Sherlock Bones Vol.4 by Yumi Ando and Yuki Sato

I started reading the Sherlock Bones series a few years ago, and had a little break inbetween Vol.3 and Vol.4, which is a shame because it ended in the middle of a mystery!  Sherlock Bones is a tiny, adorable, dog who is really the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes…when he puts his pipe in his mouth he can talk to his ‘owner’ Takeru and solve crimes.

Book Review- Sherlock Bones by Yuma Ando and Yuki Sato

Boyfriend gave me a book for my birthday; a graphic novel called Sherlock Bones.  It is Japanese style meaning it reads right to left and confuses me every time I pick it up but it is in English so I can understand once I figure out which way to open it!  It is the story of THE WORLD’S CUTEST DOG who is the reincarnation of Sherlock Holmes, he can only talk to his teenage owner Takeru and they solve crimes.

I liked the book for a few reasons:

• The dog is very cute! And referred to as Sherlock Bones in the title of the book, but Sherdog throughout.
• There are nice references to Sherlock Holmes (who knew he was big in Japan?) such as Sherdog calling Takeru’s sister Irene after a significant woman in Sherlock Holmes’ life.
• Much of Takeru’s motivation for solving crimes is to protect and help Miki Arisaka, the girl at school he has a crush on and is incapable of speaking to sensibly which rang quite true.
• The crimes are more grim than the cuteness of Sherdog would suggest, there’s one story of an actress being stalked and murdered before she can reveal the truth about her friend’s suicide, and a creepy doctor taking naked pictures of schoolgirls and putting them online.  That last story is somewhat voyeuristic as although the story is about how awful the crime is the artist Yuki Sato still felt the need to draw these naked pictures for us to look at.  This sat a little uncomfortably for me which is a shame because there was so much else to like.
• One of the main characters is Airin Wajima (Takeru’s sister) is a Police Office in the Violent Crimes Division.  In the tradition of Japanese graphic novels she’s quite a looker but she’s also smart and has a job worth coveting making her something of a female role model.
• If you open the book the wrong way around (Western style) you are met with a big STOP sign and a little explanation about the correct way to read Manga style books- helpful!

In summary: it’s about a cute talking dog, set in Japan, who is or thinks he is an C18th English detective, and there are some dark storylines- what’s not to like!

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