Dark Metro Vol. #01

By Matthew Alexander     April 24, 2008
Release Date: February 28, 2008



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Tokyo Calen and Yoshiken
Translated by:Asuka Yoshizu
Adapted by:Kereth Cowe-Spigai

What They Say
What lies below Tokyo's subway system is more frightening than you could have ever imagined...in its subways there exists a boundary between this world and the next--the land of the dead, and the mysterious young man Seiya is its guide. In this collection of bone-chilling shorts, follow the twisted tales of death and hauntings that inhabit this horrifying underworld, where innocent youth fall victim to the ghosts who inhabit Tokyo's underground.


The Review
The Underworld exists, and gateways dot the subway tunnels where the dead attempt to right the wrongs that led to their deaths.

Packaging:
The front cover depicts a woman fallen on the subway tracks while monsters of all types reach for her. The back cover has a story synopsis. This title stands up to the normal quality of Tokyopop's printing with solid blacks throughout the book. However, the six color pages at the beginning surprised me as I don't see a lot of books getting that nice a treatment from this publisher. There is also a postscript from the artists and writer, along with a twenty-six-page preview of another Tokyopop title.

Artwork:
The art has an interesting quality in the sense that it appears to be like any other story about high school kids, until a skinless zombie shows up. From that aspect, the art can take the reader by surprise. On the other hand, it feels somewhat out of place, as a rougher-looking art style would probably fit this story better. As for the art on its own, the characters are attractive and well proportioned and their facial expressions successfully convey anger or fear. Backgrounds are sparse and plain when present. The panel layout is quite successful at building apprehension in the reader just before the 'monster grab' moment. Moreover, the skin falling off the zombies and some of the killing is grisly good.

Text/SFX:
The dialogue in this book lacks grammar or editing problems and has a nice flow. The translation fits the story and the adaptation is generally a joy to read. So many translations suffer from poor editing that I forget how well a manga can read until I come across something done right. Unfortunately, Tokyopop still refuses to translate the Japanese SFX. I still can't figure this out. I know it is just being lazy and cheap, but come on, the customer is paying full price so deliver a full product.

Contents: (Oh yes, there may be spoilers)
Everything is going great for Anna. She is the lead in a musical and her teacher believes she can go far in the world. Everything is great. Until, Anna misses the last train home and finds herself locked in the train station. Suddenly, a woman walks out of the dark train passage and recognizes Anna. It sucks being locked in for the night, but at least Anna can pass the time with the other woman, Rei. Too bad Rei turns out to already be dead and she wants nothing more than to kill Anna for stealing the musical lead from her. However, killing Anna isn't nearly good enough, Rei wants to drag her into hell.

Anna manages to runaway, not too difficult considering Rei tore her leg off and threw it at Anna.
Despite the fact that Anna has no cell phone signal, she begins to receive text messages telling her where to go. The suspense of Anna playing cat and mouse with Rei flows very much like a horror movie. I even began to wonder if Anna might suffer a heart attack. Coinciding with the last text message, a handsome guy appears from nowhere to tell Anna the only way she can escape death, and ultimately hell, is to jump into the light of a photo booth's flash. Will it really work? Will it happen before Rei tears Anna limb from limb?

The strange man in the train station calls himself Seiya, and he definitely isn't a normal human. The details at this point are unclear, but it seems Seiya wanders the subways protecting innocent people from hell spawn. There are multiple gateways between hell and earth scattered throughout the subways. Vengeful spirits, or zombies, enter the world of the living in hopes of forcing a horrible death upon those that did them wrong. However, not every zombie deserves vengeance and Seiya acts as some kind of defender of the innocent by providing a portal back to the real world. Really though, who or what is Seiya? Why does he try to help strangers?

Comments
Dark Metro certainly isn't a book for the average manga fan. People that are not fans of horror stories or B-movies might even be repulsed by the horrific images of the walking dead. However, for horror fans, this is a decent read. This first volume doesn't get a chance to explore Seiya's personality or reasons for being, but it does take advantage of the J-Horror genre's ability to modernize horror. By using subway stations and cell phone texting, this story adds a degree of reality to the unreal scenario of hell gates with zombies seeking revenge. I can just imagine someone reading this book while traveling on a bright train rocketing through the inky black tunnels under Tokyo. Does the reader throw quick glances over their shoulder at the tunnel surrounding the train? Perhaps imagining themself in Anna's place, running from a fleshless zombie?

It is difficult to get emotionally involved in a book with rotating characters. This becomes blatantly apparent after each chapter of Dark Metro follows a different character with relatively little screen time for Seiya. Ideally, the second volume of Dark Metro will create some continuity by following Seiya more closely. I can really only recommend this title to big horror fans.