Ruri Aoki is an ordinary Japanese girl living a normal life, until one fateful day she wakes up with two horns sprouting from her head. At that point her mother reveals to Ruri that she's half-human and her father is a dragon ("Ryu"). Ruri doesn't quite see it as a huge deal and decides to go to school as usual.
Written and illustrated by Masaoki Shindo, RuriDragon (ルリドラゴン) is a Shonen Slice of Life manga, originally released as a one-shot in 2020, then serialized in Shonen Jump for six chapters in June and July 2022 before going on hiatus due to Shindo's health issues. It returned in March 2024, running weekly for five weeks in physical and digital Shonen Jump, then moving to a digital-only biweekly schedule from late April 2024 on.
An official English translation of the series
is available for free on Manga Plus.
Tropes:
- Blood from the Mouth: Ruri's first time breathing fire causes her throat to bleed pretty badly, since she's still mostly human. By the next time she breathes fire, her throat has become a dragon's, meaning she no longer bleeds.
- Dragon Ancestry: Ruri herself finds out that she's born of a dragon father and a human mother after developing fangs and horns as well as breathing fire.
- Farts on Fire: Ruri's mother informs her that part of the draconic package is explosive discharges from the rear end. She's not exactly thrilled to learn this.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Ruri's mother is a human, but her father was a dragon, something which she is not aware of until the beginning of the story.
- Healing Factor: As part of her Dragon Ancestry, Ruri heals fairly quickly. After breathing fire for the first time, her throat bleeds and her mouth is scarred, but after just three days she's healed entirely. Her mom speculates that she may heal from a stab wound just as quickly, but Ruri would rather not test that.
- How Do I Shot Web?: After accidentally breathing fire for the first time, Ruri has a harder time trying to do it on command.
- Just Woke Up That Way: Ruri wakes up in the morning to find that she's spontaneously sprouted horns.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Ruri's mother, her maternal family, and her teacher all knew she was half-dragon before she found out; her mother didn't want to force the issue, and didn't see any need for a special talk.
- Not a Morning Person: Ruri has issues waking up in morning for school.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Going by the traits Ruri inherits, dragons can breathe fire, call lightning, and heal quickly. Ruri's mother later explains that there are nine draconic traits in total, and that she's unsure how many Ruri has inherited, specifying breathing fire and calling lightning as part of the set (the rapid healing is ambiguous - it might be another one of the nine, or it might be a Required Secondary Power). In the one-shot, her father comments he started flying last year.
- Riddle for the Ages: Ruri is curious how her human mother and gigantic dragon father were able to conceive her. In the one-shot, her mom brushes it off and says to ask her dad; when she asks her dad, he begins shaking in fear and tells her to ask her mom. Ruri is exasperated.
- Shout-Out: In chapter 2, Ruri is clearly playing on a Nintendo Switch. In chapter 5, she and her mom also break out the Wii to play Super Mario Bros.; based on Ruri's complaints of being tossed into a pit, it's probably New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
