Aqua Knight, Vol. 1

Rating:
Summary: Aquatic sci-fi/fantasy!
Review: Fans of the author's previous work, Battle Angel Alita, may be a little surprised by the subject of this manga. Instead of the dark, far future of 'Alita', we are introduced to a sunshiny, medieval-flavored fantasy realm at the edge of the world. A terrific change from most comics out there, I was quite impressed with Aqua Knight, and I'm waiting for future volumns. The characters are well-defined, for the most part, and provide an emotional element to the story which helps to drive it along. As a brief note for the uninitiated, the Japanese in general are quite comfortable depicting nudity, child or adult, and this is apparent in Aqua Knight. I personally feel that this does not detract from the book's merit in any way, I merely mention this in passing for the benefit of those who have not previosly experienced the manga art form, and would like to. In that case, or if you are already a fan, I can recommend this book as a good introduction.

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: I don't know what I was expecting from this book but it wasn't what I got. I suppose since it was written by the same person who wrote Battle Angel Alita (which I loved) I was expecting something a little more along the same style. Not to say that you won't like it but keep in mind that this is almost the exact opposite of Battle Angel Alita in art, detail, story, style, and humor.

While his previous work was a serious story about a dark forboding future with cyborgs and maniacs, Aqua knight is a light hearted tale about a naive little boy who wants to become a knight (whatever their definition of knight is supposed to be.)
Not to say that I don't like to read funny things. My favorite writer is Rumiko Takahashi and I think her works are hilarious.
The jokes in Aqua Knight though are more lame than anything and almost disturbing. His biggest gag seems to be the little island boy that wears a little, whatchamacallit, skirt, buttflap thing, that flies up every 4 pages or so revealing his, ummm, boyish parts. Maybe that doesn't annoy some people but that sure irritated me.

It is also full of (to point of boredom) little facts about the made-up world and island they live on. It's like a history lesson on something that doesn't even exist. Ok it wasn't that bad, I'm just getting really into the negative feel of this review, hehe, but keep in mind that this is one of it's characteristics.

OH OH one more thing before I forget. It takes awhile to get used to the fact that it's in kind of a someone telling a story form. Rather than having them just talk and let you watch what's happening it'e more like "the girl woke up surprised at her surroundings. She was afraid at first of the large man's appearence but was quickly put at ease by his kind words".
I suppose I'm just not used to reading manga like that so that's also why I didn't like this too much.
This does not mean u will not like this. In fact u may love it. There are some very impressive pictures of a HUGE dragon and a really amazing water fall type thing at "one of the edges of the Earth"