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There are two ways I find myself describing Crazy Food Truck. The first is that it reads like the manga equivalent to an airport novel. The second (and my preferred one) is that it reads like a segment from Heavy Metal or an episode of Love, Death and Robots that was made into its own series. Neither description makes this a bad read by any means. If anything, it can help sell this series to those wanting some light reading or are looking for some decent fun. Crazy Food Truck hardly feels that extraordinary contrary to what the title suggests, but it's also much better ... than you'd expect it to be. At a surprisingly short length of sixteen chapters and three volumes, Crazy Food Truck never overstays its welcome, which works very well in its favor.

Character-wise, the cast of CFT aren't really that memorable, but mangaka Rokugou Ogaki does give some of them enough distinct aspects that make them somewhat interesting. Our leading duo, Gordon and Arisa, play off each other in a way that's familiar yet endearing; Gordon being the straight man while Arisa acts as the comic relief (and source of fan service). Their dynamic could've been potentially toxic, since the potential for the dreaded "born sexy yesterday" trope could've reared its ugly head. But thankfully, Ogaki dodges that trope and makes Gordon and Arisa's dynamic more wholesome. And while Arisa is the subject of fan service, Ogaki doesn't ever overdo it; most of these moments occur in the first few chapters and it’s virtually absent in subsequent chapters once the plot really gets going. The antagonists are also not what you'd expect, either. Major Kyle, for example, could've easily been a typical ruthless villain scorching earth in order to capture our heroes, but instead, he's calmer and more tactful in his actions; only resorting to violence when more reasonable options fail him. And plot-wise, CFT seems to wear its Mad Max influence on its sleeve, but it sprinkles in some Heavy Metal-esque weirdness with its world-building to spice it up. It's also pretty decently paced; keeping its primary storyline going with a few more episodic chapters included to give some time to wind down and explore the world a bit more, but never to excess or at the expense of the pacing. It's honestly kind of impressive how Ogaki compiled a solid story that never feels like it's leaving anything out in such a small package, even if it's nothing groundbreaking.

Ogaki's artwork is solid, too, but hardly much to write home about. Where it does shine, however, is in his rending of the food throughout. I’m sure may be tempted to jokingly say that food in manga and anime looks amazing already, but Ogaki makes the food in this series look like heaven (even the food I don’t personally care for).

Had this series been a much longer one, I’d’ve been tempted to have a more lukewarm opinion of it. But as it is, I don’t. Ogaki seems to understand that the premise of this series could only go on for so long, so rather than dragging out the series, he keeps things short, sweet and to the point. While the lasting impact of this series may be muted in the long run, that doesn’t make Crazy Food Truck worthless. As stated before, it’s perfect light-reading and it makes for a fun read for those wanting a fun, weird story that’s entirely unpretentious.

Dinosan, or Dinosaur Sanctuary, is a fairly new manga that I think should be getting some more attention.

Based on the premise, Dinosaur Sanctuary essentially sounds like a sunnier version of Jurassic Park and one of its later sequels, Jurassic World. While the manga mentions that the dinosaurs here have, in part, been brought back through breeding and genetic work, Dinosaur Sanctuary isn't ripping off the Jurassic Park franchise. Rather than being a cautionary tale about the dangers of genetic engineering and trying (and failing) to control nature, Dinosaur Sanctuary focuses more on the day-to-day life of caring for animals in captivity in a fairly episodic ... manner.

Our protagonist, Suma Suzume, and her fellow zookeepers find themselves dealing the struggles of keeping their failing dinosaur zoo in good shape and making a profit while also making sure the dinosaurs themselves are well-cared for. The struggles our characters face are very similar to what real-life zookeepers must face when working at zoos and theme parks such as SeaWorld. While these real-life topics can be rather grim, Dinosaur Sanctuary never becomes outright pessimistic, keeping up a fairly optimistic tone that makes this manga fun to read.

Another great aspect of Dinosaur Sanctuary is its adherence to real-life science. The dinosaurs featured are pretty accurately portrayed; lining up well with our current paleontologic information. And mangaka Itaru Kinoshita does a great job with their designs, making them seem life-like and eye-catching. The series even has a research consultant who provides interludes giving brief yet thorough descriptions regarding the reasons why the dinosaurs are portrayed the way they are. Of course, some creative licenses and speculation seem present. For example, T-Rex is portrayed as being fully feathered, despite the concept still being a heavily debated one amongst paleontologists. And for another example, Troodon is shown to be a legitimate genus, whereas in reality, the genus is dubious at best and supposed examples of its fossils seem to actually belong to other, related genus within the Troodontidae family (though, this latter detail is acknowledged in the interludes). These more dubious details don't hamper the story by any means, though.

Dinosaur Sanctuary is a series I can see not only appealing to fans of dinosaur-related media, but to paleontologists and zookeepers as well given its fairly accurate portrayal of the dinosaurs and of the day-to-day life of zookeeping. Here's hoping that Dinosaur Sanctuary gains wider recognition (and perhaps an anime adaptation).