“Isle of Dogs”

Beneath the carefully constructed artifices of every Wes Anderson film- the beautiful art design, the symmetric, storybook-like cinematography, and the deadpan, pithy humor, beats a heart aching with melancholy. His most recent work, 2018’s stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs, is no exception. In it, a Japanese boy tries to reunite with his canine companion in the midst of a plague affecting humans and dogs alike. The film is a sumptuous exploration of the bond that connects man and beast, the interesting dynamics of language, and the power of propaganda. Can the recent Dark Horse manga adaptation by celebrated writer/artist Minetaro Mochizuki replicate these themes as well as Anderson’s iconic style, or does it try to do something different on its pages? Let’s take a look! (Slight spoilers ahead)

Cover by Minetaro Mochizuki

Adapted and illustrated by Minetaro Mochizuki
Translated by Zack Davisson
Lettered by Susie Lee with Studio Cutie

This manga, adapted from the film by legendary director Wes Anderson, features a new take on the story about the banished bowsers of trash island. Here we follow a young orphan boy and his dog Spots on an adventure that all fans of the film will want to follow.

Written and drawn by cult manga icon Minetaro Mochizuki of Dragon Head fame and now available in English for the very first time, and presented in a deluxe hardcover format, this is the perfect gift for all fans of Wes Anderson, dogs, and manga alike.

The film and gorgeously produced hardcover manga both center on a 12 year-old boy, Atari Kobayashi- a spirited child under the care of his villainous uncle, the Mayor of Megasaki City. The boy is orphaned by a high-speed rail accident two years prior to the events of the story, and is assigned a guard dog, Spots. When the canine-borne plague hits, the feline favoring mayor ships the entirety of the dog population of Megasaki City to “Trash Island,” a labyrinthine heap of the city’s detritus. In an act of love (and defiance), Atari hijacks a small plane and crash-lands on Trash Island in a desperate attempt to reunite with his lost Spots. Once there, he meets a pack of colorful strays who can’t help but be enamored with the young boy. After all, as the film states, “dogs love 12 year old boys.”

It seems important to note right off the bat that I am a devout Wes Anderson fan, though I feel, in many ways, Isle of Dogs is one of my least favorite entries in his filmography. This is less a condemnation than a preamble to say that while I find it to be a feast for the eyes, the movie swims in waters I don’t think it has the power (or, frankly, care) to navigate. The fictional city of Megasaki is gorgeously detailed, filled with everything a western audience might imagine when thinking of Japanese culture (Sumo, bright neon, saki bars, and Shinto shrines), but with such a twee sense of cultural tourism as to negate the citizens as actual characters, or, in fact, people. The lack of subtitles, really the lack of any translation of the Japanese language spoken in the film whatsoever (of which there is plenty), while having the dog characters voiced by recognizable English-speaking celebrities, also feels like a gimmick rather than a storytelling device. This gimmick distances us a bit from our protagonist Atari, putting the focus on the dog characters- Atari’s intentions known only through facial expressions and body language (unless, of course, you speak Japanese).

Mochizuki’s adaptation has no such problems, however. Both the humans’ and dogs’ words are translated into English. Atari himself narrates the short piece, the manga feeling like a tone poem of the film rather than a strict adaptation. We begin with a somber reflection by Atari on the Russian cosmonaut Laika, a dog, and the first creature to see the Earth from space- a scene not in the film but a perfect encapsulation of the theme of both works- that humans are willing to do unspeakable things to our canine friends. This prologue works in the reader’s favor, instantly putting us in Atari’s mindset, and strengthening as it intertwines with Atari’s backstory, a child orphaned by tragedy, and finding solace in the love of his dog, Spots.

While the film hosts a large cast of characters, mostly canine, with Atari’s newfound pack of dejected dogs (Rex, Boss, King, Duke, and Chief, the lifelong stray) carrying the film, the manga narrows the focus on Atari and Chief, and their burgeoning friendship. Here, writer/artist Mochizuki excels, leaning on his horror roots (I encourage all to check out “Dragon Head” – his seminal work of a post-apocalyptic nightmare), in turns drawing the dogs as both the recognizable, lovable pets they once were, but also as the sick, starving, and sometimes feral beasts they’ve been turned into on the island. With textured fur turning to jagged black lines, and eyes glowing with a menace reminiscent of beasts waiting just outside the light of fires, the pets become chilling reminders of their own feral ancestry.

Interestingly, there could have been plenty of opportunity for Mochizuki to mimic Anderson’s style on paper, the director’s famous penchant for ornately crafted sets and what has come to be called “material synecdoche” (the reliance on costuming and a character’s accoutrements to define them) is perfectly suited for the comic page. Indeed, Mochizuki himself has exhibited a bit of this “hipster preciousness” in his own work, most notably with his manga “Chiisakobee,” which seems in part influenced by Anderson’s sensibilities. Mochizuki steers from this notion, however. There is an earnestness of emotion throughout, perhaps too large, or maybe even too naive or chaotic (perfect for the tone of a piece from the perspective of a twelve year old) to be contained by the highly constructed whimsy of Anderson. Mochizuki’s art is a treat, his work is clean and readable, and his gift with expression and body language make even the dogs’ emotions easily recognizable.

Where this manga suffers, however, is it’s effort to hew closely to the source material. The book spends most of its time in the first act of the film- meeting Atari, the crash landing, meeting the pack, and the quest to find Spots, and then rushes headlong to the climax of the film in the tome’s last few pages- in fact, skipping over most of it with a few panels of exposition. This out-of-left-field climax dulls the impact of the quieter moments at the end, most notably Atari’s realization of how time passes differently for man and dog, and how being at different stages of life can often spell the end of relationships, even between man and his best friend. The choice to dovetail the end of this work sharply to reconnect with the film is distracting and unfortunate- I think the manga stands much better on its own as a meditation on the theme rather than as true adaptation. In fact, I’d say it puts the “I Love Dogs” in Isle of Dogs often better than the film.

For fans of the movie, I’d call it a charming companion piece that is worth a look. I’d also recommend this book to any dog lovers out there looking for a short story that does a fine job of expressing the weird alchemy that has brought man and dog together. The beating, melancholic heart of Wes Anderson’s films are alive and well in this adaptation. As readers gaze upon Mochizuki’s lovingly rendered images of Laika, so lonely and afraid in the coldness of space, the entirety of Earth looming beneath her, one can’t help but wonder where dogs would be without us. More importantly, where would we be without them?

Reviewer’s Note: Not a true OGN, the “Isle of Dogs” manga adaptation was originally serialized in the pages of Kodansha’s Morning magazine from May to July 2018.