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Miwa Shirow’s intertwining stories of various eccentric characters continues. The third volume of Dogs: Bullets and Carnage reveals more back story about Heine Rammsteiner (if that isn’t a metal name, I don’t know what is) and shows that he and Naoto may share a deep connection. That is, if they could stop glaring at each other. The attack on Mihai’s train also gives us an opportunity to see that the blind priest (Bishop) does indeed have some fighting skills. This is indeed a case of crouching tiger, hidden dragon.

We also get some adorable Nill antics. I think Nill is a good character because she’s used as a prop. Shirow brings her in, uses her for a scene, and then sends her into the background when she’s not needed. I guess in some ways, that’s a perverse mirror to her life as a slave—use when needed, then put her back in her box. Except, you know, this time it’s in a figurative sense.

In this volume we also see a bit of Badou’s past. He used to have a brother, until he got killed by getting involved in something dangerous. So now, Badou lives a danger-free life of common sense. Except that’s not true in the slightest. Whatever lessons Badou thinks he learned from his brother, he sure as hell isn’t applying them. This, I feel, is a bit disingenuous. Badou’s always talking about not wanting to be involved, and not doing stupid things, but he does them all the fucking time. He could not have picked a worse group of people to work with. So really, he’s just a stupid whiner with a sweet eye patch.

To supplement the quickly developing story, Shirow throws in a good amount of action. I liked seeing Mihai busting some balls again, but he serves no story purpose this time around. Shirow orchestrates his usual visual chaos. Sometimes, I had to go back and study a panel just to make sure I knew what the hell was going on. It also doesn’t help that the majority of the fighting takes place in darkness. On the one hand, it’s kind of interesting to convey the chaos of the low visibility condition like this. On the other hand, it just looks like a bunch of random lines, sometimes thoughtlessly interrupted by text bubbles.

Then we get to the ending, which is a pretty sweet cliffhanger to top off a fine volume. I like the world Shirow has created, and the way it’s getting deeper without becoming too self-obsessed over how it works. Sometimes, an author will just spit out exposition to show you every aspect of the world in detail. Shirow highlights what’s important to the stories, and moves on. Furthermore he pays attention to his characters. They aren’t amazingly deep, but they have personality and that goes a long way. So here I am now, eagerly awaiting volume four.

Tags: Dogs, Miwa Shirow, MakiManga