Death Trance Vol. #01

By Jarred Pine     June 07, 2005
Release Date: March 16, 2005



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Kana Takeuchi
Translated by:Ikoi Hiroe
Adapted by:

What They Say
Once upon a time there was a king who ruled by fear. Upon discovering the existence of the Goddess of Destruction he resurrected her, but this only lead to the destruction of his own country. As a result of the carnage, she was sealed in a box that was kept in a very deep, dark place. The box was locked with many keys, keys that were then spread across the world. Many years later a Samurai discovered the box and decided to challenge the Goddess of Destruction, but first he had to gather all the keys and fight through hordes of undead soldiers. Can you really defeat a Goddess? A brand new Manga based on the new film Death Trance, by the creators of Versus!

The Review
Packaging:
The cover has a matte finish with a nice looking color illustration of Grave swinging his sword and his cloak swirling about him. The English logo is in the bottom right, with the creator name underneath. The cover looks fantastic but I am not a fan of the logo, as the word ‘Death’ is a bit to blocky and much too prominent.

The book size is a wide A5 and uses purple ink for printing, which is a interesting choice. It gives the story a legend-type feel to it and is definitely different from the norm. The print job with the purple ink looks great, very crisp and clean. In the back there are two pages featuring still from the live action movie.

Art:
The artwork, like the purple ink printing, is something different than the norm in most manga releases. The character designs are more realistic, with a little bit of gothic flash. The line work is really scratchy, and it sometimes looks rough while other times really clean and distinct. The more and more I look at it, the more I appreciate the different style.

The background and action artwork are both a nicely done. The backgrounds help setup this historical and village setting. The action is pretty clear and well laid out in the panels. Overall, the style was a bit off-putting at first but after a couple more reads it started to sit quite well with me.

Text/SFX:
SFX are left untouched and are not translated. The translation reads very smoothly, although I felt it was a bit stiff. I also didn’t like how Shirayuki was referred to as “Ms.”, since she is supposed to be a village chief and it doesn’t quite get across the formality as well as something like “Lady” would. But overall it reads just fine and there are no major complaints, other than the lack of SFX translations.

Contents (Watch out spoilers ahead):
Death Trance is the manga version of the live action movie which was directed by the Action Director from Versus, a DVD released by Media Blasters. I have not seen the movie, although it says it is coming to DVD soon, but I have seen Versus so already I was expecting some great sword action and over-the-top scenarios. The story isn’t quite as over-the-top, but it features plenty of swordplay amongst a historical fantasy background.

An unknown village sits in a valley surrounded by a graveyard and then mountains. Because of the constant attacks, the villagers are unable to move from their homes and cross the mountains to safety. Two Samurai named Zen and Grave protect the villagers from constant attacks from the bandits. The village chief is a young girl, Shirayuki, who took over after her father, the previous chief, was killed by bandits five years earlier. Shirayuki just wants peace for her village, which she wants to attain by moving everyone across the mountains.

However, one of the village protectors, Grave, has a mysterious past and something inhuman in him is awakened when a strange monk enters the village one day. His presence is questioned since he was able to cross the mountains and forests filled with bandits and Hatena, monsters of legend, all by himself without so much as a scratch. The monk talks about a grave of the Goddess of Destruction, and it is his job to make sure that the Goddess is never reborn. It seems as though the graveyard surrounding the village is the site of the Goddess’s rebirth, and the Hatena are guardians of this site.

The story here is semi-interesting but at times is a little hard to follow due to some loose writing and odd pacing. It took me a couple reads to make sure I had fully understood everything, which never really happened. At the end of the volume there were a couple strange events that just felt a little forced or out of place, especially where Shirayuki attacks Grave. It seems like she wanted to teach Grave that his sword and purpose was empty, but I’m not sure it had the effect it was going for. In the end, I am still interested to see where things go from here and hoping that maybe some of the holes will be filled in later on.

Comments
After reading this a few times over, I am still not quite sure how I feel about it. The presentation is very nice, with a great looking matte cover and non-standard print job. The artwork is a mixed bag but I like the different style and at times it looks quite good. The story feels a bit loose and a little more rushed that I would like, which is probably not that shocking since this comes from a movie. The historical fantasy setup is interesting, and I like seeing the parallels between the monk’s legend and the village, but the transitions between scenes are a bit rough and it doesn’t quite flow right to me. The action scenes are definitely entertaining, but a couple of them I question their purpose.

I just feel as though I’m getting part of a movie and so I’m left scratching my head and wondering how this will all play out. I am interested enough to find out how this finishes, which is more than many titles are able to do.