Phantom, Vols. 1 - 3

Story by Ki-Hoon Lee, Art by Seung-Yip Cho
Published by Tokyopop
Rating: Teen (13+)

After the earth is devastated by “Meteor Rain,” the world falls to ruin as the various surviving countries battle for the world’s remaining natural resources. Eventually a peace is brokered and the planet is unified under the auspices of the UN. Enter K, a young idealistic member of the Korean police force’s mechanized division. During a routine battle with members of a terrorist group named Raven, K finds himself drawn into a shadowy world of conspiracies and secrets where his beliefs are sorely challenged. Oh, and he may or may not be some kind of Gundam-esque “newtype” with special powers and abilities.

That one paragraph sums up the good and bad about Phantom quite nicely. At times, the series feels like a slightly more serious sci-fi action series. Yet K behaves like a typical shonen character, though not quite as stupid or silly. It creates an odd tonal clash within the series that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. At its best, K seems like a fairly naive and idealistic young man facing the harsh realities of his world; at its worst, he sounds like a typical shonen lead character shouting about how he won’t let himself be beaten for one reason or another. (I suppose that could be a plus for some folks, though.)

Generally speaking, Ki-Hoon Lee’s writing isn’t too shabby. The story isn’t exceptional, but he does a decent job making the whole situation interesting and entertaining while mixing in bits of social commentary, usually in the form of anti-globalization messages. The big baddies of the series are the multinational corporations which seized power following the “Meteor Rain.” They’re given private armies and security firms, who have the best equipment and mechas, beyond even those possessed by the police and military. It’s an oddly timely message, given the current Blackwater scandal in Iraq. I have no idea how the Korean media has covered the US war in Iraq, but since the book was published post-invasion, it’s possible Lee took inspiration from certain events.

Seung-Yip Cho’s artwork is pretty good. There were some choppy moments in the first volume, but he seems to work things out as the series progresses. Most of the problems with the artwork come from the mecha designs. They’re nice looking, but they tend to look alike. By the second and third volumes, it’s a bit easier to tell the different mechas apart, and their fight scenes become a bit clearer and easier to follow as well.

I have to admit that I was surprised by this series–I didn’t expect to like it half as much as I did. It’s not perfect, nor does it break new ground, but it’s entertaining enough for me to want to see how it all plays out.

Volumes one through three of Phantom are available now.

Back in May, I posed a question to the manwha-reading community: just what the heck was going on with ICE Kunion? I’m pleased to report that Yen Press has acquired the entire ICE Kunion catalog, which means that we might just find out how Bring It On!, Goong, and You’re So Cool actually end. Kai-Ming Cha of Publisher’s Weekly has the scoop:

Remember ICE Kunion, the copublishing venture between Korean publishers Sigonsa, Seoul Cultural and Haksen, aimed at bringing Korean manhwa to the American market? The ICE Kunion list is being completely absorbed by Hachette’s new graphic novel imprint Yen Press with plans to begin publishing all the ICE Kunion licenses beginning in spring of 2008.

Yen Press expects to release 30-40 volumes of Korean manhwa next year. “We plan to pick up all the existing [ICE Kunion] titles,” said Yen Press co-director of publishing Kurt Hassler. “We’re going to continue everything, so fans shouldn’t worry. None of these series are going to fall into a void.”

Current inventory on the market bears the ICE Kunion imprint, but Yen Press plans to phase out that brand, and subsequent volumes will display the Yen Press label. The company also plans to continue licensing new manhwa titles.

Click here for the full article.

Taking a page from the KRAFT™ playbook, I’m offering a new “product” for Manga Recon readers: manga minis! Sure, they’re lower in fat, carbs, and calories, but they have the same great taste that you’ve come to expect from regular size reviews. I’ll be posting a fresh batch of minis on the last day of every month. Each batch will contain a mixture of new titles, reissues, and later volumes of previously reviewed series, as well as the occasional old-school title that’s worth the extra effort to find.

In the Starlight, Vol. 1

By Kyungok Kang
NETCOMICS, 224 pp.
Rating: All Ages

If you’re a fan of Keiko Takemiya or Moto Hagio, I encourage you to seek out Kyungok Kang’s In the Starlight. This Korean series is a bit more recent than To Terra or A, A’, but its aesthetic and shojo-esque approach to science fiction will remind readers of the Magnificent 49ers’ best space operas.

Kang’s story focuses on Shinhae, a high school student with a keen interest in science. Sensing that Shinhae is a curious, open-minded soul, her classmate Donghoon asks her if she’d be willing to house Sarah, a Korean-American exchange student. The catch: Sarah has ESP. But not just run-of-the-mill, hear-what-your-friend-is-thinking ESP—Sarah can actually harm other people with her thoughts. Undeterred, Shinhae welcomes Sarah and Radion, Sarah’s telepathic bodyguard, into her home. As if the introduction of Sarah and Radion wasn’t enough to hold our interest, Kang adds another wrinkle to her story when a UFO crashes in Shinhae’s neighborhood. Do Sarah and her sixth sense have something to do with the visitors’ arrival? You probably don’t need a Magic 8 Ball to arrive at the answer.

While its plotline feels like an amalgam of Medium, Never Been Kissed, and The Thing from Another World, In the Starlight offers many pleasant surprises for the reader. Shinhae is an appealing character, not least because she demonstrates genuine intellectual curiosity—a rare trait in shojo heroines. I also found her rocky relationship with Sarah compelling and plausible. Their petty squabbles, unspoken romantic rivalry, and intense bonding through confessional conversation reminded me of my own adolescent friendships. I admit, however, that my favorite part of Starlight was its retro look. Given the decade in which it was first published, it’s no surprise that the male aliens look like refugees from an intergalactic hair metal band. (The otherworldly visitors sport fabulous hair, ridiculously tight pants, and artfully tied headbands.) But don’t let the big hair and androgynously beautiful men fool you: In the Starlight offers readers classic sci-fi thrills as well as earnest—but honest—teen drama.

Volume two will arrive in stores in May. Volumes one and two are also available online through NET Comics’ pay-per-view system.

Kurogane, Vol. 3

By Kei Tome
Del Rey, 272 pp.
Rating: 13+

Volume 3 of this criminally underappreciated series follows the same basic template as the first two: Jintetsu, our favorite Frankensamurai, wanders the countryside, coming to the aid of (or into conflict with) an assortment of characters. In volume two, Jintetsu’s adventures had a slight whiff of been-there, seen-that-on-Samurai Champloo, as he encountered a beautiful blind performer and Makoto, a fierce, cross-dressing girl doing her best to pass as a boy. The first chapter of volume three is of a piece with volume two, as Jintetsu crosses paths with a creepy dollmaker in a remote mountainous region. But before Kurogane devolves into just another supernatural thriller, Toume takes the narrative in a new direction. In a complex, four-chapter story arc, we learn that Jintetsu and Makoto’s previous encounter wasn’t simple coincidence—the two have a tangled history that pits them against each other in a bitter yakuza dispute. Yet their rivalry is tempered by honor and grudging mutual respect—this is, after all, a period piece, despite the mecha elements—that compels them to protect and assist one another. Yes, we’ve seen the “I’m gonna save you so I can kill you later!” schtick before. But like so many other recycled elements in Kurogane, the gambit feels fresh and plausible in Kei Toume’s capable hands. I can’t wait to read volume 4.

Volume 4 arrived in stores on March 27th. Click here to read the PCS review of volume 2.

Trinity Blood, Vol. 2

Story by Sunao Yoshida; Art by Kiyo Kyujyo
Tokyopop, 168 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

Volume two of Trinity Blood offers more gloriously silly supernatural smackdowns—including confrontations between Our Vatican Gang and blood-thirtsy trees, mersharks, and vampires—as well as slapstick galore. The layout is, at times, fiendishly difficult to follow, a problem compounded by Kiyo Kyujyo’s decision to cram every panel with an extra helping of dialogue and detail. (I’m beginning to think he studied with my fourth grade art teacher, Ms. Schill, who insisted that real art covers every square inch of the canvas.) The pacing, too, is hectic. Characters chibi-fy with clockwork precision—once every three pages, or so it seems—and 50% of the dialogue seems to be spoken AT 70 DECIBELS OR LOUDER. Still, I’m hooked, so I’ll be shelling out the clams for volume 3 in the hopes that we’ll see more of the robotic Father Tres and coolly calculating Cardinal Caterina and less of the shrill, ditzy Esther.

Volume 3 arrives in stores on July 10th. Click here to read the PCS review of volume one.

Yukiko’s Spinach

By Frederic Boilet
Fanfare/Ponet Mon, 144 pages
Rating: Mature (18+)

One of my perennial gripes about comics—and by comics, I also include manga and manwha—is the way in which women are drawn, from the watermelon-shaped breasts to the barely-there outfits found on characters as different as Supergirl and Orihime Inoue. So it was refreshing to see a beautiful but normal female body, imperfections and all, gracing the pages of Yukiko’s Spinach. If only the book was more than just a highbrow validation of the male gaze!

The story itself is paper-thin: a French manga-ka meets a young Japanese woman, becomes infatuated with her, and makes her the subject of his comic-in-progress. He ruminates about Yukiko’s shoulders and tummy and face, draws intimate pictures of their time together, and waxes poetic about her subtle physical imperfections (i.e. a birthmark on her forehead). All of these ruminations might be tolerable—even poetic—if the artist’s obsession with Yukiko wasn’t utterly superficial. Yet we never learn why the artist has fixated on her. Is she intelligent? Interesting? Funny? Employed? And if she’s such a singular presence, why does the artist cheerfully accept a look-alike to be her replacement muse? None of these questions are addressed; instead, Boilet offers us lovely but empty experiments in visual storytelling (hello, time-bending narrative devices!) that only underscore the shallowness of his conceit.

The bottom line: if you loved The Double Life of Veronique, Yukiko’s Spinach might be your kind of manga. If that movie struck you as a stylish but silly excuse to film Irene Jacob in various states of undress, skip Yukiko and buy one of Fanfare’s first-rate titles—The Times of Botchan, The Building Opposite, The Walking Man, Japan as Viewed by 17 Creators—instead.

Yukiko’s Spinach was originally published in 2003; this review examines the second edition, which was released on March 7th.

Banya the Explosive Delivery Man, Vol. 1

By Kim Young-Oh
Dark Horse, 176 pp.
Rating: 16+

If you like your manhwa with a healthy dose of pow! and splat!, then Banya The Explosive Delivery Man is for you. This shamelessly entertaining story plays like a cross between Dune, Mad Max, and Lord of the Rings, blending fantasy and sci-fi elements with plenty of butt-kicking action sequences. Kim Young-Oh’s artwork grabs us from the very first panel, tossing us headlong into a desert battle between human soldiers and a horde of Tolkein-esque monsters called Torren. Out of this chaos a lone figure emerges: a scruffy young mail carrier named Banya. We see him outwit the Torren, vault over the walls of a fortress, and deliver a letter to the besieged general within. We’re then treated to a bit of comic business as Banya informs the general that it will cost him “100 batt for standard, 180 batt for priority, 250 batt for express” with “an additional charge of 100 batt for danger” to send a reply. (No word on whether Saturday delivery is an extra charge.)

As his delivery spiel suggests, Banya is a hero in the classic shonen mold: brash, gifted, self-interested, and quick with the one-liners. Like all good shonen heroes, he has a posse that includes a feisty female foil and a comic-relief sidekick. Mei, the posse’s estrogen-bearer and conscience, is an especially appealing character. Not only is she brave and strong, she’s also cunning, resourceful, fiercely moral, and loyal—Mei delivers a mean karate chop and a healthy dose of motherly scolding without pausing to worry about her bra size or Banya’s feelings towards her.

Banya is the debut title in Dark Horse’s new manhwa line, and its action-oriented storytelling fits perfectly into the Dark Horse catalog of manly-man manga. Like Samurai Executioner and Reiko the Zombie Shop, Banya benefits from top-notch production values: slick cover design, snappy translation, quality paper stock. More importantly, however, the content lives up to the packaging. The story is expertly told with bold, kinetic images and minimal editorial intervention from the author. Banya is one of the first manga/manwha I’ve read in ages that doesn’t saddle the reader with a prologue (“Once upon a time, humans and Torren lived in harmony…”) or long patches of expository dialogue (“Gosh, how long has it been since the Torren first started the war with the humans?” “It all began with the incident at X nearly 150 years ago…”). Instead, we experience the story through the heroes’ eyes as a group of apolitical, slightly mercenary folk who profit from their derring-do in a time of monsters and military conflict.

The bottom line: Banya delivers. (Groan all you want, but it’s true.)