Geobreeders Vol.#02

By: Mike Dungan
Review Date: Friday, October 22, 2004
Release Date: Friday, October 01, 2004



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Akihiro Ito
Translated by:Laura Jackson and Yoko Kobayashi
Adapted by:

What They Say
The inspiration for the hit Geobreeders anime! In a white-knuckle chase through the waterways of Tokyo, bullets and bikinis fly as the supernatural detectives of Kagura Security find themselves caught in the crossfire between the Pantom Cats and the Japanese Navy! When the dust clears, only one group will emeger victorious... and if it isn't Kagura Security, SOMEBODY is going to pay.

The Review
The Review: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The second volume of Geobreeders opens with Irie, the creepy man from the Ministry of Health and Welfare offering Taba a job. That job offer is something he seriously considers when his next assignment finds him fighting phantom cats on a skyscraper that's still under construction. Everyone retires to the bathhouse for a bit of fun and fanservice. In what will become a Geobreeders tradition, the end of each mission finds everyone at the bathhouse to ease away the tensions of their job. Some of the questions concerning Kagura actually get asked, such as why seal the cats? Why not just delete them? What happens to them? Who wrote the program for sealing them? There are no answers, but they're all valid questions. Taba also finally names the young phantom cat who's been living with him, calling her Maya. He's been working for Kagura for a year now, and he realizes he doesn't know anything more about them now than when he started. When a phantom cat who has grown disgruntled with the Black Cat decides to kill Taba, Maya comes to his rescue. Maya, who until now has almost never spoken, speaks quite a bit in this chapter, first warning the phantom cat that she will defend Taba, then telling Taba that she can't go against the Black Cat, but she'll do what she can for him.

Next up, both Kagura and the Hounds are trying to stop the phantom cats who are trying to ship something out by boat. The battle rages through the canals of Tokyo until it moves out into the open sea. A navy destroyer is targeted by the cats who take over it's guns. Taba gets in over his head and has to be rescued by Takami on a personal watercraft. With the Navy ship now becoming their enemy, the Hounds and Kagura join forces. Part of the agreement is that they must wear uniforms instead of the swimsuits they're wearing. The only uniforms they can find are all better suited for a cosplay competition and are hilarious. The phantom cat has taken over a small robotic tank nearby and the battle moves to a highrise parking garage. Yuu finally gets to show what kind of a driver she really is in a breathtaking sequence. The end of the battle has both Kagura and the Hounds teaming up against the cat in the tank. Afterwards, everyone once again retires to the public baths for relaxation and fanservice.


Comments
The second volume of Geobreeders is more of what we've come to expect from Ito: Girls, guns, action and comedy. The mysteries continue to deepen around Taba, and with both Irie and the Black Cat showing an interest in him, his role is bigger than he suspects. The art continues to improve as Ito finds his stride with his character designs. The action is smooth and flows well, always moving the story along, never impeding it. The book is printed with flipped art, reading from left to right. All sound effects are translated and retouched into English. Unfortunately, when the book was originally published in the singly issue comic format, the art was censored to remove all nudity. When it was published as a graphic novel in 2000, the edits were still there. In this volume, it was hoped the edits would be removed. For some odd reason, half of the edits were removed, but not all of them. Some pages still have CPM drawn swimsuits, underwear, towels and hair extensions to cover nudity, but the other half of the affected pages have all nudity restored. There's no real rhyme or reason that I can see to which pages were corrected and which weren't. It seems odd to me, since the people who were going to buy the book anyway wouldn't have cared, and it's not enough to satisfy the people who aren't buying it because they don't wish to support censored manga. Either fix it all, or don't bother. Geobreeders was published at a time when CPM's art reproduction was among the worst in the business, and this new version does nothing to correct it. Screentones are muddy and indistinct, lines are blurry and significant detail is lost.

It isn't all bad though. The translation and English adaptation by Laura Jackson and Yoko Kobayashi is among the best in the industry. They are CPM's best kept secret. They walk the narrow line between faithfulness to the story and completely natural storytelling so well, you're not even aware of them. You become so immersed in the story, you never once call the script into question. It's a highly difficult task, and I honestly think there isn't a better duo in the industry. The cover is an action shot of Taba and Yuka with an explosion in the background set bewteen a thick border in dark blue top and bottom. The back cover is an improvement over the first edition of this volume, which had no art at all. This time we get Maki, Yuka and Maya in a dramatic pose, all brandishing thier weapons of choice.

As much as I enjoy Geobreeders, I can't recommend the second edition version of this title. The editing of art to remove nudity was unacceptable to begin with, and the half-hearted effort at restoring the edited panels satisfies no one except possibly the accountants at CPM. In addition, the art reproduction is still as terrible as ever. CPM stopped publishing Geobreeders with the fifth volume, despite the fact that it's still an ongoing series in Japan with 9 volumes out at the time of this review. One hopes that CPM will do better with volume 3 and that they will continue the series past volume 5.