Dragon Half

Life, in a fantasy universe, is not all roses and flowers. You think: how nice, you’re always out and about with your party, now and then you slice up a few orcs, once you’re strong enough you can kill your enemies with a flick of a booger, there’s no Windows 95 (and above all no Bill Gates)… BUT NO! Even little Mink has her own no-laughing-matter teenage problems. But let’s start from the beginning…

A long time ago, in a faraway land, a dragon was spreading terror all over the kingdom. The king, worried about the fate of his people (in truth he was afraid there wouldn’t be enough people left to pay him taxes), decided to send Ruth, known as the “Red Lightning”, to give the flying reptile a good beating. Everything would have gone the right way, if the “Red Lightning” hadn’t had the happy idea of falling in love with the dragon, or rather the dragoness, also red, and of running away with her to other shores. From the union of the two Mink was born, a half-dragon (DragonHalf, indeed), that is, a girl with a human look, but equipped with ears, wings, tail and the strength you’d obviously expect from a dragon.

As we were saying, our little Mink has a few problems: she is in love with Saucer, a handsome dragon hunter and part-time singer. The obstacles between Mink and her beau are essentially her dragon nature and Princess Vina, mistress of black magic and founder, as well as president, of Saucer’s fan club. So, to eliminate at least some of her problems, Mink decides to set off in search of the People potion, a potion that will let her become completely human.

The legend has it, in fact, that a little slime (a living being of spheroid shape, made only of a jelly-like substance – Ryo’s note, particularly learned)(basically a BALL OF SNOT! – Tribal’s note, particularly practical), having fallen in love with the king, took the People potion, became human and managed to fulfil her dream by becoming queen. The poor thing, however, even though she was human in every respect, gave birth to a little slime, dying of the great “emotion” and making the king lose the only hair that grew on his head. Guess who the king’s baby slime daughter was? Well done, Vina herself, who became human thanks to a spell. Unfortunately Mink’s journey will be hindered by the henchmen of the king, who is determined to do anything to punish the girl for her father’s betrayal. And imagine when the king sets her beloved Saucer against her…

These are the premises of one of the most idiotic OAVs I have ever seen in my life: it had been since “Due come noi” that I hadn’t laughed so much in front of the TV. The story may actually seem trivial (and indeed it is), but I challenge anyone to stay unmoved for the whole length of the videos. When even the silliest of situations becomes dramatic, the tension drops without you noticing, turning the characters into super deformed (that is, from tall and slender, they become short, squat and with a huge, scary face). The artwork is excellent, above all because it has a very clean line and is nicely coloured. The animation is average (we’ve certainly seen better), and I have to say that the character design didn’t completely convince me either: personally I found it too angular in some places (when the characters are in SD) and too soft in others, although, however, it turns out to be very similar to the manga’s. A great note of merit goes to the music, which, even if there isn’t much of it, creates just the right atmosphere (the typical silly Japanese little tune that underlines the escape of Ruth and the dragon is not to be missed) and to the ending theme “Pappara funi funi”, which, besides being practically unsingable, has here and there little touches of class such as the “Ode to Joy”, which by the way is also in Evangelion (it has nothing to do with it but never mind). Put like this, these OAVs may not seem anything special, but taken as a whole they are certainly above-average products, since their strength is not based on technical depth, but on their narrative and idiotic side, truly out of category.

Before concluding, a personal note: the version we reviewed was the one with English subtitles; this allowed us to appreciate the fabulous Japanese dubbing, which has voices so silly that they fit perfectly with the idiotic atmosphere of the OAV. Honestly, even though our voice actors are very good, I don’t think any dubbing could live up to this one, since the vocal range of the Japanese is very different from ours. The ideal solution would be subtitles, since they let you enjoy the OAVs in all their facets, remembering though to subtitle the songs too, something both Yamato and Dynamic should learn to do.