May 4, 2020
Takao Saito is one of the most renowned manga artist, especially known for the creation of Golgo 13 whose fame is pretty much spread worldwide despite a lack of proper translation.
Hotel Tantei Doll is a manga he created in the 80s and follows the same structure as the aforementioned Golgo 13, following an elite bodyguard charged into protecting the different celebrities visiting some of the Sunrise Hotel branches or investigating assassinations occurring within it. Sadly, it can only be said that it falls into every traps laid by its predecessor.
This manga just feels like it’s composed mainly of rejected stories compiled in a few
...
books, it’s honestly pretty bland without anything of note to really distinguish it from your standard crime drama, starting from the heroine who’s a poor attempt at creating a sort of femme fatale but doesn’t exude any charisma and isn’t really provocative and sometimes seems like she’s there only for a few intimate shots of her changing clothes between missions. She’s not that interesting as the stoic and tough badass either because she’s not pushed to the limits like Golgo was and never shows off impressive skills or extravagant prowess. A shame that Doll doesn’t have distinguishable quirks or features because most often it’s the protagonist who makes the meat of noir crime stories.
The stories themselves are… well… you’ll probably forget them as soon as you finish them, I can’t even say they’re badly written because they’re not but feel incredibly generic and played to death, even for the time it came in. I won’t expand on it because there is but little substance to them.
Those searching from pure grit will only find it in rare occasions with some of the landscapes looking and some of the action looks quite decent with a good use of paneling but most of the time this will look gross and uninspired, especially with the characters looking like they come from the most typical B series with lots of racial caricatures allowing no nuance and never being able to be taken seriously.
Hotel Tantei Doll should only be read by hardcore fans of Takao Saito who want to complete his bibliography but it’s not worth your time in any other situations. It’s a wasted potential for those who wanted to read one of the few translated works of his, presenting itself like a serious downgrade from what he's become used to producing.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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