is a Japanese fantasy manga series written by Kawo Tanuki and illustrated by Choco Aya. It was serialized in

Mag Garden is a Japanese publishing company that focuses on manga-related publications and is also involved in the development of anime and live-action adaptations. It was founded on June 5, 2001 by Yoshihiro Hosaka along with former manga artists of Enix ...

's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''

Monthly Comic Garden is a Japanese manga magazine published by Mag Garden. It was first published on September 1, 2014, replacing the defunct ''Comic Blade''. Series *''Amadeus Code'' *''Amber Days and Golden Nights'' (ongoing) *''The Ancient Magus' Bride'' (ongoi ...

'' from December 2016 to December 2022 and has been collected in nine ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes. The manga is licensed in North America by

Seven Seas Entertainment Seven Seas Entertainment is an American publishing company located in Los Angeles, California. It was originally dedicated to the publication of original English-language manga, but now publishes licensed manga and light novels from Japan, as w ...

. An

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

television series adaptation by

Signal.MD is a Japanese animation studio founded in October 2014 by Production I.G holding company IG Port. Establishment In 2014, IG Port announced it was forming a new animation studio named SIGNAL.MD. Production I.G board member Katsuji Morishita ...

aired from April to June 2021.

Characters

; : :A young red dragon, who despite his race's viciousness, happens to be weak and timid. After he gets kicked out by his family, he goes to search for his dream home where he can be safe. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he unintentionally becomes infamous as the Flame Dragon Lord. ; : :A powerful elf magician who is also a skilled architect and knows the real estate business, as well as a number of other personages. Over a thousand years ago, he accidentally inherited the Demon Lord title by "winning" it at a lottery, making him the supreme figurehead of all non-humans. He takes in Letty as his client to different estates to find him his dream home, partly because of his previous experience with another dragon. ; : :Full name: Piyovelt Phelpia Pi Alpine Piyoderika. It is a hræsvelgr, a species of giant arctic eagle. After Letty finds its egg by happenstance and it hatches, the chick imprints on Letty, who eventually adopts it as a foundling. ; : :Full name: Andriana Ellen Croixdea Margarethe Emmalyn Narsham Felna. She is a spoiled and stubborn human princess who ran away from home after her father ate a cupcake she had craved. After recognizing Letty's pacifistic nature, she joins him and Diaria on their home-hunting quest. ; : :A fighter and the leader of a quartet of "Heroes" who become Letty's comical nemeses by popping up wherever he wants to settle down, only to be killed or driven off and then return for yet another attempt. ; : :A member of Hero's adventuring party. ; : :A member of Hero's adventuring party. ; : :A member of Hero's adventuring party. ; : :A human Hunter who stole the egg Letty was supposed to guard, leading to the dragon's banishment. ; : :A Cait (anthropomorphic cat) and Huey's Hunter partner. ; : ; : :A former lord and the owner of a mansion on Diaria's list of available estates; in fact, in life he was an old friend of Diaria. Having become a wraith, he still haunts his family mansion with his undead retainers. ; : :A petulant black dragon who, like Letty, long ago sought out Diaria for advice on a new home and became his first dragon travelling companion. He grandstandingly prefers to be referred to as the Mighty Black Dragon, a legendary harbinger of destruction.

Media

Manga

The series is written by Kawo Tanuki and illustrated by Choco Aya. It was serialized in

's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''

'' from December 5, 2016 to December 5, 2022, and has been collected in nine ''

'' volumes. The manga is licensed in North America by

. A spin-off manga began serialization in the same magazine in January 2023.

Anime

adaptation was announced in the fifth volume of the manga on October 10, 2019, later revealed as a television series on May 9, 2020. It was animated by

and directed by Haruki Kasugamori, with Shiori Asuka and Su Shiyi designing the characters, and Kyōhei Matsuno composing the music. The series aired from April 4 to June 20, 2021 on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

, ytv, and BS Fuji.

Masayoshi Ōishi is a Japanese musician, singer and songwriter from Uwajima, Ehime. His professional music career began in 2001 as vocalist of the band Sound Schedule. Following the band's disbandment in 2006, he began a solo career, releasing his debut single " ...

performed the series' opening theme song "Role-playing", while Non Stop Rabbit performed the series' ending theme song "Shizuka na Kaze".

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

licensed the series. Following

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll.

Reception

Previews

Anime News Network (ANN) had three editors review the first episode of the anime: Richard Eisenbeis was critical of the "meta-commentary" referencing RPG video games that's either a fourth wall breaking gag or implies technology is being used in its fantasy setting but was intrigued by how the house-hunting content will sustain a whole season; Caitlin Moore was initially positive during the opening minutes but criticized Letty for being an insufferable character, the repetitive humor and the "extremely limited" animation for making it a "pretty boring" viewing experience. She concluded that: "At the very least, it's gentle and harmless, unlikely to upset or offend even the most sensitive viewers." The third reviewer, Rebecca Silverman, praised it for being a good series prologue that contains humorous scenarios and designs that transfer from its source material into animation very well, concluding that: "This series stands to be a lot of fun, the fantasy and real estate mashup you didn't know you needed. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more."

Series reception

Fellow ANN editor Mercedez Clewis reviewed the complete anime series and gave it an overall B grade. While finding criticism in the inconsistent comedy (highlighting the overuse of video game references), generic soundtrack and peripheral human side characters, she gave it praise for having a "well-acted and solidly directed" English dub with Michael Kovach and Steven Kelly as standouts, the chemistry between Letty and Diaria, and being a suitable gateway anime for younger audiences, concluding that: "In the end, ''Dragon Goes House-Hunting'' is easily one of the most underrated anime from the Spring season." Stig Høgset, writing for

THEM Anime Reviews THEM Anime Reviews, otherwise known as THEM or T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews, is an anime review website that writes about current and past anime in any form, including OVAs and ONAs. The website offers reviews, editorial content and hosts forums. ...

, wrote that: "''Dragon Goes House-Hunting'' turned out to be a fun little journey in the world of reasonably tough love and diverse housing. It understands comedy well enough not to repeat the same joke three times, and, like I said, it's got some wonderfully snappy dialogue to its name. It has a colorful, wonderful world for Letty to discover as he goes from house to house on his lovely journey of discovery and homemaking, and if a second season is ever greenlit, I will be there."

Notes

References

External links

''Dragon Goes House-Hunting''
at ''

'' * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dragon Goes House-Hunting 2021 anime television series debuts Anime series based on manga Crunchyroll anime Fantasy anime and manga Mag Garden manga Norse mythology in anime and manga Seven Seas Entertainment titles Shōnen manga Signal.MD Tokyo MX original programming Works about dragons