Dinosaur Sanctuary Vol. 1 (Dinosaurs Sanctuary)

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Dinosaur Sanctuary is a series I can see not only appealing to fans of dinosaur-related media, but to paleontologists and zookeepers as well given its fairly accurate portrayal of the dinosaurs and of the day-to-day life of zookeeping.

Domesticated Dinosaurs: Dinosaurs are kept as attractions at zoos and animal sanctuaries like Enoshima Dinoland. This time around, they bring us a look at a new manga with our favorite prehistoric clade at its center. When a report comes in that a Velociraptor is roaming the streets of Japan, Suzume and her coworker Kaido are sent to help! Gyaru Girl: Asami, the girl who takes a liking to Masaru the Triceratops, is of the yamanba fashion. A richly detailed manga about a rookie zookeeper learning how to care for dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes, sure to delight dinosaur lovers!It's shown that some of the common misconceptions about dinosaurs (like birds not being dinosaurs, Dilophosaurus having a frill and spitting venom, Pachycephalosaurus headbutting each other, etc.

But with Dinoland having been struggling for so long with insufficient staff and funding to take care of its 72 individual dinosaurs (plus pterosaurs and marine reptiles), Suzume will have a lot of work cut out for her. The human characters are intriguing and fun, but not in a way that steals the spotlight from the dinosaurs, all of whom also have their own distinct personalities and quirks. Suma Suzume is getting ready for her first winter as a dinokeeper at the struggling Enoshima Dinoland, but she’s got more to deal with than just keeping dinosaurs warm and cozy.

Not this though, Dinosaur Sanctuary gives us dinosaurs as real animals, beings with personality, feelings, and individual life stories. The first volume of the series is a rather charming workplace drama set in the most fantastic of workplaces, with gorgeously rendered dinosaurs sharing panels with strong character designs. One of my favorite chapters was definitely when Suma works with the other female dinokeeper in helping to "revive" an exhibit.

And for another example, Troodon is shown to be a legitimate genus, whereas in reality, the genus is dubious at best and supposed examples of its fossils seem to actually belong to other, related genus within the Troodontidae family (though, this latter detail is acknowledged in the interludes). Volume 1 of Dinosaur Sanctuary is an extremely pleasant read and a great introduction into what should be an insightful and fun series of manga.The struggles our characters face are very similar to what real-life zookeepers must face when working at zoos and theme parks such as SeaWorld.

Living Dinosaurs: The backstory states that a small population of surviving non-avian dinosaurs was discovered living on a remote island in 1946, and their populations were grown through captive breeding. The Giganotosaurus and Tyrannosaurus that reside in Enoshima Dinoland are shown as placid animals that are rather needy and childish in nature, given they rely on their human keepers to keep them happy and satisfied, Masaru the Triceratops is a Gentle Giant, Eiger the Spinosaurus a docile fish-eater who was unable to fish properly until his enclosure was expanded, and Momiji the Stegosaurus is a Mellow Fellow. After all the very intimate and humane stories of the previous volume it would be easy for this upping of the stakes to focus on the drama of a dinosaur rampage; but that isn’t what happens at all. I appreciate that they had an actual paleontologist consult because it gave the series of sense of scientific focus that made it all the more interesting! The informational signs outside the Dilophosaurus exhibit state that it does not spit poison or have a neck frill.The rest of us will probably let our minds wander as we read about good-intentioned caretakers doing their jobs thoughtfully and earnestly. Shin-ichi Fujiwara) discussing in more details about the palaeontological and zoological science that formed the basis for that chapter. And it is through her perspective and experiences that the reader learns about the different species of dinosaurs at Dinoland, and their husbandry needs. And being shown that from the eyes of an enthusiastic girl starting work in a small dinosaur park in Japan, that is on the brink of closure, and having to deal with a surly colleague and a mystery concerning her father, was very entertaining.