The 5000-Year-Old Herbivorous Dragon, Unjustly Recognized as an Evil Dragon, is one of the winter anime series that will begin airing in January 2023. It is a work that was originally submitted to Let's Become a Novelist and has since been made into a light novel and comic book. It is a slapstick fantasy story about a powerless herbivorous dragon who is recognized as an evil dragon, and then unfortunately gains notoriety and gets caught up in trouble. In this article, we would like to give you a rough introduction to the story from the comic book version of this work!
Story 1: Herbivorous Dragon and Sacrificial Girl Reiko
One day, a girl was offered as a sacrifice to a terrifying evil dragon. The people living in the neighboring villages feared the existence of the evil dragon and tried to calm its anger by offering a sacrifice. However, the evil dragon was a pacifist herbivorous dragon that had only lived for 5,000 years and could not fly, had no special powers, and was not carnivorous. Just because it had lived for 5,000 years and was quite large, it was mistaken for an evil dragon with terrifying powers. The girl, Reiko, who was offered as a sacrifice, refuses to listen and says she will sacrifice herself and take her own life, leaving the herbivorous dragon at a loss.
Story 2: The birth of Reiko, the evil dragon's servant!
Reiko was excited about taking her own life, but it was a real nuisance for the herbivorous dragon. He had no choice but to try to drive Reiko away with a casual lie that he had eaten a little of her soul, but for some reason he misunderstood and thought that Reiko had become a servant of the evil dragon. Still, he thought it was fine as long as he could drive Reiko away. The herbivorous dragon dutifully escorts Reiko back to the village, and while he's there, he thinks he'll clear up the misunderstandings of the villagers.
Story 3: The herbivorous dragon arrives at the village
The villagers are frightened by the sudden appearance of the evil dragon, but the herbivorous dragon says that it will not harm the village. The village boy Riot still bravely tries to confront the dragon, and the herbivorous dragon is almost defeated, but Riot is subdued by the villagers and the matter should have been settled. However, the village is suddenly attacked by monsters that the villagers cannot communicate with, and they turn to the evil dragon for help. Naturally, the herbivorous dragon is a weak dragon with no power, so they are in a desperate situation.
Story 4: Reiko, the servant of the evil dragon, fully awakens!
The dragon is saved from such a dire situation by Reiko, who (thinks) has become a servant of the evil dragon. Reiko wipes out the monsters with her overwhelming power. The Evil Dragon's true identity is a weak, herbivorous dragon, so there's no way that becoming its kin would awaken its abilities, but Reiko originally had incredible hidden potential, and by believing herself to be its kin, she fully awakened that potential.
Story No. 5: Reiko, the most vicious kin, picks a fight with the Demon King together with the Evil Dragon!?
Reiko, who was awakened by her delusion, has absolute trust and loyalty to the evil dragon, and has transformed into a muscle-brained and evil personality that tries to eliminate all those who harm the evil dragon with violence, probably because she is set as a subordinate of the evil dragon. Reiko creates a setting that does not exist for a herbivorous dragon and jet-black wings made of magical power, and tries to go and pick a fight with the Demon King. Of course, if she does that, the herbivorous dragon will die, so she suggests that they first gather information in the surrounding town.
Story 6: To Perudona, the town of adventurers
The herbivorous dragon was hoping to get rid of Reiko in the town of adventurers, but Perudona was engulfed in flames due to a monster attack. In the midst of all this, it was only natural that the dragon would be mistaken for a new monster when he came to town, and as expected, he was mistaken for a monster and received concentrated fire. However, this was no problem for Reiko, who had awakened her potential, and instead intercepted with overwhelming force. The people on the other side were terrified, thinking that it might be the evil dragon Raventia, who was a match for the Demon King, whom they had heard rumors about.
Story 7: The birth of the evil dragon Raventia!?
The name Raventia was nothing more than a fictional setting, but Reiko, who was impressed by the cool setting, called herself Raventia, making the fictional setting more convincing. The existence of the evil dragon Raventia became a truth born from a lie.
Story 8: Female Guard Captain Ariante Appears
Then, Perudona's female Guard Captain Ariante appears before the two. She welcomes the two and asks for their help in defeating the monsters. Fortunately, Reiko seems likely to annihilate the monsters if she is motivated, and she knows the true identity of the monsters thanks to her years of experience, so she seeks that information and succeeds in annihilating them. However, the fact that she has that information makes the fictional setting of being a member of the Demon King's executive even more plausible.
Story 9: The Evil Dragon Raventia is Defeated
After the battle, Reiko falls asleep for a while, and while she is asleep, the herbivorous dragon tells Ariante the truth about what has happened so far, and asks him to take Reiko in as an adventurer. But Ariante doesn't believe her at all, and instead attacks her. Reiko wakes up in an instant, but she is exhausted and is unable to use her usual strength, and Ariante defeats the herbivorous dragon. However, because the herbivorous dragon was so weak, Ariante finally believes that the herbivorous dragon is telling the truth. Ariante, who was skeptical, only attacked the herbivorous dragon to see if its story was true, and had no intention of actually killing it.
Story 10: The only one who understands?
Thus, Ariante is the only one in the story who understands the herbivorous dragon's situation, but Ariante explains that if the herbivorous dragon realizes that he is truly weak, he doesn't know how he will go berserk, that he has declared war on the Demon King, and that a strong man worthy of his reputation will come as a pursuer, and the herbivorous dragon realizes that he is in a dead end.
Story 11: The Evil Dragon Gets Smaller
The town can't accept the two because they stand out too much, but Ariante gives the herbivorous dragon a rejuvenation potion. This makes the dragon's body smaller, and its intimidating large size becomes less noticeable. Ariante thought the herbivorous dragon was harmless to humans and animals and a terrible piece of junk, but at the same time he felt that Reiko was extremely evil, and he hoped that the two of them could balance each other out. And so, the herbivorous dragon and Reiko continued their journey again.
Story 12: A girl, a dragon, and an encounter with bandits
During their journey, the two encounter some strong bandits, but Reiko beats them to a pulp in a matter of seconds. She also frees the slaves the bandits had captured, and reluctantly heads to a nearby town at the herbivorous dragon's instructions. Bored, the herbivorous dragon explores a nearby cave, but it turns out to be a cave inhabited by the god of hunting, from which it is said that once a beast enters, it can never come out again.
Story 13: God of the Hunt
The God of the Hunt mercilessly attacks the Herbivorous Dragon, putting it in a desperate situation. However, the God of the Hunt surprisingly sympathetically listens to the Herbivorous Dragon's story of being a little tired of life and in desperation, and trains the Herbivorous Dragon in a short-term Spartan education. The Herbivorous Dragon did not get any stronger, but the screams and other things he heard during training became the talk of the neighboring towns, and his notoriety only grew stronger. After that, he heads to the water city of Seiren with Reiko, who has returned.
【5000-Year-Old Herbivorous Dragon, Unjustly Recognized as an Evil Dragon】Summary of the Beginning of the Story
This time, I've summarized the beginning of the story (volumes 1 and 2 of the comics) of the comic version of 5000-Year-Old Herbivorous Dragon, Unjustly Recognized as an Evil Dragon! The story progresses at a very good pace, and the dialogue between the harmless herbivorous dragon, who is constantly mistaken for an evil dragon, and the heroine, Reiko, who has awakened to evil powers through a misconception, is interesting, so I think it's a work that is quite suitable for animation! I thought it was an original work that could be expected to be an anime!
