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: 7.36¹ (scored by 709 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #4253²

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

Popularity: #7383

Members: 2,815

Favorites: 31

7.36

Ranked #4253Popularity #7383Members 2,815

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 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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Oct 23, 2024

Kaiser_Chris

Not Recommended

Preliminary (36/86 eps)

Good Lord, this manga is disgusting. Quite possibly the most degenerate piece of military fiction I've ever consumed. It's a shame as what started out as a great story which showcases the naivety of the public and how the world treats distant wars along with a strong Korea parallel with great foreshadowing to Ukraine, ended up into a messy and perverted slog that absolutely killed all interest I had in moving forward.

The greatest flaw of this manga and what turned it from a strong 8-9 in the first arc is its obsession with shock storytelling. The manga is littered with scenes where something sexually degenerate ... or a bunch of gore happens with absolutely no benefit to the story, but just for the shock value. The first sign of this is the conclusion of the first arc where the love interest whose sole character is being "slutty" and whining about wanting to be at home with her daughter, dies in a Looney Tunes fashion where a pistol's bullet bounces off a mech, travels several hundred yards and perfectly penetrates bulletproof glass to blow her head off. I straight up hollered when this scene happened because it was just so ridiculous I lost all investment, and it went downhill from there.

At first the story does a good job at showing the horrors of war, how innocent people suffer in a conflict started by greed and the consequences of a nation being divided for artificial means. Then after the first arc, the enemy faction the USN, the America expy, basically become Nazi rapists, and I am not exaggerating at all. One arc has the protagonist fight against literal genocidal squads like the SS who exterminate civilians, for no reason, and all the villains and like half of the extras and side characters for the "good" faction are rapists or horny degenerates. Even worse is that the sexual violence is not treated as a horrific crime that it is and one of the many brutal horrors of war, but presented as a sexy ecchi scene meant to get the readers hard.

This was what ultimately caused me to quit the manga. There were two super long arcs which were a combined quarter of the entire manga that emphasized this and just utterly disgusted me. In one of them, a cyborg super soldier unconsciously grooms a prostitute with a child-like mentality and takes advantage of her after she was assaulted by a squad of the enemy, and said prostitute is taken advantage of by the cyborg's officer who was presented as a stern and competent leader yet when she meets the prostitute, becomes a lustful degenerate because of the author's lesbian fetish. The second arc is basically a loser Incel murdering his best friend to get in bed with his hot wife. I'm not joking, that is the entire arc from start to finish and all of volume 4.

When a writer puts sex into their story, it has to be done tastefully. This manga is so raunchy and degenerate it makes The Boys show look like Veggietales. There is also an incredibly annoying protagonist character, a war otaku journalist who just wanders across the battlefield in each arc and takes as many gory and action pictures as possible and never is injured or suffered despite being in the heaviest fighting. At first, it seemed like he was an excellent critique of military otaku culture and the obsession some develop with war, but then he becomes a literal Deus Ex machina who teleports around the battlefield and is able to move around literal mechs and heavy military equipment with no issue while never coming under harm because he has an "invisible face".

Even if one were to ignore the trashy story and characters, you can't even find fun in the military fights because literally every single fight is a one sided massacre where one faction wipes out the other troops completely without any losses. There's absolutely zero nuance to the battles, it's just massacre after massacre.

The only redeeming quality of this manga is the artwork. The art is beautiful and highly detailed and the mechs are excellently adapted from the video games. It's just a real shame that the action sucks and the author has a strong habit of making most of the characters ugly as sin like the most awful of hentai, which in many respects this manga is, a glorified hentai with mechs.

Overall, this manga is garbage and it's a shame because if you read Gundam Thunderbolt, you can tell that the author improved dramatically with Thunderbolt being a legit grounded war story with nuance. For anyone who likes this manga, please watch any Hollywood war movie or a documentary, do not delude yourselves into thinking this is an accurate portrayal of war.

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