Welp, spent the night reading through up to chapter 28, to where translations have currently stopped. I can't say that I'm very impressed.
On the good sides, I definitely like the art and presentation. I'm not used to the web-comic style of the series, but I found it enjoyable nonetheless. Everything's colored, so that's definitely a great plus. There're a few cut corners on the artist's' side, using fewer panels with longer spaces for example and using repeated images, but this didn't really affect my reading. I think it's fair to not expect manga quality from a web-comic, so I won't complain. I suggest finding the
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Apr 18, 2011
Iryuu: Team Medical Dragon
(Manga)
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(65/210 chp)
It’s a bit of a surprise seeing no reviews when this thing’s been out for 8 or 9 years. I've marathoned through the currently available chapters in English (scanlation in process), and decided to make a quick review since this manga's review section is empty.
But before going on to the main chunk of the review, I think I’ll give a… uh… “slightly” elongated introduction to my personal exposure to Team Medical Dragon. Team Medical Dragon’s been a very different experience for me, someone definitely not well versed in seinen anime/manga. I used to be a more avid anime watcher, and most of the stuff I ... preferred was that good old spunky shounen rom-com actions. It started with Naruto, transitioning to Bleach and eventually to the less known series. Up the top of my favorites are the ever epic Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and the less well-known Eureka Seven. The point is that I was that I've never really had a great exposure to seinen anime/manga. There’s a multitude of possible reasons for why I didn't watch it, though none of them are really distinct. If I had to give my most solid reason, maybe it’s because I feel seinen anime/manga was just much more “involved” and gut-wrenching than shounen. Instead of a focus on an episodic/arc-based action plot, there’s instead a focus on a concrete, serious story. I see it kinda as the blood boiling shounen fights versus the serious seinen storylines. In order to avoid that “deep” nature of seinen, I probably opted to just concentrate on shounen series, and for the first couple years of watching Naruto/Bleach, shounen seemed to be a great answer. As time progressed, however, my attention span for shounen grew thinner and thinner. Series began to dull and I began to lose interest, failing to continue on series and simply dropping them. My anime list… and now growing manga list… are perhaps testaments to that, where I’m currently watching/reading a hundred series at a time—99% of those in which I’ve probably dropped though I’m too stubborn to admit it. So... after a while, with my shounen fetish dwindling, I began to branch outwards, still usually looking for something new, experimenting with other genres. There's been some shoujo exploration, which has given me some up and down satisfactions but more importantly, I've started on the genre that pertains directly with Team Medical Dragon, seinen. And what an invigorating experience it's been, TMD, a rewarding experience that I decided to pick up and marathon through the night. Really, in many respects, I think in many ways Team Medical Dragon could pass off as a shounen. Hell, it’s got plenty of slicin’ action, it’s got some side romance, it’s got the comedy and drama action. You’ve got your bad ass main leads and supporting seconds within his band of warriors, or “medical team." And perhaps most comparable between TMD and shounen is the desire to fight against evil, fighting against the evil ruling lords that have taken over society. But as happy dappy as I try to make it sound, TMD sure as hell isn’t some hope-riding adventure story. At its core, it’s an involved, gut wrenching series that delivers powerfully. It isn't a simple 2000 chapter joyride that ends up in absolute victory. While there’s definitely hope, happiness, and positivity, there’s always an impending sense of hopelessness, cruelty, and negativity lurking closely by the sides. And, I'll be honest, I love it! As much as I espouse my love for shounen and its crazily hope-hope nature, the edge of bleakness that TMD offers creates an amazing balance between good and bad. I've always been well acquainted with the goody-good natures of anime, but never have I really been buckled down and forced to acknowledge evil like TMD's shown me. This contrasting nature provides and nurtures so much more than a simple good or bad series can. The people, characters, the interaction, the dialogue, heck even the setting, feel much more alive. It isn’t a single black and white color of “I’M-THE-BAD-GUY” or “I’M-THE-HERO” going on, there’s a lot more gray spread out. And this gives birth to a much bigger sense of realism ever-present within the pages, showing the reader not just a communication between characters, but more importantly, a communication between real people. Clever and realistic interactions are the end result between these characters. While characters are built off general archetypes, not a single character is a bland stereotype. The main characters, the secondary characters, the villains, the heroes, they're all shaped from both good and evil. They’re not characters simply crafted out of thin air, but characters crafted from their past experiences with good and evil. And through these developments, we, as the readers, are handed these great characters, presented both originally and realistically. Nobody’s a solid good guy or bad guy, all these characters have the sense and capability of both good and bad within them. Now, imagine putting a large cast of these characters within a story, a medical story at that, and the result is the well-furnished Team Medical Dragon. Worried about knowing medical terms? No sweat. I’m no doctor; I’m hopeless in medicine; I just read manga in my spare time; but I not much prior knowledge of medicine is needed to understand the story. TMD presents the medical arena in such a way that everyone--or at least me--can understand. I mean, for one, it’s not even heavily focused towards medicine. The main conflict is about corruption, not about learning medical jargon. Don’t understand the complicated maneuvers/words going around in the surgery room (me included)? Who the hell cares, just look at all that kinky slicing shit going on with that body on that table. The emphasis is more so within the plot progression, character interactions, and personality developments, not so much about the medical aspects. It’s not that big of a problem. With lengthy footnotes accompanying the reading, good old Google, and of course the outstanding visuals, you’ve got an army of resources to march off of. And I’ve gotta really hand it to the artist for their great drawings of the body/organs. Being somewhat of a drawer myself—outrageously skilled of course—organs have been something I've never attempted, and they're one of the more distinct features I noticed within the story. Expect to see a lot of organs guys; this is a medical series after all. But in addition to recreating great anatomy, the details of the extra blood vessels and of course BLOOD, make a pretty in-depth drawing for all readers to both understand and enjoy. Bottom line is, if you’re a medical junkie, you’ll probably feel at ease with this manga, or, if again, you’re like me, no sweat, just look at the sharp knife things doing their sexy work. In conclusion, TMD has been a great, refreshing experience for my shounen-loving self. I think that it’s really changed my genre preference, and in the future I’ll be looking forward to reading more TMD and seinen stuff. I love the sense of evil that TMD, and probably other good seinen, strikes me with, giving me not only a more realistic and engaging storyline but also a realistic and original cast. And let’s not forget about all the medical stuff involved though. While some parts are confusing—though I’m sure if you do some quick research or read the footnotes, you could figure out everything—the visuals do an absolutely amazing job of supporting whatever the hell is going on. Really, really, really good job, I enjoyed my current read a lot. As for my score, I am leaning very heavily toward a solid 10 because of how well done, in-depth, and life changing the story is. However, because of my incompleted reading, a few chunks of beef with medical jargon, and a couple bites of beef with plot (for sake of spoilers I won’t say why), I’ll leave my score as a 9 for now. As for my current plans with this manga, I’m thinking of letting it sit for now so scanlations can catch up, then I’ll recommence my marathon.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 21, 2011
Defense Devil
(Manga)
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(85/100 chp)
Well, no one reviewed this yet for a lonnng time, so I thought I’d give my first shot of reviewing on Defense Devil, today’s date as February 21, 2011.
85 chapters in and DD has been a pretty fun ride as of yet. The best general idea I could give for this manga is referencing an earlier work by the duo team. If anyone’s read the two mangakas’ past series, Shin Angyo Onshi, DD follows a similar story pattern and plot elements that I think many can strongly relate to. If you haven’t, no worries, DD’s great story telling ability, art, and characters will offer up ... a considerably enjoyable experience. I’m not gonna spoil anything for you readers, hopefully, but instead I’ll just give a general description of the type of story you’re expecting. It’s very similar to Shin Angyo Onshi in this respect, combining both the uses of small, short arcs/chapters with large overbearing arcs. Either way, DD excels at both. You’ve got your excellent short episodic stories reeled with a large adventure story. And the authors do their job well, offering up suspenseful storytelling while leaving the reader constantly guessing and wishing for more. They succeed at appealing to the large majority of audiences using a variety of genres: comedy, fantasy, drama, mystery, romance, action, and supernatural elements all rolled up nicely in a small package--how convenient. There is, however, one major beef I have for the story. Certainly, it does have short and long arcs, but it’s dumbly disconnected. Once you begin reading, you’ll realize relatively quickly that Defense Devil disappears, to be replaced by Adventure Devil very quickly. The lawyer devil drifts away, and in its place we have extensive fights and an epic journey. We lose the "tough-talk" man we've known, replaced by the "RAWR-FIGHTING" man. For some people, this won’t be a major problem—hell, we’re all shounen boys obsessed with fighting anyways right--but looking at it as a whole, the story fails to follow its original roots, and that may upset some people. For those specifically enjoying the lawyer aspect, I would give a small caution reading further. Moving on, the art is nothing to scoff at. Expect to see well-done action sequences from fights, a big variety of different outfits, a plentiful mix of character designs, and a large array of weapons. And just a warning (or supplement), expect to see a lot of ecchi mixed in for you creepo boys out there. There’s nothing I can really point out as erroneous in art, and just as Shin Angyo Onshi, expect the same level or the better. And the characters, of course. I don’t find them bad, but they’re just so… typical, if that’s the right word. Let’s start with the character art while we’re still on the topic. There’s one common thing going on for all the women: tits. Big boobies everywhere, and being a sucker male guy I am, the hotties everywhere in the manga’s gonna make you look for some good "doujinshi” around (^_^). But aside form sex appeal, the outfits themselves aren’t amazing. When I think of a very strong character, I think of Yoko from Tengen Toppa: a hottie with a sniper rifle, original color design, trademarked clothes design, hell, let’s even include her signature skull symbol design. That’s my top of the line original character. In comparison, DD’s characters look cool, but they’re ordinary. They’ve certainly got their own type and the such, but don’t expect a revolutionary character within DD. And personalities? Nothing special. Hopefully not spoiling too much, but your main character this time around is gonna be the super peaceful, no-violence-if-possible kind of guy. Certainly a lot to build off of, but in my terms, again, nothing special. You’ve got your tsundere female lead which is always nice, but again, nothing special. And the extra characters are, really, all extras, nothing special. I’ve used nothing special four times now in this paragraph, now five, but that’s exactly the point. Many people may critique that originality doesn’t have a factor in character ratings. But in my opinion, I can’t give a 10/10 for what I find to be an unoriginal character. I think it’s fair to say, however, that what it all comes down to, application to the story. If a story does a good job in pulling all the characters together, it doesn’t matter if a character is unoriginal, even a supposedly boring character can get recognition. DD accomplishes this in some respects. There is a hint of mystery shrouding every character that the authors accomplish very well. Some characters are completely unknown, while others have “hidden” pasts. Taking a step back, we can see that this use of mystery backgrounds can be a double edged weapon varying between mangas. In some cases it can be done really badly, where the mystery portion is dragged on so long you’re wondering when the hell shit is gonna get explained, if it gets explained at all. In this case however, the mystery element is no doubt a positive factor. These mangakas are great storytellers, pulling off this mystery off nicely; the suspense won’t kill you, but will keep you guessing until the right time. But besides mystery, there’s always character development to talk about… just kidding. DD’s character development is pretty non-existing. Unless if you count their pasts, the characters we know at the present haven’t changed. Nothing major really happened to the characters 85 chapters in, but there is major potential coming from our characters. There are certainly elements to work with, and we’ll have to see later what happens. But 'till 85, I can say that all you're going to see is plot, and nothing character-wise. So, what do I think about this series. Well, certainly, the storytelling great though disconnected; the art good though nothing special; and the characters cool though nothing special. It’s not an original masterpiece, it’s not something going to be talked in the next generations to come, but at the end of the day, it certainly is what I would consider a fun adventure. Mix all these elements together and you have your exciting journey within the interesting and intriguing life of our defense devil. My enjoyment meter’s off the chart after marathoning 85 through the night. I’m the type of guy that drops an anime/manga quickly. Check my animelist and you’ll see that my watching list is almost as big as my completed list, haha. It’s hard to keep my attention, and I’m really not sure what attracts me to certain animes/manga, it varies. But whatever it is, my addiction just suddenly pops in. DD is no different. Looking at DD objectively, I don’t think it stands up to the likes of the masterpieces we know. It’s nothing special afterall. Subjectively though, screw these stupid categories, DD has been a blazing ride, is a blazing ride, and will be a blazing ride for quite some time. In conclusion, there’s not much else I have to say. DD’s a fantastic ride that I encourage everyone to read. Yeah yeah sure, Defense Devil is no masterpiece, but it still has enjoyable story, art, and characters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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