Sayounara Ryuusei, Konnichiwa Jinsei

Not bad, not amazing, and kind of weird.

This is not a bad anime by any means, I have watched much worse than this, but there's also some much better anime then this too, and definitely ones that are less weird.

Let me elaborate on each point.
The Good:
1. Really good animation quality for such an obscure anime, it's animation is really crisp, and bold, if can understand that. I almost find it to be a waste being used on this anime since it's so good.
2. The story is somewhat bland & cliché and feels like a lot of this is a small harem, considering the few women ... who like to follow the MC around. Now that isn't a forced plot point to this anime, more so it is a side detail, with the MC mainly just being another OP reincarnated MC who fights and protects his village. However, believe this; The MC actually has some values, and isn't a total sad loser or an awful douchebag?! Which is surprisingly rare with this type of anime for some reason. The story has a decent plot, which doesn't drag out, and the pacing is decent as well. The characters are a bit cliché, but they are good since they actually get a personality and are understandable in their actions and beliefs, with the MC having a good backstory to aid it all.

The Bad:
The positives, sometimes are the negatives. This is bland & cliché, so no matter the fact that I find this to be enjoyable, the story is something that could be put together by grabbing 6 reincarnation animes and shoving them into a blender, and filtering out the mediocre characterizations that you sometimes get. I wouldn't watch this if you have some other animes you have been looking at watching, since this is really just more of the same, with a little better animation and characters. That said, if you are bored, this is actually decent enough to keep you entertained, just keep in mind it isn't unique or magically special compared to anything else.

The Ugly (aka, Weird):
For some reason drinking in this anime revolves around milk. Now that wouldn't be anything I would care about, BUT for this anime it revolves around half human animals (see where I am going?), and the local drinking place is just a place where you drink a half cow/human's breast milk, which is also somebody's wife, and their daughter also gives out her milk too, see where I am going? This is kinda weird, and I agree with others that this seems like a disguised fetish of some kind. That said I don't think it ruins an entire anime over a 2 minute scene, but I wish that the producers would've just cut the scene entirely since it added almost nothing besides a moment to scratch your head and think "Why am I watching an anime where people drink a half human/cow's breast milk".

6.5/10, truly a milky experience.

Relatively generic reincarnation story. Not especially original, but doesn't do anything really annoying or offensive either. It's about a Dragon that was tired of living, who finds a reason to live again after being reborn as a human to a loving family. The Main character isn't a pervert, or perfect in every way. He's just a guy who was a Dragon in his previous life, so he has all the memories of being a Dragon, and sometimes uses the powers he used to have when he was a Dragon. It's your standard medieval power fantasy. It isn't going to blow you away, but if all ... of that sounds interesting to you, you'll probably have fun with it.

I'm not very good at writing reviews, but I felt compelled to write one for this. Have you noticed that all the other reviews for this anime are negative? When I saw that I thought for sure this must be pretty bad. Usually even the shows that are genuinely a 4/10 still have at least one or 2 positive reviews, but this anime didn't have a single positive review before mine own. I don't understand why. When something is SO BAD that no one write a good review for it, there's usually some obvious signs. I looked at a couple previews, and a promo video that Crunchyroll posted, and it just didn't line up. I've seen a lot of trash anime. I unironically enjoy a few anime that I know are trash. So when I started watching this I was keeping my eyes open for the telltale signs of middling or obviously bad story telling that would be deserving of 100% negative reviews.
And they were not there.

The antagonists have believable motives. The protagonists don't just know things they shouldn't, and they have so far been consistent in how they react to situations they encounter. No one pulls something big out of nowhere without some build up to it. None of the characters walk the line of a specific trope so hard that it's mind numbing. This is a pretty decent, although standard power fantasy, with characters that are enjoyable, and fun. They aren't deeply written, but they don't need to be. That isn't what the story is trying to do.

So why all the negative reviews? Well, the most consistent complaint is that the writing is perverted. I don't see that, but I think I know why they are saying it. A Cow Woman sells her own milk, and her Husband is proud of the quality. This matters for a fraction of an episode, and is barely important to the plot. To add to the horror, there are characters that drink the milk. That's it. That's the reason. The Village where the main character lives has Beast people living there, and one of those beast people is a Cow Woman who sells her own milk. They don't sexualize the Cow lady, she just dresses like a normal villager. They never show how she gets the milk, they never hyper focus on it, but the Village gets their milk primarily from her, and her Husband is proud of the quality of her milk. The part where it matters is a contest between 2 characters to see who can drink the most milk, but this happens because of a challenge to someone who is new to the village, and is used to help that person grow more comfortable with the rest of the village. It is not used to sexualize the Cow lady. This is tame when compared to so many other things I have seen in many other anime. I could theorize the reasons for such a strong reaction, but it doesn't matter. The point is, that's the only weird thing this anime does that would make sense for the strong reactions they gave, so if that something that will bother you, Now you Know.

To wrap it up, this has decent animation, and the story is reasonably well paced so far. The action is sparse, but fairly well done when it does happen. The production doesn't have any glaring issues, and the voice acting fits the characters. Overall it's 7/10 for now, and I'll update that if I think it changes as I watch more episodes.

My god this is truly a wonderful anime. I hope that we get to see more of Dolan's dragon form as a human that he is now. And the fact he turned back into a dragon to search of Celina touch my heart!!!
I hope we get to see a S2 knowing that the manga has 24 volumes which is more than enough for a S2 maybe even a S3 depending on the pacing.
Anyhow this is a great anime that people should watch.
I wonder if we will have similar animes airing in the next season of winter 2025 and so on.
Aside from that I ... enjoy Doland's journey as a human with the knowledge and experience that he gained as a dragon in his previous life.

Sayounara Ryuusei, Konnichiwa Jinsei
It had a cool premise — reincarnated dragon as a human? Sounds awesome! But somehow, they made it boring. The plot moves at a snail's pace, and every "big moment" feels like filler. Instead of adventure and excitement, you get awkward conversations and predictable story.

The animation doesn't add much to the experience. Fights feel clunky, and movement is stiff. At times, the characters look like they were drawn in MS Paint. While it's not completely unwatchable, it’s forgettable, like a dream you forget moments after waking up.

This could’ve been a fun, unique anime, but it’s giving “group project where only ... one person did the work” vibes.
2/10 — cool idea, tragic execution.

Ok hear me out
The anime is generic one but I see it as a refresher or a breather for all the jam-packed action anime for this season, if you want something that is chill, not much of an action but does not keep you bored that much and have sense of humor, like seating on the couch and want to past time and not having an adrenaline rush, by all means watch this but if you are expecting some op moments like danmachi or shadow stuff, I suggest you put this on your list as a breather or if you want to chill and ... relax. Other than that, it's not bad

Just an as average as it can be anime (maybe lower) with cliche Wholesome story, and no epic moments that I expected and it foreshadowed, a bit surprising in a few storylines but not something memorable or you would ever regret missing out on. Art seems fine but animation looked clunky to me and could've been a lot better, watching the fight scenes could make you realize how much work the animation needs.

The story isn't overall unique that any average anime fan could tell, pretty predictable but ig the wholesomeness is sweet, though there's one decision about "drinking" in the village the MC lives that ... baffles me which seems like a fetish insert for the author and inappropriate, maybe highly inappropriate.

The art style is fitting for the story and got no major complaints there, just the execution and optimization could be a bit better as it seems like they tried to copy the manga as much as possible.

No characters are much interesting, especially the MC's character is so booring and honestly kinda pathetic. Don't expect a cool MC or characters (as it is the case for the story, it isn't "cool").

However, in case of characters,among all my characters, the first villain, a woman witch with purple hair was fairly built and was a bit interesting seeing her backstory, flashbacks and ideology.


I would maybe recommend it even if you have nothing else to watch and just want to watch a wholesome happy-go-lucky generic anime.

I myself dropped it as the pace became slower and slower with each episode and got bored of how I felt I never missed anything out even if i skipped to a randome minute of each next episode.
Peace.

Don't do it!
I was about to go with "normal story" but halfway through it got so bad I couldn't take it anymore. I wasn't hoping for a great story, not ever for something special, I was just hoping for it to not be boring. As you can see my bar was pretty low. Guess what? It subverted my expectations :))
The season begins with some nice ideas. The story, some designs... I was getting what I wanted. Then a lamia drops in. Is she gonna be some love interest? Meh, but ok. Then a new girl, so it must be a triangle or something, right? Yes? ... No? It doesn't really matter, I continue watching. (As you can see, my bar is still on "low" settings.) Halfway season though, a "big" battle starts. And this is when all goes apesh*t. "So you are powerful enough to hurt me?" "You will fail, evil demon". *insert blank face* Yes, this kind of generic dialogue. Those are not actual the quotes but I don't remember them and I can't be bothered to watch it again! So, you don't have an amazing setting, or some nice graphics, or VA, or dialogue, or plot progression, but then you drop even lower??? Oh, I almost forgot. The soundtrack. While that battle is on, an orchestra goes nuts in the background. Im not joking. Full volume "lord of the rings"-like music (not same quality) blaring in the background while you also hear diegetic sounds and "Never, evil demon!" Like I said, expectations: subverted.
It doesn't even matter what happens next (again, things just to move the plot forward) it felt like that was a special thing.
Pfew, thats all. Happy holidays!

If you are looking for an anime whose story will touch your hearts then go for it. The first few episodes may be slow but once you reach episode 6 the quality improves drastically. You will get attached to the characters and feel the emotions of the lonely dragon. Only suggestion is that the quality of first half of the season could be really improved. Hoping for season 2.
The story is typical fantasy story but the depths it adds to the characters is what steals the show.
The concept of lonely dragon reincarnating is great and if you like OP MC then go for it.
Also ... there are lots of mysteries waiting to be unfold. Genre is fantasy, romance, action and harem.

......... I'm sorry but WTF.
There is some really weird stuff in this anime, and for that reason I could not continue.
No other reason to watch it ANYWAYS, because its your average isekai. Not only that, it involves... milking... fetishes.... not only with grown adults, but also children! Anyways, every character in this isn't very interesting and there is no reason to not stop watching this anime after EP 3. All I'm saying is that the only reason you should be watching this is if you are actively looking to be disturbed. People in the story act really natural about all of these things, too. ... They don't even see it as comedic. Really weird.
I'm disgusted, and for that I'm done lol

Goodbye, Dragon Life — Goodbye, animal god life, return to human and heaps of never-ending mediocrity.

Well folks, it's that time of the seasonal reel once again, where Isekai and fantasy come out to play, and us the audience to have to pick and choose our poison to see how good (or (mostly) bad) the shows will turn out to be. And one constant red flag will be no-name authors who think they know better than to have a blank slate of a premise to work on as they go and expand the story from there, which seemingly adds the number to the quantity, not the ... quality. And for one novelist by the name of Hiroaki Nagashima, his lone series (that's still 20+ volumes and ongoing) of Sayonara Ryuusei, Konnichiwa Jinsei a.k.a Goodbye, Dragon Life, is just that: a fantasy series that goes where he wants his MC to travel forth. And let me tell you: please get out of this worse-than-generic warp before it infects you to the point of feeling stale.

Everyone has the opportunity to write something they wish what they want to write, be it influencing or being influenced by similar works, there is no qualms about that. The bad part about that is the list of ideas that they want to bring forth to add substance to their flare, and while not everyone can be like a certain Rifujin na Maganote (author of Mushoku Tensei) and Tappei Nagatsuki (author of Re:Zero), it's totally fine to start somewhere and work to better things henceforth. Only except for authors like Hiroaki Nagashima, who like to just play it safe and hamfist the reincarnation theme on and on with no end in sight...it's a working formula alright, but that formula is VERY flawed because it adds no originality and defaults to everlasting known tropes and cliches that work just for the sake of progressing a story that on top of having little to no substance at all, keeps on harping to no end.

And you need to look at the root cause of the fault, nowhere else than the premise itself: a centuries-old divine dragon who seemingly is done with its life being the infamous warmonger that has raged wars against countless species, so much so that it wishes to be kicked out and reborn again as a normal human living the slow life, and it got its wish as a young man named Dolan living in a "notable" village that's weird for all the wrong reasons: a young girl having a normal crush on him, and milk that doesn't come from a carton, but rather from an actual cow demihuman. This in and of itself shouldn't be right, but it's the author's weird fetish of ideas, so let's just roll with it. Dolan soon getting more accompaniments through the finding of Celina the lamia, who's on an expedition to find her life partner, as well as Christina the swordswoman from the kingdom lands, initially here to investigate what's going on in the unremarkable Verun Village, to then slowly be appreciative of its unkempt nature...with at least the semblance of the typical normal humans. Dealing with the informalities of life, and the usual "evildoers casually invading lands for a fight", it's just the standard "survival of the fittest" mentality that has the strong Dolan equip Celina, who has been for the most part, helpless and a damsel in distress when things go bad, until he decides to train her to become strong to face off against the regularity of monsters, let alone the strong Demon Army with its general Knights. The irony of which, that each and everyone has a personality pretty much monotone, with nothing special to ever talk about.

As is foretold, this is just about as fantastical as it gets being a rip-off of Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita a.k.a Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In The Countryside, but just being on the level of stale bread so tough to chew and the content being fed to the audience that's even tougher to swallow for its bland, flavourless quirks.

Unsurprisingly, the production values are also quite bad throughout. As much as it goes for the past of studio SynergySP's efforts in the action department, its collab with old studio Vega Entertainment having been experimented with before with Summer 2021's Deatte 5-byou de Battle a.k.a Battle Game in 5 Seconds, it's noticeably even worse than this show would allow its hind feet to keep on walking the rough and bumpy path.

Also, the music is just terrible and, with the snap of a finger, instantly forgettable. K-Pop boy band Lun8's OP just is not a good song (or even fit for anime) overall, and I've had better with EverdreaM's EDs (especially with last Fall's Boushoku no Berserk a.k.a Berserk of Gluttony) than this whatever of at least a nice-sounding ED song.

It's a generic reincarnation story alright, but for the life of me, I just find myself tolerating how bad this series could get, and it's even worse on a binge watch because it sets the expectation to force you to watch the following episodes just to see what would happen next.

Don't fault the anime's staff team for this one (even though they're partly to blame for the bad production); blame Hiroaki Nagashima instead for concocting a series that is more than just generic; it's worse than average and serves its own fanbase to be fed endless mediocrity just to keep expectations abreast.

If you excuse me, I'm going to pray to the gods to awaken me out of watching a nightmare that is the epitome of horrible and give me a reincarnation that's better than what this series serves on its broken and dirty platter.

This one is not passing the 3 eps test. It had a germ of a good idea, but was quickly slammed into a mountain of isekai cliches and tropes by the producers. Bye Bye Dragon! Bye bye!

The art work is no better than average for the genre. Backgrounds look cheap and hastily drawn. Same with the animation. First episode was acceptible but it quickly slid to kid vid in episodes 2 and 3. Yeah, OK this is a low-budget production. Did you have to rub our noses in it?

The characters, at first, seem like they might provide some originality, but no. They quickly slide ... into their standard trash isekai slots. It must have taken a lot of effort to make a lamia this boring. The MC is supposed to be a dragon, but we don't get to see much of that, except as a deus ex machina to try and move the plot along.

What little plot is presented, though. It takes some bad writing talent to make a mere 3 episodes seem sloggy. Everything is cut and paste from a bunch of other titles, in hopes the viewer has little experience with anime, and won't notice. Pluck them from their original series, slap a new skin on them, and toss them out there to the wolves. The foreshadowing provided offers no hope either. More of the same old isekai slop the industry pukes into the mass consumption trough each season.

The VAs were nondescript. Their direction was less than inspired. He just hung the actors out to dry with little to no leadership. And the director's misuse of the soundtrack seemed amateurish at best.

I'm flying away from this one as fast as I can. It's almost failing at a D- 62/100 grade. Slay this dragon by avoiding it like it was the plague.