The manga adaption based on the popular RPG Monster Hunter.
Shiki Ryuho is a Forbidden Hunter who is in search of Miogaruna, the forbidden dragon of light, following the death of his master, Greylee, several years ago. He is accompanied on this journey by Ailee, Greylee's experienced hunter of a daughter, and Sakya, the daughter of a famous Equipment Technician. Not far behind is Curlon, a powerful hunter who has his eyes set on Ailee and decides to become a Forbidden Hunter in order to destroy Shiki for taking Ailee away.
Mangaka: Hiro Mashima, who also wrote Rave Master, and Fairy Tail, which this has expies to.
This manga provides examples of:
- And the Adventure Continues: At the end of the story, they're seen going off on a quest with new armor and their weapons upgraded.
- BFS: Greylee was a Greatsword specialist.
- Blow You Away: It's what makes Kushala Daora so godly in this story. While there are monsters in the original series that use the air as part of their attacks or abilities in some form or other, Kushala Daora is the only one capable of truly weaponizing it. Consider that this is a world where Wind is not part of the Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors circle, and is thus universally powerful (no resistances = full-on damage all the time), and that normally Kushala Daora weapons deal Ice damage.
- Also why Shiki's dual swords are always the most powerful weapons on display, since they're made with scales shed from a Kushala Daora. They become even stronger later when he gets parts from Miogaruna.
- The reason Greylee takes Shiki under his wing is because of his ablity to see wind patterns, which he observed when Shiki literally rides the wind up to the Kushala Daora just to tell it that someday he will hunt it down.
- Broken Bird: Ailee, and her whole anger about anything concerning True Companions. A flashback reveals her story with a previous party, whose members, three nameless guys, she considered as such, and how they basically traumatized her about trusting anyone but herself.
- Boy Meets Girl: More like Boy Meets Girl Who Tells Boy To Get Off Of Her Seat.
- Calling Your Attacks
- Celibate Hero: From the looks of it, Ailee.
- Chaste Hero: Shiki.
- Curbstomp Battle: EVERY. SINGLE. BATTLE.
- Expy: Shiki looks like Gray, but acts like Natsu.
- Fanservice
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Shiki - sanguine, Curlon - choleric, Sakya - melancholic, Ailee - phlegmatic.
- Freudian Trio: Shiki (Id), Ailee (Ego), and Sakuya (Superego).
- Hopeless Suitor: Curlon for Ailee.
- Girlish Pigtails: Ailee. The ribbons quite possibly double as nekomimi, at least, according to Shiki.
- Gratuitous French: "Orage" is French for "storm".
- I Work Alone: Ailee initially. See Broken Bird
- Keet: Dear god, Shiki.
- Love Triangle: Curlon think he has this with Shiki and Ailee. He couldn't be more wrong.
- Meaningful Name: Like all of Mashima's heroes who are named after a season, Shiki is no exception - his name means "four seasons."
- Parental Abandonment: Shiki is an orphan, Ailee lost her father, and Sakuya's father went missing (They find his body later though) and her mother died.
- The Power of Friendship
- The Rival: Curlon sees Shiki as a love rival for Ailee, though it is both a one-sided rivalry and a one-sided love.
- Rivals Team Up: Curlon joins Shiki, Ailee, and Sakuya in defeating the Girkuza. He seems to only team up with Shiki simply for Ailee's sake when she tells him to believe in Shiki because he's her True Companion. Though by the end of the series he seems to have loosened up and joined their party full time.
- Ship Tease: Shiki/Ailee, Curlon/Ailee, Shiki/Sakuya... Even Curlon/Sakya. Yeah, pretty much any time anybody gets screen time with someone else. It's probably because there is no Official Couple in the series.
- Shounen
- Shrinking Violet: Sakya.
- True Companions: invoked, deconstructed, rebuilt and played beautifully straight. In that order.
- Tsundere: Ailee.
- Worthy Opponent: Pretty much the reason the Kushala Daora let a younger Shiki live simply for challenging it. Consider for a moment that Kushala Daora is an Elder Dragon, a monster that is capable of ending the world, and that Shiki is probably about six or seven at the time. For a young boy to be riding on winds, and challenging a monster of such power, who wouldn't be impressed?
