Category: Review

Code Geass Season 1 Review – Give the People What They Want

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

Misanthropic teenager Lelouch Lamperouge is secretly an exiled prince of the Britannian Royal family living in the conquered nation of Japan. Living with his blind and wheelchair bound sister Nunnally, Lelouch expresses his contempt for the status quo through truancy and by conning dimwitted noblemen out of their money. During a terrorist attack by a Japanese resistance group Lelouch’s chance encounter with a mysterious woman grants him the power of Geass – the ability to force anyone he makes eye contact with to obey his orders – shakes him out of his apathy. Forced to seize the opportunity to wage war on his homeland he will use everything and everyone at his disposal in his quest to change the world. Ingratiating himself into the terrorist group as its mysterious tactical support and de facto leader in the hopes of building a better life for his sister and answers around their mother’s murder. Meanwhile a Japanese boy enlisted in the Britannian military named Suzaku Kururugi finds himself offered power normally reserved for the elite when he becomes the test pilot for the highly advanced Knightmare Frame. The Lancelot – mechanical knight of the empire – is the weapon Suzaku he hopes will allow him to save lives and change the system from within. Having known each other from childhood Suzaku and Lelouch have been unknowingly become archenemies as their paths cross and the scars of the past threaten to consume them.

Read More »

The One Hand & The Six Fingers – Review

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

Two interconnected stories by two authors about the same mystery. The One Hand by Ram V follows day-of-retirement detective Ari Nasser realising he has to solve one last case that he thought he’d closed twice before. The Six Fingers by Dan Watters follows down-and-out archaeology student Johannes Vale realising he stepped on something cataclysmic and scrambling to figure out what to do. A fascinating attempt to blend the different styles of these up-and-coming writers into one cohesive narrative with different art styles. One Hand is illustrated by Laurence Campbell who presents his half as a rain-soaked detective drama while Sumit Kumar’s more expressive and cartoonish style that fits the story of a lanky student realising needs to start looking for the exit.

The central hook of a mystery is strong, Nasser must solve not just this new string of copycat killings but find out why this repeated pattern of death is part of his life. Meanwhile Vale experiences the other side of the case and experiences civilian life in Neo Novena until things start to go wrong.  Unfortunately, the ending feels incredibly limp. Historically I have enjoyed every Ram V book and find his style of prose enjoyable. Yet, for all the very interesting ideas he explores and his talent for homaging something while still having a unique approach, it never converges into a satisfying ending. I have less experience with Waters, outside his very solid Coffin Bound series. He marries the big ideas with his lead character’s anger and panic well with a major asset from Kumar. Yet he is still unable to reach a strong conclusion and I find his handling of characters outside of the Vale more questionable. A detective story can end with disappointment or rob the audience of catharsis as the truth becomes a bitter pill to swallow.  While it is an interesting experiment The One Hand & The Six Fingers does not end with something engaging in its lack of satisfaction. The ending is a dull set of revelations bolstered by the art team. My only hope by the end is that this does not represent the wider bibliographies of either of these creators and I have just been unlucky so far.

Heart Gear Volume 7 by Tsuyoshi Takaki

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

After building some astonishing momentum across two volumes Tsuyoshi Takaki concludes Heart Gear with a sudden stop and a sharp pivot. Jettisoning every conceivable subplot for the sake of resolving the main story as quickly as possible. Roue enters Heaven Land and sees a new world unlike anything she’s encountered for the second time. At its best the final volume offers some slow and meditative for the last girl on Earth as she sees the peak of human development before the collapse. There is a sense of unease different from tension or danger. Out of all the robotic Gears in the series the staff of Heaven Land are the most mechanical. Being flatly unable to hinder or undermine Roue’s choices as they are humanity’s most loyal (though most critical) servants.  So what happens in the finale cannot be a direct confrontation and must play in an unconventional manner. The slow ponderous tone makes for a sharp departure from the excitement built up previously.  And while it is interesting to see Takaki experiment this way it is just watching a cute girl in a zoo think about things until it comes time to make a simple binary choice. 

My concern that some members of the expanded cast would denied closure for their storylines was naive. It did not account for the possibility of all of them would be denied any form of closure or any input in the final volumes.  At this point the series hinges absolutely everything on finding a resolution to Roue’s adventure with every single character who could divert attention away from it being tossed out the back door.  This gamble fails as the conclusion ultimately invalidates the entire conflict that has driven the series and this final arc. 

It is almost commendable watching Takaki pursue brevity at every cost.  Based on his own commentary in the final volume and how he is manically attempting to flush out Rock the Camera’s backstory in-between chapters through text pieces – he knew that he could have accomplished more. Yet he felt compelled to cross the finish line as soon as possible while still trying his hardest to remain true to the seires’ core purpose as best he can.  Covering this series has been a rollercoaster of energetic highs and quite miserable lows.  The art can always be appreciated and stuffed with tiny nuances worth examining. And you can empathise with how the creator’s health had an unfortunate impact on his output. Volumes 3, 5 and 6 were all strong in their own ways. Yet Heart Gear unfortunately proves incapable of building on those strengths. And it does unfortunately sour of the experience overall. 

DAREDEVIL: COLD DAY IN HELL (2025)

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

There is no greater hubris in superhero comics then making an extended homage of The Dark Knight Returns. While not the best work of Frank Miller’s career his miniseries of an aged Batman returning to confront the mean streets of 1980s America has been a titanic influence on superheroes for 40 years. The first issue of Daredevil: Cold Day In Hell begins with 16-panel pages illustrating a retired hero reuniting with his old friend before taking a long walk home, lamenting the lousy weather of the season and the current state of juvenile violence in a world without heroes. Charles Soule was risking outright plagiarism for some of this, but fortunately the story quickly deviates and lets his own voice for Old Matthew Murdoch shine through. Highlighting Daredevil’s religious belief that this one last chance at meta-human heroism is an opportunity to atone for previous transgressions and fit into a grand narrative of redemption.

While mimicking a Batman classic as closely as possible at the start it assiduously avoids mimicking its story or thematic content. Miller’s Batman is a thundering giant barely contained within the confines of his world once he gives over to his compulsion to never give up. Soule envision the latter days of Daredevil as a humble ordinary man who has lost much and longs for the glory. And when he gets to relive the apex of his youthful vigour. Matt Murdock is only interested in making the most of this unique opportunity with the wisdom to make up for past mistakes, and hope to avoid any further ones. The extended homage deliberately courts the comparison between the two characters in order to highlight their individual strengths in the eyes of the writer.

The series is bolstered by Steve NcNiven manning the pens. I never have issue with his work but this is certainly more ‘interesting’. NcNiven acquitted himself admirably with Civil War, Fantastic Four and Old Man Logan. Here his work is electric. Historically he aims for a more realistic and very clean approach but this time, seemingly channeling Geof Darrow, he goes into a more expressive direction. Highlighting how ugly and worn down these characters are while also experimenting with how much you can play with page layouts in very interesting ways. He even inked most of this book himself and coloured the first issue himself. Although Dean White took over the colours for the second and third issues they seemingly work to match each other styles and the hand-over is imperceptible.

Read More »

Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

Mike Mignola had a long history with DC before he left to begin his decade spanning and critically lauded Hellboy franchise in 1994. As the artist for Gotham by Gaslight he can be partly credited for the entire Elseworlds imprint that was popularised during the 1990s. His covers for the outstanding Dark Night Dark City (1990) storyline by Peter Milligan and Kieron Dwyer and his own single issue collaboration with Dan Raspler and Mark Chiarello on Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #54 in 1993 proved to be a solid showcase for the skills he would take into his independent work.  Yet in 2000 he returned to pen his own Elseworlds miniseries of a Batman emerging in the 1920s to confront a great evil engulfing his home city.

Mignola handled the script for this project yet Troy Nixey and Dennis Janke handle the pencils and inks. Thanks to long-time Hellboy colourist Dave Stewart and the very clear, rectangular layouts it is always clearly a Mignola project. I’m not necessarily impressed with Nixey’s faces or his depiction of Batman but he draws a good depiction of everything else and nails the grotesque horror and supernatural components. Right from the beginning as Bruce Wayne investigates the lost expedition of Oswald Cobblepot things take a turn for the eerie and never lets go.

Core to the appeal of Elseworlds is to see familiar characters reimagined in different times and places. Alternative futures and pasts and histories divorced from our own.  Doom That Came To Gotham is not afraid to make huge swings.  It might feel over staffed at times, but it willingness to extend beyond the traditional Batman mythology to explore other characters is welcome. There is the occasional tacky wink to the audience but still several excellent and radical interpretations of these characters as figures within a Lovecraftian mystery.

Read More »

They Are Still Being Shaken This Morning Volume 1

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

Eiji Masuda established himself with the horror manga How to Make an Invisible Man before authoring the romantic drama Sakura Discord. Yet his talent would truly flourish when he combined both genres with absurdist comedy for his long running breakout success Jitsu wa Watashi wa (printed in english as My Monster Secret). By iterating on his previous skills and thematic interests, Masuda gave readers a diverse cast of total supernatural creatures whose infectious goofball charm were delightful to read about. With most captivating element being its willingness to sucker punch the audience with an incredible gag or a heartbreaking bit of genuine drama between a vampire and her guy friend trying to keep her identity hidden so that she won’t suffer suffocating social isolation.  Since then he has stretched his wings with some unfortunately short lived series before returning to the romance with They Are Still Being Shaken This Morning. 

Initially it appears to be a love story between two shy teens from different schools who take the same train every morning. Then within 6 pages it reveals the true protagonists of the tale are the three adults whose daily commute puts them centimetres away from a will-they-won’t-they romance unfolding before their eyes.  This is the boilerplate love story taken to an absolutely farcical degree with running colour commentary from the captive audience providing most of the energy. There are very few scenes removed from the train garage, the conflicts and obstacles to this young love are all ridiculous and the main characters are so archetypal they don’t even have names. Masuda is testing himself to see how much absurd he can get out of this incredibly basic premise while before he expands beyond it. 

Being an outright comedy means it lacks the aching sympathy of his previous work.  Additionally his commitment to a realistic setting means there’s none of the imaginative fantasy components that defined Jitsu wa Watashi wa nor is there anything approaching horror at the moment. Yet if you can appreciate a pure injection of loud ridiculous comedy then there’s fun to be had here. The trio of adults forming a secret Greek chorus and YouTube comment section as they quietly cheer for young love lends itself well to many jokes an enraptured audience of a love story may find relatable. It’s an interesting experiment to invert the dynamic of a romance comic, casting the central couple to secondary leads while the more ridiculous supporting cast embrace the limelight. Masuda has proven himself many times over, so it might be worth giving several volumes before deciding if you would like it or not. So far it’s fairly one note but with an author who’s typically willing to go for wild switches. A story where we are waiting to see what he is building towards once the world expands beyond his one shaking carriage. Maybe even a different train platform one day. Who knows? Not an enthusiastic recommendation, but still feeling positive enough to follow into the future. 

Come Find Yourself – Choujin X Volume 1-8 Review

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

Some events can only be understood in hindsight. Sometimes you can only appreciate your progress after years of feeling stagnant.. You can live through something where its profound impact does not register until much later on when it is remembered as a valuable experience. Only by pausing in your tracks can you see just how far you’ve come along your chosen path. Or maybe that moment of contemplation is the first time you realise that you were not just stumbling directionless through the fog and were chasing a journey at all. Maybe that’s when you realise someone you loved wasn’t who you wanted them to be. Or maybe that’s the moment you realise that you’ve been too hard on yourself. Choujin X is a series about being able to make these reflections. As Tokio Kurohara’s listless voyage begins it can feel confusing and chaotic. People appear very briefly before disappearing for hundreds of pages.  These supposedly profound friendships are often unexplored.  His suffering his often comical. Other times it’s agonising. His grasp on events is tenuous to say the least.  But as things progress you being to understand the shape of things. Everything falls into place when the reader finally hits that invisible boundary. And with clarity, turn around and see exactly how the road led up to this point.  Though for Tokio more about finding the perfect angle for a bird’s-eye view.

Read More »

Heart Gear Volume 6 by Tsuyoshi Takaki

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

Following the rejuvenation of the previous instalment,  Chrome and the gang now have with bodyguards guiding them to a place that is welcoming them as guests while also trying to kill them as the result of Heaven Land’s two-party bipartisan government consensus breaking down. Tensions are high but Chrome is more powerless than ever as he is physically exhausted but also realising that he is not the only person Roue can rely on anymore and her safety is now out of his hands.  He has to accept these strangers are better qualified for his role as protector and that Roue is better off this way despite the truth denying him his own reason to keep living.  This is all established in 5 pages and is more meat than entire volumes have had in the past.

It feels like The Donkey Squad’s infectious optimism is even rubbing off on the author.  Giving up on some of his shading tricks in favour of a clearer art style and more relaxed tone.  The jokes are better, the pacing is snappier and it is all moving towards the hourglass-shaped Heaven Land. Speaking of hourglass-shapes, the ghostly Reis is back in the fold. Finally moving to the foreground as the primary villain of an arc alongside her newest assistant Mulberry, who looks like he’s on loan from Digimortal by Tsutomu Nihei.  Mulberry gets a decent showcase for his personality; a particularly dower belief that defying his self-preservation programming and seeking a noble death is the only way to give his artificial life value.  Reis gets far less material and she is one of many sacrifices the story is making at this stage.

I’d praised the competently executed but suddenly introduced internal conflict for Chrome last time. Heart Gear really just barrels past that turmoil and blitzs through the introspection stage to get to a point of clarity.  I can’t say I’m opposed to it. Volume 6, What You Want, raises the action higher and increases the tempo.  Everything rocketing faster and faster towards the ultimate finale.  Takaki still feels invested and happy to be here. He is however showing a firm commitment to ending this series sooner than later.  Even opening the book by blunting questioning the difference between man and machine so directly it feels like he is finally ready to reach some type of conclusion instead of beating around the bush.

Resolving everything in the seventh and final volume will be difficult.  The size of the case has tripled so all of those characters needs resolutions of some kind.  Can Heart Gear pull it off? We’ll find out next time but the previous two volumes have been operating on a higher level so it feels more likely that the final 8 chapters will pull it off.

Heart Gear Volume 5 by Tsuyoshi Takaki

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

Following the weakest instalment with the best of the series. Tsuyoshi Takaki’s Heart Gear returns with palpable excitement and newfound confidence.  Starting with a more controlled and measured short story than any prior example;  Roue summarises the plot so far and highlights her existential dread of living in a world that has moved on and left her behind as the last living human. While her robot companions will endure she is now conscious that she is both the person that will draw danger to them and the only one among them who will not live forever. 

Unbeknownst to Roue, that danger is already on its way. With Heaven Land’s leadership divided on how to handle Roue its been decided to make a game of it. Conservative leading R deploys her special squad to wipe out Roue and her companions while D orders his retrieval team to bring them to Heave Land unharmed. The future of the world is now just a test of strength and luck with Roue trapped in the middle.

My review for Volume 3 noted that Takaki’s approach to Science Fiction was barrelling towards becoming pure fantasy.  Volume 5 shows this does not have to be a bad thing as planting itself firmly in a different sub-genre and moving the action to plains and woodland gives the series a shot in the arm.  Takaki’s newfound freedom allows him to make Ash, the Chrome’s main enemy this go-around, dress like a an JRPG hero complete with sword the length of his body and a dragon (explicitly not a robot, he has an organic dragon). Followed by the retrieval team’s commander cosplaying a samurai and the suppression unit featuring a mechanical mage.  With more fighters involved and actual strategy in plan the action is improving.  

Chrome has a personality now.  Two as it turns out.  His newfound doubts over his unicorn-themed berserker state do not feel like a natural extension of what has occurred previously, especially was his berserk state is barely more violent than he normally it. But I’ll take it. The combat robot frustrated with his own existence and how he keeps encountering other units who are content to destroy themselves for pleasure instead of finding reasons to live.  It took over 30 chapters but now both lead characters have some type of interiority besides genre cliches. Having an evil dark side threatening to take over your body is a cliche but it is a way of presenting internal conflict. And as sudden as it is Takaki presents it well.  

Time of Your Life makes a fitting title for Heart Gear’s Volume 5.  While the Valhalla arc dragged itself across the finish line out of obligation, this new Heaven Land arc has a real vitality and energy to it. Incongruous with past events, perhaps, but more engaging and exciting than before. 

Crazy Food Truck by Rokurou Ogaki

Creative BurnoutLeave a comment

A surprising amount was overlap with both Creative Burnout regular Heart Gear and personal favourite Soara of the House of Monsters. Like Soara it is bombastic and fantastical on household topic.  Like Heart Gear it is a road trip of two people (one knowledgeable human and the other a dumb superhuman) across an arid wasteland in the search of meaning. But Crazy Food Truck unfortunately lacks the panache to stand out. 

Baring a few action scenes and comedy beats the series never commits to anything. The cooking elements are extremely limited, both in the recipes presented and barely touching on the joy of  a good meal. The food truck drifting across the wastelands looking for customers never serves clients or aids them through the culinary arts. Arisa might enjoy Gordon’s meals as her drives his new mysterious and powerful partner around. But they never extend it to anyone else.

Problems are resolved exclusively through the main duo’s capacity for violence. And attempts to find hidden depths to them fall victim to either the author’s indecisiveness or haggard pacing. Faults that becomes incredible obvious the more you read and realise that Gordon’s flashback stories to his military past highlight the four people who shaped his current life as a cook very conspicuously stop talking about the fourth person because that was too much to handle. Arisa taking her shirt off is not enough to distract you from how Gordon’s past and the wider cast is actually becoming less detailed as it is explored further. Without any special quality of its own Crazy Food Truck unfortunately becomes a bland and unsatisfactory experiment that highlights how others have achieved far more with the same ingredients. Avoid.