365 Days of Manga, Day 258: Toto! The Wonderful Adventure

TOTO! THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURE • Yuko Osada • Del Rey • 13+
“The world is vast. Go on an adventure!” Following the words of his long-lost father, the orphan Kakashi stows away on an airship to leave the island of his birth and see the world. Then the airship is hijacked by crooks, and Kakashi discovers that the ship is carrying a very special cargo, a cute little dog named Toto which is actually one of the “Twelve Accessories,” superpowered weapons left behind in the aftermath of a great war. With the help of WITCH, a secret organization, and spunky martial arts girl Dorothy, Kakashi ends up tasked with retrieving the Accessories and keeping them out of the hands of the evil Nassau Military — and to make matters crazier, Toto transforms from a cute dog into a superpowered, energy-blasting dog’s head (though it looks more like an eyeless hippo) permanently fused onto the end of Kakashi’s arm, a transformation which Kakashi finds less alarming than you’d expect. Though it starts out with the winsome charm of One Piece, by the third volume Toto! is more like O-Parts Hunter, an over-the-top scramble of escalating fight scenes and train chases. However, the art is good throughout, with a rubbery vigor, and the storytelling is clear in that melodramatic shonen manga way. A few of the names and images are very loosely based on “The Wizard of Oz” — even the name Kakashi means “scarecrow” — though the weird-looking Accessories, which seem drawn in a style different from everything else, look like nothing so much as Sam Keith’s The Maxx (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maxx).
** 1/2 (two and a half stars)
Today’s winner is Chloe W. of Iowa. Congratulations, Chloe!