Title: RuriDragon Vol. 4
Author: Masaoki Shindo
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 193
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Comedy, Supernatural
Publication Date: September 1, 2026
The Story
It’s sports festival time! Ruri continues her duties on the committee, and this leads us to focus on a couple of the side characters… mainly a rivalry between Yoshioka and Kagami that they settle on the obstacle course race. When all is said and done, it’s time to eat, but the food they brought gets cold, so they borrow some of Ruri’s fire-breathing powers to reheat their lunches… which gets them into some deep trouble.
Soon after, something weird happens with Ruri as she combusts into flames! Even though she’s on fire, this kind of fire doesn’t hurt, and it doesn’t burn anything. It’s explained that it’s her Daemonfire… something that all Ryu manifest. The bad news is that it never extinguishes, so now she has to find a way to exist in the world while constantly being on fire! Of course, that would end up being a huge inconvenience for her, so she figures out a way to deal with it.
If breathing fire and literally being on fire weren’t enough for her, when the festival ends and they return to class, Ruri has quite the chilling experience as her next power awakens. How is she going to deal with yet another awakening power?
Characters
One of the big focuses here was on Kagami and Yoshioka’s rivalry. Apparently, there was a girl that Kagami liked back in middle school, and Yoshioka, who is an oblivious chick magnet, “stole” her away from him, and he has held a grudge against him ever since. They ended up making a bet that if Kagami’s class won the obstacle race, then Yoshioka would introduce him to Ruri. Of course, he wasn’t about to just hand over a friend like that, which pushed their quarrel even further.
Some drama developed between Kashiro and Ruri, though. This builds off a moment when Ruri was feeling down about her appearance. Even though she had tried to just deal with it, it’s becoming obvious that the horns, her fire, and being a half-dragon are all beginning to get to her. She begins to wonder things like, would anyone still be friends with her if she were normal? When Kashiro comes to check on her, Ruri drills her with a stiff line of questioning, and Kashiro doesn’t deny a single thing she asked about, pretty much confirming that Ruri felt it on the inside. It got to the point where she didn’t want Kashiro to hang out with her anymore.
There is another point in the volume where Ruri feels the same way, but she ends up going through a bit of self-reflection about who she is, what she has become, and what that would mean to everyone if she were to just disappear. This is probably the deepest we’ve seen her character be, and it shows that trying to exist in this new life is taking a bigger mental toll on her than she had originally led us to believe. You can’t help but feel bad for her.
We received a bit more backstory as to who Takemoto-sensei truly is. He reveals just enough to her to let the cat out of the bag, but warns her that there are some restrictions that was placed on how much information he can divulge. Still, he offers Ruri a choice, and with the previous feelings she experienced, one would believe she would have taken the easy way out; however, this is where her character underwent some nice development, and it allowed her to choose the not-so-safe option… mainly because she has decided to embrace whatever may come.
Final Thoughts
There is a nice revelation in this volume because when Ruri had awakened her new power, it was referred to as her third ability, but then she questioned how it was her third when she developed stuff like venom and daemonfire. The manga finally explained that there are passive things about dragons called Traits, and the powers that they can control are called Abilities. Her new one is an ability, and thus, the third power she can control. I, too, wondered why the manga referred to Fire as first, Lightning as second, and this new one as third when she obviously had more than three powers, so that makes sense.
This volume also blended action, story progression, and character development nicely. While it was more heavily weighted toward the character development department, the sports festival was depicted in its entirety, so we got to see a lot of the events, with none of them truly being glossed over. I like how it took the time to put the spotlight on some of the minor characters, while giving Ruri a bit of an existential crisis to work through. As I mentioned, this was the deepest we’ve ever seen her character get so far, and it really gave her a down-to-Earth human side that I really liked. If anything, it proved that through the comedy and fun, this manga can be serious and profound. Knowing when to use those moments is key, and this volume hit it just right.
Another great volume! It looks as if we will continue to see Ruri try to get this new power under control, but in the meantime, she’s literally becoming akin to a walking convenience store, and that’s quite hilarious.
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
