Drifting Dragons vol. 15

After slaying the legendary ship-killing dragon known as Typhon, there’s only one thing left for the crews of the Plana Grava and Quin Zaza to do:  Carve it up, split the bounty, and have Mika make some dragon hamburg steak with the leftovers.  Oh, and for Jiro to get into a fight with his way-too-carefree harpoon-wielding dad.

Yet there’s one character who came out of this storyline more than a little worse for wear.  That’d be Deck Captain Gibbs who’s currently laid up in a hospital after Typhon took off his left hand.  That’s bad enough, but the way in which the dragon did it has caused the wound to fester and now the man’s life may be in danger.  That is, unless the crew of the Quin Zaza can rustle up some Dragon Brain Oil, a medical reagent that’s as rare as its short shelf life.

No points for guessing whether or not they do that and the rest of the volume takes place in flashback as a recovering Gibbs recalls a wartime experience.  He had crashed during a recon mission and found himself having to work with four boys from the opposite side of the conflict in order to get home.  As is the case with everything else in this volume, it’s executed capably and with a resolute lack of surprise.  While I can understand mangaka Taku Kuwabara’s desire to take things down a notch following the big fight from the previous volume, the storytelling here feels meager without any obvious ties to a larger story or anything to upend our expectations.