Learning to ride and tame dragons comes easy to most students at Ansarivan Dragonar Academy—except for first-year student Ash Blake, who is known by his classmates as the “number one problem child.” Poor Ash is the laughing stock at school because, despite his unfashionably large star-shaped brand that marks him as a future dragon master, he has nothing to show for it. His dragon has never appeared. Until now, that is. One fateful day, Ash's dragon awakes in full glory, but appears different than any dragon ever seen before—in the form of a beautiful girl! What's worse, Ash soon discovers that this new dragon has attitude to spare, as she promptly informs him that she is the master, and he, the servant.
Ash's problems with dragon riding have only just begun.
Dragonar Academy (Seikoku no Dragonar note ) is a Japanese light novel series written by Shiki Mizuchi and illustrated by Kohada Shimesaba. It was published under the MF Bunko J imprint from June 25, 2010 to November 25, 2015, for a total of 20 volumes.
It has a manga adaptation illustrated by Ran that was serialized in Monthly Comic Alive from 2011 to 2016, and compiled into 13 volumes.
An anime adaptation by C-Station aired as part of the spring 2014 anime lineup, and ran for 12 episodes. The anime is licensed by Funimation.
Has nothing to do with Metal Armor Dragonar.
Tropes in the series
- Balanced Harem: There's a two-tier format with Eco and Silvia being equal love interests for Ash. A bunch of minor girls also like him and stay around for Fanservice.
- Blue Blood: Silvia and Rebecca.
- Subverted in Jessica's case, as she is just pretending.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Most of the girls pull this at one point or another.
- Clothing Damage:
- If a zombie dragon uses its tentacle to attack or wrap its opponent, their clothing will dissolve.
- Likewise, Princess Silva is at the receiving end of a sword strike that completely obliterates her clothes, but otherwise leaves her perfectly intact. Twice.
- Cool Sword: Lots of arc weapons take this form.
- Cut Short: The manga covers up to seven volumes of the light novel before abruptly ending, with the characters narrating how the lingering plot threads wrapped up in the Distant Finale. The anime doesn't even get that far, ending at the finale of the first major story arc.
- Demoted to Extra: Dr. Angela Cornwell, a dragon researcher and powerful magic user. She's introduced near the beginning of the series, quickly established as a maniac scientist who nearly dissects Echo, and ends her first appearance as the new teacher at school, setting her up as a somewhat antagonistic mentor figure. She then promptly never does anything important again — in the anime and manga, at least.
- Design-It-Yourself Equipment: Eco's role in battle is to enter a mental Atelier, create a weapon/armor set from scratch, and send it to Ash for usage.
- Dracolich: One started to rampage in town, eventually.
- Dragon Rider: The Breeders. A dragon is born from a starmark they receive in a special ceremony when they are young, and only that Breeder can ride that dragon, save for Ash Blake, who can ride any dragon.
- Dragon Tamer: At the titular Academy, people train to ride and tame dragons, making most characters this trope by default.
- Fantastic Arousal: Eco gets aroused from a particular herb, which is said to have an effect similar to alcohol (that is, lowering inhibitions). Unfortunately, it's apparently a popular filling in her Trademark Favorite Food, crepes. She also get aroused from biting and licking on her undeveloped horns - which proves to be a key point later on...
- Hidden Buxom: The light novels and manga features a Sweet Polly Oliver named Oscar, whose figure is passable as a disguised man without a problem, but when she's revealed as a girl, she turns out to have one of the largest busts of the cast, somehow.
- Inconsistent Spelling: Other than Dragonar Academy (the commonly accepted localization of the title), the name of the series itself could be, depending on interpretation (or even official sources), Seikoku no Ryuu Kishinote /Dragonar/Dragner/Dragoner. Also, the breeder's dragon counterpart is known as a Parr, a Pal, or a Steed, depending on which version you're reading.
- Naughty Tentacles: Infamous for this. The light novels, anime and manga all have instances where the female characters are bound by clothes-dissolving tentacles, which always seem to stop just short of making the series a Hentai.
- Funimation leans into this with the Special Edition DVD collection
, which features a transparent slipcover with tentacles stenciled on either side, plus six cards featuring the main female characters with most their clothes torn off. By fitting the cards in the slip cover, you get the not-at-all skeezy sight of the main heroines apparently being bound and molested by the tentacles! Do NOT leave this out when company is calling.
- Funimation leans into this with the Special Edition DVD collection
- One Cast Member per Cover: The majority of the covers for the light novels have one girl with a dragon on the background. Aside from Eco, the girls don't get to appear by themselves on several covers. From volume 17 to the last, however, all covers have at least two characters.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Dragons come in different breeds:
- Asia: four-legged land dragons.
- Hydra: aquatic dragons.
- Strada: two-legged winged dragons (i.e.: Wyverns).
- With time all three can become Maestros, four-legged winged dragons who are also comfortable in the water; holy dragons.
- Outdoor Bath Peeping: In Volume 6, Rebecca takes Ash to a lake where Oscar is taking a bath, causing Ash to discover Oscar is a girl.
- Power Tattoo: The Seikoku of the Breeders is a tattoo that allows them to get a baby dragon and raise it.
- Powered Armor: The Arcs kinda act like this, crossed with Clothes Make the Superman.
- Tentacle Rope:
- A zombie dragon tends to wrap up its opponent with its tentacles, which dissolve clothing.
- Mordred is the villain who loves fetishizing this trope. Anytime it grabs some girls, be prepared for a borderline tentacle rape scene.
- Two First Names: Ash Blake, Rebecca Randal, Maximillian Russel and Jessica Valentine.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Ash ends up crossdressing at one point.
- Unwanted Harem: Ash isn't looking for a girlfriend, but still gets a harem of girls that doesn't seem to stop growing.
