Dragon Sister!: Volume 1 Review

Dragon Sister! Vol. 1
Written by: Nini
Art by: Nini

Let's forget for a second that I get paid to review books, and have a pretty steady stack of them coming in. Let's assume that I'm in a bookstore, looking for the latest book or series to add to my collection, and my entertainment budget this month only allows for maybe $20 in manga or comic book purchases. Bearing this in mind, I come across the book Dragon Sister!. As a guy, I'm immediately drawn to the cover image of two cute girls, one of them with pretty much impossible cleavage, but most of the time that wouldn't be enough to get me to pick up the book. Samurai sisters? I'll pass, thanks. There are plenty of books out there already that deal with stuff like that. So back on the shelf it goes for someone with more prurient interests to find.

And that's the problem, because hidden behind the cartoonish exterior is a retelling of the classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Not familiar with ROTTK? It's a story well worth checking out, and you have many options ahead of you if you're so inclined. Books, films, manga, even video games have attempted to retell the story of a divided China. As the forward to the book puts it "If you read all the literature and watched all the movies that have ever been made about the Three Kingdoms, you'd never get around to reading this manga." Now, we have a decidedly different take on the historical epic, with a decidedly feminine slant to it.

Only the genders have changed. Many of the names remain from the original epic tale, but thanks to an errant prayer uttered by one of the principal players, all heroes who might affect the plans of the villainous trio we meet at the beginning of the book are born female. As with all things magical, the curse invoked by the trio turns them into cute little girls as a side-effect. From there we're off and running with the emergence of a more heroic trio, warrior women Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, and prince-in-exile Liu Bei, who hope to raise a volunteer army to retake China and restore peace.

To be sure, this book isn't going to offer the most serious of takes on the history behind the tale, and there's more than enough gratuitous fanservice and innuendo going on to make the people who did pick the book up because of the cute girl with cute breasts on the cover happy. Still, the book is entertaining for what it is, and it might actually act as a primer for anyone who isn't completely familiar with the Three Kingdoms story. Then again, those who are completely immersed in the story may also find this an amusing take on it. The artwork certainly helps set the tone. Creator Nini has a definite knack for drawing cute girls, and if that were all there were to this book, it wouldn't be worth your time. Every character, male or female, is given an equal amount of uniqueness so there's never any confusion about who is who, and certainly a lot of attention was given to costume design. If you were buying this book for the artwork alone, ignoring completely the historical content, you'd still come away satisfied with your purchase.

Dragon Sister! appeals to a couple different audiences. If you're attracted to the image of the cute girl in the suggestive outfit on the cover, you're going to be happy with the character designs and the artwork throughout the book itself. If, however, you're looking for a different take on one of history's most-told tales, this is certainly a worthy title to check out. In other words, don't be fooled by the cover…or be fooled by the cover…but check this book out, regardless. It's not at all what you might expect it to be.

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