Review provided by CamilleTitle: Dogs Volume 8
Author: Shirow Miwa
Distributor: Viz Media
American Release Date: November 19th, 2013
Format: Viz Sig Manga,da
Genre: Action, Suspence, Shonen
Publisher Age Rating: M (Mature)
Personal Review Rating: A-
It’s all fun and games until Mother arrives…
Synopsis:
Though many questions were still to be answered, life was going back to the regular daily struggles. Wounds were finally starting to heal, but the mind behind the attack wasn’t going to let that happen.
She was supposed to be dead, and one of her was. Mother is turing out to be more difficult to destory than anticipated. However, her appearance in the Underground city has answered some of the most important questions. However, some of the answers aren’t all that welcomed. If Mother is still alive, that means the missing children from the Underground were actually the soldigers that attacked the city. That those who were surching for these kids were the ones who killed them. This is unforgiveable. Hein and Bishop knew about what happened to the children, and now the Underground is more than angry. Hein and Bishop may be immortal, but can they really survive and attack from all the fruriated citizens?
Commentary:
I was first drawn to Dogs because of the art style. It’s got that edgy, fine lines, dark look that I tend to gravitate towards. I knew nothing about the story, but it looked good enough to flip through. After I read volume 1, I went out the next day and got the rest of the volumes available at the time. The story was so interesting, full of depth and the constant twist and turns was almost to much, but I couldn’t put it down. I was excited to see this volume come in, it’s been almost a year since the last volume was released. I wish I could say it didn’t dissappoint, but it felt like it was lacking something.
One of the things that makes Dogs one of my favorite series is the cleanliness of the action scenes. They are well illistrated for as dark as this series is. There isn’t much in the way of background detail, but the caracters are stunning. Maintaining the detail of the characters durring fight scenes is tough and most often is lost, but not with Dogs. There’s a balance between the characters, the story, and their movements that I really appreciate.
Dogs is a character driven series. But this volume didn’t really expand or shine on any one chacter. They were all just kind of there. Personalities weren’t a priority. With that I would have expected more of the illistrative focus to be on the surroundings, but there were more plain white, empty panels then I would have liked. Just a little somehting to fill those awkward voids. It’s a manga, not a novel, but this volume felt more like I was just reading words, and the pictures where nothing more than decoration.
This volume is a set up volume, right before the “final fight”. It brought all the information we already know into one coherent, interconnected plot line. I think it was well timmed. Other series, especially shorter series, tend to rush the connecting of plot points, but with there being a volume 0, which explains Hein’s past, volume 8 came just at the right time.
Overall Grade: A-
I’ve enjoyed Dogs from the beginning, and I don’t ever see myself not liking what Shirow Miwa releases. This volume was a well timed point when all the backstories and revealed information became one solid plot, but there were a few to many blank pannels. I still can’t wait for the next volume!
Similar Series:
Dogs is a fairly dark series, about humas being the real moster that we are all afraid of. Other series with similar vibes are March Story, Dorohedoro, and D. Gray-man to name a few.
