Review: Dawn of the Silver Dragon

Most ero manga are done in shorts, maybe several chapters and some even reaching 1 volume but in general it is rare to have a volume dedicated to one whole story. What we have here is a 4 volume series. Not the longest I’ve read no but certainly in my view one that sits atop the pile.

Groups of organised criminals are kidnapping and turning women into what is known as Materials, what is effectively an obedient sex slave. They do this and control them through a Soul Piece after modifying the women. In this world though there is a group forged to tackle and eventually obliterate this evil trade, these are the Silver Dragon Division, a group made exclusively of female soldiers led by Princess Celes. We follow this group in their attempt to bring down these people.

It has a detailed plot which is unusual for most ero series and it makes a refreshing change. Sure most of it plays out so we can get the sex scenes but there is depth to it, political plays from those with power, betrayals from both the girls and men, twists and more.

We get to see the criminals who kidnap women and turn them into Materials, how their organisation operates, how they get away with it and the underworld locations and people who indulge in this sick and depraved trade. We get to see that actual process, we get to see the Materials succumb to the evil ways of these men slowly but surely as the pleasure just takes over them. It hooks you and tries it’s best to make sure you cannot let go and boy does it succeed.

There are a few main characters here. On the side of the Silver Dragon we have the aforementioned Princess Celes, Raia and Rinfa. Celes is as pure hearted as a princess can be. By leading the Silver Dragon she is signalling that she is not a Princess who will sit idly by and see atrocities befall her people. Raia is a former Material who now works with the Silver Dragon Division. She has suffered greatly at the hands of these criminals in her past. It is also this which would bring about her and her fellow soldiers downfall.

There are other girls such as Rose and their own scientist Myuto and whilst they do get their own time to shine they are support characters first and foremost. Nevertheless it is nice to see them get abused, defiled and turned and to see the reactions Celes has to this. They contribute heavily to this breakdown of Celes as she has to bear witness to countless depraved acts knowing she herself is partly to blame.

On the criminal side there is Radim who basically runs the whole Material conversion racket and there is Captain Olg who is more than willing to use his power to accrue slaves. There are the odd one or two guys that appear to commit more evil and perverse acts on the girls but you’ll have to read it to see who they are.

Humiliation, slavery and mind control are the 3 biggest sub-genres at play here. There is also BDSM at play here but while plentiful is not quite on the level as the other 3. Nevertheless it is another fetish to tick off and it really goes to great lengths to treat the reader. No girl is spared from these and the way they take to this is delightful. The girls will obviously try to fight back from this and seeing how far they can get it is lovely. I like seeing despair in the eyes in instances like these.

Something I quite liked was the ability to switch the mind control partially off through the stone. This enables the slave to see what she is doing through her normal, untainted mind and see how powerless she is to stop it. It can be switched at any time and makes for some exciting scenes. It helps speed up the mind breaking process and just to mentally torture the girls in general.

One of my particularly favourite scenarios in porn in general is used here, more than once as well! It feels like this series was made for me. The scene I am talking about is a girl giving herself, not of her choice, to the people on the street, the homeless and worse off. This happens multiple times throughout the series and each one an utter joy to read.

It happens to Raia whilst under the control of Rankaku whilst wearing the skimpiest lingerie you could imagine and then further along the line when Celes, under the control of Reidol goes out wearing some incredibly sexy lingerie. The guys set upon them as they have no choice but to endure it. It’s disgusting, its vile, its degrading but it is oh so lovely.

When it comes to the art there are a couple of points to note. The first is that it looks its age. By that I do not mean it is bad art, no far from it but it does have a style most associated with the 90s. From facial styling to character designs and clothing they have this certain look. For most it should be no issue but it is worth noting.

Secondly the girls all look lovely. The ideal of what a woman should look like you could say. All exquisitely figured with just the right curves, breasts are plentiful in size and they have nary a blemish. There is no real variety in shapes of the girls, most fit into the above template with little variation. I personally see nothing wrong with that, whilst I like girls of all physiques focusing on one bears no problem to me. That however does bring me to one issue that came from this. That is because the girls all look similar it can be hard to differentiate in some instances.

At times I was reading and honestly could not tell which girl it was. This is down to being black and white for me as the colour covers do show a more clear difference. Is it detrimental to enjoying this? No, of course not as at some point their name will come up and it only really comes to light when support characters are brought into the fray. The vast majority of the time it will not be an issue but it was something that immediately sprang to mind as a nitpick.

I have re-read this series numerous times and each time it never fails to impress. It hits all the right notes time and again. If you like hardcore series or those with more depth then this is the series for you.

Mangaka: Masayoshi Mukai

Released: 2002 - 2007

Length: 39 Chapters, 4 Volumes

10/10