A review by redhairedashreads
Dinosaur Sanctuary, Vol. 4 by Itaru Kinoshita

3.0

 

3 stars - I liked it

This volume picks up right where the previous volume ended with Blue World. We learn more about the story of why Blue World doesn’t provide more information about the creatures within its walls to its guests and we learn the story of how they got Sophia, their main attraction. I liked that we got to see more of Igarashi Keisuke’s story and the reasoning why he left Blue World for Enoshima Dinoland. Also, I really liked seeing what other dino centers are like. 

The rest of the volume is back to Enoshima Dinoland, and Suma Suzume’s continued training with the dinosaurs and her new gig as social media manager for the park. Suzume is struggling to get people interested in her posts even though she seems to be capturing some great parts of the dinosaurs, that is until she captures Momijo’s smile and gets a lot of attention from it. While I do like that we see Suzume continue to pursue her passion of sharing dinosaurs with the world, I will admit this part of the story isn’t as interesting to me as the dinosaur training and capturing. 

Next we see Suzume work with Kaidou Arata to capture a smuggled velociraptor that had escaped. It was a very interesting mission because up to this point we have only seen more fear around dino outbreaks but with this it was a more quiet and chill animal rescue situation, probably because it was a smaller dinosaur. I enjoyed this mission and how they worked to figure out where the velociraptor was and trap it safely, without injuring it or any humans. Suzume and Kaidou work really well together and I like when they get partnered up. 

This volume ends with Suzume getting partnered up with the armored dinosaur worker Katase, who she doesn’t get along with very well. They are creating and rehoming the young the ankylosaurus and theropods off to other dinolands because they are now old enough to leave. Katase continues to be a bit of an ass to Suzume because he doesn’t like the way she does things and so he is very rude to her when it comes to training. 

The situation with Katase at the end of this volume shows that while Suzume has come far since the first volume, she still has a lot to learn. Yes she should have to deal with Katase being rude to her for doing things different from him, but she should have also gone to him and double checked who got what food when it came to the dinosaurs. While she just made more work for Katase this time, it could have easily been something dangerous to the dinosaurs and that is why you get over your pride and ask when you don’t remember things. 

Overall, this was another good volume. I am enjoying seeing more of Dinoland and the other dinosaurs within it. I look forward to reading more of this series and seeing what happens next for the zoo and for Suzume.