The Water Dragon's Bride Graphic Novel Volume 3 cover image

A modern-day girl, Asahi is pulled into a pond and is whisked to a strange and mysterious new land.  She meets a boy, Subaru, the son of a prominent family from a nearby village, but his mother immediately dislikes the girl and plots to sacrifice her to the god of the Great Lake.  The Water Dragon God wants Asahi to be his wife; she refuses, and he steals her voice.

The Water Dragon's Bride, Vol. 3 (Chapters 9 to 12) finds Asahi, unable to return home, grown into a lovely young woman.  She is now a “water priestess,” and every year, for a ritual, she must spend three days with the Water Dragon God.  She has some feelings for him, and he has feelings for her.  But what are those feelings?  Meanwhile, as Subaru's village grows more prosperous, another village envies that prosperity and plots to kidnap a priestess.

[This volume includes “Bonus Comics”.]

THE LOWDOWN:  I started reading The Water Dragon's Bride manga with the second volume.  Like Rei Toma's previous manga, Dawn of the Arcana, missing a volume of this series will not make it difficult to follow the narrative.

The Water Dragon's Bride Graphic Novel Volume 3 offers the readers a few big changes in the ongoing narrative.  Still, I think the problem with this series is that the Water Dragon God remains largely aloof from both Asahi and from the larger narrative.  That makes me wonder what is the point of his existence.  However, I find myself drawn to The Water Dragon God's Bride, much the way I was drawn to Dawn of the Arcana.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Rei Toma will want to try the “Shojo Beat” title, The Water Dragon's Bride.

B+
7 out of 10