Have you ever wanted to read the greatest of shitposts? If so, let's have fun in another world through Teenage Dragon by Peanut.
Summary
Everything was going right for Minji Kim, an average South Korean teenager. Until she finds herself mind somehow transported into the body of an age-old evil dragon in a fantasy realm where pretty much everyone's IQ matches the word count of this entire series times zero. Using her natural kindness and charisma, she eventually wins several allies as they quest worldwide to find the person who can bring her back home.
Characters
Minji: Our teenager, who happens to be the greatest fantasy creature ever, Minji, is your average adolescent. She's kind, caring, and helpful to a fault but can get easily angered, impatient, or lazy when they get angered.
Smith: A member of the village Minji first lived in, Smith is a foul-mouthed, cynical man with a fuse shorter than a goldfish's attention span. Still, he's an essential part of the group since it's only through his sharp tongue and common sense that he can keep Minji alive, even if he has an attitude shitter than a sewer.
Dominic: The self-proclaimed village warrior and widely proclaimed idiot. Dominic maintains the most book smarts at Mini's party and the calmest disposition. Provided he gets enough food in his belly, that is.
Hanna: The only useful one, Hanna is a mage with genuinely magical solid powers at her disposal. At the same time, she is added late to Minji's party. Her natural bond with Minji's magical abilities and lack of functioning brain cells matching my will to live make her fit right in.
Dragon: Since Minji's body is currently unoccupied, the Dragon is using it for the time being. Based on what we know from earlier encounters and statements, the Dragon was a heartless, arrogant, and vindictive being of great power. However, after getting humbled by the human world, the dragon adopts a far more ambitious, enjoyable, and protective personality than her friends.
Overview
I thought after Mashle I was done with the entirely comedic Fantasy series, but after reading Black Clover plus watching Dungeons and Dragons, I got promptly sucked back in. Teenage Dragon feels like it's written on a chapter-by-chapter basis, and I mean this in the best way possible. Peanut uses a relatively simple black-and-white art style, filled with plain backgrounds and repeated images, to honestly give the most passionate ideas of my life.
Through Teenage Dragon's semblance of a plot, we see Minji's crew on a series of side quests where they either struggle to survive or leave other people barely breathing. Still, the quest format does lend itself to getting cool side characters like Hunter, a hunter who is bad at his job, or The Grand Witch of the South, who is bad at her job, and of course, these set of burglars who are bad at their *gets shot.*
Teenage Dragon is always having something fun or funny going on in either the background or main story. Fourth wall breaks, shitty subversions, and unexpected running gags mean there is only one rule in this story; there are fucking none, so stop thinking about you, worrywart!
Since everyone's an asshole or an idiot, or mostly likely both, you can disconnect your brain stem just fine and enjoy the ride. The most fun part of the story, though, is sitting back and enjoying the escapades of the dragon in Minji's body.
What first starts as your typical fish-out-of-water story quickly erupts into a genuinely fun and heartwarming series of tales as the Dragon experiences the human world through new eyes. And since they always like one or two panels at the end, I'm always interested in whatever they do next with them.
Epilogue
Teenage Dragon is no holds bar, one of the funniest comedy webtoons I've ever seen. It's a super entertaining journey so far, and I think once it starts building itself up more, we might have an unexpected gem like Love Advice From the Duke of Hell. Until then, though, from one lousy dragon to another, let's see where the spotlight takes us next.