Comments on: Viz gets Miwa Shirow’s DOGS!

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 23:57:00 +0000

I’ve heard that recently and find it pretty interesting that they’d even publish chapters with missing panels. I think it’s still possible to take them as artistic allowance in addition to Shirow’s notorious deadline skills. XD

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:15:00 +0000

In the tankoubon, all (or maybe just most) of the blank panels have been filled in with new artwork, and a fair amount of panels are redrawn. Seems like it’s just a deadline issue.

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 04:41:00 +0000

Haha, interesting way to find a blog. :P As far as I know, no one has all of DOGS hosted for online viewing, so you’ll just have to download them for now (of course, I’d also suggest buying Viz’s version when it comes out. ^^). The DOGS community is still pretty small, which is one of the reasons I was so surprised they got licensed in the first place and that they’ll have an anime soon now.

Thanks for the compliments though. ^^ I don’t have too many people to discuss anime and manga with these days, so I figure, why not blog about it? (And write reviews that are obnoxiously long? :D)

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:06:00 +0000

I’m currently learning japanese, so seeing as how they speak in context all the time, it makes sense that I couldn’t really follow along in DOGS. :P Why didn’t I think of that sooner? lol.
You might be amused about how I found your blog, but here goes. I was trying to find this site that hosted all the chapters of DOGS so I wouldn’t have to download it. :P I never found it :( so I thought why not read some random person’s thoughts on the manga. And here we is!!! :D
I enjoy your writing Kiri, and you’re a talented artist. Very nice work. : ) I’m glad I found your blog. Analyzing stories is a lot of fun. ; )

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:18:00 +0000

Heh, funny you should mention the difficult-to-place dialogue — it’s something I’ve noticed a lot in comparing Japanese and American comics. The former tend to have very short balloon tails, if any at all, and you usually have to infer who’s speaking. Usually, I don’t think it’s all that hard, but I guess some contexts make it pretty ambiguous. American comics’ balloon tails almost always make a point to have a tail to the character speaking so there’s less guesswork, so I guess if you’re used to that, it’s a big jump? If blank panels were to save time, I’d like to think we could get more than a chapter every few months. XD

Haha, well, the news of the anime just broke so it’s not a big surprise that you didn’t know. As for the story, I just think there are a lot of directions they could take it since so much is still a mystery. What happened to the world? How much experimentation has really gone on? Where/what/how is the government run and do they have anything to do with anything? Are there more details to each characters’ past and are they related in more ways than we already know, etc?

Kiri, nice to meet you too. :O

Just curious — how did you find my blog? I was really surprised to see a comment on such an old entry, especially if you didn’t follow it from my more current post about the anime?

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:04:00 +0000

That's an interesting take on the talking heads thing. Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like it was getting difficult to place the dialogue with a character in those empty panels? Maybe it was a translation issue? At some point I thought, given the quality of art and release dates, that the blank panels were just to save time. LOL. :P
What I forgot to say in my previous comment is that it would be well suited for an anime, given it's highly stylized, and moody, imagery. Low and behold, you ranted about an anime release that I did not know about. lol. I'm not as obsessive as other anime peeps, but meh.
I think I'm having a hard time placing potential themes in the story. Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying the diverse characters, AND it's dark humor. >; )
My name is Brian. Nice to meet you! :D

By: Kiriska

Kiriska — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:20:00 +0000

Yeah, I also think that Shirow's art is the high point of DOGS. The floating dialogue and blank panels is just part of style, though it's something that's prominent in a lot of manga, especially compared to Western stuff. I don't really mind, and think it's an artistic choice more than anything else -- floating dialogue removes the need to have page after page of talking heads, which isn't very interesting anyway, and empty spaces leave room for thought. I always feel like he leaves spaces blank to let you take in some of what just happened, etc.

Interestingly enough, Badou did once comment that his relationship with Haine "is not like that," but I agree, they have potential, lol.

DOGS as it is doesn't show a lot of depth, but I think it has some serious potential, which is one of the reasons I like it so much. A lot of things they describe are subtle and it's possible to read very far into what's given. Whether or not they actually take advantage of all that potential remains to be seen, but I've not been disappointed yet. :)

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:14:00 +0000

Hey there! : )
I too think Shirow’s art is really great, especially compared to his work on DMC. However… I was kind of bewildered by the fact that so many panels are left blank, or only have dialogue present. Thoughts?
Haine and what’s his name definitely have a good dynamic. Maybe even slash worthy. lol. I appreciate it more for it’s dark undertones, and art, because it otherwise doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of depth. Or so I think. “Dark” tends to equal “good” for me. XD
And I’d like to close with a quote:
“Haine-chan! Save meeeeee!!!!” lol.