Published by Viz Media and available January 7, 2025, RuriDragon is a shonen series I've been super excited for ever since I read the first chapter on Shuesha's Manga Plus app. Almost as soon as I started reading I was telling our teen manga selector that they need to get it for the collection. The premise is simple. Ruri Aoki wakes up one morning to find horns growing out of her head, and her mother reveals nonchalantly that the girl's absent father is a dragon. Ruri is an adorable character and her struggles with her new life are relatable to readers her age, half-dragon or not, like changing bodies and trying to fit in with peers. I think teen readers will really like this one. The art is cute and the story is just a nice slice of life thing about learning to live with unexpected developments in your life, a well as opening up to support from others-- because your friends really do want to help you.

A cute middle-grade manga with a lot of heart. I love how supportive and accepting everyone is, while still presenting as awkward middle schoolers. I'm not sure this will rise to be one of my favorites, but it's a good start and I'll pick of volume 2 for sure.

RuriDragon, Vol. 1 is a coming-of-age manga that throws an interesting spin onto female adolescence.

Aoki wakes up with horns growing out of her head. Her mother nonchalantly mentions that Aoki’s father is a Ryu, or Japanese water dragon, so that explains it. Her girlfriends can’t stop groping them. The boys in her class appear to ogle them. The horns seem like a not-very-subtle metaphor for adolescent breast development. Then comes the fire-breathing that causes a bloody mouth that is embarrassing to Aoki. Can anyone not see the female adolescent analogy in that?

Eventually, Aoki works through her feelings about being a half dragon. Next, we are hit over the head with multiple chapters of a don’t judge people by their differences, particularly their looks, parable. Aoki is both judged for being different and judges others based on their voluntary grooming choices. And that is BAAD!

I wanted more jokes, high school hijinks and maybe even some romance than I got from this manga. Hopefully, future volumes will move past character introductions and blatant moralizing. This particular manga, RuriDragon, Vol. 1, is best for preteens rather than adults. 3 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media for providing me with an advanced review copy.

A Special Thanks To Viz Media and NetGalley for the ARC

It’s a story that I have been reading since it first debuted on Shueisha’s Manga Plus App, Masaoki Shindo’s RuriDragon. RuriDragon is a fantasy slice-of-life story that has caught the attention of many since its debut two years ago, ranking at number one in Japan’s “Nationwide Bookstore Employees’ Recommended Comics of 2023” survey, The series ranked ninth in the 2024 edition of Takarajimasha’s Kono Manga ga Sugoi! List of best manga for male readers.

Our story begins like any normal tale, a young teenage girl prepares for another day of school, ready for what life will throw at her. But she didn’t expect to wake up with horns! The girl’s mother told her daughter that Ruri inherited her draconic traits from her father, who, yes, is a dragon. Ruri’s life will be turned upside down as she deals with curious classmates and her newly discovered Dragon Genes, which are starting to turn up the heat!

It’s a coming-of-age story that flips the script on its predecessors and adds a mix of fantasy, comedy, and absurdity to bring readers a positive depiction of having a mixed heritage (but using dragons). One of the strange things about the story is how unconcerned the adults are about Ruri’s Draconic Heritage and newfound abilities, which makes me wonder if there is more to her world than we believe, from what I can tell, we’re learning more about it through the eyes of Ruri.

The characters in this story are odd, but in a good way, for example, Ruri’s mother is surprisingly calm and undeterred by her daughter’s newfound abilities which catches Ruri off guard in a comedic way. Speaking of her abilities, she learns right away that she can breathe fire from her sneezing (though, with her being half-human, her body hasn’t gotten used to these new abilities yet.) As for her classmates, they aren’t immediately frightened at the thought of a classmate having horns or being a dragon but treat Ruri as one of their own. Aside from the positive depiction of being mixed heritage, this story also serves as a way of going through puberty, so to speak.

Aside from Shindo’s unique story and script work, his artwork was something else to admire from this wholesome experience, each of her classmates was designed uniquely, and each had different personalities of their own on display not by words, but through representation. With how each chapter tackles certain situations that she faces whether it be school, making friends, mastering her new draconic abilities, and her newfound draconic nature, it is drawn and handled with great detail and smooth linework. Not to mention packed with little nods and easter eggs in certain scenes.

An ordinary first year high school student discovers that their absent father wasn’t human (in this case, a dragon) and that is why they are manifesting unusual traits and abilities. This is well-trodden ground for young adult fiction the world over.

The first trait is a physical feature that cannot be disguised (in this case, horns), meaning there is not going to be a masquerade plot. This is somewhat well-trodden but still familiar.

On page 30, the half-human highschooler (in this case Ruri Aoki) thinks “weirdly nobody’s really freaking out. Whatever. It’s fine, I guess.” This line sums up RuriDragon very well, even down to the conflicted apathy of Ruri as the protagonist, and this tone is unusual enough for a non-comedy series to be interesting in and of itself.

As the first volume unfolds, it becomes quite clear that this is going to be a high school life manga as much or more than it is going to be an urban fantasy manga, with Ruri’s dragonish nature serving as both a catalyst for interaction with people and a reason to feel awkward while doing so. However, the story arc about her learning social skills as an acerbic but ultimately shy girl, and the story arc about her learning to navigate her dragon traits as they manifest one by one, feel like each could probably stand independent from the other. These lessons in social engagement, navigating the making of acquaintances as well as the making of friends, are dialogued and explained in almost as much detail as the dragon abilities (page 133, where Ruri asks her new studymates if they’re scared of her, is a good example). This lends RuriDragon a slowness and seriousness (without being dark) that allows it to stand out from the demi-human highschoolers genre, but also makes it feel like slightly, if only very slightly, less than the sum of its parts.

The art is competent and realistic enough to feel well suited to the slice-of-life focus, while still supporting a nice variety of character designs. Enough variety, at least, to accommodate an already fair-sized cast. The translation is perhaps trying a bit hard to be hypercolloquial, with phrases such as “S’been a whole week!”, and the exchange “Dang, Gurl.” “Don’t call me ‘Gurl’ ” and such like, but even that feels like it might be interesting to watch long term.

RuriDragon is well worth investigating, but those who do so should know that it is as much or more so a tale of an awkward girl being slowly hauled into making friends as it is a tale of a dragon-human learning to use her powers.

SUCH A FUN SERIES OPENER! It is comfy and fantastical at the same time. I loved the comedy beats/tone.

A slice-of-life comedy about a young girl named Ruri who wakes up one morning sporting strange horns. What does it mean? Will this new physical change help Ruri engage more fully with her classmates?

The adults in this manga are strangely unconcerned about Ruri's dragonhood, which makes me suspicious about the wider world that Ruri seems to know nothing about. The art style is cute and the characters are distinct.

A Slice of a regular, ordinary (half dragon) life.

One day average, if a bit of a loner, high school girl Ruri wakes up with horns growing out of the top of her head. Her mother explains, matter-of-factly, that Ruri is half-dragon, and later at school she sneezes out a burst of flame, which her human throat can't handle causing burns and bloody mess, requiring her to go to the nurse's office. After a week off (and working with her mom to learn how to control her flame breath) Ruri returns to school, and uses her new social cache as a half dragon to begin to open up and learn how to socialize.

As far as novel versions of disability or diversity narratives go, RuriDragon certainly paints things (at least in this first volume) through some pretty rosy glasses. Ruri's slacker teacher is too lackadaisical to care about her differences, and the kids soon accept them after Ruri's mother comes to class to apologize and mention them working on the flame thing. It's all handled so reasonably, it feels fairly utopic and ideal... which is pretty dang pleasant when you consider how drastically people can react to minor differences in school settings.

As a piece of speculative fiction, RuriDragon is pretty dang delightful. At least part of the fun is Ruri's puberty-dragon symptoms, but the series seems to get the most traction out of using these to grow Ruri's social bonds with classmates and new friends. An interesting examination of social growth and development, with an adolescent dragon-lens.

Opinions are my own and do not represent my institution.

Ruri’s a typical high schooler. She worries about making new friends, talking to boys, and doing well in class. And she’s half dragon. Good thing everyone’s so chill about that last part.

Funny, heartwarming slice of life. I like how the story doesn't focus on the dragon bit, but instead has fun with how accepting and accommodating others are around Ruri. Fun, wholesome read!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Viz Media for the advanced reader copy.

RuriDragon, while formulaic and a little bit obvious, has a certain charm to it. It's not the most original story ever told, but Shindo manages to make you like the characters enough to keep reading.

This was very cute! Imagine waking up one day with dragon horns, but still having to go to high school! You might expect everyone to freak out and push you away, but everyone at school is surprisingly cool (even when you singe their hair).

In the great tradition of fantastical depictions of puberty, we've got RuriDragon. As the title states, she's part dragon and the traits are coming out now that she's hit a certain age. Overall this is a positive depiction of being a mixed heritage kid, with the bonus of dragons. The volume ends in a way that definitely has me looking forward to volume 2.

This was a fun little slice of life! Having the reader experience dragon puberty along with our main character is a fun setup. The reader probably has as many questions as she does concerning the fact her father is mostly absent and a dragon. but most of the people in the world are very chill about this fact, which was nice. It gives the series a very easy-going feel, but the action panels are nothing to sneeze (fire) at either! This was a good start and I'm curious to see where it goes!

This was a super cute manga that I would recommend to anyone that loves slice of life or dragons, and definitely if you love both. This is definitely going to become a must buy series for me in the future. Thank you to goodreads for providing an earc to review.

YAY!! I've seen a part of this comic on the internet and I've been dying to read it! I'm so glad I'm getting the chance to now, it's super cute and the way everyone just accepts her is really comforting.

I'm so happy this title is getting published and that the mangaka is back from their hiatus.

I read the first few chapters maybe a year ago on the Shonen/Viz app and was instantly hooked. It's not everyday a kid wakes up with horns on their head and their mom is very nonchalant about it. I'm really excited to read more and to see where this story goes.

Hoping the mangaka remains in good health as well!