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Manga / Re: Krozam's Manga Diary
« on: February 24, 2012, 10:13:33 am »
Sup People, Tis Zarich, Most of you new ones might have seen me just with a passing comment. I have the approval of Krozam to write reviews, so here we go, Tonight, written in the wee hours of the Californian' Morning...
Sugar Dark: Umerareta Yami to Shoujo by Mebae. Art by Ooiwa, Kenji
Before I start the review let me ask you a question. When you walk down the street, and see a Dark Alley, a Graveyard, or just the world at night, what do you see? Does your imagination go wild? What do you see in the dark?
Sugar Dark is about Muol, a 16 year old soldier sent to spend the rest of his life digging graves for the crime of killing his superior. Muol then meets a mysterious girl named Meria (or Melia, I will be using Meria for this review), who walks the graveyard at night. Every day he digs graves and every night he converses with Meria. But, who...or what is meant to be buried in the graves?
But really, the Romance between Muol and Meria is just a Red Herring. Behind these two is the classic story of Good Versus Evil, Progression and Tradition, Man and his greatest Fear, the creature that can never truly be killed no matter what. The creature that appears where ever there is no light. The Darkness.
Now, creatures hidden in the darkness appears in many forms of media. In Doctor who, they are the Vasha Nerada, in biblical texts it is the devil. In Sugar dark, this isn't just a creature hiding in the shadows. They are the Shadows, creatures of pure darkness that used to rule like gods that commanded mankind in history. What else do you think the DARK ages were about?
To the actual manga, the two story lines intertwines well and the manga itself has many elements of different genres as to do make it hard to say what actual type of manga it is. It has elements of Military, Horror, Comedy, Guro, Action, Romance, Supernatural, Fantasy all rolled into one package. The manga series is just giving pictures to the actual book Sugar Dark, the winner of Kodakawa Shoten's 14th (iirc) Sneaker Award, an award that has also graced LNs such as the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
The art itself is well done. Ooiwa Kenji, whose art can also be seen in mangas like Welcome to the NHK, does a great job blending Manga art with semi realism, creating a dark atmosphere throughout this whole manga. Kenji shows that he doesn't screw around with art, when he going to make something frightening, he will.
Sugar Dark only has three characters with actual names. There is Muol, the soldier, Meria, the mysterious girl who only appears at night and Karas, a mysterious child-like person with Goat pupils and only appears in the day. These Characters are all interesting and leaves us room to guess who or what they are as the story progresses as we start out not knowing really who these people are. Though we do get to know Muol more at the start as he is our MC in this story. The only other character to talk about is the man who owns this cemetery, a short man with no nose, sort of reminiscent of the Crypt Keeper.
Sugar Dark came with a bang. At first I only picked it up due to the similarity to a great fantasy manga I have read numerous times, Shina Dark. But as the days and weeks passed by, I read it for the story, the characters, the atmosphere, everything. This manga is one of my favorites, my only qualm is that it is 19 chapters. But, unlike a lot of stories, it closes. It actually has an ending. So if you are in well, any mood. Read this manga, this review is not doing it justice.
If you want music, I can't really recommend any as nothing fits the whole atmosphere for the whole story.
Sugar Dark: Umerareta Yami to Shoujo by Mebae. Art by Ooiwa, Kenji
Before I start the review let me ask you a question. When you walk down the street, and see a Dark Alley, a Graveyard, or just the world at night, what do you see? Does your imagination go wild? What do you see in the dark?
Sugar Dark is about Muol, a 16 year old soldier sent to spend the rest of his life digging graves for the crime of killing his superior. Muol then meets a mysterious girl named Meria (or Melia, I will be using Meria for this review), who walks the graveyard at night. Every day he digs graves and every night he converses with Meria. But, who...or what is meant to be buried in the graves?
But really, the Romance between Muol and Meria is just a Red Herring. Behind these two is the classic story of Good Versus Evil, Progression and Tradition, Man and his greatest Fear, the creature that can never truly be killed no matter what. The creature that appears where ever there is no light. The Darkness.
Now, creatures hidden in the darkness appears in many forms of media. In Doctor who, they are the Vasha Nerada, in biblical texts it is the devil. In Sugar dark, this isn't just a creature hiding in the shadows. They are the Shadows, creatures of pure darkness that used to rule like gods that commanded mankind in history. What else do you think the DARK ages were about?
To the actual manga, the two story lines intertwines well and the manga itself has many elements of different genres as to do make it hard to say what actual type of manga it is. It has elements of Military, Horror, Comedy, Guro, Action, Romance, Supernatural, Fantasy all rolled into one package. The manga series is just giving pictures to the actual book Sugar Dark, the winner of Kodakawa Shoten's 14th (iirc) Sneaker Award, an award that has also graced LNs such as the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.
The art itself is well done. Ooiwa Kenji, whose art can also be seen in mangas like Welcome to the NHK, does a great job blending Manga art with semi realism, creating a dark atmosphere throughout this whole manga. Kenji shows that he doesn't screw around with art, when he going to make something frightening, he will.
Sugar Dark only has three characters with actual names. There is Muol, the soldier, Meria, the mysterious girl who only appears at night and Karas, a mysterious child-like person with Goat pupils and only appears in the day. These Characters are all interesting and leaves us room to guess who or what they are as the story progresses as we start out not knowing really who these people are. Though we do get to know Muol more at the start as he is our MC in this story. The only other character to talk about is the man who owns this cemetery, a short man with no nose, sort of reminiscent of the Crypt Keeper.
Sugar Dark came with a bang. At first I only picked it up due to the similarity to a great fantasy manga I have read numerous times, Shina Dark. But as the days and weeks passed by, I read it for the story, the characters, the atmosphere, everything. This manga is one of my favorites, my only qualm is that it is 19 chapters. But, unlike a lot of stories, it closes. It actually has an ending. So if you are in well, any mood. Read this manga, this review is not doing it justice.
If you want music, I can't really recommend any as nothing fits the whole atmosphere for the whole story.
My initial reaction: