How do you make a talking mouse that can turn into any weapon you can imagine any cooler? Make him cute as hell!
Creative Staff
Created by: Tow Ubukata
Manga by: Yoshitoki Oima
Translation/Adaptation: Andria Cheng
What They Say
“I’d rather be dead.” Rune Balot was a lost girl with nothing to live for, when a man named Shell took her in and cared for her… until he tried to murder her. Standing at the precipice of death, Rune is saved by Dr. Easter, a private investigator, who uses an experimental procedure known as “Mardock Scramble 09.” The procedure grants Balot extraordinary abilities and now Rune must decide whether to use her new powers to help Dr. Easter bring Shell to justice, or if she has the will to keep living a life that’s been broken so badly.
Technical
This is my first review of a Kodansha Comics title, and I’m relieved to see the quality of this book is up to par with current English publishers. The images all fit the page size correctly, the ink is clean and solid, and none of the dialogue is lost in the spine or cut off on the edge. In fact, if this book didn’t have “Kodansha Comics” labels, I would have thought it was a Del Rey title. While I don’t know exactly what is going on behind the doors of Del Rey as Kodansha Comics pulls titles back under their label, I do know that Random House distributes both labels. Also, this first volume of Mardock Scramble has the same type of cover texture and paper stock quality and color, so I wouldn’t be too surprised to find out Kodansha Comics is using the same materials and printer as Del Rey for its books. Ultimately, that is good news for fans as Del Rey has always put out quality books as far as the materials are concerned.
Other similarities between this book and Del Rey releases are the choice to place the book’s publication information (dates, copyrights, translator, etc.), a similar price point, and a description of Honorifics at the front of the book compared to how some publishers move that info to the back. One final odd similarity between this Kodansha Comics release and Del Rey is that this book has a Japanese language preview of the next volume, along with advertisements for Air Gear, Negima, and Fairy Tale. Three titles that Kodansha Comics has pulled back from Del Rey, but I’m surprised Kodansha Comics didn’t highlight any of their new series.
Beyond the quality of the book’s printing, the art is also good, albeit not spectacular. Oima does an excellent job with panel layout; highly varied and successfully lending itself to action scenes by creating many small panels in frantic scenes or using a panel spanning two pages for a visual punch. I also like the character designs for the protagonist Balot and her friend OEufcoque, and the detail shown in some of the cityscapes. On the other hand, I don’t like the lack of background detail in most scenes, nor the similarity in character design between Shell, the main antagonist, and Dr. Easter. Oima also has a bit of trouble rendering hands, they often look awkward.
I have never reviewed a title translated by Andria Cheng, but she did an excellent job. The adaptation is free of grammatical errors or missing words, and reads well. My only complaint, and unrelated to Cheng’s work, is Ubukata’s choice of names for some the characters. Dr. Easter, Dimsdale Boiled, OEufcoque? I rolled my eyes more than a few times over these names.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Mardock Scramble starts out awkwardly. The first page is dialogue between two people urgently chasing someone. The next two pages switches to a young woman and an older man in a car. The woman, Balot, is reminiscing on the way the man, Shell, rescued her from the streets. A brief flashback to their first meeting, and right back into the car where Shell suddenly kills Balot before walking away from the car and blowing it up. What the hell?
Awkward and rushed is the best way I can describe this beginning. Needless to say, the early part of this book is less than impressive. But, don’t give up on this book after the first 15 pages because it gets really quite good after that.
While the jarring beginning leaves Shell’s reasoning in the dark, Balot’s life grows instantly more interesting. Badly injured and near death, Balot’s subconscious is forced to communicate with a doctor that asks if she wants to live or die. Suddenly Balot wakes up in a strange room, her burns are gone and she seems to be completely recovered. Only, her voice is gone and she can see strings connecting herself to everything around her. At the same time, she knows those strings don’t really exist, but somehow she can cause electronics to do her bidding. She can turn off the light, instantly knows what time it is, and knows everything in the room and where it is without looking directly at it.
The story goes through some explanations about Balot’s new body and abilities, and the fact that she has to use radios or speakers around her to talk to people since Shell destroyed her vocal cords when he cut her throat. It is standard fare for a first volume, and not a completely original idea, but the introduction of OEufcoque sets this story apart from others in the sci-fi genre. OEufcoque is a specialized intelligent weapon that can morph into anything, but generally goes by his original mouse form. Not only cute, but he is very intelligent and aware of Balot’s feelings, unlike Dr. Easter who is the standard absent-minded inventor type. Together, OEufcoque and Dr. Easter have been hunting Shell, who is responsible for the murder of six girls before his failed attempt to kill Balot.
It’s from this point in the story that things start to shine. As a character, Balot could easily slip into a mistake made by many authors where the protagonist suddenly starts kicking butt and fighting evil. That’s not the case with Balot. She doesn’t want to seek revenge on Shell, nor does she know if she even wants to help Dr. Easter and OEufcoque, despite the fact they saved her life. Her first action is to chase after Shell, using her newfound control of electronics to find him. She desperately wants to know why Shell saved her from the streets only to try and murder her. Shell claims he has amnesia and tries to kill Balot again, but OEufcoque saves her and takes her back to Dr. Easter.
Things are really screwed up for Balot, and despite OEufcoque’s attempt to convince her he cares and wants to be her new family, she still doesn’t know what to do. Any further discussions would really be a spoiler, but let me say that she makes decisions that I would think a real person would make. It’s powerful and dark stuff, and I love it. Throw more assassins at Balot, leave enough mystery about Shell’s motives and OEufcoque’s background, and I’m very hungry for the next volume.
In Summary
This manga by Oima is based on a novel by Ubukata; creator of Fafner, Le Chevalier D’Eon, Pilgrim Jager and Chaos Legion among others. The Mardock Scramble manga is a well-timed release for Kodansha Comics considering the first of two movie adaptions are due to be released by Sentai Filmworks one month after the street date for volume one of this manga series. Not a bad job of marketing by Kodansha Comics, planned or not. Either way, I definitely enjoyed this first book enough to search out Ubukata’s novel and probably buy the anime release as well.
This first volume of Mardock Scramble starts out a little rough, but quickly gains its stride with Balot’s rebirth after her near death experience. Balot is a likeable and believable character (aside from the techy body) as she makes decisions through the story that are believable and emotional. I was glad to see her waver in decisions before making selfish choices. I have no doubt that she will eventually become a heroic character, but I like to see characters grow into someone admirable.
To sum it up, I’m happy with my first venture into Kodansha Comics catalogue and looking forward to more Mardock Scramble.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A-
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Kodansha Comics
Release Date: August 23rd, 2011
MSRP: $10.99
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