Dendrobates

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If its premise is any indication, Dendrobates is incredibly simplistic. It's hard to call it woefully underwhelming when it does not setup much expectation from the onset. That said, it does have some merit for what it is—a largely episodic tale with a rinse-and-repeat layout that occasionally has smaller story arcs strewn out in-between. The overarching plot does leave the palate a bit unsatiated, because it is not developed or explored in enough depth at least to this author's taste, and it's a bit predictable if you've read much seinen or watched much anime in general. That said, the episodic parts are at least diverse ... and bring a unique story each and every time.

As the premise states, the plot is pretty straightforward. Sengawa is our anti-hero that is by day a clumsy, unsuspecting police accountant, and by night he is an assassin for hire that takes on jobs to deliver his own form of vigilante justice. This actually kind of interesting—and it is, for the first fifteen or so chapters. But the overarching plot itself is not actually addressed until much later in the course of the manga. At the very least, this does not distract from the enjoyment of watching our douchebag villains get knocked off in the most elaborate and gruesome of ways. Yet while there is satisfaction to be had through that, the plot is simply cut and dry. If I'm sounding repetitive by saying that, then I'm doing a good job of echoing the form of Dendrobates' plot.

That said, in the realm of characters—it does have some likeable characters. Most of them don't live very long, outside Sengawa and a few other policemen. Development, given the plot, is incredibly minimal. Arguably, it does not exist at all. From the onset, Sengawa is a murderer with something of a conscience. He seeks to right wrongs, to dispense justice where the justice system itself cannot or would not do so adequately enough. By the end, he's largely in the same position he started off in. And none of our other characters get much exploration themselves.

The art is perhaps the strongest point. It is clean, clear, and detailed. It's part of what makes this manga so easy to pick up and read. The frames are actually structured pretty flawlessly to help you follow along with all of the action scenes.

Ultimately, Dendrobates' biggest problem is development and character exploration. It's shallow, it's dry. It's like eating a snack rather than a meal—for a brief moment it is enjoyable, but it won't sit with you in the long run.

So far this manga has surprised in me wonderful way. Even though it seems like it will have no depth at first as you progress through the initial chapters you'll find yourself pulled. There is plenty of action and just enough mystery and intrigue to keep you reading. Some may think this a Deathnote copycat but it does have it's own flavor and the main character while slightly cliched is interesting. You really don't know what to think about him as he is kind of erratic. The other supporting characters are well done and add to story and aren't just used to take up ... pages. Overall I am looking forward to continue reading this series and I hope if you haven't, you take the time to read this series.

Not saying this is the best manga ever or trying desperately to get people to read it, however, I think if you enjoy Seinen, action, and movies like John Wick, then this manga could be right up your alley.

Story=7 Yes, the story is predictable, but don't you just want to see bad guys being bad and then getting their asses totally handed to them without too much complication sometimes? What this manga lacks in ingenuity it makes up for in just plain satisfying action like shooting, explosions, stabbing, oh, and did I mention shooting?

Character=10 While the story is pretty basic, the character is actually ... quite a wonderful creation. His origins, the symbolic relationship with the frog (just look up Dendrobates), his superhero duality, and his psycho-killer demeanor make for a fun combination. Yes, Sengawa is a hero, but he's more an anti hero in the line of Dexter, probably a sociopath and certainly murderous, but somehow ends up in the right.

Art=7 The artwork is, however, sadly up and down. Some panels are superb, 10 out of 10, which was what attracted me to the manga in the first place. The thick use of black color blocks and interesting angles make for tantalizing stand alone pieces in many of the chapters of this manga. But the art doesn't always keep up throughout. With some weird proportions and messiness that sometimes can even lead to confusion as to what is actually happening in the scene, I had to give it a 7.

Overall, though, at only 58 brief chapters, this wasn't too long of a commitment, so why not give it a try? Enjoyable, fun, and satisfying (did I mention the shooting?), I would recommend this to anyone looking for some action-packed distraction.

Warning
Graphic sexual assault, brief child abuse, nudity - very NSFW

TL:DR
No real character development but let's be honest, we're here for combat not words. Some fun action but art is a letdown at times and it gets very repetitive. Only read if you want to see bullets fly and not much else.

Description
Sengawa's day job is as an accountant working for the police. But at night... he transforms into a ruthless assassin bringing death to anyone who deserves it. Meet and hire the man with 1000 guns.

Story: 6/10
... A very fun premise, it peters out midway but brings it back in the end.

That Sengawa is the accountant in charge of confiscated weapons is very clever and serves to explain a lot of things, it also reinforces the reader's suspension of disbelief.

The plot is just too repetitive. It's mostly just a writing-by-formula affair that introduces a victim and the villain. The MC kills the villain and then it's never mentioned again. The author injects enough spice that the action never gets too repetitive but It's hard to be satisfied after the first few cookie-cutter villain-of-the-week chapters. A big part of the problem is that most of the people Sengawa fights has zero chance of fighting back, so the chapters mostly devolve into the MC showing up and shooting them and that's it. The revenge scenarios aren't that interesting either most of the time, they feel more like misery p*rn than a plot setup because the author is never willing to explore what is happening for more than a page or two. The fact that most antagonists get a chapter each does not help. However, the author sprinkle enough interesting stand-alone chapters with real emotional weight in that I didn't feel like I was wasting my time.

There are some longer multi-chapter arcs, never too long but they are by far the most interesting. The fact that the protagonist can't win in a few pages keeps it much more engaging. While it can be fun the watch our anti-hero effortlessly mow down baddies in a cathartic display, sometimes you want them to struggle and it's the mini-arcs that we really see what Sengawa can do, they have the most creative fights as he's forced to actually try to win. As a bonus, It's usually in these that we get to learn more about our vigilante protagonist.

After the half way mark, an over arching plot does develop and we see an overarching antagonist emerge. It is genuinely interesting and they're certainly the most interesting villain but they're introduced too little, too late. They're just not given enough time to really take the stage. Still, it is a break from the monotonous “avenging” and it introduces some real stakes into the story. No spoilers but the it is a pretty good ending, I just wish we got this level of action and drama sooner.

Characters: 5/10
You saw the cover art and read the description, let's be honest: you didn't read this for characters, you came for action and cathartic bad guy killing. You weren't expecting deep, 3 dimensional characters and the manga doesn't even pretend that this is more than power fantasy.

We do get to learn a little bit about Sengawa. As expected of the main character, he is the most interesting but ultimately he doesn't receive any character development at all, he ends the manga the same way he started. There are a few other reoccurring characters but they're not given any time to develop. There is one woman who is seemingly a love interest but she never gets much screen time. There is also a hotshot detective chasing Sengawa and they interact a bit but we never learn anything about him. The rest of the reoccurring cast is given even less time to shine.

While we certainly didn't come here for the characters, good villains are a must for this kind of manga. Unfortunately they're just not very interesting. They're mostly one note, cackling villains with no reason their actions other than the author needs them to be evil. It's hard to care about the vile things they do when the author seems to be revelling in making them as hateful as possible.

The final villain does make a grand entrance though and really feels like a threat. He also has something (no spoilers) that makes him stand out from the rest of the antagonists. I just wish he was introduced sooner so they could build up the threat a little.

Art
The art mostly fantastic, the artist is quite talented. The fights are usually pretty good and the artist can make some very cinematic scenes. The panelling is good at making the pages flow, effortlessly keeping the reader in the action.

The quality of the art does drop in quality outside of action scenes though. I get it, you have tight deadlines and you have to cut corners somewhere. If this inconsistency was confined to just the filler, I wouldn't criticise too harshly. Unfortunately, it's affects the fights too. The more densely packed action panels can be hard to parse and it really kills the fun when you need to pause to discern what's happening in a panel, if you can even tell at all. That's a real handicap for an action-oriented manga.

Overall: 6/10
I really wanted to like the manga but ultimately the art disappoints a few too many times and the plot was just too repetitive to really be engaging for more than a few chapters.

Despite it's merits, it just doesn't make an impact. The action is good but repetitive and the villains aren't interesting enough to get me really invested in the fights.

If you only want to see bullets fly and bad guys die then you could may enjoy this, but it doesn't offer much more than that.