Aquarian Age - Juvenile Orion Volume 1

Rating:
Summary: Is this Clamp X?
Review: At first when I saw the cover of the manga I thought it was Clamp X/1999, but when I bought it the story was kind of like X, except the girl is the one who left seven years ago and the boy is cold but good looking long time friend. It just strike me as odd, in a way.

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Wonderful
Review: I bought volume 1 of Juvenile Orion on a whim from a local Barnes and Noble. I expected an average manga with slightly above average artwork, like so many other series, but I was pleasently surprised. The story is captivating, the artwork is phenominal, and the characters have depth to them, which I find increasingly hard to find in manga. Honestly, I hadn't even thought of the similarities to X until I read the reviews, and I believe that, while slightly reminiscent, the differences are great enough to create a unique and absorbing plot that will keep you reading. I immediately went out and bought the next three volumes after reading the first, and they were even better than the first. I highly suggest this wonderful series to anyone who likes almost any type of manga!

Rating:
Summary: Ignore the naysayers
Review: I do not often feel compelled to write reviews, but I thought I would do so for those who may have gotten a false impression of the book based on the vague claims that "this is a rip of of CLAMP's X". I will not deny that there are some similar elements, and I won't try to pretend that that isn't part of the reason I like it.

Animes and mangas often become formulaic by their very nature. This story is about a young girl destined to lead a group of bishounen against an opposing force. In this sense it is more like Fushigi Yuugi than it is X, not only in the disproportionate male to female ratio, but in the tendency of several characters to fall for the blushing, naive heroine like she's the best thing since sliced bread.

Now let's get some of the similarities between X and Juvenile Orion out of the way. Mana and Kaname's relationship is very much like Kotori and Kamui's, a girl who ernestly tries to recapture what she had with her childhood friend. Although it is Mana that returns after years away, as opposed to Kamui, is is still the guy who, for one reason or another, thinks it best that they keep their distance. Kaname *looks* like Kamui as much as he acts like him, from his messy, dark hair to the wings, but if wings, black hair and a tendency to be antisocial makes Juvenile Orion a rip off of X...well then I can think of several other series that should be considered rip offs as well.

As well, the father/son (or slightly more, depending how you want to read into it) relationship between Tomonori and Amou is a vague reminder of Seishirou and Subaru in Tokyo Babylon (another of CLAMP's works), with their roles somewhat reversed--but I won't go into detail for fear of ruining any plot twists.

That said, let me tell you why I enjoy Juvenile Orion. The art of the manga is absolutely *beautiful* and is what first attracted me to the series, you can call it a rip off of CLAMP's work if you want, but only when the artist starts to distort body proportions as heavily as they are in X can you truly call it a rip off. There is a mastery of screentones in Juvenile Orion that CLAMP, in X at least, could only dream of. The panels are detailed but not too cluttered, and very rarely did I get confused just because there was too much going on on one page.

I've only read the first three books, so I cannot say whether or not the plot closely parallels the storyline of X. I do not, however, know what will happen ultimately, nor do I know how anyone who hasn't even read the manga could claim they do.

The point of this review is that you cannot look at the elements of a story and scream "plagarism!" Often works get inspired by similar things, or inspired by each other. It is not a crime to read a manga and say "I want to write a story that has that kind of effect on people". As a writer I know you pull your inspiration from many sources, you assemble it, and you personalize it. If Juvenile Orion was as predictable as people have made it out to be, I would not be eagerly awaiting the next book.

Tokyo Babylon is my favorite manga of all time, and I love CLAMP, but X is only decent in my mind. Why is that? The characters...it takes fully developed characters to get into a story, and CLAMP simply waited too long before getting into the hearts, souls, and minds of the people they were killing off. I like the characters of Juvenile Orion, they are what keeps me coming back to the story ^^

Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: i know people have given this series a bit of a hard time because of its "similarities" to clamps X/1999. now, im writing this review after only reading the first volume, but, if my opinion hadnt been tainted, or pre-ordained by others i wouldnt have made the connection. sure kusakabe kaname looks very kamui-like, and the certain "limbs" he develops resemble certain parts of X/1999 + X the film's main character kamui's, but i can also count numerous anime and manga where one character or another resembles another character or is sporting big black wings of destruction :P
as far as story line goes, yes there may be certain things that would remind you of clamps X but only in a very vague and unclear way. as well with clamps kamui and kotori, the relationship between kaname and mana differs greatly by so far appearing to be much more romantic then the latter.
after reading the first volume i've thouroughly enjoyed the characters and story and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys X as well as others who arent familiar with the series.
happy reading ^^

Rating:
Summary: Can anyone say, rip-off?
Review: I would mostly consider myself a veteran of the industry, so without any misgivings I feel I can say, "Is this an rip-off of Clamp's classic X or what???" Before i even read the plot synopsis I could TELL EXACTLY what the story would be, which certainly doesn't entice me to read it. Not only is the bad coverup by changing Kamui's character to a girl tediously self-evident, even the artwork is a CLAMP rip-off! With so much good manga out there, I can tell you now- LOOK ELSEWHERE or better yet, READ THE ORIGINAL!!

Rating:
Summary: Can anyone say, rip-off?
Review: I would mostly consider myself a veteran of the industry, so without any misgivings I feel I can say, "Is this an rip-off of Clamp's classic X or what???" Before i even read the plot synopsis I could TELL EXACTLY what the story would be, which certainly doesn't entice me to read it. Not only is the bad coverup by changing Kamui's character to a girl tediously self-evident, even the artwork is a CLAMP rip-off! With so much good manga out there, I can tell you now- LOOK ELSEWHERE or better yet, READ THE ORIGINAL!!

Rating:
Summary: Is this Clamp X?
Review: The title says it: this will leave you in awe. Although at first a little confusing, Juvinile Orion is an addictive manga with, might I add, beautyful art. Although at the beginning i tis rather confusing, things slowly begin to fall into place. Overall, i highly recomend this for those of you who are looking for something interesting and new to add to your manga collection.

Rating:
Summary: Aquarian Age????
Review: This book starts out kind of slow in the sense that you don't know who is who and it's rather confusing unless you stick with it. But if you do (which i highly recomend) you'll be rewarded with the story and action of the manga. It took me a while to figure out who were the characters but i read it and i wanted more!!!!If you like manga then you'll like this!!!!I recomend this to perple over the age of 12.

Rating:
Summary: Well, I like it anyway :(
Review: Well i read it before reviews, so i guess it was a good thing because I liked it even though others did not. I never got the oppurtunity to read this CLAMP X/1999 thing so, I enjoyed. It is a bit confusing, but the art is great and so are the characters so I would recommend it dispit it possibly being a ripoff.