Aug 26, 2025
Dorothy Band is a rip-roaring radical spin on The Wizard of Oz, but is perhaps a bit too haphazard for its own good. The twist with this adaptation is that after arriving in Munchkinland, Dorothy forms a punk rock band, where the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are her bandmates and Oz is the manager of a major music label who they hope to sign with. It’s a fun spin on the musical aspect of the original film adaptation, and with silly yet amusing comedy, it makes for a fun & breezy beginning.
When Dorothy Band starts to enter more semi-serious territory, it stumbles a
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lot. It jumps into plot lines of overthrowing tyranny and corruption through musical revolution, which is pretty fitting for the punk themes. But the series forgot to really define its world, and these short arcs hardly expand on this in meaningful ways. The storytelling largely feels quick and loose, making the exploration of the setting always feels skin-deep. As a result, the story becomes unengaging and whatever it was going for fell flat.
Characters are also a bit mixed. It’s initially fun when the cast is introduced, as the author created fun connections between them, which was an engaging way to introduce them. Subsequent exploration is not very interesting nor memorable and feels rather arbitrary. We also don’t get to know much about Dorothy, perhaps an effect of having the character-establishing ‘Kansas’ sequence entirely cut out.
The artistic aspects are generally solid. Hong Jacga draws the series in a pencil, sketchbook style, giving Dorothy Band a unique look. There’s fun usage of panels and framing here and there, and fantastical imagery fills the pages. Even so, said imagery feels empty, like collages of concept art which never find a place or function in the story's world itself. The pencil style is a cool approach, but it adds to the sense that the author is sorta just trying out whatever, a sort of "storytelling doodling”. This being a musical series, there’s a few songs here and there, but while they aim to be cathartic, they mostly feel nonsensical.
All things aside, at least the ending is strong, which is something the Hong seems to have a knack for. The general haphazard shortcomings regarding the plot, characters, and art can also be understood as a deliberate part of the storytelling. That still doesn’t make it very enjoyable, as these elements all amalgamate to make the series feel all over the place, keeping the tale from really finding its stride.
[Read on Tapas, review originally written in 2022]
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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