Though manga doesn't often appeal to me, one thing that Japanese storytelling often does well is to bring together science-fiction elements with spiritual or supernatural ones, and that's certainly the case here. I've also perceived a tendency to gratuitously sexualize teenage girls in a great deal of manga and anime, and unfortunately, that's also the case here. Ultimately, the most off-putting quality of this book, though, is how difficult it is to delve into the story. Accessibility is not a strong suit here.
A buried alien starship on the dark side of the moon is ready to give up its secrets, and those who want to harness its incredible power draw in an ever-tightening circle of deception and death. The key players: young paranormal Sunao Oumi, an unwilling participant in this madness; M-ZAK, a beautiful and deadly U.N. super-agent; Kei Heidemann, Sunao's long-lost -- and assumed long-dead - love; and Apep Heidemann, Kei's brother, a mysterious scientist with access to the otherworldly technology, and in apparent contact with the aliens themselves and their death-dealing sentinels, who dispatch an armed-to-the-teeth elite U.N strike team like so many toy soldiers. And Apep himself may have unlocked more than mere secrets--he may have transformed into something more -- much more -- than human.
I've italicized the above synopsis because it's drawn from the back cover of the book (and the Dark Horse website). Coming up with a synopsis on my own -- something I do with every review -- wasn't really an option here, because I found it impossible to piece everything together. I can't even reconcile all of what's in that synopsis with what I read here.
Still, there's no denying that the artwork is stunningly beautiful. The Sentinel aliens are somehow both lovely and grotesque all at once, reminding me of the sort of thing one might see in Guy Davis's The Marquis or Phil Hester and Mike Huddleston's The Coffin. The energy and maturity the creators bring to the artwork is impressive. The gratuitous T&A artwork, on the other hand, distracts from the story, often standing out as out of place and painfully obvious.
The political and corporate elements in the story bring an even brainier quality to the plotting. They make for an interesting contrast with the more surreal elements that dominate the book. The writing is truly intriguing, and that makes the inaccessible and gratuitous qualities here all the more frustrating, as they act as barricades to the strengths that lie at the heart of the creators' vision.
Note: This trade paperback was not among this week's new releases.
