Dokkoida?! 2

Yu Yagami / Taro Achi – CMX – 2008 – 3 volumes

Yeah, this isn’t the best series in the world. It’s humor, but unfortunately the humor isn’t really my thing, and it’s banking more on the jokes between characters than it does on the jokes about them being ridiculous heroes and villains. The fact that the latter appears is the only reason I enjoyed it, and I think it has a narrow audience otherwise.

I think I preferred the character introductions last volume to some of the stagnation and repetition in this volume, though it’s hard for me to put down the cute stories. At least the introductions were something different. We do get variety in the form of new Dokkoida powers, but the repetition of the same jokes by the same characters wore on me here.

It did make me smile, but it’s just not as funny as I’d hoped it would be. There’s plenty of cuteness, like Dokkoida discovering new powers because Tanpopo is such an awful cook and he assumes there must be something his suit can do to prepare food, or all the heroes and villains teaming up to scare off a couple of turtle egg poachers. There’s a story later in the volume where Suzuo wants to win a piggy bank in the lottery, and after finding out that the Dokkoida suit has a good luck move, transforms quickly and waits his turn to get the piggy bank instead of another packet of tissues. There’s also plenty of silliness in the ongoing plotline about the Galaxy Police deciding which suit to use in their program, too, since new criminals are on the loose and they are lamer than ever.

I like it when I’m reading it, but it’s just not very good. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but flipping back through, I can see that some of the stories, like the one where all the residents of Cosmos House, hero and villain alike, have to stop a lame hammerhead shark villain at an amusement park whose only power is to make scary rides that don’t really do anything. And the sea turtle, cooking, and good luck stories are all really cute in their way, too. The plots and characters aren’t fantastic, but there’s something endearing about the way they’re told, maybe the setups, or all the crazy things that happen. Some of it is funny, too, just not a high percentage.

As I said last time, I can’t find it in my heart to condemn a sentai manga. I like them a lot, no matter how bad, and something tells me that this isn’t even the worst one we’ve had in English (I’m willing to bet that it’s better than Imperfect Hero, though it’s been a long time since I’ve read that one). It saddens me to badmouth it too, since we get so few in English that it’s worth it to support the genre in hopes that something like Shinesman will come out here when someone with money and spare time goes crazy or something.