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Reviewed by Jason Dyer Crimson-Shell is the first graphic novel from creator Jun Mochizuki. Our main character is Claudia the Rose Witch who is the main weapon of the Red Rose - an organization aimed at capturing the deadly Black Roses. The Black Roses are the result of a mad scientist's deranged experiments. Unfortunately for the Red Rose organization they have a traitor in their ranks or perhaps even traitors. The amount of double, triple, and even quadruple crosses within this book makes your head spin. This creates an interesting atmosphere of “Who can you trust in the organization”? throughout the book. I’m not sure if I’m fully onboard with the powers these “Rose People” possess. When Claudia is injured or in trouble, thorned rose vines shoot out of her body and proceed to suck the life out of whoever’s near. It’s sort of an interesting power but doesn’t really strike fear into my heart. Black Roses also have the power to infect and control people with their venom and that power was used well in this issue as a plot point. The mind control infection is arguably the most important power in the book. It creates the central conflict between Claudia and her love Zeno, who is her savior in a sense, but has now turned on her. The art is pretty good; the shots of the corpses with their life force sucked out are very cool. However, some of the weaker aspects of the art show up in big moments. At times it’s hard to connect with the emotion of our main characters, most noticeably in the final battle. The writing is solid; it makes you care enough about Claudia to want her to succeed. Unfortunately the origins of the different Roses aren’t explained very well, which I found to be a major letdown. While Claudia is fleshed out enough for you to care, her sidekicks are not. This is an issue because I think they were meant to mean more to the overall plot. It’s very unclear if Claudia’s sidekicks have any kind of special abilities, only one of her friends has defined powers while the others go unexplained. Crimson-Shell is an above average manga that has potential to be a very interesting series. However with the shortcomings in the writing, Crimson-Shell doesn’t reach that “great” level of manga. For those looking to pick up something new I would recommend it, but perhaps you might want to pick up a used copy and save a little bit of money. Review copy of this title provided by Yen Press. Check out more of Jason's work at his site, Jason Dyer Studios. Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
12 May 2010
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