Ruri Dragon Chapters 1-8

Ruri Aoki was your average junior high school student, until the day she woke up with horns growing out of her head.  It turns out that her mother has been keeping a big secret from her:  That her dad is actually a dragon.  Now Ruri has to go through life knowing that and looking like she’s different from everyone else around her.  While her friend Yuka and classmates think that her horns are pretty cool, Ruri turns out to have other dragon-like traits that manifest ways that are anything but.  Fortunately she’s got a supportive mom on hand to help her out through these trying times and the NINE dragon traits she may have inherited in total.

“Ruri Dragon” hails from the pages of Shonen Jump which implies certain things.  Such as the title character getting into fights with other human/dragon hybrids as she masters her traits, all of which will culminate in some kind of battle arc at some point.  That’s… mostly not what happens here.  While a good part of these opening chapters does involve Ruri getting to grips with her powers, there’s no fighting to be found here.  At all.

These chapters are strictly slice-of-life affairs as Ruri deals with the chaos that has entered it.  That the horns bring unwanted attention to this somewhat standoffish girl is one thing, but breathing fire?  Generating electricity for a lightning strike?  These are a bit more difficult to deal with, but her mom has a plan and is determined to help her daughter get through this.  Her classmates, on the other hand, are curious about all this and initially try to figure out if she’s some kind of Bio-Organic Weapon before the truth comes out.

It’s all quite charming in its own way as a metaphor for changes kids go through at Ruri’s age.  Mangaka Masaoki Shindo takes the fantastic stuff and treats it as Just Another Thing, which winds up working in the low-stakes context of the story.  Ruri herself is also charming as someone who winds up being pushed way out of her comfort zone and has to adapt socially and physically to these changes.  Her classmates aren’t really defined at this point beyond just being there, but it’s nice to see that they’re more curious than frightened about the changes in Ruri.

Which is fine as this doesn’t need to become “X-Men” and the normality of how everything is handled is part of the story’s charm and refreshing in the context of its magazine stable-mates.  The only real problem at this point is that enjoying this series will require some deliberate suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader.  I’m not talking about Ruri’s issues, but its wider implications.  Such as what does it mean for this world if dragons are real?  How have they been living amongst humans after all this time?  Why is Ruri the first human/dragon hybrid?  If dragons are real, what about other fantastic creatures?

If you’re wondering about any of these, don’t.  There’s no indication that Shindo has any interest at all in answering any of these questions in these opening chapters.  You can see this in how Ruri’s dad is only mentioned fleetingly just to establish that he’s around, but not about to become a part of the story.  It all feels like the mangaka wanted to tell a story about a young girl who has to deal with the hardships of learning about her hybrid status and didn’t want to deal with any of the wider worldbuilding implications of it.

So if you can put that out of your mind, “Ruri Dragon” is a charming read so far.  It has a likeable protagonist who’s dealing with some fantastic changes in a world that’s largely supportive of her.  I suppose Ruri could wind up meeting other hybrids down the line and this could turn into a battle manga alongside so many other Shonen Jump titles.  That doesn’t look like it’s going to be the case, thankfully, and the series will hopefully be all the better for it going forward from here.