

I was watching Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken and a character in there is said
to be a Dragonoid. I remembered Dragon Quest also features a character which
has a Dragonoid form. Then I looked for more info in internet and I found that
Dragonoids are also a race in an anime called Bakugan.

Where does this idea come from? Which was the first anime to feature
Dragonoids?


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tropes anime-history
Which was the first anime to feature Dragonoids?


Dragonoid is a pretty utilitarian term, it's made up of the word dragon with
the suffix [-oid](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/-oid) which means "like"
or "resembling" (think humanoid/anthropoid which both mean non-human with
human form/characteristics, ovoid which means "resembling an egg" or "egg
shaped", etc.). Thus, dragonoid means something that "resembles a dragon" or
is "dragon-like" without being a proper dragon. The Japanese term for
dragonoid shared between DQ's dragon knight's dragonoid form and Slime's
Milim's race is 竜魔人 (romanji: ryūmajin, lit: dragon monster person) is
likewise quite utilitarian but each for different reasons.

In DQ the 竜の騎士 (romanji: Ryū no kishi lit: dragon knight) race was created
from the collaboration between the god of dragons, god of darklings and god of
humans which is reflected in the name of the dragonoid form which takes a
character from each. However, do note that dragonoid is not the name of the
race but of a form. "Dragonoid form" doesn't seem to carry any history beyond
DQ and as a name of a form is usually utilitarian (demon form, final form,
super (saiyan), etc.) and somewhat arbitrary.

On the other hand, Milim's race is 竜魔人 (dragonoid), birthed from the union of
a human and dragon. In most media her race would be called "[half-
dragon](https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Half-dragon)" but slime adds
the "monster" bit because in its universe all beings borne from magicules
(i.e. mana) are considered monsters and they specifically define the term 魔人
(romanji: majin lit: monster person) to denote humanoid monsters. Thus she is
a humanoid monster of the draconic variety. The half dragon race of beings
carries a more storied history. Chinese myth believes that the emperors are
descended from dragons which necessarily means dragons can make "the beast
with two backs" with humans. A hulking lizard getting busy with a tiny
human... how does that work? Another core trait of dragons is their ability to
shapeshift which is rooted in antiquity from stories of humans being
transformed into dragons Cadmus in Greek myth and Fafnir in Norse myth being
the most famous inspirations. In more modern times we have the classic D&D
origin story: a dragon + a human bard + nat 20 roll in Charisma = half-dragon
babies. Given that we're talking about anime we should also consider
dragonoids from the opposite direction too, rather than being rooted in the
largely western idea of a "half-dragon" we think of Milim as a "dragon girl"
which is a natural extension of "cat girls". A mainstay of otaku culture, cat
girls probably trace lineage to folklore of Kitsune (fox yokai) who've long
been believed to be able to shapeshift into beautiful women as well as stories
of Bakeneko (cat yokai) prostitutes which were prevalent in the Edo period.
According to Wikipedia the first anime to feature cat girls was "The King's
Tails" made in 1949. Now a ubiquitous trope in anime and manga cat girls are
the poster child of kemonomimi (human-like beings with animal ears) at large
which includes [raccoon
girls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rising_of_the_Shield_Hero), [horse-
girl idols](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uma_Musume_Pretty_Derby) and even
[Isis-chan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISIS-chan).

Bakugan's Dragonoid seems mostly like a one-off name, Dragonoid seems to
exclusively be written in katakana (ドラゴノイド romanji: doragonoido) which means
its intended to be a loan word from the English word "dragonoid" rather than a
choice of reading for 竜魔人 like the other two. Bakugan also makes abundant use
of the -oid suffix in their names: Serpenoid, Centipoid, Hydranoid, Ravenoid,
etc. Likely because naming things by corrupting existing English words sounds
cooler (dragonoid > dragon, ravenoid > raven, etc.) and improves SEO.

So where does the idea of dragonoids come from? Likely nowhere, the three
given examples seem to be the only uses of dragonoid, have a mixed bag of
influences and none of them have anything to do with each other. Rather than
being inspired by each other it seems as though 3 separate franchises
independently saw the utility the name dragonoid


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