Preface!
I’ve mentioned on MangaCraft before that I write children’s books and comics and whatnot. Actually getting my masters in it. It’s pretty great. I hold fast to the fact that I’m a kid at heart and my big justification as to how I know that is simply this—I never got over my love of pirates and dinosaurs.
I still think they’re the coolest things in the world. Or… formerly of this world. RIP Dinos. And pirates.
Anyway, long-winded way of saying that when Dinosaur Sanctuary appeared on shelves, I practically had a conniption. Dinosaurs in manga? Good Lord. And to make it even better, this was a different kind of dinosaur story.
A dinostory, if you will.
Dinosaur Sanctuary is literally like if nothing catastrophic ever happened at Jurassic Park. A slice of life, but with dinosaurs.
Need I go on?
I do, and I will. Because amidst the dinosaur awesomeness, I found a resonant storytelling element that fit hand in hand with something I’ve been saying for years. Onward!
Preface over.
I have a low-key addiction to the Fantastic Beasts movie franchises because I love fantastical creatures so much. On a not unrelated note, there’s a book taking the world by storm—Impossible Creatures, by Katherine Rundell—that is much the same, except much better written. Just all the fantastical creatures, and all with such vibrant personalities.
In the second Fantastic Beasts movie, Crimes of Grindelwald, when Grindelwald is getting transported out of MACUSA headquarters, he breaks free and has a creature companion—a Chupacabra named Antonio. When Antonio first appears, I was excited to meet a new creature, but Grindelwald proceeds to chuck Antonio out the window and we never see him again.
I always pour one out for Antonio. Here is this great untapped character that left so many questions unanswered—how did he win over Grindelwald’s cold heart in the first place, and what changed between now and then? Did they have happy times together? Why the name Antonio?
None of those questions are ever answered, because this is Fantastic Beasts, but all that to say, it was a big missed opportunity to create a creature character opposite the likes of Pickett and Teddy (formerly just the Niffler). Because let’s be honest, no matter what you think of the Fantastic Beast franchise, the creatures are very, very well crafted. From the manticore to the Zouwu, they each have a personality that makes them a dynamic character in a magical story.
A character is a daunting thing to craft. I mean, just take a moment to think about all the considerations that go into crafting one.
How do they look, how do they act, what do they sound like, how do they see the world, why do they see the world that way, who is around them, what do they think about who’s around them… I mean, come on. Characters are a world of possibility. Never mind the fact that you’re presumably going to have a lot of characters.
So yeah, when I start mentioning animal characters, you may gloss over. If it isn’t a story about those creatures, do you really need to flesh them out? I mean, even in the Fantastic Beasts example, you could make the case that it’s a story about the creatures, therefore there is an obligation to make them dynamic. To which I say, poppycock, or something similar, anyway.
Let me just say, before I get too deep into the dinosaur weeds, that while a character can feel daunting, it can all start with a single adjective or descriptor. More on that in a second.
I didn’t know what to expect getting into Dinosaur Sanctuary, other than that there were going to be dinosaurs, but it really rocketed up my radar when it was nominated for the inaugural American Manga Awards. For such a quiet story about dinosaurs, which sounds like an oxymoron, it is remarkably well written, and the number one reason why is in the economy of crafting unique characters, not just the humans, mind you, but the dinosaurs too.
This is a dinosaur park, so there are essentially three arenas of intrigue—the park workers, the park visitors, and the dinosaurs themselves. The park workers are the most obvious place where we’re going to see complete, genuine characters. And we do. The whole crew of ten or so lead characters is dynamic, they each have their own role and their own personality. The main character, Suzume, has a compelling arc, a lot of developing relationships, it’s what you’d expect.
That’s not out of the ordinary. Name any story, their main cast is going to be well developed, or at least that’s the intention.
So check that off the list, we’ve got a dynamic cast of lead characters. Now let’s look at the park visitors. This is a tough one, because park visitors, no matter how regular, are not going to be seen every day, and many of them aren’t even going to be seen more than once.
Perfect opportunity for flat characters, right? Get in, say your line, get out? Not for Dinosaur Sanctuary. While these park guests cycle in and out of the narrative—as of yet, I don’t think I’ve seen a recurring guest—each one has a personality that translates as real and deep. The couple that tries to lift the triceratops horn display, for instance, or the young girl who recognizes a Stegosaurus from social media.
Let’s hyper fixate on the young couple for a second. They’re going on a date at a dinosaur park and we get to see their relationship up close. They’re fun and playful, but there’s also that awkward date mentality of the boy trying to impress the girl, only to fail, and that failure seems to bring them closer. It’s memorable, they exit stage left and you can’t help but think about their past and future.
Okay, I saved the best for last. The true creme de la creme of Dinosaur Sanctuary’s attention to character is in their dinosaurs.
Now, to be fair, Jurassic World implemented this in their sequel trilogy, with Blue the velociraptor, but—aside from that not being a real velociraptor—that’s but one dinosaur in a park full of dinosaurs, all of which are just… nameless animals. Nothing else.
Every dinosaur in Dinosaur Sanctuary has a personality, and a good one too. The one-horned Triceratops, Masaru, for instance, used to be a celebrity in Japan before he broke off his left horn. There’s Hanako, the old Tyrannosaurus, who subverts the stereotype of this being the biggest, baddest dino in all the land, and is instead quite reserved and cozy. Like if a T-Rex retired. And there’s Benkei, the Troodon hatchling who Suzume ends up taking care of. He’s bullied by his siblings, but Suzume finds a kindred heart in him and his remarkable intelligence.
To add to the personality of each dinosaur, between each chapter is a page written by an actual paleontologist who breaks down just how authentically the dinosaur in the previous chapter was portrayed.
I mean really, you can’t find a more authentic dinosaur story out there, and more than just being educational—my little kid heart was jumping for joy learning so much about dinosaurs—these dinosaurs are characters in a story that, actually, is very much about them. They aren’t passengers in a story that just so happens to be set at a dinosaur park. They are stars. Both in the story itself, and in terms of character development.
Animal characters are often used piecemeal. In Lord of the Rings for instance, Bill the Pony has quite a personality, as does Brego, and then there’s Shadowfax who, at the very least, is regal and fast. But there are a lot of other animals that are just there. Not a slight, obviously, I’d never slight Lord of the Rings, but for the sake of highlighting just how well Dinosaur Sanctuary builds characters across species, it begs to be compared.
I’d mentioned earlier that building a character personality can be as simple as a single adjective, and it can, especially with creature characters. Teddy the Niffler, for instance, is mischievous. Every action he makes feeds into that singular description.
Pickett, is stubborn. And notice, even with these potentially negative adjectives, it’s not the be-all-end-all trait. More like the nucleus with which other things revolve. For instance, when Newt Scamander tries to give up Pickett, the little bowtruckle is insistent that he not leave Newt. It’s cute, endearing, and stubborn.
Another example—Avatar: The Last Airbender. Both Appa and Momo have wonderful personalities. Momo is a bit mischievous himself, and Appa is loyal. Every bit of their personality compounds on that starting point.
Let’s get wacky with another comparison—Pokemon. Now, the whole shtick of Pokemon is that these little monsters are like pets, so of course they’re going to have personality, but it’s the same idea as Dinosaur Sanctuary—no character left undeveloped. Ash’s Pikachu is just as big of a personality as Ash. Brock’s Onyx, maybe not so much, but I’m sure the intention was there.
I’ll reference Impossible Creatures again, because it’s a fantastic example. One of the main characters, aside from the two humans Mal and Christopher, is Mal’s pet griffin, Gelifen. He has such a lively personality and while I won’t get into spoilers here (go read it yourself), the true scope of his personality is felt in a big way.
Still though, the truth holds that in most stories, unless it’s about creatures or animals specifically, then animal characters aren’t really that fleshed out. Fantastic Beasts is still the best mainstream example of a story that is about both the people and the creatures, perhaps with a bit of an imbalance at times. No matter the film though, there are new beasts with new personalities that are fun and engaging and almost always cute in some way.
Dinosaur Sanctuary is much the same. It’s about the people and the animals, and the way they coexist. The way they see each other. The inherent dangers between the two species. It’s the same reason why I love Newt Scamander and his trove of magical beasts, because we get to see how he treats them, and the respect they have for each other.
Every character you write is a chance for you to connect with your reader. To give them someone or something else to see themselves in, or relate to. To give them a vessel into the story. Whatever that character is—a Niffler, a Triceratops or a shoe salesman—there’s reason to invest enough time and thought into them to make them the best they can be.
Hey, creatives—whether you’re working with an animal character or a human character, start with a single adjective. Preferably a more complex one, not something like “big” or “small” but rather something intriguing, like mischievous or batty. And build add three more adjectives around that one. Now use those adjectives to build a character.
Hey, fans of Dinosaur Sanctuary—I can only assume you’re also fans of dinosaurs, like me. How has this series sat with your opinion/relationship with dinos?