About the Mangaka
Madeleine Rosca has only published the three volume Hollow Fields so far, but has already reached international acclaim by being awarded Japan’s International Manga Award, and being mentioned in Wired’s History of Manga in America.
About the Manga
This is the first of two volumes ordered by mistake, that have frankly blown me away.
I’ve made no bones about my hate of OEL’s, since almost every one of them I’ve read had been badly written and even worse drawn. This series, in many ways, is even better than Nightschool, the only other OEL that I sing praises about from dusk till dawn hehe.
Firstly, I noticed it has something I usually hate about OEL’s, it’s right to left, a japanese clone. However in this case it simply adds to the excellent art and leads to it being very similar to original manga.
In fact I have no complaints on any level. Madeleine’s skill at drawing is amazing, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen any first time release that was done so well.
The cover for this series is awesome, though sadly it doesn’t really look so good on the small scale above.
While some of the characters have a slightly western feel to them, the truth is stick another name on here (a japanese name) and you’d swear it’s a manga. Right from the outset we have some awesome character designs, especially the lead Lucy Snow. Who looks so damned cute, despite missing a nose hehe. that said, if I was to pick one thing wrong with the series it’s that almost all of the characters are missing noses hehe.
As we progress through we get to see some really well drawn characters, and I have to admit that there are none I liked. I really loved Stinch who frankly has me in fits of laughter when he’s around.
The art gets better and better, and more intricate as the volume goes on. I was really surprised that through-out all three volumes there was nothing that I felt was drawn badly.I was even surprised by how well the supporting characters were drawn.
I was really impressed with the character personalities though. Usually, in most OEL’s I’ve read, these have been flat and frankly crap. However Madeleine succeeds in bringing all of her characters to life in interesting, and well developed ways. They also mix very well together, balancing each other, with none over-powering the others. I thought this was an exceptional bit of writing skill on Madeleine’s part.
I have to admit that my usual complaint in series this short also doesn’t come into play, as in it being to short. While I’m not going to pretend I wouldn’t have liked more volumes, this is a rare gem in that three volumes was enough for her to tell the story properly and completely. What surprised me is that while the story does flow extremely fast, it doesn’t feel rushed. Rather the pace feels right.
Some of the relationships that build up over the course of the volume are really well conceived. I loved the relationship between Simon and Lucy, though it’s not until the later part of the volume that we really get to see it in play.
The ending, Is a bit generic, which while you can see it coming a mile away isn’t to bad. I would have loved to have a more unique and original ending, but I also feel that sometimes the old ending can be just as good, and this is one of them.
For me it all boiled down to Madeleine’s amazing art and story telling.
As I said at the beginning this is the first of two miss-orders, as in they weren’t the titles I’d wanted to order. The reason being it’s released by Seven Seas. Who as you know I have had a bit of a love hate relationship with. I love their releases, which are generally of a high standard, but hate how they treat their fans, and not to mention the fact they lied about me. So, while I wasn’t out and out boycotting them, I usually had other things taking priority over their releases.
However, even as a mistake purchase, I have to say that Seven Seas did an amazing job with this title. No translation or editing necessary since it’s an OEL, but I do like the omnibus’ quality. No major guttering issues, and the few that were around could be overlooked easily. Loads, and I do mean loads of extras, including concept art, 4koma, and about characters and author pages.
All told I was really impressed with this release, and have no issues with adding it onto my Essential Read list, in fact it more than earns it’s place there.
Where to Buy
