Manga Review: RE:Play, Vols. 1-2

RE:Play, Vols. 1-2

By Christy Lijewski
Tokyopop, 192 pages
Rating: Older Teen (16 +)

After a disastrous falling out with their bassist, Cree’s band is in trouble. Thankfully, she stumbles across a random scruffy, yet cute, homeless guy named Izsak strumming away on a subway platform. After some quick talking she brings him home, let’s him stay in her apartment, and convinces him to join the band. But what secrets does the sexily brooding Izsak have? Why doesn’t he remember much of his past? And who’s the little kid and woman following him around? And what’s with the scars? These are just a few of the questions Christy Lijewski poses in the first two volumes of her supernatural relationship drama, RE:Play.

Writing-wise, Lijewski’s handling of the relationships and character interactions really shines. The back and forth between Cree, her close friend and brother figure Rail, and their drummer Char, are fun to watch and are definitely the kind of quips and witty repartee you’d expect from close friends. The mystery surrounding Izsak and his past is interesting at first, but I felt it was also where the story ran into some problems. The blending of the nebulous, but probably supernatural, nature of his past with the relationship drama doesn’t quite click for me. It’s an odd thing really, because Izsak’s mysterious past and his budding relationship with Cree are fun and engaging, but once we start getting hints of possible vampirism or zombie-ism, mixed with the appearance of a shadow-manipulating pretty boy, the whole thing started to lose me.

The second volume runs into similar problems with one or two new ones. The cliffhanger from the first volume is resolved in almost no time at all, and there’s a bizarre memory lapse on Rail’s part regarding his near death at the hands of the shadow-manipulating pretty boy, and… actually, not much else really happens for the rest of the second volume. While the relationships and conversations are again fun to watch, the book still had this air of “oops” about it. It felt like Lijewski had changed her mind after the first volume was out, decided that she wanted to go in a slightly different direction than originally planned and this was the volume used to try and bring the story back to where it was before all the craziness of first volumes finale. It almost felt like she’d hit a reset button and really nothing major, aside from a few flashbacks for the supporting cast, is added to the puzzle and none of the questions are really answered.

Lijewski’s art isn’t too shabby and her clothing designs are fantastic and lovely to look at. She does a great job at nailing alt-rocker chic with the cast’s outfits. I’m actually a bit surprised that TP hasn’t attempted to spin off a few of the designs into merchandising–they’re just that eye catching–and I can easily see people putting down cash for barbed wire collars. There’s definitely an improvement between the first and second volume. The second volume looks much crisper and cleaner than the first volume and I get the feeling Lijewski’s art is just going to be even better in the third. The brief sketches and design bits we get as extras at the end of each volume are a real treat. I’m a fan of sketch book extras so I really enjoyed seeing her uninked pencils for some of the character designs.

All in all RE:Play is a bit of an odd creature. I really enjoyed the relationships and all the drama that comes with them, but the supernatural aspects were handled in a way that just pulled me from the story completely. It’s almost like reading two books at time, or getting a bit of one book mixed in with another. Still, between the fun script and Lijewski’s art, including her way too adorable chibi moments, I was able to get over my problems with the supernatural elements and still enjoy the two volumes.

Volumes one and two of RE:Play are available now.