Dragon Head

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Dragon's Head.
Dragon Head
ドラゴンヘッド
(Doragon Heddo)
Genre Psychological horror
Manga
Author Minetaro Mochizuki
Publisher Flag of Japan Kodansha
Flag of the United States Tokyopop
Demographic Seinen
Magazine Young Magazine
Original run 1995 – 2000
Volumes 10
Live action film
Director George Iida
Producer Takashi Hirano
Composer Misia
Released August 2003

Dragon Head (ドラゴンヘッド Doragon Heddo?) is a post-apocalyptic disaster manga by Minetaro Mochizuki. It was published by Kodansha in Young Magazine from 1995 and 2000 and collected in 10 tankobon volumes. It is licensed in English by Tokyopop, with Volume 8 was released on 2007-10-02 and volume 10 scheduled to be released 2008-04-01.[1] In 1997, the manga won the Kodansha Manga Award for general manga.[2]

The series was adapted as a live-action movie written and directed by Jôji Iida, released in Japan in August 2003. It starred Satoshi Tsumabuki and Sayaka Kanda.[3]

Contents

[edit] Plot

[edit] Arc 1: Escaping the tunnels

On the train back to Tokyo after a school trip, some sort of catastrophe occurs and destroys the train that Teru Aoki is travelling on. When he wakes up he finds all his classmates and teachers dead, and himself marooned in a tunnel that is oddly hot. Furthermore, both ends are blocked.

Eventually he finds Nobou Takahashi, who is already going crazy from the fear of the destruction, and a wounded Ako Seto. Teru gives what medical attention he can to Ako, who awakens. The two of them move outside the train.

Nobou continues to go mad and becomes convinced that there is something in the darkness. He kidnaps Ako and paints her, and mutilates the body of a teacher he disliked as a 'sacrifice' to the darkness. Ako flees. Teru, meanwhile, finds an escape route.

Teru returns in time to stop Nobou from killing Ako. Another earthquake hits, and Nobou flees into the darkness as his fear fully takes over. Teru and Ako escape through a ventilation shaft.

[edit] Arc 2: Searching for allies

The two surface in a water-treatment plant, which is deserted. The landscape is covered with dust and a black cloud hovers over everything. A radio broadcast on TV reveals that there is cult activity in Tokyo, and that most cities have been taken over by looters. There appears to be no functioning government.

Teru and Ako follow a shadow of a figure and find more teenagers, who give them supplies. The teenagers say they are going to Tokyo to see what's going on. Teru and Ako wish to go as well, to find their families, but after they seen the teenagers sacrifice cattle and draw weird pagan markings, they decide to go by themselves.

The duo is almost killed in a mudslide, and then sees military helicopters overhead. They then find a small town that is completely deserted. Teru, while Ako is elsewhere, sees a helicopter land and goes to investigate.

The helicopter is crewed by Captain Nimura, pilot Iwada, and crewmen Yamazaki and Ookie. Nimura explains that they have deserted and are looking for supplies, as well as girls. Yamazaki goes into town to look for a fuel source. The others unpack their weapons.

Teru notices the copter and goes to investigate. Nimura tells him they can't help him unless there's a girl with him, and Teru flees. Ookie and Nimura chase Teru.

Yamazaki finds Ako, who attempts to find Teru to tell him about the copter, since she doesn't know he knows.

Iwada gets a message on his radio from Tokyo that sounds like it comes from a death cult.

Nimura knocks out Teru, but Teru quickly comes too, now very scared and having 'given in to the darkness.' He finds Ookie, after the soldiers separate, and kills him with a Molotov cocktail barrage.

Yamazaki attempts to rape Ako, but Ako beats him up, grabs his gun, and makes him take her to the copter.

A firestorm ignites. Teru and Nimura face off, and Teru comes to his senses and regains his sanity. Barracaded behind a firebreak, he and Nimura argue.

Ako gets into the helicopter with Iwada and they take off before the flames reach them. Yamazaki is burned alive.

Right before the firewall is destroyed, Ako puts the gun to Iwada's head and makes him fly back to rescue Teru and Nimura.

[edit] Arc 3: Izu peninsula

Because of wounds suffered in the town, Teru falls unconscious.

After running into the black cloud and getting somewhat lost, the teams ends up stopping for fuel on a cliff-side road. Iwada and Nimura go over the geography. Because the black cloud of ash is between them and Tokyo, they can't go straight there, so they decide to take a roundabout way through Izu peninsula. Iwada worries about the lack of fuel. Before they can gain much more, the road collapses and they have to fly away.

They land in Izu, and meet the Lady. Lady (who is given no name) tells them that the destruction sent a tidal wave through the peninsula, and that while there is a main town, it's been taken over by looters and crazy people. She is a teacher with medical training and determines that Teru has an infection. The group needs to get medicine from the town.

Iwada stays behind to repair the helicopter, which was damaged from flying through the black cloud. Ako and Nimura go to get medicine. Ako is given all the ammunition for their few remaining guns (most were burned in the town). They also have a radio to contact Iwada.

Ako and Nimura travel and find a group of murdered people, and then run into Scar-Kid and his friend. The friend says that people from the town are trying to kill everyone. Scar-Kid walks into the campfire and burns his arm very badly, but does not seem to care. He has scars all over his head, implying a lobotomy.

The townspeople arrive, and the Cop shoots Nimura. Nimura has no ammunition and so runs to Ako, once he loads his gun he shoots the Cop and leads the team away. The Cop is not dead, though, and leads the townspeople to the group. Scar-Kid's friend and the Cop are killed and the rest are captured.

Taken to the town, Ako and Nimura learn that the peninsula is now an island, and one with no food or water. The townspeople say they are committing mass suicide, but they want everyone else dead first. They have already killed all the women and children. Nimura notes that these are the town leaders -- police, city officials.

The trio runs to a large building filled with gasoline, which turns out to be the funeral pyre for the town. They escape and flee to the hospital, and Ako is forced to shoot a group of townspeople on the way there. In the hospital, the trio splits up. Ako finds the medicine they need.

Scar-Kid mentions a certain painting believed to be important to the events, and calls himself Dragon Head.

The trio is caught. Nimura and Ako fight through a wave of people and escape on a motorcycle. Scar-Kid is beaten into a bloody pulp by a townsperson, and mocks everyone for the fear they feel. Nimura explains that he looks out only for himself, but says that he's different from the townspeople -- he's afraid to die, unlike them.

Meanwhile, a less-defeatist, small group of townspeople find the radio in the forest. They call Iwada and pretend to have hostages. Iwada flies to them and they invade the helicopter. He is forced to land, but while they argue over who gets to fly away he takes a bazooka and blows them away.

Ako and Nimura climb to the top of the funeral pyre building, just as the black cloud moves over Izu. Iwada rescues them. As nothing can even be seen from ground level anymore, a townsperson ignites the pyre and blows the building up. Somehow, Scar-Kid had followed, and they see him on the rooftop -- on fire and showing no expression -- as they leave.

The helicopter lands back at Lady's home. She heals Teru. Teru and Ako agree to look for their families in Tokyo, and to remain together. Ako looks up the painting and sees that it's of Mount Fiji.

Iwada says he wants to go to Tokyo too, and also to see Mount Fiji. Everyone comes with except for Lady, who stays to rebuild. She says that it is possible to feel fear without giving into it.

[edit] Arc 4: Discovery

The group goes into the black cloud. They approach Mount Fiji and see that the ground is filled with lava. They wonder if it was an eruption, but when they get over Mount Fiji they see only a giant hole. Because of the darkness, they cannot see its bottom, even after flying into it. They theorize that a meteor hit Mount Fiji. They also see the remains of the air force group that Nimura deserted -- it was hit by flying rocks and obliterated.

They group heads through the black cloud and lands on a ruined shopping mall. Ash is falling everywhere, and there is still no drinkable food or water -- they still can only used canned and bottled supplies. The shopping mall soon collapses, and Teru is separated from the others.

When Teru wakes up, he finds the copter crashed and Iwada dead. There is a note from Ako. He walks towards Tokyo.

Along the way, he encounters Bandage Man, who says that Tokyo is a Hell but he wants to go back, and who runs off a cliff.

He finally arrives in Tokyo, which is utterly ruined.

[edit] Arc 5: Tokyo ruins

Teru finds a group of survivors lead by the Researcher. Researcher says that everyone has given into fear. Teru notes that everyone in the room is horribly wounded. Apparently, they have been eating food with fear-negating properties, but in their desperation to feel something have been mutilating themselves. Researcher says that numbing oneself to fear only makes more of it. A figure that looks like Nobou is seen, but his identity is unconfirmed. Also, more Dragon Heads are with the group.

Teru opts to leave the group.

A team of rescue soldiers lands, and is massacred by the group, acting under the direction of the Researcher.

Teru finds his apartment building ruined but standing. Inside, he sees a note from Ako, stating that her family is dead and that she is at the school. There is no sign of his family.

The note tells him to go to the school. He does, and meets Ako and Nimura. Nimura pulls a gun and says he's taking Ako. He holds Teru at gunpoint, and Teru opines that without fear -- either by being numbed to it, or just never needing it -- life is much less. Nimura says that he saw the graves of Teru's family, and that his whole family is dead. Teru and Ako defeat Nimura and flee, leaving him alive.

Foreign soldiers storm Tokyo and are attacked by the survivor group. Researcher says that he helped bring the apocalypse along. A document indicates that several nuclear devices have gone missing in Tokyo, and that weirdly the entire Japanese government vanished almost instantaeniously. It also says that other governments are similarly unavailable. The document states that no one seems to know exactly what happened, but that the military is dedicated to retrieving the nuclear warheads.

Teru and Ako see a volcano rise in Tokyo, as do Nimura and a Dragon Head.

Teru and Ako sit together and watch the volcano, and Teru reflects that the world is what you make of it, and that even with the world in ruins good or evil still both have chances to triumph.

[edit] Themes

The major theme in the books is fear. As the Lady says, a balance needs to be found between feeling fear and giving into it. Giving into fear was Nobou's prime vice, and the teenager survivor group. Numbing oneself to it was the problem of the Izu people and the Researcher's group. Teru himself gives in to fear when Ookie and Nimura beat him up, but recovers. At the end he realizes that one has to conquer ones own fear -- still feeling it but not letting it rule him -- before the world can be saved.

Another theme is mystery. It is never stated exactly what happened. The characters guess that a meteor hit Mount Fiji, but it seems that the Researcher had something to do with it -- perhaps by assassinating the Japanese government, or by use of the nuclear weapons. It is also not stated what condition the rest of the world is in -- we learn that some of them have unavailable governments, but they seem to still have a working military. We do not learn anymore than the characters.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dragon Head (manga). Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  2. ^ Joel Hahn. Kodansha Manga Awards. Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.
  3. ^ Dragon Head (live-action movie). Anime News Network. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.

[edit] External links