Yu Isihara

I picked this up expecting a slightly less melancholy version of Girls' Last Tour with a young woman, "Master," and her dog, Haru, wandering a post-apocalyptic landscape. But, wait, the dog talks! I then switched to thinking it was going to riff on the fantasmagoria of Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog, but no, this series really wants to be more Alice in Wonderland.

Now that Master is the last human alive, there is room in the world for aliens and cryptids to come out of the shadows and take up residence. So the duo wander about meeting such things as a chupcabra, a kitsune, a kappa, and even the occasional time traveler.

My main problem with the book is the way the story is told in pairs of 4-panel gag strips. Each page is its own moment in space and time, then the next page will jump scenes and introduce new characters. Slowly, over the course of the book, some of the characters start popping up again and again, but never enough to develop beyond being a means to sell the current joke. And a lot of jokes tend to be the leaden sort of pseudo-philosophical gags "Calvin & Hobbes" used to tell over dramatic sled rides down a snow-covered hill. Except here, there is no sled, just the lead.

On the plus side, there are lots of super-cute doggos and Master does cosplay poses for the chapter breaks. And a bonus story at the end breaks out of the gag-a-day mode and actually tells an affecting story that really spotlights how good the art is, making me wish the whole book had been told in this manner.

Still, I found the rest of the book a dull and tedious chore to read, and I immediately canceled my hold at my local library for the next volume.… (mais)