About the Mangaka
This is Miwa Shirow’s first real release, though he did work on a collaboration work with Kusanagi Darai. The Dog’s series however is his first solo release.
About the Manga
This was another series that took me by surprise for several reasons. Firstly, it’s a Viz release that doesn’t actually suck big time, and secondly they opted to resize it to a manhwa sized volume, rather than the usual manga size.
This series has several other elements that others don’t as well. Firstly the covers are high gloss, and volume zero was silver embossed. It looks pretty awesome IMO. The other bit is a change from Viz’s usual releases, with some rather awesome looking full colour pages.
The art does take some getting used to however, I wasn’t all that impressed initially. And while it has grown on me over the volumes it still feels a bit off at times. This has a bad effect at times, usually in fight scenes, where it can feel a bit cluttered and lack lustre.
However it’s also true that at other times the art really works well, and I have to give him credit for the settings he’s drawn.
Unfortunately I can’t say the art gets “better” rather it’s a case of you get used to it, and then it grows on you. Though I have to say I love Nill, she’s just so damned cute!! Her design hardly changes through out and she gives the series some much needed light.
Naoto is another who makes this series so enjoyable, I loved learning about her past, she has that spark that makes a great character.
Badou unfortunately is the opposite. Everything about him I hate, from the way he’s drawn to the developments, to his personality. The concept behind the character I like though, and I feel he could have been a great character if only he’d had some more work done on him.
Heine was another I wasn’t keen on, but as I read through the volumes I found myself warming to him. While I don’t like his character designs to much, especially the way the designs change bit by bit, I do like his personality and developments. I was also loving the hints to his past we get.
While I’ll admit the art overall does fit the story, I doubt I’ll ever really like it.
Viz really surprised me with this series. Their shonen line up is pretty crappy due to their rewrites, however this time I honestly don’t have any issues with it. While the cynical part of me is saying it’s been rewritten, but truthfully I don’t see it. The translation this time is smooth and free flowing and while it’s not as good as say Yen Press’ it’s not a bad release.
The editing is also pretty good with easy to read fonts and no major guttering. In all honesty this is one of the best releases I’ve ever seen from Viz.
That said, while I enjoyed it, I wont be adding it to my Essential Read list till I’ve read the last few volumes. In the past to many short series have failed at the end, so I want to see how it looks when I’ve finished the last three volumes. For now, I’ll say it’s a series worth picking up if you have some spare cash.
However one thing to note, due to the graphic content this series carries a Mature and Explicit Content rating. Though I’ve seen worse, and think Viz are just playing it on the safe side.
Where to Buy
)
A couple of panels (and one full page – Naoto having just drawn her sword in the church) were completely redrawn for the volume compilation too. It looks much better for it 
)
January 31, 2010 @ 22:00.
Saying the “last” three volumes while talking about short series failing at the end is a little misleading.
Dogs: Bullets & Carnage (excluding the oneshot Dogs volume) is at four compiled volumes and ongoing, not at four compiled volumes and complete
The size thing also isn’t as strange as you make it sound. Dogs is part of the Signature line, and many of Viz’s signature line books (and possibly their ikki books – children of the sea is anyway) are being released ‘oversized’ (or perhaps that should be “they have returned to original viz size”?)
As I’ve posted anyway, you don’t mind if I do a random author infodump do you?
).
The colloborative series was Black Mind, and I have tried and tried but I can’t find anything about it anywhere
He has also illustrated some Devil May Cry novels, releases doujinshi at Comiket (as mmm-gee, which is the web address of his official site anyway, so isn’t really a pseudonym), posted some awesome SMT artwork on his pixiv page last year (I eh… I don’t know why thats relevant, but I like the SMT games so I wanted to mention it), and is also a member of the Supercell music group which started as an amateur group but is now signed under sony (mind you, ‘member of the group’ seems to translate to “illustrates covers and stuff for them”
Hrm. Theres a smiley overload in this message it seems. I removed a few but… sorry about that ^^