'Drifting Dragons' Season 1 Ending Explained: Tearful goodbyes, a little growth, and a promise of more to come
This article contains spoilers for 'Drifting Dragons' Season 1
Netflix has a new anime series in its global catalog and it is a delight. 'Drifting Dragons' presents a truly entertaining story over the course of its 12-episode first season, with each episode more enjoyable than the last.
The anime adaptation of Taku Kuwabara's Seinen manga series published by Kodansha, 'Drifting Dragons' (also known as 'Kuutei Dragons' in Japanese) is a unique blend of fantasy and comedy. It follows the adventures of a crew of dragon hunters, flying aboard the airship Quin Zaza, as they capture and kill dragons, the dangerous rulers of the sky, in order to fill their wallets as well as their stomachs.
In the season's twelfth and final episode, 'Dragon Corridor', we see the crew approaching Mt. Kin in search of Takita (Sora Amamiya) but the 48-hour search period ends and Lee (Hiroo Sasaki) has no choice but to call the search off. However, Mika (Tomoaki Maeno) hears Takita calling for him and he spots her, bringing her and the baby dragon aboard the ship.
The crew doesn't get much time to celebrate though as they spot the pod of dragons and see a host of other dragons showing up to eat the migrating animals. With Mika taking the lead, as usual, they manage to kill and capture one of these humongous predators but just then an even more massive dragon shows up, attacking everything in sight.
Takita manages to convince Jiro (Sōma Saitō) to take her out on the autogyro despite her injured condition so that she can return the baby to its pod. After some daring aerial maneuvers, the two of them manage to make it to the pod and Mika shares an emotional goodbye with the baby dragon, promising it that while she will have to hunt it one day (she is a draker, after all), she wants the baby to be safe till then.
In the end, the crew didn't manage to get as massive a bounty from the dragon corridor as they thought but they manage to make it through with everyone alive and they did catch a super-rare dragon in the process. Flash-forward to the crew's next flight, we see Takita once again providing support for the other drakers and wishing Mika luck as he rappels down for the kill once again.
By the time the season ends, things are more or less back at square one. Takita is still the newbie of the crew and she's clearly got some years to go before she becomes an expert draker but she's far more confident and capable at her job and there is a promise that wherever the winds take them next, the Quin Zaza and her crew will be alright.
So that's it for 'Drifting Dragons' Season 1. And while this was a pretty satisfying watch, the ending does leave room for another season to come so that's something to look forward to.
'Drifting Dragons' Season 1 premiered in Japan on January 9, 2020, on Fuji TV's +Ultra programming block. All 12 episodes were made available for streaming on Netflix on April 30.
