Dragon Head

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After finishing Dragon Head I just had to express my thoughts about it. Dragon Head is a thrilling artistic adventure. The characters are all quickly thrown into this mysterious phenomenon and have to learn to survive, keep their sanity and their morality. I found the art to be an aesthetic throwback to something like Kazuo Umezu. The detail of the landscape and weather conditions are amazing and the characters simple enough. The story is thrilling and interesting the whole time. I never once felt uninterested. The mysteries keep coming and with every chapter the reader inches closer to discovering a possible truth. It is easy ... to get attached to the cast and find yourself cheering them on or cringing at the possibility of their untimely demise. The story is sort of doing two things at once. We get a straightforward survival story, but we also get an underlying meaning. The story tries to focus on some importance of human fear and why we need it or not. I think the symbolism and dialogue on the fear talk can be a bit thrown into the story, however it certainly does not take away from the experience. The ending is a fine one, leaves much open to interpretation and that is alright. By the end, I was sort of hoping for more or perhaps expecting some more detail on the other plot points. Despite that the story still does a good job at winding it down and opening it up to an end. Dragon Head is definitely an enjoyable read with interesting plot developments, mystery, loss, beautiful art, and emotional appeal.

This manga is just really different, at the first view it may seem like a manga about... I won't say what because it is still a slight spoiler but as you dig deeper into the manga you find your self just more and more confused, it is about a constant struggle of main characters the more you read more you realise that it was not what you were thinking before and after reading few more chapters you realise that 20 minutes ago you were even more wrong, you start building you theories because you are genuinely interesedted, manga makes you ask questions because you never ... know what to expect.
FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T WANT TO READ THIS BECAUSE OF THE ENDING: it was great. I really think that the ending of Dragon Head was one of the best endings I've ever read, when I found about this manga I was searching to buy it for months and after about half a year I got it and then I found out that everyone hated the ending, what was kinda sad hearing after spending so much time on it but after reading it I really felt something it reminded me of fight club and it was not really open I don't know why people say that every question that we had was answered so...I don't really know what's the deal with that

Story 9/10
It was great, it never stopped intriguing it always had a twist ready, and it kinda felt unique even though it is not something really special I don't know how to put it you will understand after reading.

Art 9/10
Panels from this manga look like just real photos. Character designs you may not enjoy but the main two look great their emotions are portrayed great and also.... just a quick story I was reading it in the forest and some random old guy sat next to me and asked what am I reading I showed it to him and after skipping through some pages of course he stumbled upon a page where Ako was naked:( I explained to him but I guess he thought I was reading somethinig....different

Characters 9/10
I know that is three nines in a row but, hear me out, two main characters are great, I know it may sound weird but, there are rarely good female characters in anime and manga, I don't mean anything bad but I have watched nearly hundred different animes and I can't really name well written females maybe a few: Eva from Monster,Ichinose from back when you called us devils (noone has read it I know) mmm... Kim Wexler from better call saul.... I know it isn't an anime but still maybe I haven't watched or read something with good female characters but Ako still was great and main guy Aoki was also:)

Enjoyment 9.5/10
Sorry about not being a nine but it was really easy to read, you were always intrigued, you genuinely wanted to know how the story would expand and it wasn't something you wanted to finish reading.

Overall 9.2/10
I don't know if math adds up to this number but that is how I rated it, definitely reccomend it is kinda known in horror manga media but still an unknown manga so that's unoftunate, don't stop yourself because of the ending I can't guarantee that you will enjoy it as much as me because there are a lot of people who hate it but still from start to finish it was great so yeah that's it:) thanks for reading:)

What matters most when writing a story? Characters? Plotting? Presentation? The author's fetish? There's certainly wrong answers (The first three I mentioned), but no right answers. 'Dragon Head' basically puts all of chips on its themes of fear and paranoia. It establishes a mysterious apocalypse very well, and puts its characters in various situations that show the affects of fear and paranoia. The name of the manga itself comes off as a red herring in retrospect; No overtly supernatural elements reveal themselves in 'Dragon Head'. There is no dragon, and by extension, no head. Despite what the manga hints at, no dark, malevolent entity lurks ... in the shadows. This might've disappointed me, but I realize that such a twist serves the idea of fear and paranoia well. Nothing is more terrifying than the unknown, so never giving an entirely straight answer for the apocalypse's origin makes sense for this series. The series concerns itself far more with the self-destructive nature of humanity in these cases; People who believe that there's something beyond comprehension out there. In this way, the anti-climax is merely a way to put us in the characters' shoes. This thematic throughline is undoubtedly the manga's greatest strength, and maybe its only strength...

The characters aren't great. None of them are annoying, but they're all extremely basic. Teru, our protagonist, is a normal guy. Ako is a normal girl. There is some slight character development for them, but it's entirely predictable and not compelling. There is a fairly interesting character at the beginning of the manga, but his presence makes up a small fraction of the entire series. Generally, if a character isn't boring, they're interesting but underdeveloped. The story meanders a lot; It could've been much shorter, considering how loose the plot is here. The story does cover a lot of ground regarding different emergences of paranoia, but even still, the last chapter lacks conclusivity in a way it didn't really need to, even leaving the deliberate anti-climax aside. The presentation is pretty good all things considered; The solid art and good paneling make for a nice reading experience. The manga can be a little to wordy at times, but it balances these moments out well enough such that I'm not bothered. Really, I wouldn't say the story, art, or characters are bad. However, most of the heavy lifting is done by the themes, which I can't say entirely works out. 'Dragon Head' is fine, maybe even good, but if even a little bit more effort went into its other elements, it could've been much more. By other elements, I of course mean the author's fetish. 5/10, very close to a 6.