Dragon Half began as a manga series that was serialized in Dragon magazine (not to be confused with the American magazine of the same name), written and drawn by Ryuusuke Mita. It details the adventures of a young girl named Mink, a Dragonhalf, and her quest to find the legendary Pido Potion, which she hopes can change her completely into a human. You see, Mink's father Rouce was a famous dragon slayer, and one day he was sent off by King Siva to kill a terrible dragon. Not all went as planned, however, as Rouce fell in love with the dragon whom he wsa sent to kill and soonafter married her. And from that union was born Mink, who bares characteristics of both parents: while she appears human for the most part, she has the additional draconian features of horns, wings, and a tail. She can also breath fire upon occasion.
Now this doesn't cause her much distress, it seems, until she becomes infatuated with the famous dragon slayer and pop idol Dick Saucer. Then begins her quest to find the potion, but, just like the heroine of any story, her path is fraught with peril.
Dragonhalf was among the first anime that I saw, and I still consider it one of the most hilarious by far. The anime consists of two OAV episodes (available on one tape from AD Vision in the U.S.) which tell the story up to the Brutal Killer Martial Arts Tournament, but then ends abruptly. The manga chronicles the story to the end, and is much better in my opinion (though the anime is still great), but the problem is: it's not available in English. I've heard that there's a Spanish translation floating around somewhere, but I have no idea whether or not it's still in print. The Japanese manga (which has been consolidated into three volumes, the DragonHalf trilogy) can be bought from stores that import Japanese manga. At this time, volumes 1 and 3 can be ordered from Nikaku Animart and issue 2 can be ordered from Sasuga Books. The volumes are published by Kadokawa Comics. If you know some Japanese, you can perhaps try to order them from them, although I haven't been able to figure out how with my limited Japanese word and kanji vocabulary.
Main Cast
Mink - Kotono Mistuishi
Dick Saucer - Yasunori Matsumoto
Lufa - Mariko Kouda
Vina - Rei Sakuma
Damaramu - Akio Ohstuka
Rouce - Takeshi Aono
Mana - Kikuko Inoue
