Creative Talent
Writer/Artist: Kairi Fujiyama
Translated by: Mari Morimoto
What They Say
Leila is training to be a great warrior. Her teacher, Issa, is a courageous champion with a rebellious streak. But Leila wants more from Issa than his expertise. He’s the guardian of a powerful magic weapon, the Dragon Eye. With the Eye, Leila can become the world’s greatest soldier – and finally avenge her parents’ death!
The Review
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover. But of course they’re wrong, as they usually are, because you can very easily judge a book by its cover and quite a few people do, particularly when it comes to comics. But when you do judge a book by its cover you often judge wrong, which would be a more accurate truism; a truism that would actually be true. If I, for example, had judged the second volume of Dragon Eye by its exceedingly simple, almost cut-and-paste cover, then I would have gone wrong. Fortunately, I am a highly-trained reviewing professional. I have to actually read the book before I judge it. And in this case, it turned out to be a pretty fun experience.
When a book opens with a scene of the hero facing off against something that looks like a giant chicken, at least you know it’s not going to be pretentious. The hero in question has spiky hair and an oversized sword – two things I’m not especially fond of – but I really grew to like him during the course of the story. He tries to understand his opponents before he whales on them, so he’s a nice change of pace from your stereotypical yelling, power-blasting upstart shonen lead. He’s also the type who isn’t serious unless he needs to be, which reminds me pleasantly of Vash and Captain Tylor and other heroes who pretend to be goofier than they really are.
This series is apparently in the good old cliff-hanger tradition. It wraps up the giant chicken story and ends mid-way through the next dracule-hunting mission. The squad doesn’t get far enough in the mission for me to give a summary of what happens, but I will say that there’s one humdinger of an action scene where they have to fight off flying dracules while crossing a chasm on a rope. The situation and terrain are used really well: there’s a very different dynamic from the land fights and you never feel like it’s the same old thing arbitrarily given a new setting. The suspense is great, too.
In Summary
I had a good time reading this book. At first I thought the art was a bit lacking, but the style grew on me as I became accustomed to it. It definitely tends toward the simple, but there’s some real energy to it. I guess you could say it’s wirey: lean, but tough and quick. The story-telling hits the right notes for a work that’s pure entertainment. My main complaint (a minor one) is that the comedy doesn’t always work. (Notice to all manga artists: slapstick is never funny when it suggests actual pain and suffering. Save the blood for the battles.) It’s good, clean fun, for the most part. There’s one brief, slightly gruesome detail in the fight with the giant chicken, and the only fan-service is in the form of a poster and that’s played for laughs. This isn’t the kind of volume that stands on its own very well; but as a chapter in an ongoing story it’ll do just fine.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Del Rey Manga
Release Date: September 25th, 2007
MSRP: $10.99