What do you think?
ドラゴンヘッド [Dragon Head] #2
Dragon Head, Volume 2
As Teru, Ako and Nobuo move outside their derailed train to gather supplies until help arrives, little do they know the terror that awaits them. Death and decay fill the pitch-black tunnel, and Nobuo suddenly starts to lose sight of reality. Meanwhile, Teru finds an air duct that may lead to the outside. But the intense struggle to survive is just beginning, and salvation is still far from everyone's grasp...
232 pages, Paperback
First published July 6, 1995
About the author
Minetarō Mochizuki
71 books70 followersMinetarō Mochizuki (望月峯太郎) is a manga artist. He is best known for his apocalyptic thriller series Dragon Head (ドラゴンヘッド Duragon Heddo), as well as the comedy series Mai Wai. Mochizuki has also written one-shot manga such as Zashiki Onna.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
March 11, 2023
when you look for items while wandering around a mysterious, dark place. A very comparable atmosphere. However, I think it will drag on a lot, which will lead to a few chapters getting 1 or 2 stars.
April 3, 2013
Shit's getting INTENSE!!
This is Lord of the Flies, on steroids, in a dark tunnel.
This is Lord of the Flies, on steroids, in a dark tunnel.
November 15, 2025
Je voulais lire cette série depuis des années et je suis super déçue ))):
December 7, 2014
Nobuo is crazier then ever. Teru and Ako are still trying to survive and keep away from Nobuo. Teru thinks he has found a way out but is uncertain where the water pipe will lead. It's getting hotter in the tunnel. It's already been a week with no clue as to what is happening on the surface.
I am enjoying this weird story. The illustrations for the most part really help the story along. I will definitely be picking up vol: 3
I am enjoying this weird story. The illustrations for the most part really help the story along. I will definitely be picking up vol: 3
July 25, 2019
Very similar to the first volume with the claustrophobic horror turned up to ten. I do think the story is moving a little slowly, but I'm thinking it picks up in future volumes. This is unnerving stuff not for the faint of heart, even though it's more psychological horror than anything else. One of the better horror manga I've read.
October 27, 2024
Decae un poco del primer tomo.
Estaría mejor sin las escenas desagradables que le hacen a la chica.
Aún falta...
Estaría mejor sin las escenas desagradables que le hacen a la chica.
Aún falta...
November 2, 2020
That went by so fast it feels like I didn't even read it, haha. I think that's because a lot of the panels in this installment were action with few pieces of dialogue. Usually, I'm not a fan of mangas with a ton of action because sometimes they can be a little bit illegible, and it's hard to follow along with what is happening. Action heavy mangas work a lot better as animes to me. However, I feel the author/artist does a good job of making the action clear so you can understand what is occurring. I like where the story is going here. The mystery becomes more complex in volume 2, and we have yet to get any answers for what is going on. This series does a great job of getting you to read the following volume because of the cliffhangers. I wouldn't say I enjoyed this more than the first one, but I am looking forward to picking up volume 3. The one thing I did not like about this issue (trigger warning under spoiler) It was very off-putting, and I don't think it was entirely necessary to add that in the story. I mean, it gives you more insight into one of the characters, but still, I would have rather not seen that. Overall, this gets a solid three-stars from me.
March 15, 2022
Volume 2: Chapter 12-23
Arc 1: Escape from the tunnels
The setting of the story still in the collapsed tunnel and they try to find the way out. The second volume not as a creepy as the first one. I think the main highlight for this volume is Nobuo getting crazy due to excessive fear of darkness.
Highlight:
• They tried to find an escape route from the tunnel
• Nobuo lost his sanity
• Teru finds an escape route through the ventilation shafts but he trapped inside it
• He managed to escape from the ventilation shafts due to water flows in.
• Ako being chased by crazy Nobuo.
Arc 1: Escape from the tunnels
The setting of the story still in the collapsed tunnel and they try to find the way out. The second volume not as a creepy as the first one. I think the main highlight for this volume is Nobuo getting crazy due to excessive fear of darkness.
Highlight:
• They tried to find an escape route from the tunnel
• Nobuo lost his sanity
• Teru finds an escape route through the ventilation shafts but he trapped inside it
• He managed to escape from the ventilation shafts due to water flows in.
• Ako being chased by crazy Nobuo.
Read
July 11, 2026Podoba mi się, że akcja tego tomu była dosyć szybka. Nie wiem do czego dążymy i czy mnie to wciągnie, ale nacisk brata jest silny, to be continued 🤣
July 19, 2026
Trash volume. Skip the first two and jump to volume three if you are looking for a manga in the vein of lord of the flies or The Last Of Us.
October 13, 2022
3.5 rounded up.
October 27, 2017
I hope this gets better, this has all of the stupid tropes I hate:
1. People not working together in a survival situation. It goes Lord of the Flies. Seriously. There is more than enough books about that damn plot.
2. Rape. Yep. There's a woman there. Therefore she needs to be raped have to get that in.
3. Useless woman. Useless. When she's not being a weak piss-ant, she's trying to stop Teru from killing the guy who has gone insane.
The next book had better be better or I'm done with this series.
1. People not working together in a survival situation. It goes Lord of the Flies. Seriously. There is more than enough books about that damn plot.
2. Rape. Yep. There's a woman there. Therefore she needs to be raped have to get that in.
3. Useless woman. Useless. When she's not being a weak piss-ant, she's trying to stop Teru from killing the guy who has gone insane.
The next book had better be better or I'm done with this series.
March 27, 2019
Minetarō Mochizuki's Dragon Head, Volume 2 is astoundingly, shamefully bad. The author should be spanked for this garbage. There is NOTHING good here. NOT ONE THING!
So the appeal of manga and graphic novels is that the storytelling is visual. Dragon Head,Volume 2 has the same problem that Volume 1 had; the characters talk excessively when they are alone. They say things to communicate information to the reader when that information should be communicated visually. It is obnoxious, unbelievable, and annoying.
As in Volume 1, not much happens in Volume 2. It seems to want to focus primarily on developing the character of Ako, the antagonist. Unfortunately, he is stereotypically "evil" to the point of being ridiculous.
As we see from the cover, Ako paints his face so his outer self visually represents how ugly his inner self is. I kind of like this idea, but he finds a purse with makeup and manages to cover not only his face, but his whole body with spots. First of all, it is so hot in the tunnel that there is no way this makeup would stay on. Also, he would have had to find every purse of every dead girl on the train to find enough makeup to paint his entire body. He also paints Nabuo's body, but I'll get to that soon.
Actually I'll get to that now.
**spoilers**
So the book opens by making a big deal out of Nabuo taking her skirt off because it is so hot. But don't worry! She happens to have shorts on! I expected this kind of thing because this is manga after all... but this is also a YA manga, so I didn't think it would be that bad. Oh my god, was I wrong.
So Teru decides to look for a way out and crawls through some ductwork that appears to go up to the surface. It collapses and he is trapped until the end of the book. Ako starts threatening Nabuo with a knife. Nabuo runs away from him and ends up finding the dead body of one of their school teachers that Ako has dragged to a room and propped up in a seat.
Here's where things get stupidly outrageous. Nabuo is alone, hiding from Ako, when she says "I can't stay awake... I'm so tired" before falling asleep. Ako finds her sleeping and proceeds to sexually assault her by groping her boobs. He then strips her down to just her underwear and paints her naked torso with spots. AND SHE NEVER WAKES UP!! What the absolute fuck???
If that wasn't bad enough, he then takes her shorts off, gets on top of her, and begins unbuckling his belt in preparation TO RAPE HER. Now, I don't think he actually goes through with raping her because the tunnel starts to cave in, but WHAT THE FUCK??!? Nabuo wakes up, wipes the makeup off, and gets dressed.
The end of this book is an overly long depiction of Ako attacking Nabuo and Teru arriving right in time to save her before everything goes dark.
All the same problems from Volume 1 exist in Volume 2, but it is so much worse. I can't justify continuing with the series, so this will be it for me.
1 out of 5 stars.
So the appeal of manga and graphic novels is that the storytelling is visual. Dragon Head,Volume 2 has the same problem that Volume 1 had; the characters talk excessively when they are alone. They say things to communicate information to the reader when that information should be communicated visually. It is obnoxious, unbelievable, and annoying.
As in Volume 1, not much happens in Volume 2. It seems to want to focus primarily on developing the character of Ako, the antagonist. Unfortunately, he is stereotypically "evil" to the point of being ridiculous.
As we see from the cover, Ako paints his face so his outer self visually represents how ugly his inner self is. I kind of like this idea, but he finds a purse with makeup and manages to cover not only his face, but his whole body with spots. First of all, it is so hot in the tunnel that there is no way this makeup would stay on. Also, he would have had to find every purse of every dead girl on the train to find enough makeup to paint his entire body. He also paints Nabuo's body, but I'll get to that soon.
Actually I'll get to that now.
**spoilers**
So the book opens by making a big deal out of Nabuo taking her skirt off because it is so hot. But don't worry! She happens to have shorts on! I expected this kind of thing because this is manga after all... but this is also a YA manga, so I didn't think it would be that bad. Oh my god, was I wrong.
So Teru decides to look for a way out and crawls through some ductwork that appears to go up to the surface. It collapses and he is trapped until the end of the book. Ako starts threatening Nabuo with a knife. Nabuo runs away from him and ends up finding the dead body of one of their school teachers that Ako has dragged to a room and propped up in a seat.
Here's where things get stupidly outrageous. Nabuo is alone, hiding from Ako, when she says "I can't stay awake... I'm so tired" before falling asleep. Ako finds her sleeping and proceeds to sexually assault her by groping her boobs. He then strips her down to just her underwear and paints her naked torso with spots. AND SHE NEVER WAKES UP!! What the absolute fuck???
If that wasn't bad enough, he then takes her shorts off, gets on top of her, and begins unbuckling his belt in preparation TO RAPE HER. Now, I don't think he actually goes through with raping her because the tunnel starts to cave in, but WHAT THE FUCK??!? Nabuo wakes up, wipes the makeup off, and gets dressed.
The end of this book is an overly long depiction of Ako attacking Nabuo and Teru arriving right in time to save her before everything goes dark.
All the same problems from Volume 1 exist in Volume 2, but it is so much worse. I can't justify continuing with the series, so this will be it for me.
1 out of 5 stars.
September 28, 2026
Minetaro Mochizuki's manga sets an exceptionally heavy tone from the very first pages. There's no room for a calming introduction or a slow buildup of bonds with the characters. The reader is thrust into the midst of a claustrophobic nightmare alongside the characters, experiencing every minute spent in the enclosed tunnel. This is a comic that builds its tension not on cheap scares, but on a slow, steady dose of helplessness.
The beginning of Dragon Head is relatively simple. A train crashes, and teenagers Teru, Nobuo, and Ako are among the only survivors. They are trapped underground and must face not only the physical consequences of the accident but also their own fears . Instead of a lengthy introduction, we are immediately presented with a picture of utter devastation. Darkness, mounds of rubble, and the bodies of those unlucky are everywhere. Mochizuki, however, avoids overly formulaic narratives. The first volume is primarily an experience of confinement and helplessness. The reader, along with the characters, remains unsure for a long time what happened, whether help will arrive, and what lies beyond the crash site. The author doesn't overwhelm us with explanations. Instead, he allows the uncertainty to fuel the suspense. The pace is therefore leisurely, at times even sluggish, but I don't consider this a flaw. In this story, rushing would have weakened the atmosphere.
The second volume, however, takes a much-needed turn. The story begins to expand beyond its confines, new places and new people appear, and the narrative itself takes on a more adventurous tone. This doesn't mean, however, that the mystery is solved. Quite the opposite. Instead of a single mystery, we're presented with a whole set of questions about what happened beyond the place where the catastrophe began...
Full review: https://popkulturowykociolek.pl/drago...#
The beginning of Dragon Head is relatively simple. A train crashes, and teenagers Teru, Nobuo, and Ako are among the only survivors. They are trapped underground and must face not only the physical consequences of the accident but also their own fears . Instead of a lengthy introduction, we are immediately presented with a picture of utter devastation. Darkness, mounds of rubble, and the bodies of those unlucky are everywhere. Mochizuki, however, avoids overly formulaic narratives. The first volume is primarily an experience of confinement and helplessness. The reader, along with the characters, remains unsure for a long time what happened, whether help will arrive, and what lies beyond the crash site. The author doesn't overwhelm us with explanations. Instead, he allows the uncertainty to fuel the suspense. The pace is therefore leisurely, at times even sluggish, but I don't consider this a flaw. In this story, rushing would have weakened the atmosphere.
The second volume, however, takes a much-needed turn. The story begins to expand beyond its confines, new places and new people appear, and the narrative itself takes on a more adventurous tone. This doesn't mean, however, that the mystery is solved. Quite the opposite. Instead of a single mystery, we're presented with a whole set of questions about what happened beyond the place where the catastrophe began...
Full review: https://popkulturowykociolek.pl/drago...#
May 15, 2023
It all starts with a class trip on a subway train. All of a sudden the underground railroads collapse beneath the weight of an earthquake and all the students aboard the train are trapped underground where it’s hard to breathe and it’s excruciatingly humid. The few survivors must dig their way out from the labyrinthian tunnels to reach the surface, but the world above might not be as they remember it.
A great concept with a weak execution. The atmosphere is intense and the art is hauntingly bleak. Unfortunately, I found all of the main characters very unlikable. The dialogue is also pretty bad and doesn’t always make sense which could be the fault of a poor translation. The story also drags out way longer than necessary with repetitive drama and the unlikeable cast constantly bickering over dumb issues doesn’t do the plot or the stakes of the narrative any favors.
Not a terrible horror manga, but not nearly as good as it could’ve been. The few solid moments were underwhelming compared to the long periods of monotonous boredom, bland characters and uninteresting villains in between.
My rating: 2.3/5
A great concept with a weak execution. The atmosphere is intense and the art is hauntingly bleak. Unfortunately, I found all of the main characters very unlikable. The dialogue is also pretty bad and doesn’t always make sense which could be the fault of a poor translation. The story also drags out way longer than necessary with repetitive drama and the unlikeable cast constantly bickering over dumb issues doesn’t do the plot or the stakes of the narrative any favors.
Not a terrible horror manga, but not nearly as good as it could’ve been. The few solid moments were underwhelming compared to the long periods of monotonous boredom, bland characters and uninteresting villains in between.
My rating: 2.3/5
December 31, 2018
Trigger Warning: Sexual assault, phobia of holes/circles (I can't remember how to spell it and I'm not looking it up because it will show photos! Starts with a T. If you have the phobia, you know what I mean.) The cover is a giveaway for that, but I guess I am a glutton for punishment. Ew.
***
A character has drawn circles all over his body... well, that is just disgusting and *shudder* if you have a phobia, you might understand. I had to squint when reading, so the image blurred and try and not look at the pictures while reading the text. Luckily, the circles are not super tight clusters, which is worse! Gross!
Circle guy sexually assaults the female character while she is passed out.
I'm still going to read more of this series, but I hope Circle guy dies soon. He is the type of character I can't stand and I don't just mean the whole circle business.
***
A character has drawn circles all over his body... well, that is just disgusting and *shudder* if you have a phobia, you might understand. I had to squint when reading, so the image blurred and try and not look at the pictures while reading the text. Luckily, the circles are not super tight clusters, which is worse! Gross!
Circle guy sexually assaults the female character while she is passed out.
I'm still going to read more of this series, but I hope Circle guy dies soon. He is the type of character I can't stand and I don't just mean the whole circle business.
January 3, 2025
Este volumen mejora mucho más en cuanto a narrativa, tanto que se hace palpable el hecho de que este arco sea una referencia a El señor de las moscas de William Golding, el constante descenso a la locura de Nobu acompañado al menos hacia la constante oscuridad que todo lo consume hace que se te meta de a poco el miedo en la piel. Pero sigue sin llegar a demostrar todo lo que esta obra llega a ser en volumenes posteriores.
January 30, 2025
Creepiness and horror factors improved from the first volume, and this is shown in some of the art and designs (see the cover). Still nothing to write home about. The characters are bland (personality-less or just crazy) and still nothing much has really gone on apart from crazy guy does crazy things. The underground labyrinthine tunnels add some interest though.
October 21, 2020
This took everything from volume 1 and turned the volume up. The story as moved forward and we're building up to something big - a reveal, the next obstacle, something. I can't wait to dive into volume 3.
February 15, 2022
This is still one of my absolute favorite manga series. It's thrilling and intense and pretty much hit the nail on the head for what makes a perfect survival/apocalypse novel. It's got touches of psychological horror and a whole lot of suspense. And the art style is great too.
September 2, 2023
Un quilombo. Pendejos sobreviviendo, apocalipsis, desesperación, locura. La historia deja el túnel y sale al mundo, pero eso no quiere decir que las cosas estén mejor. Esto es survival en la desesperanza más absoluta. Hermoso.
November 24, 2019
The second volume focuses a lot more on the growing desperation and insanity of the characters. The story continues to be interesting, but not as creepy as the first volume.
January 3, 2020
Absolute trash .
A book full of sexism , sexualisation of women and then a rape scene WTH ?
Starting the year on a really high note (lol )
A book full of sexism , sexualisation of women and then a rape scene WTH ?
Starting the year on a really high note (lol )
February 9, 2020
Pretty awesome Psychological Apocalyptic manga, really awesome artwork and story! 😁😻❤️❤️
July 19, 2020
seguiré leyendo cuando mi hermano compre el resto de tomos, pero tampoco me apremia mucho
October 13, 2020
It's great
August 28, 2021
Excelente, supervivencia y misterios
March 3, 2022
This got real Lord of the Flies real quick.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews