TLDR
Story – 6,5/10 – 6,5 x 0.275 = 1,7875
Art – 7,5/10 – 7,5 x 0.2 = 1,5
Characters – 6/10 – 6 x 0.225 = 1,35
Enjoyment – 8/10 – 8 x 0.3 = 2,4
Total: 7,0375 -> 7
Story – 6,5/10
Stargazing Dog is a story by Takashi Murakami. We follow the life and death of the main character – Happy, a dog. But don’t let his name deceive you: the story is anything but happy. It is divided into two segments: 1) the first, called Stargazing Dog, follows Happy’s life and subsequent death; 2) the second one, called Sunflowers, serves as an epilogue to the whole story. The first part of the story is much more emotional than the second one, with themes such as frailty of the human condition, regret, divorce, and pet loyalty – in this case, dogs. However, the second part is uninteresting and lighter compared to the first one – we are suddenly met with characters that we have no affinity for and don’t care about.
The fact that we already know what is going to happen in the beginning also removes some of the suspense that the manga could have had, making the ending less impactful.
The story is the definition of short but sweet, and the manga's length is justified in the overall scheme of things.
There are some unanswered questions in the plot, namely, what happened to the Mother and the daughter. This is, nevertheless, comprehensible since the story focuses on the fate of Happy and Daddy.
Art – 7,5/10
The art is sketchy and minimalistic, but fits the story's overall tone quite well. There is a good fluency of the panels and characters are easy to tell apart. There wasn’t much originality regarding page composition, but it is easily readable from beginning to end.
Characters – 6/10
Characters aren’t important in Stargazing Dog, as the story mostly focuses on Happy and his owner, Daddy. The dog fits the typical role associated with dogs: loyal, friendly, and cute. On the other hand, Daddy plays the role of a beaten-by-life character who only has his dog and not much else. There are also characters in the second part of Stargazing Dog, but, in all due honesty, they are void of any characteristics and only serve to further advance the tear-busting agenda that Stargazing Dog has from the get-go.
Enjoyment – 8/10
To be able to successfully pack a punch in such a short story is not an ordinary feat, although the second part is way less interesting than the main one. This is a very quick read that is definitely worth the little time it requires: it, thus, deserves a recommendation.
