By Benjamin
Tokyopop, 144 pp.
Rating: 16+

Orange is a young girl on the brink of adulthood and as such she suffers from many of the same problems that people of her age tend to. Strong feelings of alienation and isolation assault her constantly. She feels disconnected from and full of contempt for her friends and family, so with little to live for and with a strong sense of disappointment and disgust for the world she decides to commit suicide. Only the timely intervention by a mysterious drunken man keeps her from throwing herself off the roof, and Orange is the tale of what happens next.

Orange is a rather tough nut to crack. Visually it’s absolutely amazing. With fully painted art presented on glossy paper in an oversized package, it’s really a lovely thing to look at. Benjamin’s work has a slightly blurred look which gives it the feeling of seeing the world through a vaseline-smeared haze and is absolutely beautiful. Even though the visual detail might not be that high, I found myself getting lost in the panels, simply staring and admiring them as individual works of art. He does some interesting thing with the colors, giving Orange’s world a washed out blue look which hammers home her deep sense of depression. It really works well in a quick scene that shows her sneaking from her room past her parents. We see their world is one of yellows and reds, and then Orange enters the panel, her bedroom door to room ajar as a large swath of blue spills forth, contrasting heavily with the sunset colors that accompany her parents.

While the artwork is amazing, the story isn’t. The majority of Orange takes place in flashback, detailing the events of Orange’s life following her abortive suicide attempt. It’s full of clunky narration which reveals her to be your typical angst-ridden teen. The utter contempt and disdain she has for the world around her and everyone in it comes across, for the most part, as terribly irrational. But then again, that’s part of being a teen, I suppose. Lord knows I remember sharing similar feeling back then, but from where I am now it all seems a bit… misplaced? There are reasons to be depressed and hate the world, but Orange doesn’t seem to have any outside of being a bit of an oddball and not quite fitting in with the crowd. She laments adults caring for stupid things, but doesn’t elaborate on what she thinks should matter or what these stupid things are. It’s just a blind, irrational, hatred and depression. At any rate, the plot itself is a bit muddled and slice-of-life. Glimpses of how miserable she is. Brief interactions with the drunk that saved her, Dashu, that never really amount to anything despite her quiet obsession with him. I’m afraid It just didn’t click for me at all.

But there’s more to Orange than just the story you’re expecting. There’s nearly 20 pages of extras, including more of Benjamin’s jaw-droppingly beautiful artwork and a few short essays by Benjamin about the creation of Orange. When it comes right down to it, Orange is very much a mixed bag of lovely artwork burdened with an unengaging story.

Orange is available now.