Dragonar Academy



Seikoku no Dragonar (Dragonar Academy, 星刻の竜騎士 in Japanese) is a popular light novel with manga and anime adaptations that centers on Ash Blake, a good natured but generally clumsy, hapless and anxious cadet level student at the Dragonar Academy, where the students learn how to tame, ride and work with the powerful and intelligent dragon Pals that roam the Arc Strada continent. Making matters worse, Ash is utterly surrounded by incredibly beautiful girls and women that the Academy is teeming with, who match their beauty with skill and fighting prowess when faced with the many enemies who oppose the Academy and the government of Arc Strada. Ash is frustrated by his constant attempts to impress them that almost constantly lead to embarrassment, but through hard work and practice, he gets better and better at his skills to the point that he develops a remarkable ability to ride many dragons besides his own--almost unheard of among the Academy's students.

The students are led by Rebecca Randall, a beautiful junior and student-council president who develops a particular fondness for Ash as his skills gradually get better and better. She's joined by Silvia Lautreamont, a princess of a great respected aristocratic knight family, Oscar Brallsford (the vice-president who's actually a girl herself) and Jessica Valentine in basically running the Academy day to day, sometimes teaming up with them, sometimes in rivalry, often for Ash's affections as his skill and bravery are put on display. Making matters even worse for Ash is the attention of Eco, a powerful tsundere loli princess who is a human with dragon powers, alternately attracted and repulsed by Ash--though usually the latter, at least at first, as shown by her constant humiliating and belittling of the poor cadet. Eco's presence is mysterious and the students aren't quite sure at first how to interact with her, though they quickly learn to fear and respect her when she demonstrates her tremendous power, skill, resourceful ability, strength and intelligence, though her curiously often gets her into some trouble.

The Academy and the citizens nearby are opposed by the Zepharos Empire led by Klaus Viderrhausen and Milgaus, a secretive masked figure who prepares to attack the Academy with a series of mysterious horrors. Milgaus himself holds a dark mystery that the Academy and surrounding citizens are desperate to unravel, before his evil creatures and magical attacks doom them to a pall of darkness. As Ash's own abilities grow, the Academy gradually comes to rely on him as their most dependable soldier.


 * Abuse Is Okay When Its Female On Male: This basically describes Eco's ultra-tsundere relationship to Ash for the first half of Season 1 in which she taunts, humiliates and belittles him relentlessly, leading to him being laughed and scoffed at by his classmates as she basically gets away with it. Gradually though she develops more tender feelings for him while Ash becomes more respected by his peers in general.
 * Beach Episode: Unsurprisingly Dragonar has one, complete with its already gorgeous female characters prancing around in string bikinis while Ash and their other male classmates clumsily gawk in every direction.
 * Can't Live with Them Can't Live Without Them: Eco when she's with Ash.
 * Character Development: Much of the plot of Dragonar from episode to episode involves this for Ash, who matures from a clumsy, nervous cadet, constantly distracted by strong, smart and beautiful girls and women around him, into a capable dragon rider and soldier who becomes a kind of knight that the town relies on to stand up to the deadly scheming of the Zepharos Empire.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Eco is constantly tsundere to Ash but even more so as he starts to get more and more attention from Jessica, Rebecca and the other pretty girls at the Academy.
 * Distracted by the Sexy: Ash and his buddies are practically overwhelmed by this effect around Jessica, Rebecca, Eco, Silvia, Veronica and the other female characters who are not only very beautiful but also smart, strong and disciplined. Not only that, their beauty and brains often come with very skimpy outfits in all kinds of situations, plus they tend to tease and (in Eco's case) beat up and humiliate Ash in particular, so much so he often has trouble concentrating in class. A lot of Ash's character development in fact surrounds his ability to find his focus despite this.
 * Distressed Damsel: Dragonar has a lot of this. Rebecca, Jessica and the other female students of the Dragonar Academy, not to mention Eco are generally the leaders and the most effective dragon riders and fighters in the continent, and can usually take care of themselves. But sometimes even they wind up in trouble especially against the attacks of Milgaus and the Zepharos Empire, who often make use of tentacles and a series of powerful magic attacks that overwhelm their opponents. Ash is usually there to save the day, a big factor in the boost to his reputation after his initial clumsy, stumbling start at the academy.
 * Dominatrix: Eco verges amusingly close to this in the extent that she publicly humiliates, verbally and physically abuses,teases, belittles, beats up on and even erotically tantalizes Ash, often in a skimpy string bikini or lingerie to further link up with this trope. At times she seems more yandere than tsundere. though eventually her more tender feelings for Ash start to come out.
 * Dracolich: The Necromancia created and activated by Milgaus. He's a towering and utterly terrifying undead demonic monstrosity who's all but unstoppable.
 * Dragon Rider: Basically all the students in the Dragonar Academy and many other citizens of the Arc Strada continent, with Ash eventually standing out particularly well in this ability.