Dragon Drive Volume 1
© N/A
"Dragon Drive Vol. 1"
By: Janet HouckDate: Thursday, April 12, 2007
The pet monster genre is something of a worn-out dog by now. I think we can all agree that while Digimon and Pokemon continue on, the height of their popularity was a good ten years ago. Regardless, kids do love their pet monsters. The Pokemon video game franchise is still thriving as Nintendo’s mainstay on their portable consoles.
Dragon Drive follows the formulaic format of pet monster stories. Reiji is your typical schoolboy, albeit a bit of a loser who can’t commit to any game, because they just don’t feel real. One day, his best friend Maiko introduces him to a new virtual reality game called...wait for it...Dragon Drive. Taking inspiration from Yu-Gi-Oh, the player uses cards to summon his dragon, whose stats are taken straight from the player’s mind. The player levels up his dragon through one-on-one duels in the VR city world, and acquiring accessory cards to use on their dragon.
Only naturally, Reiji isn’t just any old player. His dragon, adeptly named Chibi, is small and weak, with question marks for his stats. Chibi is one-of-a-kind; the Dragon Drive programmers have never seen something like this before. Then in a moment of crisis in the game, Reiji somehow levels up Chibi, giving him the ability to fly and to be stronger, and he successfully takes on a much stronger player and his dragon. The programmers do have a prophecy-like belief in there being “The One Player,” so the majority of this volume is spent on the programmers testing Reiji and Chibi, and the synchronism between the two, which only the best Dragon Drive players have. We’re quickly introduced to the top players and their dragons, and the volume ends in the middle of an epic three-way battle between the cool and tactical Number One Player, the passionate underachiever Number Two Player, and well, Reiji.
The artwork is solid, ranging from simple to detailed scenes, but it falls cleanly under the blanket of standard shounen art. The characterization is very simple, with characters having little depth beyond their primary motivations, whether it’s to be the top Dragon Drive player or to be a good friend. As a whole, this series lies within the safe boundaries of shounen pet monster manga. However, it does have some unique details. The requisite best friend is Maiko, a girl, setting the stage for a potential love interest, and one who can hold her own in the world of Dragon Drive. The programmers and game master are interesting, and I hope further volumes get a little more into their characters.
Although average from the perspective of someone who has lived through the high times of pet monsters, this is a great manga for introducing kids to manga, as well as just for fun! It has no fan service and a lot of monster-fighting, buildings-collapsing action. Dragon Drive also runs monthly in Shonen Jump, so if you’re interested in this title, you can give it a spin.
