Saturday 12 September 2009

Double Arts: Manga Review

Title: Double Arts
Author: KOMI Naoshi
Volumes: 3 Volumes (Discontinued)
Released: Mar 24, 2008












The Plot

The world has been ravaged by the mysterious disease 'Troy', the only people resistant to it are the 'Sisters' who are able to absorb the toxins caused by the disease at the cost of their lifespan.


The story begins with one of these Sisters, Elraine, who on leaving her latest patient soon collapses, suffering the final stages of the disease. Before she hits the ground, a mysterious boy catches her and her symptoms cease, however if the boy stops touching her she immediately relapses. Just who is this boy? Elraine is elated to discover she has found what the 'Sisters' have been searching for: a person immune to Troy.


Elraine is now faced with the responsibility of bringing the mysterious boy, Kiri Luchile, to the Sisters main headquarters and avoid the order of assassins targeting the Sisters, while making sure to hold Kiri's hand at all times to keep her death at bay.


What's Good

The idea of the two main characters having to do everything (including fighting), while maintaining contact with each other is an interesting and amusing concept, something I thoroughly enjoyed exploring with the series. The series also has a nice balance of action, drama and romance. I also feel it is necessary to compliment how well-handled the ending of the series was considering its discontinuation and the pressure to wrap everything up in the last few chapters. Despite this a somewhat conclusive and touching ending was produced.


What's bad

The biggest problem with this series is the amount of plot and foreshadowing that is lurking around due to the cancellation of the series. While it was wrapped up nicely for its premature ending, there is so much that is left hanging and it's disappointing to be left in the lurch like that. The series' main male lead, Kiri, is also accused by some of being an ever so slight 'Mary Sue' (A Mary Sue is a character who has too many positive characteristics, and too few genuine flaws to be believable or interesting) due to his ridiculous abilities, though this is balanced out a little by some character flaws.


Conclusion

This series has some very good concepts and an interesting plot despite its downsides, but as shown by it being cancelled there is just something about the series that levels it out, making a sort of indifferent attitude towards it compared to other shonen Manga. While it is always going to be a personal favourite of mine I do find myself struggling to find either good or bad things to say about it, and perhaps this is the problem: while it shows promise and isn't a bad series overall, there just seems to be something missing to give it that extra push it needs to attract readers. Despite this I would still recommend reading it, because while it's never going to be the next big thing, there isn't actually anything drastically bad about it.

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