Dolls Vol. 2-4

Those of you who read my previous review of Dolls will no doubt know I was a little disappointed by volume one. However, the three following volumes totally change my opinions on it as a series. Whereas I expected more slightly dull but original stories centred around dolls, I got a blend of deep, insightful and gripping tales perfectly mixed with mild humour. Definitely improving on the first book, the stories get a lot more...well, interesting. The pacing is smooth (although it never was much of a problem) and the art is definitely a step or two above the first volume.

Gone are the truly bad jokes and in their place stand amusing uses of mild humour which do not distract from the story. However, it is still slightly difficult to read, each page takes longer to read than in your average manga, but, to be fair, there is much more within the panels in terms of depth and plot than your average manga.

There is no denying these are high quality books with lots to offer. It is sad however that a poor first volume and no publicity means that it is unlikely there will be any more from this author, which is a shame.

On the whole, there isn't much to say about the later volumes of Dolls besides they are a vast improvement over volume one and are well worth a read.