Whoo, boy, have I've wanted to talk about this for a long while. So, no more waiting, no more intros, this is the Steam Dragon Express!
Artist
This time we have another awesome artist in the form of Porforever. He is an artist from Thailand and another fantastic artist to add to the list.
Summary
In a fantasy world of magical monsters, humanity has decided to train the next generation of adventurers on a vessel beyond understanding. Unfortunately, this vessel just so happens to be The Steam Dragon Express, all aboard at your peril!
Characters
Bernadette: Our main heroine, Bernadette, is a very smart girl who, unfortunately, was bullied a lot for her "geek" like tendencies. However, Bernadette's confidence and social skills vastly improve after she boards the train as she uses her intellect to trick her opponents.
Charlotte: Brendatte's best friend and first ally Charlotte is her polar opposite. She is eccentric, energetic, and optimistic. Unfortunately, this carries over into her potions, as they are often too much to handle.
Overview
Once again, the art in this webtoon is freaking incredible! Proforever's style and aesthetic feel like I'm watching a trailer for some mobile RPG every single time. Most of the characters are drawn in a chibi-like art style, while the various intriguing monsters and teachers are more sculpted and bold to emphasize their strength. Environments are also just really well handled as they can often be used to enhance the various battles or lighter moments across the story.
Another huge plus is that after every short chapter, we get to see more of Bernadette's notes that properly explain how this world works. While it is your typical fantasy world, I still really like the land of Steam Dragon since it goes so hard into explaining how everything works in a way that doesn't feel forced.
Bernadette's notes are also another way to show off more of her personality. And while it is mainly comedic, there are a couple of strategic fights and severe heart, which shows how strong the writing is since I never feel like we're wasting time on anything in the long run. The train is almost a world within itself, and I do like how much focus we get on it in the story.
The biggest issue here is that, unfortunately, Steam dragon ends on a cliffhanger ending that sucks, it only because it feels like we're wasting a potential goldmine here.
Epilogue
Despite the poor ending, I think Steam Dragon is one of the best and underrated webtoons ever, and I can't recommend this enough for Merryweather and fantasy fans. Next up will be the last three webtoons of MMM!