dragon, Ilsela (イルセラ), has come to the human world to train and become stronger. She’s homeless and needs a place to crash, so when she spots Murakami staring, she asks if he’ll take her in. Murakami initially hesitates thinking it’s a prank but after seeing Ilsela fight (and giving her bonus points for the fact that she can’t turn into a human), Murakami invites her to live with him.

From there, the manga becomes episodic with each chapter giving a glimpse into the everyday life of Murakami and Ilsela. Despite being a freeloader and needing to stay hidden, Ilsela finds a part-time job making yaki-onigiri and even ends up saving a shopping district at some point. She spends some time training by flying despite being afraid of heights and mind-control the neighborhood cat to spy on her housemate. Meanwhile, Murakami just seems happy to have a dragon as a housemate.

My Thoughts

Please excuse the following semi-related rant:

I remember being excited about the prospect of befriending monsters in Rune Factory 4. A lot of the early marketing featured the fox (Leon) and horse (Dylas)... just for them to have human forms that they defaulted to for 99% of the game. The game also featured a dragon who I continue to obsess over to this day... just for her human form (that’s not even canon btw) to be used in most of the official merchandise.

So, um, yeah...

I am so happy to finally find a manga where the dragon stays a dragon. I’m even happier that the manga takes place in a modern-day slice-of-life setting.

I enjoy a lot of comedy manga but they rarely make me laugh out loud. Maybe it’s because I like dragons but this was the first manga I’ve read in a while that I actually found funny. Murakami’s review at the beginning was way too relatable. The old lady (Ilsela’s boss) and the old man from the shopping district were way funnier than they had any right to be. I think the art plays a large role in this - the character designs and facial expressions are always spot on. Ilsela is very animated and her reactions are always over-the-top.

As a character, Ilsela is surprisingly cool. I don’t know why but I went into this manga thinking that she would have a cutesy, delicate personality. Don’t get me wrong, she’s really cute - especially in her miniature form. At the same time though, she’s quite arrogant and strong. She’s set up to be lazy and pathetic but actually comes through and fights when she’s needed.

I didn’t expect there to be action sequences at all and while there aren’t a whole lot of them, they’re done really well. I love seeing cute dragons doing cute things, but I also like that Ilsela gets some time to fly, fight, and do magic. Thinking about it, it’s crazy that despite there being a lot of isekai manga lately, there are only a handful of manga where the dragons get to do dragon things. The manga has a good balance of cute and cool and I appreciate that.

A word of caution if you plan to pick up this manga as a Japanese learner: while the manga is being serialized in a shounen magazine, it does not have a lot of furigana. Furigana is only limited to names and rare kanji. In my opinion, the manga is not that difficult of a read and should be enjoyable if you can read around the JLPT N2 level.

At the time of writing this post, an English translation has already been confirmed by the mangaka. While there isn’t any sign of an official release yet, I really hope it gets announced soon!

I don’t think you need to be a fan of dragons to like ドラゴン養ってください. In my opinion, it’s a genuinely funny and wholesome read. While there is a bit of an overarching storyline, most of the chapters are self-contained so you can jump in whenever. This volume ended on a cliffhanger so I’m looking forward to seeing where the series goes from here!