Drifting Dragons vol. 17

Last time, the crew of the Quin Zaza managed to bring down an epic dragon:  The Descender!  Now they’re ready to party with the locals, the Malotao, to commemorate the occasion.  A night of fun, fashion, and furious revelry is had by all with the morning giving way to the all-new spectacle of a horde of dragons arriving to consume the Descender’s corpse.  This also means it’s a chance to find the dragon that tried to take over Takita, something which is complicated by the arrival of Wendigo the Voracious.  While its initial aim of consuming all the smaller dragons seems to be a run-of-the-mill challenge, it quickly ramps up into something far more dangerous that could spell the end of the Malotao.

It’s been nearly two years since vol. 16 came out and I have to admit that I had forgotten pretty much everything that had happened there.  Fortunately it wasn’t that hard to pick up on what was happening and get involved with the events of this one.  Normally that would be a good thing, but I also had the feeling that it was only possible because of how lightly plotted this series is.  

I’ve constantly remarked about this series being a kind of fantasy manga comfort food and this volume really exemplifies that as it shows it’s never going to rank up there with the greats if the events of a previous volume slide right out of my mind.  For comparison’s sake, there’s no chance of that happening with a series like “Berserk” or “Die Wergelder” no matter how many years pass between releases of their volumes.  “Drifting Dragons,” on the other hand, still has its modest charms to enjoy, but I’d still trade all seventeen volumes if it meant that vol. 4 of “Die Wergelder” would be released tomorrow.