Doubutsu no Kuni
Animal Land

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

I really wanted to love this series, but I felt the second half was much weaker than the first half. Animal Land is enjoyable, and there are a lot of elements that can be enjoyed by multiple different audiences, but the second half seemed more rushed and less emotionally involving than before the time skip.

The story is based on a boy who is raised by a tanuki, and he is trying to create a world where all animals can coexist together, but while doing this, the young boy Taroza, must also find a way to restore humanity to the world. The plot is very ... interesting, but it becomes too preachy for me in the second half of the story, and it just feels like it become too jumbled and inconsistent in the last couple of volumes.

I decided that my first review would be of my number one manga series of all time. I was shocked to see how few people have actually read this series when it's just so great and easily surpasses the more popular long running manga series out there, in just 14 volumes.
------
Story
------
The story for Animal Land is like a Roller coaster ride, in the best possible way. Things keep escalating and the story really evolves (heh) throughout the manga. It doesn't waste anytime doing what it wants to do and had me hooked the whole way through.

The creator has done an amazing job at showing ... the audience just how brutal and difficult it is to survive in this world, as well as how changing it, isn't going to be easy.
-------------
Characters
-------------
I'll just give my thoughts on the two main characters to avoid spoilers, but just know that the rest of the cast is great as well!

First we have Tarouza, our main character. He's kind,smart,determined and has a heart of gold! He's a great protagonist, as you really want to see him to achieve his goals. He goes through many hardships that challenge him, but seeing him get past them is incredible.(making him one of my favourite characters of all time!)

Then we have Monoko, the Tanuki who adopts Tarouza and raises him as his her own. She's more than just a comic relief character, as she definitely has the most mental growth out of everyone in my opinion. She really does her best to be a the mother Tarouza needs and helps him to survive in this world.
----------
Art
----------
Very impressive! Considering the amount of different animal species he had to draw he did an amazing job. The artworks really expressive too and you can really see what a character is feeling. The fight scenes get very intense and bloody, and i was blown away by them!
------------------
Final thoughts
-------------------
I love this manga. I've read it three times now and enjoyed it every time. Yes, it's very quirky and weird at times but it's also thrilling and epic. It's the only manga that has made me cry so much i had to stop reading it!

Please give this manga a chance. Go into it with an open mind and you won't be disappointed.

The story started at animal land, place where was never seen a single human. Lonely tanuki named Monoko find a human baby Tarouza, and become his mother. Later Tarouza realize that he can understand other animals cry, so he decided to make world there plant-eating and meat-eating animals can live together.

We can split whole manga in two parts, first then Tarouza is growing and acknowledge all sides of wild world of animal land. And the first problem i have is in how Doubutsu no Kuni looks. Its has it "cute and funny" style to it, and even trying to throw couple of jokes ... here and there. But on the over hand it always shows the brutal reality of animal world, and Tarouza which is struggling to create its own world where everyone can live together. I don't think that the art style is really fit that story. The design is very good and detailed, also its very unique in its own way, but i might say that it should have more realistic looks to it.

So the second part of manga is then Tarouza already grown up. And this part is just battles, battles, battles, battles and to the end its BATTLES. Good guy beating bad guy over and over.... And it was kinda disappointing to me. The battles is really good, but it's all whats happens in second part. There is a lot back story in second part, but problem is, that it is so generic and just boring.

Overall I think it is a good manga. Personally i want it to be more then just battle manga later on, but thats just my personal preference. I highly recommend this one to read, because its not trying to be genius but still it has its moments.