Ryuu no Haisha (The Dragon Dentist)

War rages between two neighboring countries, but one side has an ace up their sleeve: an ancient dragon bound by a pact to protect the nation. Despite these overpowering creatures being capable of leveling entire battlefields, they are rendered useless by cavities. And so, a special unit—the dragon dentists—has the important duty of caring for the dragon's teeth.

Nonoko Kishii was the only one of many brave volunteers who survived a recent round of recruitment; in order to join the dragon dentists, one has to witness their future demise and accept it without a fight. Knowing the exact circumstances of their fated ends, the dragon dentists devote themselves to their work. One day, they gain a new member who did not undergo the test: Bernard "Bel" Octavius, a young enemy officer killed by his own men and revived by the dragon's teeth. Despite his appearance being an omen of a great disaster, he is placed under the care of Nonoko as a dentist-in-training. Will Bel come around to the dragon dentists' attitudes toward death and help them face the painful future that is to come?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Ryuu no Haisha is based off the first episode of Nihon Animator Mihonichi, a collaborative weekly OVA series of standalone anime shorts.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Ryuu no Haisha
Alternative version:	Nihon Animator Mihonichi

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Kishii, Nonoko

Main

Shimizu, Fumika
Japanese

Octavius, Bernard

Main

Okamoto, Nobuhiko
Japanese

Godou, Yotoshio

Supporting

Yamadera, Kouichi
Japanese

Arisugawa, Kanne

Supporting

Nazuka, Kaori
Japanese

Natsume, Shibana

Supporting

Hayashibara, Megumi
Japanese

Satou, Shuuzou

Supporting

Tokumoto, Yukitoshi
Japanese

Salvador, Blanco

Supporting

Matsuo, Suzuki
Japanese

Oozawa

Supporting

Sakurai, Takahiro
Japanese

Guilleri

Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou
Japanese

Iemura, Soutatsu

Supporting

Takagi, Wataru
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Tsurumaki, Kazuya

Director

Anno, Hideaki

Sound Director, Executive Producer

Yoshizaki, Hibiki

Episode Director, Storyboard

Kurokawa, Tomoyuki

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

"Bokura ga Tabi ni Deru Riyuu (ぼくらが旅に出る理由)" by RINKU (eps 1-2)

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Ending Theme

"Bokura ga Tabi ni Deru Riyuu (ぼくらが旅に出る理由)" by RINKU

Reviews

May 8, 2023

SgtSalamander

Recommended

The Dragon Dentist is a brief, yet eminently intriguing piece. With its imaginative, maverick concept at the helm, it's unclear if you're in for a silly SoL or a brooding reflection on war, and by the end I'd say it's clearly the second. Still, it stands alone as its own thing, hard to really compare with a lot of other anime by right of its distinct aesthetic. Beginning with the story, it presents the viewer with a bizarre, heavily spiritual tale about a world where dragons are utilized in a 1940s style conflict, gradually becoming a meditation on violence and the cyclical nature of both ... revenge and life itself. Beginning with the good, the story features imaginative worldbuilding, is consistently engaging, and packages a series of emotionally charged subplots in its two episodes. However, it does so at a breakneck pace, to the point that the only characters really getting built up are Nonoko and the revenant, Bell. Other characters don't really feel like they have much weight by comparison. Perhaps my most major complaint here is that this world doesn't seem to follow any rules, or at least, they are not explained to the viewer in any meaningful detail. Things simply seem to happen as the story demands, and no grounding context is provided to the viewer with which to engage the story. So, while not necessarily bad, the story is certainly not this show's strong point. That honor belongs to the art, which manages to impress from beginning to end. The aesthetic direction of The Dragon Dentist is wholly unique, unlike anything it an be compared to, with these compelling scenes of the colorful and kinetic world in which the story takes place. You can tell they thought of everything, from the way structures would sit on a dragon, down to who would wear what uniforms, and even which creatures would inhabit the mouth of a dragon whose teeth are technically spiritual gateways. There is only one glaring issue here, which has to do with the heavy overuse of CG, especially in episode 2. I can forgive this for every major panning shot of the dragon and its seemingly endless tail, but entire minutes spent in a 3D rendered action scene is far too long, and made everything going on during those minutes feel clunky and out of place. The sound meets all standards of quality for a modern anime, though there are some problems here too. Namely, the soundtrack oscillates from this contemplative piano score to thematically inappropriate dubstep without warning, and the sounds of life are absent save for moments of grotesque realism, like the crunching of bones. The characters fulfill their duties as inhabitants of the story, and do what they need to do in order to fulfill that role, but often come off as just a little shallow, especially the supporting characters. Overall, The Dragon Dentist is a unique, flawed little gem that I nonetheless recommend. For all its faults, it is still a worthwhile experience, and will impress even by right of its originality alone.

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Apr 15, 2022

NorthmostIsle

Recommended

This film is good, even though I would only describe a handful of things about it as being actually good. What I mean by that is a lot of it is either amazing or terrible and the flip flopping it does of quality is quite dramatic.

It doesn’t do this a lot. In fact most of the time it just stays fantastic. The world building really sucks you in and does a great job of showing you lots in the little time that it has to work with without it feeling like a mindless exposition dump. It's not perfect and some of the characters are ...

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Aug 6, 2017

Ginko13

Mixed Feelings

After pondering on Dragon Dentist, i decided i try to share my mindset as to why this Anime could have been better. Beware of spoilers.

First, being in the military i found it interesting that the story had a strong basis for men of war, combat, and so forth yet it was WRONG on an epic scale.

The majority of soldiers in warfare do not have murderous intent, so the fact that entire military units where completely annihilated due to this idea that most soldiers harbor this intent is ridiculous. Most people have no wish to kill the enemy. Those troops cowering with tears in thier ...

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Kishii, Nonoko

Octavius, Bernard

Godou, Yotoshio

Arisugawa, Kanne

Natsume, Shibana

Satou, Shuuzou

Salvador, Blanco

Oozawa

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Ryuu no Haisha

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Synopsis

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