Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Tsutomu Nihei
What They Say:
The 200,000 KM diameter artificial celestial body of APOSIMZ. Most of its volume is its core space, which is covered by a superstructural shell. Fifty centuries ago, the people who lost a war against the core lost their right to reside legitimately in APOSIMZ, and were left behind on the extremely cold surface. They face the spreading Frame disease. And aggressive automatons which appear frequently on the ruins level. Yet even so, somehow people survive.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
APOSIMZ has cover a lot of different things in its first three chapters, the first of which was quite the extended piece. Tsutomu Nihei is not one to show his hand quickly or easily, more immersing the reader into his world and extending clues and ideas rather than exposition and information dumps. The series really only started clicking for me in the third chapter as a few more explanations came out and it started making a little more sense while also gaining a bigger purpose with what Etherow is up to and how Titania is working with him to achieve it. That helped to make the narrative itself a bit stronger and easier to connect with going forward, which shifted from being curious about the next chapter to eager for the next chapter – all while knowing it’s still going to be a slow burn kind of series.
The journey aspect of this series is one that I can see being a bit draining at some point but there’s just so much to explore in terms of variety that I’m kind of anxious to see more – though glad it’s not a weekly serialized book that would draw it out too much. Etherow and Titania’s arrival in a new town has them curious to see what’s going on here, especially as there are so many diseased frames about from what they can tell, and many that they can’t since a lot aren’t obvious until they change modes. This is a town that looks like a kind of barter town place with so many coming to look for work before they lose themselves to the disease, or to find some other way to exist. Titania’s definitely helpful in all of this as she changes her appearance to be a cute little furball that allows her to listen in on other conversations, revealing that the place is overseen by reincarnated twins known as Eile and Eime.
Of course, it doesn’t take long for Etherow to get picked up by the authorities here and thrown in with a lot of other obvious diseased frames. What becomes intriguing is that we see how they’re dealt with. Under the watch of Eile and Eime, they’re put into an arena to face off against an automaton that clambered up from the core, killing scores of soldiers. Naturally, nobody is able to stand against such a creature since they’re dying and just in rough shape, but the twins never accounted for someone like Etherow to be in it. The sequence plays out in a quick but intense kind of motion where some of the diseased die quickly before Etherow can get into proper motion, but it’s designed for him to draw out the twins so he can face them and take them down as another notch on his path to revenge.
In Summary:
APOSIMZ is getting more of my attention as it progresses but it’s still more just a curiosity than something I’m truly thrilled and anticipating with a high degree. It has a lot of potential as Nihei’s works tend to but it’s a slow burn that can be a struggle from time to time. This chapter gets us into a new town with a new pair of opponents to face off against but also a little more world building and knowledge. Nihei’s art style is one that I definitely dig but also really feel an intense curiosity to see how it would look fully colorized, as I can imagine it being similar to some Geoff Darrow work and wondering just how more intense the work would look as a whole. This is a solid chapter with some neat details to it in both story and artwork that will hold me over nicely until the next chapter surfaces.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Kodansha Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 24th, 2017
MSRP: $1.99