I really liked this Manga. The story was good, I like the art style. The characters had more depth than I expected. It was easy to understand what their basic temperament was.
The first few pages are in color, something which was nice to set the stage. There are a couple of glossaries of sound effects (in the middle and in the end) which, by the time I realized, I wasn't much interested in because I was very engaged in the story line. I'll integrate the glossary when in future readings.
This story predates the appleseed story, which I have not read but I have heard of it. There is a very interesting letter from the original author of Appleseed in the back, kind of a "send off" giving his characters to the new author, which was very touching.
I consume Japanese manga and anime lightly compared to other people. I've had a subscription to Crunchy Roll, I own DVDs for various series, and I have a small collection of printed manga. So this review comes from someone who understands the basics and is used to enjoying Japanese culture, but I am by no means an avid collector or devotee.
If you are an avid collector or devotee, lets be up front here, you won't find my review very interesting or enjoyable, as my level of sophistication is below yours.
Coming from that perspective, I'm going to say that I enjoyed the story very much. I didn't want to put it down, it really held my interest. I thought the relationships between the various characters was very well thought out. Like many books of this type that are really for adults, the story is fast moving. In this case, "fast moving" means that stuff happens on the page and you have to make some mental leaps to realize what they were trying to say. Kind of like in a movie where they can show two characters talking about how "everythings gonna be all right", and then a cutscene of devastation, and you realize that things really weren't all right, but you skip over the middle and just "realize" what happened. This happens a few times in the book, and its really ok and fine. Just don't expect every moment to be spelled out for you.
Like any graphic novel, the artist occasionally tries to be clever with the way the panes are presented on the page, and that can, very occasionally, cause you to say "oops I read that out of order". You've got to be patient about that, they are just trying to enhance the art. Devotees won't have any problems.
If you are brand new to manga, this story is a good start, very understandable, works on its own. You will have to get used to reading the book "backwards", that is, from right to left, instead of from left to right. But I think you would figure that out just fine on your own, most people do.
Overall I would say its a great book, and I look forward to continuing the series.
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Top reviews from other countries
MR MATTHIEU PITANCE
Not even close to the quality of the original serie.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2017