 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | VIZ MEDIA | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | HITOSHI SHIOYA | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | JAPANESE / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 200 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | A | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 04/07/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 04/06/2009 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | SCOTT CAMPBELL |
ourney back in time to an age when dinosaurs ruled the earth in this new manga series, Dinosaur Hour. In this world, dinosaurs are regular dudes who may rip each other to shreds but still have social foibles like the rest of us. In each episode, Dinosaur Hour introduces an exciting dinosaur species through a brief educational tidbit, and then reveals its gag comedy potential. Sneak a peek at your favourite dinosaurs as you’ve never seen them - Dinosaur hour is a collection of comics about dinosaurs who are bullies and ghost-believers, pranksters and bungling little brothers. With such goofy antics, it’s no wonder these guys went extinct. Dinosaur Hour is pretty cute – you can’t help but read along and think about how much younger kids would probably enjoy learning a bit about these giant reptiles from such a neat little manga. It’s educational and fun, so you can’t really beat that double-sided potential when it comes to pleasing both parents and kids alike. There are twenty-three chapters in just this one volume, each containing a different short story with many facts and laughs relating to different species of dinosaurs. The art is fun and silly – loose line drawings and goofy expressions bring these dinosaurs to life with not a huge amount of effort put into them, but it will be more than enough for the audience it is appealing to. They get into all sorts of trouble as they seek out food, play games, avoid hunters, and anything else your run-of-the-mill dinosaur would get up to in an “All Ages” rated dinosaur manga *wink*. It’s a lot of fun, there’s no doubt about it – but it should be stated that no one over the age of 13 is likely to get too much enjoyment out of this series simply because it is written and drawn for a younger audience. The language used, and the simplicity of the plotlines just won’t cut it with an older audience (unless you REALLY like dinosaurs), but that’s okay because it means there is something great for the kids that they can be “safe” in picking off the shelves. You have to respect a book that is written for a specific audience of a specific age, and this book does just that. There aren’t enough manga out there for kids, so Dinosaur Hour is a great addition to the slowly growing list. With any manga series it’s nice to know a bit about who has created it for us, so here’s a bit about the artist/author. Hitoshi Shioya was born in 1969 in Sapporo, Japan. He likes rugby, loves soda pop, and owns a very fierce cat (or so her says anyhow). Seems like a nice guy – hopefully he will be bringing out even more great manga for us in the future!
IN SUMMARY:
Dinosaur Hour will be a ton of fun for most kids, but adults should know this one is solely written for the 13 and under crowd. Good clean fun with a well-balanced dose of learning will entertain the younglings, and please the parents just as much. |
