@Leo80221 : same reason orcs are piglike? alot of authors and artists tend to follow whatever first made an impact on them.
@cor3zone: looks at all my pre-3.X monster manuals (I own 1s, 2nd, several Basic, and even the re-make of the OD&D core books from a few years ago, I think I have every non-setting rulebook for 1st edition). .
No they were not originally dragonkin, that is a change that was made in 3.0, but for allot of gamers that was their first edition (started with 2nd).
The premise and idea of this manga feels like it has a chance to be fantastic. But so far it's not looking too good personally, and I really don't wanna go through the whole "hide your true power" cliche if it gets forced.
Came across this image before that explains some of the varying appearances.
https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0364/57/1417306060584.jpg
I'd be amused if there was an isekai series in which prevailing Earth opinion directly influenced the races on another world. So you've got the battling influences of JP storytelling culture making orcs rapey pig people vs Tolkien influenced Western culture with them being more typical violent humanoids, and the race itself would be in a state of flux reflecting whatever is more popular at any given moment.