Drag-On Dragoon: Shi ni Itaru Aka

This is my first review ever, so i decided to take on this one.

As a fan of the Drag-on Dragoon series and it's spin-off Nier, i'm sad to say that this is a dissapointment. Spoiler alert incoming:

The Manga takes place almost a century (if i'm not wrong, it's not exact of long it takes place) after the first ending to Drakengard 3 (Drag-on Dragoon 3 in Japan) and One's brother is on a quest for "redemption". Apparently he's killing a bunch of people with his elven partner Nero, who is a sadistic psychopath. Right of the bat, the characters likability drops in the toilet.

I get that the series protagonists has never been pure, innocent, idealistic heroes, as we had the blood thirsty Caim from the first game, The well-intentioned but extreme Father/Brother in Nier, the rebel Nowe in DoD 2, and recently Zero. But the characters were at least likeable. I liked Caim, I liked the father/brother, i liked Zero, but the characters here are just mean assholes.
At least Brother!One has some innocence in him, and consciousness but Nero is just a straight up asshole that makes Arioch and Leonard a saint in comparison.
We know little about him besides that he's Chaotic "you-got-problem good".
And remember, he's one of the good guys, especially in parts where he rapes innocent girls... How did Brother!One even met this guy!? Never explained.

The story and pacing is not much better.
We do get to see some familiar faces from the games, like Caim and his family, and i rather would like to see how it goes for the poor guy.
We do see a nice twist and also meet Legna, the Black Dragon.
But it all feels to rushed, and sometimes, some tragedy could have avoided if it wasn't for Nero's trolling attitude to Brother!One or if he straight up was honest with him. But what bothers me most, is that the Manga just focus on "Hurr durr, dark mature story has lot of blood, gore and lot of sex that makes GoT make a run for it's money". Just because the game was violent dosen't mean the Manga should be 10x more. The characters dosen't get a bit of character development!


The art style however, is pretty good, tough some character model can be of, especially when it comes to the Intoners.
I honestly would like to see more of the artists work in the future.

Overall, i don't recommend it, i CAN'T recommend it. Not even to a fan of this, it's better to read a summary of this than to read the Manga. I couldn't enjoy it.
It's too rushed, too unneccesarily violent and just has messed up content.
It's a mess.

I want to say this was weird but...
Yoko Taro things by definitions are weird.

I really wanted to to put a 7/10 but...
But the ending pissed me off so bad, I screaming to myself "WHY" in different language because of the pain I was feeling. I happen to love emotional trauma. 8/10.

(((Spoiler of the ending under this)))
If you read this manga I'm gonna assume you've played Drakengard 3. I loved One from the moment I saw him in the game. I loved his sister, One. I loved them both.And I was eager to know what happened after sister One's death. I really loved this character because It was all I had left after One died. WHY.

Wow, that is outstanding! That’s the idea that kept pulsing through my brain after I’ve read the Drag-On Dragoon Shi ni Itaru Aka. It’s something ground-, mind- and everythingintheworldbreaking. Yoko Taro – the master of humans’ hearts dark corners this time has brought to us something as unique and breathtaking as it is flawless in its own madness.

The beauty of this creation can not be equal to any other manga, because it is indeed colossal and unrepeatable. The diamond that makes Drag-On Dragoon series a work of genius is not the storyline, but the characters. Sick, twisted and bloodthirst “heroes” that will set the whole world on fire just to achieve their own goals: desperate attempts of One to redeem the sins of his past, sadistic and psychopathic nature of Nero – will drag you into furious whirlpool of human greed, lust and hate. Not to mention unrestrained, impulsive and lunatic secondary characters that will make this cocktail of blood, pain and sexual arousal taste even better. The art style – dynamic, brutal and gory only underlines the Yoko Taro’s dark fantasy genre and makes it look like an abyss of human tortured souls who’re suffocating in their own desires and thirst for more. Absolutely f***ing gorgeous!

The ending is just perfect. Best violent epilogue I could ever imagine for the best full of violence story.

This manga is more than just enjoyable. I’ve consumed it in one piece and was much more than satisfied with the “meal”. In fact, I was dope – that’s how satisfied I was.

Is it great and worthy of wasting time reading it? Hell goddamn yeah! Will you recommend it? Billion times YES. This is exactly what an anime industry needs: a fresh look at the world that shows the true colors of human nature and does not try to mask any ugly sides of our hearts. Especially recommended for true fans of brutality, sexual abuse and mindbending dose of madness in anime.

P.S. Recommend reading it when you’re angry and pissed off, if you really want to get high with it!