Half Human. Half Dragon. All Trouble.
Dragon Half is a seven volume ecchi fantasy manga starring the titular half-human, half-dragon teenage girl Mink. The manga was serialized in Dragon Magazine from 1988 to 1994, and it received a two-episode OVA adaptation by Production I.G in 1993. Basically, the story is an Affectionate Parody of fantasy as a genre, with plenty of Fanservice and self-referential humor.
Mink goes on a grand adventure as she pursues the man of her dreams, singing idol Dick Saucer. Unfortunately for Mink, Dick Saucer is a dragonslayer as well as a singer... and further complicating Mink's pursuit of the studly Saucer is Princess Vina, the daughter of King Siva, who also desires his attention. While a powerful sorceress, the princess has an unfortunate tendency (inherited from her mother) to turn into a small blob of intelligent slime at inopportune times.
Prodded by his daughter and seeking revenge on Mink's father (a royal dragonslayer who "betrayed" the king by running off and marrying the dragon he was supposed to slay), the king sets several plots in motion against her, including sending out an assassin, a brain-dead, underfed knight who stores his lightsaber in his head, and hiring Saucer himself to slay the "disguised" dragon. Ultimately, Mink overcomes these obstacles, and finds herself competing in a fighter's tournament, and going on a journey to defeat the demon king Azatodeth so she can gain his People Potion and become human, just for a chance to meet her idol.
Although the anime is mostly silly, the manga is both silly and epic. It also features some very strong Art Evolution.
The manga received an official English release in 2018.
Not to be confused with the Hentai Dragon Pink.
This show provides examples of:
- Accidental Kiss: How Mink first meets Dick Saucer.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Parodied in the anime, which cut out the scenes that would have given Dug Fin an introduction and motivation, but left in his appearance in the battle tournament (where he still promises revenge for something that happened in the cut segment). When the characters express confusion, he rewatches the previous episode, flips his lid on realizing his introduction was cut, and declares that he'll get revenge on them anyway.
- Adults Are Useless: The parents of the adventuring trio are hilariously incompetent. Pia's parents spend most of their time keeping track of how many times they've fainted recently over worry about their missing daughter. Rufa's father spends all his time boasting about his (nonexistent) magical prowess, while her mother spends all her time gushing over said alleged prowess. Mink's father is actually competent, but he's so lazy that he can't be bothered to do anything unless his wife is in immediate danger.
- All Genes Are Codominant: Mink; the daughter of a dragon mother and a human father is a Cute Monster Girl with horns, wings, and fire breath. As well as inhuman physical strength and agility.
- And the Adventure Continues: Just as Mink and Dick are about to get married, Rufa shows up talking about the rise of a new Demon Lord trying to pick up where Azatodeth left off. So the two postpone their wedding to go an a quest to stop him - at which point all of Mink's other remaining enemies decide to go back to trying to kill Mink for no explained reason. The following chapter is a Distant Epilogue about Mink and Dick's bratty daughter being taught a lesson in compassion by Rufa.
- Arc Villain: Overlord Dead Lie seeks to overthrow Azatodeth and becomes a problem early on, but is defeated around the halfway point.
- Art Shift: Accompanied by the voices becoming higher when the characters (bad guys included) go into their chibi appearance.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Rogue's robots are this at best, and flat out useless at worst.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment: At one point Rogue tells his younger brother Mig that he can't bear to see his youngest brother Doug get tortured... and asks him to take it to another room.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The Demon King Azatodeth is the main Big Bad of the manga, as the one ordering the monsters to cause havoc, and Mink’s goal is to defeat him; but she must also deal with Princess Vina, who wants Dick Saucer all to herself and often clashes with Mink, and is the main Big Bad of the OVA in which Azatodeth does not appear.
- Blob Monster: Slimes are small, cute, harmless versions of these.
- Butt-Monkey: It sometimes seems like most of the cast qualifies, but Rosario in particular stands out. Damaramu would, too, but he's completely oblivious.
- Catchphrase: Damaramu made a blunder (of a lifetime). Sometimes rendered as "I, Damaramu, shall regret this." or "Damaramu regrets everything".
- Celeb Crush: Mink has this on Dick Saucer.
- Clipped-Wing Angel: Princess Vina turns back into a slime when defeated.
- Clothing Damage:
- This happens to Mink in the Tournament Arc scene.
- And lots more in the Manga.
- Comically Invincible Hero: Very, very little is actually capable of harming Mink; most of the time the strategy used by her allies is to stand behind her while she obliterates everything.
- Combining Mecha: Damaramu, after getting defeated the first time, managed himself a cybernetic body made with Super Alloy Z and a flying ship he could combine with in UFO Robo Grendizer-style.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure:
- The heroes defeat Mig the first time by (accidentally) pulling his pants down (see Goofy Print Underwear below).
- Later, Vina uses a picture of Mig in his underwear as blackmail material, and tends to yank his pants down whenever she feels like it.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment. Mig's torture spells are strangely specific, creating effects like the sensation caused by chugging ten bottles of Tabasco sauce in one go.
- Cut Short: The anime was intended to be released as four OVA episodes, but only two were made due to poor reception in Japan.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Mink in the anime, courtesy of Kotono Mitsuishi.
- Cute Monster Girl: Mink the dragon half.
- Cyborg: Damaramu, starting from his second appearance. By his third, he's little more than a disembodied head plugging himself into robot bodies.
- Cyclops: The guy who tests Mink before the tournament has only one eye.
- Description Cut: When Mink thinks that the four generals now must be happy and imagines them partying together, a cut panel immediately shows three of the generals fighting for the Ralph's affections.
- Distant Epilogue: The final scene of the penultimate chapter takes place three years after the main story, and the final chapter takes place nearly a decade later than that.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: That bomb Damaramu uses is in an... interesting location.
- Dragon Ancestry: Mink is a half-dragon, half-human hybrid. Her mother is a dragon, her father a dragonslayer.
- Dramatic Ellipsis: ...Master Gill...talks like this.
- Edible Theme Naming: Rogue's three robots (Navel 08, Dark Cherry, and Apple) are all named after fruits (Navel 08 is a reference to Cara cara navel oranges
). - Fanservice: As seen in the page image, many of the female characters wear very revealing clothing that leaves little to the imagination.
- The sole purpose of the OVA ending on Mink accidentally exposing her nipples; she'd been covering them up ever since her top got ripped earlier in the second episode, but this shot was seemingly added as a last-minute viewer reward.
- Finishing Move: Dick Saucer's Saucer Special. Which he doesn't use, because right as he's about to fire it, he realizes he's late for a concert.
- Flying Brick: Mink is near indestructible.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Mana uses one to punish Royce's Casanova tendencies when she doesn't feel like breathing fire on him.
- Goofy Print Underwear: Mig's Teddy Bear undies, which prove to be his greatest weakness.
- Greater Need Than Mine:
- When Mink finally gets the People Potion, she gives it away to cure Rufa, who had been turned into a frog by Azatodeth. Rufa is not happy, because the potion turns her into a human, when she used to be an elf.
- Getting Mink's daughter to understand and accept this (regarding a medicinal flower she doesn't want to give an ill friend because it's pretty and she wants to keep it for herself) is the plot of the epilogue chapter.
- Hermetic Magic: The ritual Vina uses to become human.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Pia's parents, while being held hostage by the demon lord Azatodeth, decide that if they no longer be needed as hostages, Azatodeth will let them go, because he "looks fairly gentle". Azatodeth is quick to dissuade them.
- Humanity Ensues: The People Potion can turn monsters into humans.
- Improvised Golems: Vina was able to summon a Golem larger than herself out of the palm of her hand the first time she met Mink.
- Interspecies Romance: Where to begin? In the manga, you get: human x dragon, human x Slime, human x naga spider...
- And eventually Human x Half-Dragon!
- Large and in Charge: Azatodeth is bigger than mountains.
- Laser Blade: Damaramu has one that he ends up getting stabbed through the skull with.
- Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: Damaramu and Dug Finn are seen still alive, bobbing in the lava around the arena after the fighting tournament.
- Laxative Prank: Rosario attempts this on Mink... who passes it onto Saucer.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: After being a lecherous butt monkey for the entire run of the manga, Mink's father effortlessly kills one of the most dangerous enemies in the series in one hit when it makes the mistake of trying to take his wife hostage.
- The Load: Rufa, played for humor. She usually doesn't bother to attack or do anything at all helpful. When she does use her magic she inevitably hits Mink instead of the monster, and it isn't always an accident.
- Magic Wand: Lufa's Lightning Cane with which she usually ends up electrocuting herself every time she tries to use it. Or the innocent bystanders standing next to the target. Or everybody.
- Medium Awareness:
- Characters occasionally remark that they are in a comic strip. Vulcante in particular knows he can't attack Mink yet as it's the end of the chapter and claims he can't be a minor character, as he gets a dramatic closeup at the top of the page.
- In the anime, during his fight with Mink, Dug Fin claims he's seeking revenge for something Mink did, and she tells him that those scenes were edited out. He pulls out a VCR and a copy of the tape and watches it.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Happens once to Rufa. She immediately smashes it.
- Missing Steps Plan: The king's plan:Step 1: Kill Mink
Step 2: ?????
Step 3: Marry Mink's mother - Mistaken for Own Murderer: At one point, Mink sneaks into a royal ball under an alias, hiding her draconic figures beneath an elaborate gown and hairdo. During the ball, she dances with Dick and hits it off with him, causing a jealous Vina to figure out that she was Mink and attacks her. After Mink gets away, Dirk finds the discarded and battle-damaged gown, and comes to the conclusion that the evil dragon Mink had kidnapped "Laura", the girl he danced with.
- No Accounting for Taste: You'd think being married to an incredibly powerful, jealous dragon who is also an incredibly beautiful woman would be plenty of incentive to stop skirt-chasing, but...
- No Ending: The anime only had TWO episodes, and cut almost two-thirds of the plot. Of course, Lampshaded.
- Hilariously, the one part of the plot that WAS kept in, the People Potion, was largely forgotten in the manga, and the plot they did cut (The quest to defeat Azatodeth) was what took over it in the narrative (because Azatodeth had the potion), and even then the ending was And the Adventure Continues!
- No Fourth Wall: One character is incensed that he was edited out of the first episode.
- No Navel, Novel Birth: Lampshaded when Lufa asks why Mink has a belly button if she hatched from an egg.
- Ocular Gushers: Water General Petit Foie's power. She can literally flood a room with her tears.
- Organ Dodge: Damuramu survives being stabbed in the head with his own energy blade, because his brain is just that small.
- Plot Hole: Parodied with everything regarding Dug Fin, capped by this immortal line:Dug Fin: I don't care about story continuity, I'm going to kill you anyway!
- Porn Stash: Royce has decoy porn stashes to keep his wife from finding the real one.
- Power Limiter: Mink is given one to delay her second ecdysis (and with it her alleged transformation into a horrible monster). She keeps ending up having to turn it off briefly to defeat various foes, causing that transformation to edge closer and closer...
- Prophecy Twist: Mink is told that if she undergoes a second ecdysis, a horrific monster will appear. Everyone assumes that Mink will turn into said monster. Instead, the monster appears as a birthmark on Mink's butt.
- Rocket Punch: One of the Rogue Fin's robots is equiped with one. Parodied because the robot is so incompetently built that it screams "Rocket Punch!" and shoots its head instead.
- Samus Is a Girl: Overlord Dead Lie.
- Schizo Tech: Is a Medieval European Fantasy with TVs, trains, VCRs, CDs, air planes and space shuttles.
- Schmuck Bait
- Averted. The king lays a trap for Mink that involves placing Dick Saucer concert tickets on the ground to trigger the trap. When Mink finds the tickets though, she assumes some poor girl dropped the tickets and refuses to take them.
- And sometimes played straight, like in the Azatodeth's castle. Rufa sees a buffet offering "Help yourself to some refreshing juice. (Especially Mink.)", and immediately gives Mink the juice. Of course, it's a trap.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Foes that are not beaten by Mink's ridiculous strength and toughness are frequently bested by their own incompetence or the incompetence of one of their associates.
- Sex Signals Death: Inverted with one minor character. He survived Azatodeth destroying his village (by stepping on it) because he had snuck out in the middle of the night to make out with his girlfriend at the beach.
- Shout-Out: Examples go here.
- Shrunken Organ: One character is undamaged by a sword through the head because his brain is "compact".
- Silly Reason for War: At one point, Mink and co meet a king who went to war against his wife because she served him carrots with dinner. The king would eventually realize how foolish this was after his wife ended up trapped in a monster-infested dungeon for over a year as a direct result.
- Stripperific: Mink's clothes usually consist of an armored bra and some panties. More justified then most however, since Mink doesn't really need armor at all.
- Super-Deformed: Every other panel in the manga.
- Suspect Is Hatless: At one point, Rosario and Vina independently summon up monsters and send them to kill Mink, describing her as having horns, wings, and a tail. Since both monsters also meet this description, they end up killing each other before running into Mink.
- 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: Damaramu survives his own sword being driven completely through his head and out the other side. Apparently, his brain is so small that the blade missed it.
- Token Evil Teammate: Rufa is consistently portrayed as a horrible person with no redeeming features whatsoever. She gets better, but only in the very last chapter.
- Too Dumb to Live: Damaramu... who also might be too dumb to die.
- His brain is very, very compact, you see.
- Too Kinky to Torture: In the manga, one of the villains attacks with spells that cause decidedly specific tortures. They backfire when he uses them on Rufa.
- Tranquillizer Dart: Rosario shoots Mink with a knockout dart and she instantly falls. Then Rosario puts two more darts into her right away, setting up a gag where he and the king think Mink died from the overdose. Strangely, at first Rosario accidentally inhaled and got the dart stuck in his tongue, but nothing ever came of this.
- What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: A major concern for Mink in the last third of the manga, as if she undergoes her second ecdysis, she'll turn into a hideous monster. Rufa frequently cheers for Mink to do this. The second ecdysis eventually happens and the hideous monster is a small birthmark that appears on Mink's butt.
- Yaoi Fangirl: When Rogue tells Vena that he had taught his younger brother Mig to kiss, Vena imagines the scene and becomes quite interested. Rogue is lying, of course.
- You Killed My Father: Dick Saucer to Mink's grandfather.
- Zorro Mark: Mink's father carves an R into defeated enemies, while Dick Saucer uses an S (one opponent mistook it for a 5).
