Some years ago Nitro+ released a fandisc under the title Sabato Nabe which included three games. Nitro Wars, a generic Tohou style 2D shu’m’up with a lot of recruitable Nitoplus characters. Kaigen Seito, a shitty addon mini game to the shitty Hanachirasu. And Dra+Koi, a surprising little gem and just might be the only reason to try and track down this rare fandisc. Dra+Koi comes almost out of nowhere as a complete surprise.

Coming straight out of the creative over the top loving and passionate mind of Jin Haganeya as if he watched too much of Schinichi Watanabe’s crazy stomach piercing outrageous and excessive comedic anime, or too much of Hiroyuki Imaishi’s insane over frantic exceptionally outstanding and hot blooded mind bending epic anime, Dra+Koi comes as something in between with its own outrageous breakneck speed at light speed pacing. Everything goes by so quick you barely have time to react but this also what makes this such a great and fun as well as a satisfying visual novel.

The story starts in the mids of a battle between a big ground and air army vs a big flying fire breathing dragon. Shooting it barely scratches it, barraging it with tank shells doesn’t do anything, bombarding it with bombs and missiles from the air has no effect, only entire cities are left in ruins and all the buildings in the area are totaled and leveled to the ground. The dragons appeared in not too distant past of half a century ago and ever since then humanity had a nonstop battle against these unstoppable giant terrible beasts. Dark as it is Dra+Koi is a complete contrast to what you’d expect from such grim and gritty setting, not that the story is very light and completely comedic in nature but the setting itself never gets in the way of what the story was really intended for.

Dra+Koi’s characters are very few but the script does a well enough job so we have no sort of any kind of doubt about who they are and their characteristics and personalities. The protagonist is kind of your typical of the map patterned generic guy, this isn’t a negative and not as bad as it could have been because in a short span of time he changes and the story moves him into certain hard hitting decisions he eventually will have to take responsibility for it as well as how these decisions will change his life in this war turned charred setting. The heroine is there to fall in love in our hero but it’s not worked out as a cliché but more like a twist on the usual fairy tale, only instead the prince on white horse coming to rescue the beautiful princess, we have the princess to be the one who takes action. She’s abrasive, take not shit from no body and will stomp and chomp anyone in her path to her goal, she’s like a just born innocent baby that knows what it wants and doesn’t even consider the possibility of the task.

Romantic fairy tale is what Dra+Koi is at its core but it is also a take on the mysterious or sudden girlfriend genre. If you played Jin Haganeya’s other works such as first Demonbane you’ll know he likes to pay a homage and glorify the typical anime genres in a visual novel medium, it’s a love send off to the years gone by and it’s just as wonderfully awesome but it shouldn’t be, and yet yes it works and it works really well. Many different emotions and themes are covered in such a short span of time, you might have a big fight scene on moment and then a beautifully written slow poetic narration and suddenly some crazy over the top comedy and then some more love and affection scenes. There are even a few h-scenes here which don’t even feel out of place or eye rolling bad boring ones that usually displayed and forced in longer and bigger visual novels. In just its short length you’ll go from insanity to insanity and everything will come to an ending you’ll probably like but not be entirely satisfied. But sometimes the journey is the life and blood of our enjoyment, not the end. And is there but the journey is what takes us there and Dra+Koi is a worthy journey to take.