Letty probably would have been happier if he had not been born a dragon — he’s not particularly aggressive, he can’t keep egg thieves away, and all in all he just wants a quiet, peaceful life. After being kicked out of the family home it finally occurs to Letty that hey, why not build his own home, just to his own specifications, and live out his ideal life in peace! But when you’re a monster that lives at the top of the food chain, and every hero in the land has their eyes set on your hide, finding a quiet place to live might be a high-ranking quest indeed.
The silly premise of Dragon Goes House-Hunting proves that for a manga to be entertaining, you really need more than a funny set-up or punchline. It never hurts to also have more than one joke as well, but over the course of this first volume Letty visits several potential abodes (accompanied by elf and possible demon lord Dearia) and every one of them seems to fail to work out in a way that’s a little humiliating for Letty. There’s a bit of variety as to why each place fails, from the old house that’s seriously haunted to the custom-built place for Letty that becomes known as a new “dungeon” to adventurers. But frankly, it’s hard to get invested in any comedy when all of the players are such stock characters.
It’s series like this that make me wonder “Am I becoming too picky in my fantasy?” To an extent yes, I am becoming a bit more picky in my fantasy, but only because there’s so much out there! Beyond the world of manga and anime, there are literally thousands of fantasy writers that I could choose from to read. And even if I wanted to read a story with familiar tropes I could certainly find a half-dozen series that do it more competently than this; Delicious in Dungeon has a rather standard plot and mechanics but it’s the execution that makes that series shine and house-hunting dragon falls as flat as Letty does when he tries to fly.
I’m also disappointed that this series is wasting such an adorable dragon design. I love dragons and artist Choco Aya’s art of Letty perfectly matches Kawo Tanuki’s characterization and I almost wish this design had been in a different story so I could appreciate it more! It should be noted however that the rest of Aya’s designs are also pretty stock standard, as the art isn’t lacking in detail but it also feels as if there wasn’t much room for flair.
Dragon Goes House-Hunting is set to have an anime adaptation soon and perhaps the humor will work better for me once animated and given voice but until that airs, I think I will put aside Letty and his not-so-relatable house-hunting woes to the side.