Ranked #1929

Oumagadoki Doubutsuen (Manga)

Taken from my first take post (with accompanying picture snaps) on http://sekijitsu.com/2011/01/26/first-take-oumagadoki-zoo/

While the name doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue, the manga itself is pretty unique. Previously known as Oumagadoki Doubutsuen and originally appearing in Jump as a oneshot, OZ follows a young female high school student, Aoi Hana, who stumbles on a part-time job in a local zoo. With her love for animals, it seems like the perfect match but little does she know that by night, the zoo inhabitants take on a different form altogether. Led by their egotistic and childish director Shiina, the animals acquire Aoi’s help to make the zoo the most popular park in the world.

Shiina has his own motives for wanting to make the zoo popular, since 13 years ago he had been cursed by a rabbit ghost, resulting in him taking the form of a large rabbit. In order to break the curse, he needed to show love to animals, through the powers of his curse. Due to the curse, he has an excessive amount of magic, which he uses to turn members of the animal kingdom into humanized versions of themselves. With their help along with Aoi Hana, he hopes to achieve his goal and help break the curse in order to become human again.

OZ is one of the most creative and original manga I’ve read in while. As Jump is now infested with new manga in the stereotypical highschool setting, OZ manages to create it’s own world with something that many would not even consider: a zoo. Written and drawn by a young new mangaka, Kōhei Horikoshi, the story and art itself feels pretty well layered, especially given that it is the mangakas first serialized work.

While it may not be as captivating during the first few chapters to some, I personally found that the mangas art and unique setting was enough to help me follow through with the story. I have to say though, the manga ramps up in quality with the addition of new animals and new enemies not long into its serialization.

The second arc is where things really get interesting, as the manga begins to find it’s niche as a surprisingly captivating battle manga. Looking back at the first few chapters, this development was a surprise to me but the transition was executed so well that it was an absolute blast to follow the animals through their battles. With the amount of possible characters to choose from in the entire animal kingdom, the possibilities for future enemies and new characters are really endless, so I’m certain that it would not stale too early in it’s run.

It also helps that the designs of the humanized animals themselves are pretty creative. You can sense that the mangaka has taken some inspiration from some other animal based animes and movies, since I saw some resemblances with characters from series like Pokemon, Summer Wars and the like. Still, they each have their own brand of personality so they definitely feel one of a kind (a particular favourite of mine is the badass Orca, whose features have been modified to resemble a suit. Also, Shiina reminds me of Hiruma from Eyeshield 21, in that they are both conniving and share that evil huge grin. A huge win right there).

While this is a relatively new manga, it is starting to gain a certain following, especially from the western half of the world. Not being particularly popular yet in Japan, you can see a lot of people voice their concerns over the possible dropping of the manga given it’s consistently low ratings in the TOC rankings. I have a feeling that it will avoid the drop however, since the story and setting is too unique to have it dropped so soon, especially since it is beginning to develop more.

The editors of Jump themselves seem to agree as well, since OZ always manages to get a lot of coloured spreads and extra pages, a sign that it is given the benefit of the doubt from Jump, even though ratings haven’t been stellar. High sales of the tankobon volumes recently may soon influence it’s popularity, so I have faith that the ratings will steadily increase in due time.

Even though this is a first take on the manga, I found it good enough to warrant a recommendation to y’all. It’s relatively new, with only 18 translated chapters to this date, so it isn’t one of those monster mangas that will take ages to read. Released scanlations are pretty sporadic at the moment though, which is a bit of a bummer since it’s already behind the Jump releases by quite a bit. Still, it shouldn’t be long before more groups start picking up this series, since I have a feeling that it’s going to explode in 2011. Fingers crossed it manages to get that far, as I really have high hopes for this (vote Japan, vote!).

If you liked the review, you can find more of my work on my blog www.sekijitsu.com read more

...! I just realized that no one's ever written a review for this manga. :o unacceptable. SO! I'm going to point out some good / bad stuff, I guess?

BACKGROUND: before i go over to the technical aspects of this review, i thought i should introduce myself. obviously, i'm a fan of this manga since it's unlike anything that jump's produced (refreshing. original. awesome!) yet it still radiates that childish atmosphere. last spring, i read the one-shot on a popular manga reader that's since then closed down, and was blown away by the originality. i was incredibly happy once it got serialized in july, but also nervous for its fate since most newbie manga like SWOT get axed pretty quickly. however, it proved popular, even though it's leading the bottom 5 according to the table of contents, so i can stop worrying about it.

STORY: okay, so this story is not your average battle manga nor school story. rather, it's a story about the animals of the zoo with magical elements added. what if animals could talk? in oumagadoki doubutsuen, they're personified as humans (anyone heard of this moe cockroach manga? no? okay, moving on). initially, this story is character-driven and started quite episodic, as both the director, cursed to look like a rabbit until the zoo becomes popular, and aoi hana, the newly hired zookeeper, search for new comrades. it is only several chapters later that the real plot (or at least the arc) starts kicking in and with an exciting new assortment of characters! reminds me of katekyo hitman reborn!, though that manga took 8 volumes of gag (still can't believe it survived for so long) before switching to battle-style.

ART: the first thing i noticed was just how incredibly stylistic the art was. the characters' expressions and designs are not... shounen-like or shoujo-like. for example, aoi hana's mouth is drawn in a particular way (rounded, lots of black, some teeth showing). it feels childish, but i believe that is perfect for shounen jump which is geared towards younger children anyway. the second thing i noticed was the incredible versatility of the page layouts, which definitely facilitates my enjoyment and keeps the manga at least interesting. they're not as ~artistic~ as bleach so as much as to distract from the story, which is a good thing.

CHARACTER: i have a feeling that shiina is going to be everyone's favorite protagonist as well as the new antagonist. not going to spoil the contents, obviously. anyway, if you've read the one-shot, there have definitely been some changes in character designs and their personalities. for example, the rabbit is more egotistic and the zookeeper is more clumsy. aoi hana's become more confident and passionate about animals, though it remains to be seen her interactions with other humans. other than that, i really like the diverse cast since it mostly consists of animals, each with his/her defining personality trait. the only bad thing i suppose is the lack of "normal" humans besides the girl in the beginning of the manga, if you're into them.

ENJOYMENT: really high. this is one of those manga that's made me wish there was more English-speaking fandom / fanart. ;_; i've downloaded the RAWs and consistently checked the manga reader / scanlation group for any updates. /no life haha. well, i have to admit that the story was a little slow in the beginning with all this recruiting stuff but this first arc made it all the more exciting (around chapter 10 or so). it drags out a bit though, 'cause of focus on individual fighting scenes, but at least the mangaka utilizes the environment instead of relying only on the characters' strengths/weaknesses.

OVERALL: this manga may not be for those people who prefer dark manga. oumagadoki is really light-hearted, with a decent plot so far. it's the characters that make oumagadoki doubutsuen so appealing to me, as well as the originality of the concept. just how often do you read manga about animals?

thank you for reading my review! written while i was supposed to be studying for my cumulative finals, oops. eue read more