Constant Danger from Power Hungry Individuals
Creative Staff
Story: Rei Toma
Art: Rei Toma
Translation: Abby Lehrke
What they say
Asahi is in constant danger from people trying to use her to get the water dragon god’s power for themselves. She doesn’t want anyone to get hurt because of her, so she, the water dragon god and Subaru pay a visit to the emperor. However, in exchange for his protection, the emperor makes an unexpected demand!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The Water Dragon’s Bride has always had a great blend of action, comedy, drama, and romance. While volume 5 is no different, this particular one happens to be my least favorite of the five volumes out so far.
Immediately apparent at the beginning of this volume is how strongly the love triangle between Asahi, Subaru, and the Water Dragon. While the love triangle has always been there since the beginning when Asahi first became “The Priestess of the Water Dragon God,” it was never really prevalent because the Water Dragon didn’t care about her. To him, she was just a curiosity, and whether she lived or died meant absolutely nothing to him.
I’ve never liked the Water Dragon. If I’m being 100% honest, outside of his role of creating drama for Asahi because people want to use her to get his power, I don’t feel like he serves any purpose. Volume 5 tries to humanize the Water Dragon by making him seem less like a jerk and more like someone who is just naive and doesn’t understand humans. The problem for me is that it was done five volumes too late. At this point, the Water Dragon has been firmly established in my mind as an incurable jerk who would gladly steal a girl’s voice because he thinks she is noisy, and then impassively watch her as she dies from starvation. His uncaring demeanor struck me really hard. On the other hand, the fact that I hate him over what he did to Asahi is proof that Rei Toma is great at making people fall for specific characters.
The beginning of this volume has Asahi learning about a festival that’s happening soon, which she decides to attend. Of course, she doesn’t realize that this festival is meant for men and women to get together, have sex, and make babies. I thought her reaction when she learned what this festival was really about was cute. During the festival, she ends up being found by… I think his name was Koga. He was in volume 3, and he’s another guy I don’t like, but he’s also a villain and so I feel safe in assuming you’re not supposed to like him. Asahi is saved by the Water Dragon, further cementing the love triangle I mentioned before.
If there is one thing about this volume that really stood out, it’s what happens after Asahi is rescued by the Water Dragon. After returning to the village, she informs Tsukihiko of what happened and asks him what they should do. He says to request protection from the Emperor, who appeared in the last volume. She doesn’t want to. Tsukihiko then says the only other option is for her to die. Thus he cuts off a strand of her hair and claims she is dead, then tells her to run while he reports her “death” to the leaders of their village.
We learn a lot more about Tsukihiko. He and Asahi share a strange connection because his mother is from Asahi’s world—in other words, Earth. He came to this village because he heard about her and wanted to be near her so he could feel closer to his mother and maybe understand how she felt. Of course, now that he has declared Asahi is dead, the village is going to kill him. That was the agreement when he asked to be her caretaker. If something happened to her, he would be killed. Naturally, Asahi steps in.
The end result of Asahi interfering with Tsukihiko’s plan to let her escape from the village is that she ends up going back to the Emperor to ask for his protection. Subaru and the Water Dragon travel along with her. However, when she travels to the Emperor to request his aid, the child emperor surprises her by asking for her hand in marriage!
In Summary
While volume 5 is my least favorite of the series, I’ll not deny that it is a good volume. I hate the love triangle forming between Asahi, Subaru, and the Water Dragon, but I will also admit that the series is beginning to pick up. There’s a lot of plot threads extending in all directions, and I can’t help but feel like the next few volumes are going to be filled with tension and suspense!
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: April 03, 2018
MSRP: $9.99
