Line #3 Manga/DragonDrive


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dragondance_3782.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:The cast of Dragon Drive, featuring hero Oozora Reiji and his dragon Chibisuke in the center]]
3
4	''Dragon Drive'' is a [[ShonenDemographic shonen]] manga by Kenichi Sakura, which ran in ''[[Magazine/ShonenJump Monthly Shonen Jump]]'' from 2001 to 2006. A 38-episode anime adaptation aired from 2002 to 2003.
5
6	The story is about a boy named Oozora Reiji, and his adventures in a virtual world. No, not Film/TheMatrix, this world is where children go in secret away from the adults, to play a game called ''Dragon Drive''. Each child gets his or her own dragon, hand picked by his or her own personality. Reiji goes to check this place out and finds himself with the weakest dragon there: a tiny squirt, which he names Chibisuke. But what he didn't know was that inside Chibi was a power stronger than he thought.
7
8	----
9	!! The manga and anime provide examples of:
10	* TheAce: Anime-only Tachibana Kyoji is seen as this at school. Subverted in that Himuro soundly thrashes him at Dragon Drive within seconds.
11	* AdaptationExpansion: To compensate for some things being AdaptedOut from the manga, other things were added in the anime:
12	** Sun Wols is given much more screen time than he gets in the manga, joining up with the main characters more or less permanently instead of just being a recurring ally of theirs.
13	** The task of finding the shrine of Shinryu is fairly simplistic in the manga, but in the anime it's expanded into its own subplot that spans multiple episodes. As well, the dragons guarding the shrine were long dead in the manga and only appear as crystalized corpses, while in the anime they're still alive and have to be fought before anyone can access the shrine.
14	** Rokkaku's backstory is fleshed out a bit more, namely with the addition of Mahiru to serve as a rival for him [[spoiler:and also the younger brother of his dead companion Yako, who blames Rokkaku for his brother's death and wants revenge]].
15	** Meguru never fights in the manga, mostly because Jigen Jouka can only be active for short periods of time. In the anime she at the very least gets to use Jigen Jouka to help fight [[spoiler:in the final battle against Shinryu]].
16	* AdaptedOut: Either due to the manga being incomplete during its production or just because of diverging plot, the anime leaves out some things that were in the manga:
17	** Sun Wols's master Kaishu is never mentioned, leaving his backstory largely unexplored.
18	** Silver and her entire subplot are gone, as well as Hysteric Rose and the auction for Shinsaber.
19	** Gwonku's role is reduced and most of the details about him were removed, [[spoiler:meaning he never has his HeelFaceTurn and is killed off rather unceremoniously by the heroes instead]].
20	** Ensui is strictly a non-combatant in the anime, whereas in the manga she does step up and fight at least once [[spoiler:in order to stop Kohei from releasing Shinryu, leading to her death]].
21	** The entire second half of the manga was left unadapted.
22	* AlliterativeTitle: '''D'''ragon '''D'''rive.
23	%% * AloofAlly: Himuro after his HeelFaceTurn
24	* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Himuro Hikaru, for both Reiji and Sumishiba. He motivates Reiji and ''infuriates'' Sumishiba. Once Reiji learns how to use Chibi's true power ''he'' actually becomes this for Hikaru however, which is what drives Hikaru to be such a BloodKnight around Reiji.
25	* AmusingInjuries: Reiji, in ''every'' episode's eyecatch where he receives AshFace, or even HarmlessFreezing, from a dragon's elemental breath.
26	%% * AnIcePerson: Kanpa, Hagiwara's dragon.
27	* AntiHero: Himuro Hikaru and Sumishiba Ichiro after parting ways with Toki. Both go down a level (Himuro from V to IV, Sumishiba from IV to III), but Sumishiba is more mentally balanced to begin with, and Himuro remains a much darker character.
28	* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler:Hideaki is an artificial intelligence given physical form through the link between Earth and Rikyu, created by Saizo to assist in his plans.]]
29	* AshFace: Each episode of the anime features an eyecatch where Chibi blasts Reiji with a burst of flames.
30	%% * AxCrazy: Himuro in the anime and first half of the manga.
31	* BabiesEverAfter: Kind of. In the epilogue, pretty much the entire cast seems to have GenerationXerox children who have even inherited their parents' rivalries.
32	%% * TheBerserker: Rokkaku, generally when he's had a little too much to drink.
33	* BigDamnHeroes: Reiji, Maiko, Hagiwara, Towa and Tachibana in the final battle in the anime. Also, Himuro does this twice. Once when Reiji is about to get eaten by a dragon, and Hikaru shows up on his new dragon and fries it; and another time in the anime when Reiji is fighting and losing against one of the Shishinryu.
34	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: They defeat the BigBad, but only by merging the two worlds, which causes the dragons to disappear. However, we do see that Future!Takumi revives Dragon Drive 17 years later, so they get to see the dragons again.]]
35	* BlankWhiteEyes: Toki when possessed by Shinryu in the anime.
36	* BlindfoldedVision: Himuro after the TimeSkip.
37	%% * BloodKnight:
38	%% ** ''Himuro''.
39	%% ---> '''Toki Kouhei''': Hikaru's just a crazy battle freak!
40	%% ** Rokkaku has his moments.
41	* BondCreatures: Analyzing a teenager's genetic code reveals the dragon they are destined to partner with.
42	* BoundAndGagged: Maiko is kidnapped at one point to use as leverage on Reiji and this trope happens.
43	%% * BreathWeapon: A lot of the dragons.
44	* BrilliantButLazy:
45	** Otohime Taro, from the second half of the manga. Will fall asleep if nothing "interesting" is happening, and won't fight unless he thinks it will be exciting. He is also the best Dragon Drive player around.
46	** Himuro might also count, in the beginning. He's a high school dropout because he simply got bored with it, and only rarely shows up at the Dragon Drive center to kick the asses of everyone in the place before going home.
47	* BrokenAce: Himuro. Originally seen as perfect and the unmatched champion of Dragon Drive, he loses it when Reiji manages to catch him off-guard and nearly defeats him. Clearly has a ''serious'' inferiority complex, and actually breaks down into ManlyTears at one point when Reiji refuses to fight him.
48	* ButtMonkey: Reiji takes plenty of abuse in the eyecatch of every episode.
49	* CanonForeigner: Several characters were added into the anime to compensate for the manga being incomplete at the time and not having its full cast to adapt from. Major ones include Kyoji, Sayaka, Mukai, Mahiru, and Hideaki, as well as their respective dragons.
50	* CatchPhrase: Sumishiba's assertions that he will win "in ten minutes".
51	%% * ClingyJealousGirl: Yukino Maiko, although this is shown much more in the anime than in the manga.
52	* CompetenceZone: Only children of a certain age range are able to enter Rikyu. [[spoiler:Or so it seems, as the middle-aged Saizo Toki enters into Rikyu just fine to gain control of Shinryu later on, at least in the manga.]]
53	%% * DarkIsEvil
54	* DeathGlare: Himuro has a ''very'' effective one. Somehow, he even manages to pull one off without opening his eyes after the TimeSkip.
55	* DisabilitySuperpower: Subverted with Himuro after the TimeSkip; his eyes are always closed, not because he ''can't'' see (presumably), but because he stopped using his eyes in order to sharpen his other senses and gain power.
56	* ElaborateUndergroundBase: RI-ON's base of operations, which is also the facility where the Dragon Drive game is played, is an underground base hidden underneath a small Japanese traditional store.
57	* EvilLaugh: Toki after being assimilated into Shinryu and beating the hell out of Reiji and the rest of the cast.
58	* EvilPlan: Toki's plan to take over Earth and Rikyu.
59	* EyesAlwaysShut: Post- TimeSkip Himuro. Possibly subverted in that he actually doesn't see and never opens them.
60	* EyeScream: Rokkaku and his dragon, Thunderbolt. Each had his right eye ruined in a fight with Kohei.
61	* GeckoEnding: Because the anime was produced before the manga was finished, it wound up diverging from the way the first half of the manga ended. [[spoiler:The final confrontation with Shinryu happens in the D-Zone instead of in Rikyu, Chibi never unlocks his full power and instead relies on Shinsaber and ThePowerOfFriendship, and Kohei fuses with Shinryu to be sealed away along with it after killing his father, while in the manga it's Kohei who dies and Saizo who controls Shinryu instead.]]
62	%% * GenerationXerox: The kids in the epilogue. Practically ''everyone'' has one.
63	* GenreShift: The story starts as a fairly standard virtual reality battle series with Reiji as the promising underdog rising in the ranks, then shifts into a fantasy-based TrappedInAnotherWorld plot once he, Maiko and Daisuke are transported to Rikyu. The second half of the manga has a similar shift, except there the perspective is flipped with the dragons coming into ''our'' world.
64	* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Reiji starts drooling when Hysteric Rose flirts with Silver.
65	* GoodScarsEvilScars: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] concerning Himuro after the TimeSkip. He has very obvious scars on his face and hands, and probably more. Considering he's a fairly dark AntiHero, they're not quite as jarring as they could be.
66	* HarmlessFreezing: Another amusing injury for Reiji featured in the eyecatch of the anime, where Kanpa breathes snow all over him and freezes him.
67	* IChooseToStay: Himuro stays in Ri-Kyuu rather than return with the others at the end of the first half of the manga.
68	%% * IdiotHero: Oozora Reiji. So, so much.
69	%% * InfinityPlusOneSword: Shinsaber
70	%% * InVinoVeritas: Meguru, coupled with not remembering a thing the morning afterwards.
71	* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: In second part Agent A asked Takumi to find Raikou-oh Edea, the only dragon that can defeat Genryuu.[[spoiler: The very first Raikou-oh card Takumi retrieves from Agent A, the Raikou-oh that was always with him IS Edea.]]
72	%% * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Himuro and Sumishiba
73	* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:Ensui, Gwonku, and Kohei in the manga. Mukai and Saizo in the anime.]]
74	%% * LaserBlade: Himuro's first dragon's primary attack
75	%% * LightIsGood
76	%% * LightningBruiser: Chibi in giant-awesome-beast-mode on occasion, both of Himuro's dragons, Shinsaber in the anime
77	* LonersAreFreaks: Himuro. In the anime, he even has a speech about it. He literally does not understand the concept of friends, and wants to figure out what the difference is between Reiji and him by fighting. Even more so after the time skip, when he has been alone in Ri-Kyuu for ten years. Reiji tells the others that Hikaru has spent too much time there and will be useless to them.
78	* MadeOfIron: Reiji is the most prominent, but many characters suffer through injuries, explosions, and fights without the bat of an eye.
79	* MagikarpPower: Chibi seems utterly useless until, out of nowhere, he transforms into a monstrous dragon.
80	* OlympusMons: Senkoukura, Shin Saber (although Shin Saber is more like of InfinityPlusOneSword as it can be used as sword literally by Senkoukura), Raikou-oh Edea, Shinryuu, and Genryuu. [[spoiler: And in case you think Shinryuu and Genryuu isn't strong enough, they can fuse into stronger dragon. Ergh.]]
81	%% * TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Hikaru is this about Reiji.
82	%% * OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Reiji, before the Dragon Drive thing. But he doesn't actually miss it.
83	%% * OurDragonsAreDifferent
84	* {{Punch Catch}}: Manga-only, chapter 22 [[spoiler:When Reiji and Hikaru go in search of Shinsaber, one of the last trials was a test of strength. Hikaru challenges Reiji to a fight to the death, but Reiji refuses, Then Hikaru begins to attack Reiji with punches and kicks. When Hikaru takes one last punch, Reiji holds it with his hand and says he will not fight, at least not at that moment.]]
85	* RememberTheNewGuy: Before his introduction in the present, Mahiru isn't shown or mentioned in the first series of flashbacks explaining Rokkaku's backstory despite said backstory being the whole reason for his vendetta against Rokkaku.
86	%% * RidiculouslyCuteCritter: Chibi in his smaller form.
87	%% * TheRival: Himuro Hikaru.
88	%% * ScaryShinyGlasses: Sumishiba has a couple of moments [[spoiler: before his HeelFaceTurn.]]
89	%% * SheIsNotMyGirlfriend: Sumishiba about Meguru in the anime.
90	%% * SlasherSmile:
91	%% ** Toki, while speaking for Shinryu
92	%% ** Himuro has at least one.
93	* SparedByTheAdaptation:
94	** [[spoiler:Ensui never fights Kohei in the anime, and thus never dies after failing to defeat him.]]
95	** [[spoiler:Kohei is sealed away with Shinryu after fusing with it in the anime, whereas in the manga he explicitly dies from overexerting himself battling Chibi.]]
96	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: An inevitable result of the anime and manga being localized separately from each other. For example, Daisuke's and Maiko's dragons are respectively called Kanpa and Gorao in the manga, but in the anime they're called Kan'''per''' and Go'''l'''ao. In general the manga's localization sticks closer to the original Japanese.
97	%% * TheStoic: Himuro Hikaru. When he's not being AxCrazy or a BloodKnight. Falls more under this in the second half of the manga.
98	%% * TallDarkAndSnarky: Sumishiba and Himuro.
99	* TookALevelInBadass:
100	** Reiji, after a variation of TrainingFromHell.
101	** Himuro was already a badass, but takes it even further after the TimeSkip.
102	* TrappedInAnotherWorld: The heroes are trapped in Ri-Kyuu and must defeat Toki's plans before they can go home.
103	* {{Tsundere}}: Maiko but its downplayed. Her tsun-tsun amounts to giving Reiji grief about always giving up on things. Otherwise she's pretty nice. Type B.
104	* TwinTails: Maiko sports two pigtails to go with her tsundere-tude.
105	* UnrelatedInTheAdaptation: In the manga there's nothing to imply that Kohei and Saizo aren't biologically father and son, but in the anime Kohei surmises that Saizo adopted him to use for his own ends.
106	* TheVamp: Anime-only character Sayaka Towa. Called out by Maiko.
107	%% * VictoriousChildhoodFriend: [[spoiler:Maiko.]]
108	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
109	** Anime-only character Shiro Kurosawa, another human from Earth who was transported to Rikyu by unspecified means. Despite being in a similar predicament to the main characters, being sought out by them as a potential ally, and even implying he'll return after making amends with his dragon, he never does so and simply drops from the plot completely after being in one episode.
110	** While Darx is [[spoiler:implied to have died along with Kohei in the manga]], in the anime he's simply gone for no apparent reason after Kohei uses him to hijack the Dragonic Heaven tournament.
111	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Himuro's fear of ghosts in the manga.
112	* TheWorfEffect: Hagiwara, a couple of times. Sumishiba in episode 4, when he is utterly [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomped]] by Himuro.
113	* XanatosGambit: Reiji's plan to defeat a local VillainWithGoodPublicity. See the village is threatened by a dragon and leaves gifts to appease it. [[MonsterProtectionRacket Its actually the villain's pet and he's using the gifts to pay off his gambling debts]], but no one will believe Reiji and Himuro because they're outsiders who actidentally broke the dragon's shrine. The villagers want to sacrifice him to appease the dragon. The gambit is thus: "We'll defeat the dragon for you. If we fail, then the dragon gets its sacrifice. If we succeed than your village is safe from the dragon without the need of sacrifices".
114	* YourEyesCanDeceiveYou: Himuro essentially says this to the Raikoo users when one of them asks why his eyes are always shut.
115	* YourMindMakesItReal:
116	** Agent S mentions that a serious fall within the game world could result in brain damage for the player.
117	** There's a moment in Reiji's first game with Himuro where Reiji crushes his phone in fear and his hand is actually bleeding when he gets out of the simulation. The resulting in-game explosion also left Himuro with a cut on his cheek.

Context Manga / DragonDrive