Desert Coral Vol. #01

By Mike Dungan     July 23, 2004
Release Date: May 01, 2004



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Wateru Murayama
Translated by:Tomoe Spencer
Adapted by:

What They Say
Daydream Believer. Naoto Saki has an imagination so far-reaching that he has found an entire world within his daydreams. He drams of a fantasy world when he sleeps, a land of barren deserts and marvelous creatures. One day, his elaborate reverie becomes reality when he is magically summoned into the very world of which he dreams. Suddenly, a boy's fancies are tranformed into panic, as Naoto is caught in a battle the Elphis and the Sand Dusts. He can feel pain here and experience real danger! Returning home is his only wish, but the beautiful sorceress who summoned him has other plans...

The Review
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Naoto is a normal, unremarkable high school student, but when he dreams, he has vivid images of a desert world and a cast of characters that include Lusia, the beautiful, if youthful looking pink-haired leader of a group who call themselves Desert Coral. One day, while dreaming of Lusia and Camu, another beautiful young sorceress, he watches Lusia cast her first ever summoning spell, and he is pulled into her world. However, she expects him to fight to the giant monster that Camu has summoned. So he tries to run away. Defeats the monster on her own, and as she collapses from the exertion, Naoto returns to his own world. He now knows that Lusia's world is as real as his own, but for some reason, he can observe it while he sleeps.

When he goes to sleep that night, he is pulled back into Lusia's world. He meets the rest of Desert Coral. Camu is another sorceress like Lusia, then there's Epsilon and Levinus, a couple of fighters, and Euro, a cute little cat-girl. They treat him like he's Lusia's slave, but to Lusia, he's just her summoned monster. She expects him to join Desert Coral and fight along side them against the Elphis, who treat the Sand Dusts as prey. He only wants to return to his own world, but he's falling for Lusia, and she uses her charms to get him to stay. One of the first jobs they do with Naoto is to look for a dragon baby that's gone missing. Naoto agrees to help, but on the condition that it's his last job. He succeeds in finding the dragon before the Elphis do, and he's returned to his own world. With the dragon. It turns out the dragon is more than it seems, and has a connection to Naoto that he doesn't understand yet. He is forced to return to Lusia's world, where there are Elphis looking for the dragon. Unfortunately, his return doesn't go too well, and he lands right in the midst of the Elphis.

Comments
This little fantasy/comedy has a lot to do. With an entirely ficticious world in Naoto's dreams, we have to learn all about it quickly in order for the rest of the story to make sense. Fortunately, Murayama does a good job of getting the story across so it isn't a muddled mess.

The art style is surprisingly thin, with a lot of screentone and good use of shadows and light to flesh it out. The thin linework complements the desert theme well, with images and horizons fading into nothing in the desert heat. The character designs are a little hard to get into, though. Everyone seems to have a slightly characaturish feel to them, and a certain two-dimensionality that they never seem to lose.

The comedy is slightly flat as well, with Naoto trying to pull himself out from the rather slave-like attitude that everyone regards him with, while trying to be Lusia's champion without every having to fight.

There are color pages at the front of the book. With so much screentone being used, the moiring of ADV's scanning is more noticeable than usual. The lightness of Murayama's inking isn't helped by the so-so art reproduction, either. The cover is a very simple design. The background fades from gold to white from top to bottom. The title is in a rather windswept style set against the gold, and over that is an image of Lusia with a dragon wrapping itself around her. The clean and straightforward approach to the cover design is effective, making it stand out. The only downside is that the image of Lusia and the dragon almost completely obscures the word "coral" in the logo.

Desert Coral is entertaining, but the odd character designs and only average art reproduction kept it from really grabbing my fancy. The characters aren't very sympathetic, and I have no real reason to care for Naoto's plight yet.