Drifting Dragons vol. 16

After last volume’s Gibbs-centric drama, the focus shifts back towards dragons here.  Not just any dragon, but a majestic Deep Sky Dragon that’s slowly descending to Earth – the first time it has happened in over 200 years.  The crew of the Quin Zaza is clued into this by one Chika Taruka, a university student currently studying deep-sky organisms.  She’s been tracking this for a while and knows where this dragon is going to touch down:  The rural land of Magallanica.  Which means that not only does the crew have a new goal in mind, but another oddball human to add to their ranks as well.

As a start to a new arc of “Drifting Dragons,” this isn’t bad.  The business of Deep-Sky Dragons sounds suitably epic and it at least does lend itself to some nice visuals late in the volume.  I can’t say that it really gets me fired up for what’s coming next as not much is done to build on this setup over the volume.  Mangaka Taku Kuwabara seems to be more concerned with putting perpetually cheerful rookie Takita through the wringer here.  Both in her dreams and in real life with some actual horror elements here.

Don’t expect anything too scary, however.  These elements are just different enough to make me note how we don’t see them all that often in this series than anything else.  While one of them promises to offer some long-term complications for the character, I have no doubt that Takita will be back to her normal self by the end of the arc.  Which has me feeling that this new storyline is going to be more of the same kind of fantasy comfort food this series has always provided rather than anything genuinely special.