Have you ever wondered what happened to the person who used to be the owner of a body taken over by an isekai’d soul? Not many books seem to care, but Sottan’s I Raised a Black Dragon isn’t one of them. When Noa wakes up in the body of Eleanora, a less-than-good character from a book she read back in South Korea, she absolutely wants to know where Eleanora has gone, because she knows for a fact that her wandering soul simply saw the woman’s empty body and took up residence. Noa’s not entirely sure why her soul was rambling around anyway (she assumes death from overwork), but she knows that she shouldn’t be here, because it’s way too odd and convenient that Eleanora’s body was just there for the taking.
This is just one of the ways this series, based on the novel by Dalsul, manages to stand out from its brethren. Noa, unlike other heroines in similar positions, has no interest in either following the plot or subverting it; she just wants to live her life and hopefully avoid people who will be able to tell that she’s not Eleanora. Things seem perfectly set up for that – Eleanora has been exiled from the capital, so Noa figures that she just needs to keep her head down and she’ll be fine. That wouldn’t be much of a story, however, so needless to say things don’t work that way: not only does a detective from the city come to keep an eye on her, she also somehow winds up with a dragon egg that was, according to the book, supposed to belong to a different character. Noa tries to get rid of it before it hatches, and later to refute the baby dragon’s imprinting, but all for naught. Noa is now the reluctant parent of a dragon she eventually names Myuiel, much to the detective, Kyle’s, consternation.
Thus the stage is set for a story that unfolds over two seasons (a typical categorization format for webtoons) comprising seventy-four chapters total, with the entire thing available on Manta’s site and app as of this writing. Manta did the localization itself, which is a step above some of the other Korean webtoon sites. The translation is generally smooth and very readable, largely devoid of awkward turns of phrase or spelling errors. It reads naturally, and once you get past the beginning of the series, it becomes easy to simply immerse yourself in Noa, Kyle, and Myuiel’s story.
Those teething issues at the beginning are two-fold. The more obvious is simply getting the plot off the ground. Noa’s situation is still boilerplate enough at first to risk losing readers who aren’t interested in another rehash of a story they’ve read before, and for all intents and purposes, Eleanora is a villainess while Noa is emphatically not. Kyle’s distrust of a suddenly changed Eleanora is both familiar and frustrating, and it takes a while for the story to find its footing. The other issue that risks turning readers off is that Noa’s attempts to not engage with Myuiel can come across as cruel. She’s acting understandably (she really doesn’t want to get in trouble, and Myuiel risks bringing it), but she’s also refusing to take care of a baby, one who can take both human and dragon form. As an infant, Myuiel doesn’t understand why his “mother” is ignoring him, and that almost caused me to stop reading a few times.
Sticking with the story is worth it, though, even if it feels like the manhwa adaptation ends before the original novels do, giving us a mildly unsatisfactory conclusion. (Mostly on the romance front, it must be said.) The story turns into a mix of political intrigue and mystery, with Kyle and Noa finding out what, exactly, Eleanora was involved in before her soul departed her body. The answer is nothing straight forward, and the two, with the help of the rapidly maturing Myuiel, working to unravel a sordid story of misused magic and murder. Along the way Noa discovers more about what happened to her, and Myuiel’s magic is able to work a few miracles in terms of separating her from Eleanora, resulting in one of the most unique story beats I’ve seen in the genre. Kyle slowly coming to trust Noa is another rewarding element, and there’s real growth in all of the characters, which is a major attraction.
The art is another draw. Sottan may not do a whole lot with the vertical scrolling format in terms of innovation, but the art is easy to read and very attractive. Myuiel is particularly well drawn, with adorable tiny features without appearing too cutesy, and Noa’s tendency to dress the two of them in matching outfits working better than I would have imagined. The world has an Edwardian air, with trains and telephones but nothing more modern, and costumes largely stick to that era, although not faithfully in the historical sense. Magic systems don’t always make a ton of sense, but there also aren’t gaping logic holes. Backgrounds have an old-fashioned European sensibility, which works well with most of the plot points, and on the whole, this looks good and reads well.
I Raised a Black Dragon isn’t perfect, something that mostly comes down to an ending that simply screams for a sequel. But it’s also a nice twist on some of its genre’s staler elements and a good read overall. At the moment, it’s only available on Manta, but it’s worth the price of admission and an easy series to read when you just have a minute or two to spare, making it, by vertical scrolling K-comic standards, a successful endeavor.
