The Dragon Dentist

Set in a fantasy-like land, there exists dragons and people who clean the teeth of these great flying-beasts, whom are known as dragon dentists. Dragon dentists cleanse the teeth of "bacteria" and prevent cavities in what looks like a dragon port, station, or village. These bacteria and cavities are harmful because it affects the dragon's power of revival. It is said that humans are reborn after death through the teeth of dragons, but they may not always be reborn as humans. One exception to this rule is the "yomigaeri," or bad omen, which is said to be a sign of future destruction. This may symbolizehumanity's sins as a whole. Is this fate, or is it mere coincidence? Does fate even exist, or is it something we tell ourselves in order to stop trying? These themes are ever-present throughout the show. In particular, our dragon dentists are very aware of this concept. They have a sense of understanding on what it means to live and what it means to die. It should be noted that in Buddhism, there is no belief in "God" or "fate." This contrasts against the dragons that live and enable their power of reincarnation. There is a mixture of beliefs or a constant clash in ideology carefully embedded into this show. It makes you think. It makes you wonder. You can be alive, but are you really living? It is said that dragons "cry with their teeth," yet their teeth is their source of power; they live, and they live genuinely. If you were put into this story, would you fight your fate or would you accept it? There would be a sense of irony if you resisted your fate only to find out that it was your destiny to fight fate; you would be playing into the plan right from the start. Our fellow characters are forced to find out if we truly are the authors of our own tale. Ryuu no Haisha, or The Dragon Dentist, is an unconventional surprise that contains Buddhist undertones and challenges what we may believe in ourselves.

The only reason I'm writing a review is because I felt like it was unfairly evaluated and criticized as an open ended story. Yes, this anime leaves a lot of questions unanswered or explained, but it was adapted from a short film, and the open ending cleverly ties in the theme, fate. Is fate set in stone and futile to change? However, instead of a short 2-episode series, it should have been streamlined into a movie. The introduction of the characters and plot as a series created a lot of unnecessary questions that left were unanswered leaving people unsatisfied. Albeit weird, I thought the story was quitecreative and original.

Tsurumaki Kazuya is one of my favorite directors, i liked FLCL so much, and then comes Ryuu no Haisha. A story about dragon dentists during a war, and a dragon used as a war machine. My first thought was : Ok, it will be very very weird, but hey, this is original ! For me, Ryuu No Haisha was a great show, very enjoyable. Story : The story is really original, the idea of dragon dentist is very interesting, and mixing this with some "realistic war" is cool. But, for me, a lot of the story is bad, for example, we do not know why people liveon the dragon, how they can ? When the army makes a pact with dragon dentist to use the dragon as a weapon ? Well, all of this is not clear at all. This is bad because the realm in this show has a great potential, but it is not used well... The story is good, but not as good as i was excepted. Art : Khara made a beautiful anime, with great background(with a "painted style"), and the animation is clean, action scenes are smooth and fast, but readable. In this show 3DCGI is used, for example, to animate a army troops. Well, it is recognizable, but not ugly at all, this is the first time i saw a very good CGI so far. Sound The sound design is really cool in there, with some electro soundtrack, it's good, but not memorable. Character : Well, let's be honest, the characters are really simple. Nonoko is this kind of girls who likes to eat and is easily angry, and the second character, and Octavius Bernard is this kind of guy who don't want to participate in war because blablabla... Yeah, there are simple, but it is a problem ? Hell no, Ryuu no Haisha is not about having characters with an enormous background, we talk about two episodes, 46 mins, almost 4 episodes, 4 is what it takes to an anime to create a little background. In RNH, characters are simple, but it is easy to have compassion for them. I don't think the anime would be better with more sophisticated characters, because it would mess up the moral of the story, by creating complicated characters that are, obviously, harder to understand. Ryuu No Haisha does not focus on characters, but on the message of the story itself. Conclusion : Kazuya made a really interesting show, with some fantastic visual art, it is really good looking, moreover, the story is a little messy, but it is really enjoyable, and better than most of the shows this year. Characters are simple but nice. So, good job Kazuya, but not so good, keep up the good work anyway, i don't like to graded an anime, but it will be a 8 for this show, for his originality and his interesting message and visuals.