Guardian Dog

I ought to add a bit of diversity in the review section. I think that this manga is definitely worth a try, though it goes bollocks around the 10th chapter. (Yet the chapters are long, so that leaves enough of good material.) The main attraction for me was the art. And (aside from a couple of odd frames) it does deliver till the end. The covers are especially beautiful and elaborate. There’s the matter of taste in styles, of course, but the richness in details, clean beautiful linework and very decent coloring are there for all to see. My only problem is that the MC doesn’tdevelop an interesting merged form. The story is not so good, unfortunately. It starts off very decently, but soon, with the introduction of the blonde glasses guy, it starts to get rushed?/butchered?/turned into something else? It’s hard to understand, what’s going on, the mood is inconsistent, plot devices are introduced without much care for explanations. The things go as far as telling instead of showing. The reason for this is unclear, but we’re left with what we’re left. The characters are nothing special, to be honest. The MC is an endearing golden-hearted idiot type and there is a not-really harem of females around him – an alien hottie, a teacher type, a tomboy childhood friend, a moe megane-chan. Oh, yeah, there is a lot of fanservice, but I can’t say it’s really off-putting until the later bonkers chapters. I can’t say that the characters go past stereotypes, but the whole story is like that. More importantly it is short and it uses its stereotypes with gusto. You can’t call the concept original, and many things seem indeed lifted from Kiseijuu. Decide for yourself if it’s good or not: there’s a limited amount of these stories, yet this one doesn’t really add anything new to the genre. So my advice for the readers – start it (for the sake of the art and the concept) and drop it the moment you start to think it’s distasteful. Recommended for the fans of the “infected by an alien” genre, those, who are looking for a mindless shounen adventure story with fine fanservice, and people, who enjoy prettily drawn mutants. Not recommended for completionists, those with bad aversion to fanservice and people looking for original ideas.