Ive always been a big fan of the Crash Bandicoot franchise thats where the Crash in my name comes from and so when I found out that there was a short manga based on the franchise I had to read it immediately. I didnt went into it with big expectations things like this are generally decent at best but even then this manga managed to disapoint. Crash Bandicoot Dansu loosely follows the plot of the second game in which Cortex convinces Crash to grab the Power Stones for him and thats basically the whole plot. Each chapter Crash Aku Aku and Cortex find themselves in an adventure to find the Power Stones although more often than not the actual Power Stones arent present. Its a simple episodic plot that can be excused having in mind the source plus its full of big and little references to the game its based on which is always nice. But no matter the amount of nods nothing really matters if the characters dont feel like the ones from the games and I think this is the mangas biggest flaw. Crash Bandicoot is a simple character a silent goof good natured but not really that intelligent. I wouldnt think it would be hard to translate him to paper but they still manage to fail miserably. The first problem was probably giving him a voice but Id be able to forgive that if Crash wasnt a annoying character here. Here hes a selfish lazy and dumb character who works only for his own selfinterest which is basically eating and theres also that thing wheres doing all of this because he wants girls to be interested in him but besides the first chapter its only talked about a couple other times in the story. You dont feel like Crash is the hero of the story here and you will more likely hate him than love him. Aku Aku and Cortex are for the most part acceptable variants of their game coutnerparts though. The second biggest problem with this manga is that for a gag manga more than half the jokes just fall flat. And they dont stop its like everything is either a joke or a setup for one. And finally the other big problem is that its incomplete. The manga was cancelled maybe due to its mediocrity but that leaves us without a proper conclusion or much development at all. To be fair I wouldnt know if Id want it to continue much more as bearing through 14 chapters was already tiring but it does leave you with a bit of a bad taste when you reach that last page. All in all its hard to reccomend this manga to even the die hard fans of the franchise. Yes its a novel little extra in the series but not even with that in mind is this all that enjoyable. If you still want to give it a try after knowing all this please go ahead but consider yourself warned.
40 /100
8 out of 9 users liked this review