About this episode

This episode discusses the slice of life manga RuriDragon, exploring themes of adolescence and identity through the lens of a girl with a dragon father.

Welcome to Manga Monday ! This week we're diving into RuriDragon by Masaoki Shindo, a slice of life manga running in Shonen Jump that proves you don't need a single fight scene to be one of the most captivating series in the magazine. Ruri Aoki wakes up one morning with horns growing out of her head. Her mom's response? "Oh yeah, your dad's a dragon." And Ruri, in the most relatable move possible, just goes to school anyway. What follows is essentially dragon puberty, an introverted teenager navigating high school while her body keeps doing new and terrifying things like breathing fire when she sneezes. It's quiet, it's warm, it's funny, and it treats the anxiety of feeling different with so much genuine empathy that it hits way harder than it has any right to. Ranked first in Japan's Recommended Comics 2023, a KyoAni anime adaptation is in production, and it earned all of that off vibes alone. Sometimes the bravest thing a manga can do is just be gentle. If you enjoy the show, please rate, review, like, and subscribe to Sakura Society | An Anime Appreciation Podcast — and any other podcasts you love. It takes seconds, costs nothing, and means everything to us creators. (The…

People in this episode

Host: Brendan White

Topics covered

• slice of life
• manga
• high school
• dragon
• coming of age

Keywords

• RuriDragon
• Masaoki Shindo
• Shonen Jump
• anime
• manga
• high school chaos
• dragon puberty
• KyoAni

Sponsors

Audio-Technica

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Shonen Jump, KyoAni

Books & works: RuriDragon

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