Front Mission: Dog Life & Dog Style

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Japanese: フロントミッションドッグライフアンドドッグスタイル

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 10

Chapters: 86

Status: Finished

Published: Mar 2, 2007 to Oct 5, 2012

Genres: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Themes: Mecha, Military

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young Gangan

Authors: Ootagaki, Yasuo (Story)

Statistics

Score: 7.32¹ (scored by 588 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #4446²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #7789

Members: 2,239

Favorites: 25

7.32

Ranked #4446Popularity #7789Members 2,239

MangaYoung GanganOotagaki, Yasuo (Story)

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Volumes: /10

Chapters: /86

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Synopsis

Huffman Island is a land split by an uneasy cease-fire between two major world powers, the USN (United States of the New Continent) and the OCU (Oceania Cooperative Union). The cease-fire has held for 20 years, but now tensions are mounting, and it looks like open war will break out again soon. Matsuda Akira has gone to join the on-site reporting team for NNTV. Are he and his colleagues really ready for the horrors they may face if they're caught in the middle of a war?

(Source: MangaHelpers)

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Inuzuka, Kenichi

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Reviews

Jun 24, 2023

Chaf

Recommended

Front Mission: Dog Life & Dog Style is a rather special manga that I enjoyed discovering. There are a number of interesting points in this manga that deserve to be introduced to the general public.

First of all, the manga is a spin-off from a video game series. Having never played these games, I'd be hard pressed to tell you whether the game fits in perfectly with the series. Nevertheless, the author manages to develop aspects of this futuristic universe. The technologies, political conflicts and geopolitical stakes are coherent, which will delight fans of the franchise.

In terms of storytelling, I found the manga a pleasure to ... discover. The storytelling is skilful, and character development is equal to the stakes. The author, Yasuo Ootagaki, succeeds in creating a dark and realistic atmosphere, where the protagonists' motivations are brought to the fore. Complex interactions and relationships add depth to the plot. The manga doesn't hesitate to show us the horrors of war in all their forms.

I found Yasuo Ootagaki's style impressive. His detailed drawings capture the essence of mecha combat. The action scenes are dynamic and well-choreographed, offering a thrilling visual spectacle. There are double-page spreads I won't soon forget. I also found there to be a lot of technical detail. There's an attention to mechanical detail and the anatomy of the fighting robots that leaves no one indifferent. The battle passages are intense, thanks to the author's sense of movement and visual clarity. This makes it easy to gauge the aggrandizement of the battles and follow every exchange of blows. The plates are well arranged, highlighting the impact of the battles and reinforcing immersion in the universe.

The manga is also interesting because it explores deep themes linked to the consequences of war, politics and interpersonal relationships. The author deftly addresses the personal sacrifices that characters must make in a world plagued by conflict. The story raises complex moral issues and prompts readers to reflect on the place of these conflicts and their management. The themes are universal and topical, making for an engaging and memorable reading experience.

In short, I found the manga really interesting. The only thing I can fault is the pace, which is sometimes a little too fast. The story begins with a series of small independent stories, and then struggles to hook us in with a real red thread outside that of the conflict. However, its solid narration, impressive drawings and deep themes make for a fairly immersive reading experience in a world torn apart by conflict. It's a topical manga worth discovering.

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Jul 31, 2020

Umezono

Recommended

Preliminary (60/86 eps)

This is a very well constructed manga. Rather than getting into detail on why it's so great, I'd rather just discuss the major critique of it I had.

Its a story that is on par with any of the anti-war greats, something that never holds back its critique and depicts its subjects unflinchingly. It has beautiful art, well-composed plots, and realistic character development throughout. It is a true realization of many staples of the mecha genre. Each arc is its own story- with the setting being one of the only shared traits throughout (more on this later)- that explores different themes and perspective. It would be ... too hard to summarize each one, so its best explored for yourself. Much of it strays from romanticization, though thats an inescapable byproduct of the format and its definitely present. Whats important is that it does not overly try to rehabilitate its subjects. Its a war story done quite right.

Yet, disappointingly, what threw me off was one central aspect of the entire series- the gimmick that would serve as the "connecting thread" between the disparate stories and characters of each arc. I am talking about the character of Kenichi Inuzuka, the deviant war correspondent who chronicles everything thats going on in the war-torn Huffman Island.

He serves as an important character in-universe who's actions have ostensible political weight- he is a rogue wartime filmographer who takes pictures of the various conflicts as well as all sorts of war crimes and brutality and then uploads them to the internet free of any government regulation. His work serves as an expose of the horrors of war and an important framing device for many of the messages of each arc. His own motivations are far less scrupulous however- he is an unabashed pervert, a total hedonist and self described war otaku who just wants to film all the mechas and soldiers.

This character is incredibly annoying both as a distinct personality and a plot device. Of course this is a futuristic mecha anime about a global conflict that has absolutely no basis in actual geopolitics. Yet the suspension of disbelief involved with this character often serves a gigantic plot hole in what is otherwise so well constructed. He is seemingly omniscient because he is an "information broker" and journalist, somehow seeming to know everyone and everything on a very personal level. He can appear everywhere at once, with no sense of scale as to the distance hes traveling between each location or time that has passed. He is seemingly indestructible, running around live gunfire and explosions that is shown brutally dismembering armed soldiers. He appears to exist almost as a godlike figure in this universe, and its unbearably corny when scenes that have emotional weight are interrupted by this nerd showing up in front of soldiers inside giant mechs and somehow communicating with them. The scenes where he appears in front of characters as a sort of messiah, offering them gifts of super deadly military ordinance are awful. It almost feels like the editors forced the writers to include him more. Or theres maybe the off chance they actually felt this guy was some sort of clever mysterious figure. Either way it sucks.

Because of the tangential nature of the arcs, nothing is really explained about the logistics of Inuzuka's operation by about 3/4ths of the way through the series. He is shown to be receiving equipment from a disheveled looking journalist in Japan, who obviously has money and connections. But how much? How much of this is funded? He's shown looking dirt poor and needing money for bus fare at some point. Yet at other points he's just cavorting around with top military brass and offering weapons to people like he controls every financial channel within these governments. The wild inconsistency is perhaps meant to contribute to the mystique of his character, but it feels juvenile when juxtaposed against much of the grounded content of the rest of the manga.

Inuzuka's personality and perverted disposition isn't in question here at all, though he gets old 30 chapters or so in. He is still as layered a character as any other- and the arc that focuses on him is perhaps one of the best in the entire manga. I'm sure theres a statement to be made on his character- that its kind needed to be a journalist in that situation, and more generally, its probably the kind needed to survive at all. If he was as powerless as he looked or perhaps wasn't give the seemingly infinite resources he had, I would definitely have enjoyed this sort of brunt appraisal of journalism. As it stands, he feels to much like a product of a mangakas attempt to make a noteworthy character more than a sincere piece of storytelling.

The manga is not fully scanlated, so I cannot give an overall appraisal of the work at this time. Please read it for yourself, I think whether or not you agree with my evaluation of Inuzuka, you will thoroughly enjoy this manga if you are anti-war and a fan of the mecha genre.

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Jul 29, 2023

WhiskeyCorridor

Mixed Feelings

It is safe to say that this manga definitely is not for everyone. If you are a fan of militaria and real-robot mecha, you should give this manga a try, but if not, go read something else. It should be noted that even though this takes place in the Front Mission universe (during the events of the first game to be exact), you do not need to be familiar with the Front Mission series to enjoy this manga. I think everything you need to know about the setting is explained very well to newcomers.

I think what holds this story down the most is the author's ... reliance on shock value. He wants to show you how horrible war can be: youre seeing civilians getting mowed down, women being raped, torture, and other warcrimes. But after so many tragedies youre just like "oh come on". And its grating how the USN in this story acts nothing like how they did in the games. In the games, neither side was completely good or evil. It wanted to show you that both factions had good people and bad people within their ranks, and how war was rarely just good vs evil. In DL&DS, the USN faction seems to be completely filled with subhuman ogre men who think of nothing but murder and rape, where Nanking is just another Tuesday.

Another thing to be aware of is it seems the author was very horny when writing this. Almost every arc has a sex scene in it, or at the very least a character doing something weird and pervy. Now, some people like their stories to be full of sex. But if you are like me, seeing two characters who don't even love eachother have passionless sex will keep you rolling your eyes over many pages.

Now lets talk about the good things in this manga.

As stated in the previous paragraph, this manga is separated into arcs; each arc being its own self-contained story that gives you different perspectives on the Huffman conflict. So its not just about the mech pilots, but also the grunts, the civilians, the media, and others. The quality of each arc wavers between being great and kinda sucking, but none of them are so bad that it would warrant skipping. Besides, there are a few reoccurring characters throughout the manga, so it is worth seeing how all these connected stories culminate, especially for one specific character.

But If there is one thing that is consistent, it is the art. The mechanical designs of the Wanzers and other military vehicles and gear look great, and the battles are epic. Its the type of manga that has certain pages where youll catch yourself looking at them for minutes, admiring all the detail put into it. The character designs are good too. You can totally check out this manga for the art alone if thats the type of person you are.

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