Junk Force (novel) Vol.#01

By: Mike Dungan
Review Date: Saturday, November 12, 2005
Release Date: Friday, April 01, 2005



Creative Talent
Writer/Artist:Hideki Kakinuma
Translated by:Gretchen Kern
Adapted by:

What They Say
Delve deeper into the Junk Force universe with the first novelization of the hard hitting sci/fi manga! Follow the trials and tribulations of Liza, Wooty, Mill, Mamet and Louis as they survive the harsh wasteland while dealing with the own personal deviations.

It is a quest to the edge of the horizon in search of the "perfect town". Along the way, the girls hook up with Louis and later Mamet, as they fight off waves of bandits and robots to reveal the secret behind the loss of there homes to the dreaded "white storm".

It's a literary adaptation that knows no bounds, fleshing out and complimenting the Junk Force story with new twists and details!

The Review
DrMaster picks up where ComicsOne left off, bringing over a new twist on the Junk Force franchise.

Packaging:
The front cover is a stunning full-color image of Liza showing plenty of skin, twin guns at the ready, her long blonde hair billowing out all around her. One of the guns is rather provocatively shoved down out the bottom of her denim shorts which are unbuttoned and unzipped. The Junk Force logo is set low on the right side of the cover, and the writer's name is placed inconspicuously along the top left. The back cover has a nice close-up of Liza, giving a surprisingly coquettish look, with the blurb printed under it in surprisingly small text. There are dark yellow bands along the top and bottom. It's otherwise very plain with lots of white space. At the end of the story are two pages from the author where he talks about the Junk Force story and where it all came from. There are eight pages of ads for other DrMaster products in the back of the book. The overall look is good, with the eye-popping cover and uncomplicated design.


Artwork:
There are only a few pages of art. Every chapter gets a nice splash page, plus a big two-page fanservice fest of the three girls bathing and horse-playing in the nude in the second chapter. There are the cover images as well. Surprisingly, the artist isn't named, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't Yusuke Ken, the artist of the manga. The art is all quite impressive, looking much more finished than the art in the manga. Despite the extra use of screentones, the art reproduction looks very good.

Text:
The story reads with the woodenness of a literal translation, with very little adaptation to make it more readable. There are odd mistakes in places, like a quotation mark set at the end of a paragraph that has no dialogue. There are also what I call "spellchecker typos", the sort of mistakes a spellchecker can't correct, such as this line from the final chapter: "Louis ran threw the throng." All the chapters are written in the first person, from either Liza or Louis's point of view. The dialogue sounds fairly natural for the most part, except for Mill, who doesn't use any contractions. It might have been done that way to reflect her greater education and more genteel manner, but it only makes her sound like a robot.

Contents: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The story takes place about 140 years in the future. The Earth is dying. Most of the planet is desert, and nearly all natural resources have been depleted. Approximately 40 years in the past, there was a major world war, between the people who wanted to use what was left of the planets resourced to terraform Mars and make it our new home, and those who wanted to use the last of the resources to rebuild Earth. Grim reminders of the war are everywhere. Worse, something called the "White Storm" blows through the few remaining towns like a sand storm, reducing the cities and everyone in them to nothing more than white sand. Liza is 16 and lost everything to the white storm. She rides in an antiquated tank, a relic of the war, with Wooty and Mill. Wooty is 14 and a born hothead. She's also rather proud of the fact that she has the largest breasts of the three girls. Mill, who is the youngest at 13, grew up in privilege, but is now riding in the tank with the others. There only goal now is to find a new town, a perfect town to settle down in.
In the first chapter, we are introduced to Louis, 14 years old and a mecha-maniac. He grew up with a strong background in engineering, but his town was destroyed by the white storm, so now he is on the run, trying to stay one step ahead of bandits and simply stay alive. His skill at repairs and knowledge of mecha gets him an immediate job in the tank with the girls. The second chapter gets into the characters a bit more, as they bathe in a rare pool of spring water and get to know their new teammate better and vice versa. Back en route, they run into a dangerous relic of the last war, a giant pyramid of fighting power called the Weltschmertz. Stuck between it and quicksand, they are forced to fight it for their survival. Next, Liza meets a man who looks just like the boyfriend she lost when the white storm destroyed her city. He is from Mars, but is one a mission that will benefit the people on Earth. Liza puts her lot in with him to help him complete his mission. Later, they are attacked by a group of bandits, and Louis is separated from the girls. He finds himself with a group who live underground and are rebuilding an orbital shuttle to take the children to Mars. Louis can't resist the urge to help them. Meanwhile, the girls discover the bandits aren't bandits at all, but former members of the group that lives underground. They have no water or food and are battling to regain control of the limited resources which the underground dwellers are selfishly hoarding for their own use. This ends up pitting Louis and the girls against each other in a tank battle, neither knowing how is in the other tank. Finally, the reunited group thinks they've found the perfect city. In it, Louis witnesses a couple of thugs trying to kidnap a very young girl, and rushes to her and her mother's defense. The girl is Mamet, and she's wanted by the boss of the city. Louis and the girls are faced with fighting the two very powerful and well-equipped men who are trying to capture Mamet.

Comments
This first novel based on the Junk Force universe covers stories already in the manga. No new ground is covered, and the awkward and stilted writing is not an inducement to buying the novel. There are brief moments of excitement in the last two chapters, but the grammatical errors and odd sentences detract from the narrative. The basic premise is intriguing, but the poor presentation is enough to limit this only to hardcore mecha and Junk Force fans. This is by no means as bad as the terrible "Onegai Teacher" novel that ComicsOne put out, but it's still far from acceptable.