After Oinokami's shocking loss in the championship, it’s time to rebuild the team. Coach Nihei kicks things off with the fledgling team members. After a full day of exhausting dry-land training in the woods, the rookies must show what they can do on the ice. With the weight of years of tradition on their backs, can they prove to Coach Nihei and the upperclassmen that they have what it takes to fight their way back to the championship throne? And what if one of their opponents is...a bear?
Still a fun read, with Noda-coded moments like the bear chasing everyone, the one guy stripping off all his clothes because of the bear, and the third-years stuffing leaves down their pants. But honestly, this volume and the previous one haven’t quite hit as good as the first one for me, to be honest.
I feel like that’s due to both the massive influx of new characters that were introduced in volume 2, along with the lack of games being played. While Noda’s typical stylish flair and humour help this to stay entertaining, I lowkey barely know the characters besides the MC, his sister, his grandpa, the two brothers, and the cheerful team leader guy. Other sport manga like Slam Dunk usually have the constant games or matches being played that help the reader to learn new characters’ skills and personalities and such, but the training arc has kinda just been funny moments tbh. Which would be fine at like volume 6 or 7 at something, but right after a time skip and the introduction of like a dozen new characters? It doesn’t quite work for me…
Anyway, the potential in this one is high, and Noda’s style helps to keep it entertaining, so I wouldn’t say it’s bad. It’s kinda just spending a lot of time on points that I don’t think matter as much, with characters the audience has no reason to care for really by this point. I’ll likely still stick with this series going forward, but hopefully Noda can refine the cast a little and spend way more time fleshing out the important characters.
This volume was a little light on the plot side and was mostly a continuation of the previous volume's rigorous training arc, but that by no means lessens the experience. Most of all I was really marveling at this volume's incredible art. I can't help but gawk at how amazing Noda is at drawing people in the most unique poses, with unique perspective prowess on top of that, and how he uses his incredible skill at art to really bolster both emotional and comedic moments of the volume. Even if you had no idea what was happening in the speech bubbles, the art would still totally grab and grip you. It's just beyond fabulous.
Said it once and I'll say it again: Noda is easily one of the best mangaka of this generation, full stop!
I thought Dogsred was about sports but I found myself laughing too often while reading it, so either I am not right in the head or this is a comedy first, sports-story second.. I never laughed this much when I was still participating in organized sports, but then again I also never had to worry about bears during training. Since the team is still very much in training montage mode in this volume, I can see how this may not appeal to some people. I hope readers give it a chance since I've been this entertained and the team haven't even played a regular season game yet. [I received an ARC of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.]
This series is still a lot of fun. This volume is basically a continuation of the training from the previous volume. It's hilarious and informative, and that's what I like. The cast being so big at the start is a bit overwhelming, but focusing on Rou and Keiji is a good idea. I'm cheering for all these goofballs to succeed. There's a bear attack, an exploding van, and people spitting water at the thought of their mom holding hands. So real silly stuff. I do like the character work, and am intrigued to see how Hachinohe City ends up developing in contrast to Oinokami. But with the team whittled down to the 8 new members, I'm looking forward to things tightening up a bit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This was another interesting installment of this hockey manga series and this book dealt with the training the team is doing to weed out the weak since there is only 30 allowed on the official team. Man, this volume was only over 2 days and they trained for 12 hours consistently without water. Poor guys where just falling over when they were done and there was even more hockey lingo that was explained to me while reading. I got a little lost with keeping the two rival teams and there members apart but can’t wait to read the next volume.
Thanks to Viz Media and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.
I think I liked this volume better than the last one but I really can't get over a few things. #1, Coach Nihei would never get away with the kind of training. I'm pretty sure he is a sadist. #2, I hate the way the author draws some of the mouths. They look like old time racist illustrations of Black people and it's icky. #3, this volume did nothing to dispel my belief that this should have been a BL. I have never seen more phallic shaped "logs" ever, anywhere. That being said, the story is progressing well although there wasn't much going on between Rou and Keiichi. There is some genuine humor throughout. I still think the hockey explanations distracting to people already familiar with the sport but I get why they are there.