Vermonia Vol. #01: Quest for the Silver Tiger Manga Review

Four ordinary kids discover they are reincarnations of the protectors of the universe!

Writer/Artist: YOYO

On a distant Blue Star, Mel, Jim, Naomi, and Doug — friends obsessed with their garage band — don’t seem that different from any of the other twelve-year-old skateboarders at Union Middle School. But everything changes when Mel is kidnapped and imprisoned in a world called the Turtle Realm. As her friends rush to save her, guided by the magical squelp Satorin, they find a world terrorized by a conquering army, a land whose villagers’ only hope is an ancient prophecy foretelling the arrival of four heroes. Will they be brave enough to release their true warrior spirits — and return the rightful queen to her throne?

Doug, Naomi, Jim, and Mel are friends that have grown up together in Union City. They have a good time skateboarding and playing in their band, Veracity. But their normal suburban life drastically changes when otherworldly creatures materialize in their skateboarding lot. Suddenly, they’re transported to another planet where they discover that they are the reincarnations of the four ministers of the Great Queen, Frasinella, and that the fate of the universe depends on them…

This series is rated for ages eight and up, and indeed it’s well suited for a Western juvenile fantasy/action audience. It has a Chronicles of Narnia feel to it. There are no Japanese cultural references, the tweenage main characters have Western names and come from what looks like an American town, and most of the action ends up taking place on a fantasy world anyway.

The story is predominantly plot-driven. Mel gets kidnapped by the bad guys, and her friends have to rescue her and free their guardian spirits in order to defeat the evil forces threatening good Queen Frasinella’s order of the universe. Between world-building and explaining all the prophecies that the main characters have to fulfill, there’s not a whole lot of space left for character development.

Much as I dislike it when people refer to manga as kids’ books, Vermonia is actually a children’s series. The dialogue and situations are simplistic, and the characters largely one-dimensional. There are also places where the plot doesn’t make much sense. In our main characters’ opening scene, an indignant Mel tells her friends they have to stay out of their usual skateboarding lot because her father the mayor put up a no trespassing sign, yet ten pages later, she’s skateboarding there with them. In a later scene, our heroes flee through a forest on their skateboards — something that might sound very cool to a kid reader but wouldn’t work very well in real life (there are reasons skateboards aren’t off-road vehicles). As a side note, associated with the series is a website with online games connected to the story.

The fate of the world rests in the hands of four skateboarding 12-year-olds. It’s a good title for kids aged 8 through 10, even those unfamiliar with manga. There’s fantasy, magic, and action without excessive violence or anything lewd or obscene. It is rather simplistic though and is less likely to appeal to teen and adult readers.