The Innocent

by Avi Arad, Ya-Sung Ko, Yasung Ko

Son dernier souvenir La chaise lectrique, la cagoule, la main de lexcuteur qui abaisse le levier Lorsquil ouvre les yeux, Ash na que de vagues notions de ce qui a t sa vie, et plus encore, des circonstances de sa mort. Landrogyne Angel lui annonce quil a t victime dune erreur judiciaire et quil lui revient, prsent, dviter le mme sort dautres innocents. Mais trs vite, les premires missions soulvent le doute et dvoilent une vidence : la mmoire dAsh revientpeu peu, et ce nest pas joli voir Pire, parmi ceux qui lont fait plonger se trouve un homme de main qui a la capacit trange de voir les morts. Sur une ide originale dAvi Arad, le producteur de Spider-Man, un seinen tnbreux magistralement mis en images.

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fantasy, Paranormal, Shonen, Comics Manga

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Kyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nicolas Cage, you lied to me.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is flimsy, with a lot of missing context. There are plot devices, such as the repetition of "let's play, Johnny" which are never explained. Also, it feels as though this is the second book in a series, since events and conversations that are not in this book keep being vaguely referenced, which only serves to further muddy the narrative in this book. Even the artwork, while frequently beautiful, is often chaotic and distracting. I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody.

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 3 out of 5]

The American 'manga' came with a back flap filled with accolades from graphic novel fans such as Stan Lee, Sam Raimi and Nicolas Cage. They wrote this manga a big check to cash. Raimi said 'The Innocent takes the best of Japanese and American storytelling and combines it with the finest Korean artwork to form a mesmerizingly stylish comic. It should not be missed.' Well, yes and no.

Johnny was a detective framed for murder by a mobster and sent to the chair. He's teamed with an Angel who has lost its wings (male? Female? We're not really sure). He's being sent back to earth to keep another innocent man from suffering the same fate at the hands of the same man, Frame Burns. This young man, Joshua, is being prosecuted by Rain Evans the same lawyer who put Johnny away. However, once Johnny realizes that the same players are involved, his mission is forgotten. All he wants is revenge.

The Angel has to rein him in or it will never get its wings back. Johnny sort of agrees but only if he gets to do it his way. He is bound by chains that will rein him in, no killing allowed. He learns what his undead body can do. He is made of ash and he can use it to form weapons. As he tries to keep Mira, Joshua's sister safe until she can deliver the recording that will free him, Johnny crosses paths with Rain, who might have been more than just his lawyer and with a psychopath working with Frame named Whirl.

Whirl can see Johnny and the Angel doesn't know why nor does it know why Johnny is able to slip his own chains. The path to saving Joshua and Mira is a long one and the end will be the restoration of Johnny's life and the angel's wings, provided of course, Whirl doesn't stop Johnny cold.

Is it a good story? Yes. Is the art good? It's gorgeous. Is it all that? No, unfortunately for me it falls...well not apart, it's better than that, how about it falls a little short. It quickly becomes just like any other fight manga with not enough story telling. Why did the angel lose its wings? HOW is Johnny so special and why? It's mentioned many times but it's never explained. Whirl sadly descends into Slasher villain unstoppable silliness. I liked this. I really did. But it needed to be something very special to live up the the praise. Heck, it really had to be something special because the return from the dead for vengeance storyline is well trod ground. I mean, we already have a comic book version of this with a better told storyline and gorgeous art in J. O'Barr's The Crow. Other than vengeance, there is nothing in common between the two of them. I was left with too many questions to be entirely in love with The Innocent but it was good. It was sort of open ended so maybe they'll revisit it.

[Sara Hollingsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a rather low rating, but I actually enjoyed this. The art is clear and really well done. I liked the story, though some aspects could have used some deeper explanation. But the underlying mafia/thriller story line was solid. It was the fantasy elements that were sort of left hanging there. Still, I liked the effects from the ash and the fighting style component of the art in the panels. I'd give this more of a 3.5 star rating, but I'm rounding up for just a fun time.

[Bastien · Rating 2 out of 5]

Décidément le one shot en manga est un art bien difficile.
Vite lu vite oublié. Une histoire de vengeance sur fond d'histoire d'amour. Un bon moment de lecture qui disparaît dès la fermeture du manga.
Dommage.

[Wiktoria (^˵◕ω◕˵^) · Rating 4 out of 5]

mi się podobało

[Amelia Kozłowska · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5 :/

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Innocent is a single volume stand alone story blending the lines of reality and the afterlife, where a wrongfully executed former detective is given a chance to address his remaining "impurities" before his final judgement by helping similarly accused people. But does he care enough about his fate to play by the rules, or will he pursue revenge on those who killed him...

This turned out to be a very good tale interweaving themes of revenge, responsibility, and the consequences of one's choices. The "man" now known as Ash and his watch guard angel are good point of view characters. The case that got Ash killed is still ruining the lives of others and Ash is determined to do things his own way. Everything slowly unfolds in pieces and comes together nicely with a couple of nice twists along the way. The individual story components are nothing really original or groundbreaking, but are used to great effect.

The crime and drama threads work well and make this a strong story that makes the reader care about the fate of the characters. The spiritual and supernatural elements are weaker. They are consistent after established and sufficiently add to the story, but a lot of details that would have added even more depth are left unexplained. There are many little "but why?"s that occur to the reader that will not be answered. Still, while such things would have made The Innocent better as a whole, the elements of the story the author was clearly more focused on do not suffer much for their absence.

The art is generally excellent. A couple of action sequences are a little hard to follow, but it's a minor issue and the style, details and designs are all great.

The Innocent is a very good stand alone manga. It could have been truly great with additional length, character development and explanations, but what's here is still well worth a look.

1/25/13

[#ReadAllTheBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me first say that this wasn't my type of manga in the slightest. I'm not a fan of the gritty series for the most part, but despite my occasional thought of "wow, this is really out of my scope" I couldn't put this down.

The premise of the book seems like it would be either a simplistic plot, but it ended up being more detailed than I gave it credit for. I do have to say that occasionally I felt that the story could have been a little more straightforward and there's a lot that's never explained and I felt that the story would have been much improved for adding it in. Even with that, this has "future Hollywood blockbuster" written all over it.

What really pushed me on with this book was the artwork. It's gorgeously drawn and the lush color opening pages really grabbed my attention and kept it. The characters are all pretty detailed (especially the pretty female characters), but not in ways that would be overly annoying. I have to say that if not for the artwork, I probably would have succumbed to the "this isn't your genre" voices and put it back on the shelf.

This is absolutely worth taking a look at if you're in the bookstore and for fans of great artwork, this will be a must-buy. For those who want a story to end all stories, you'll probably be slightly disappointed here. Even so, definitely flip through it if you have the chance.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

2015
Eh, this was an okay book. It wasn't the greatest manga, considering the plot, but the art was really beautiful, and the characters weren't bad.
Because it's such a short story, and also a one-shot, it reminded me a lot of those short yaoi mangas, where the characters are touched on little bit, but the plot and story isn't as expanded as it could be if it were longer.
But, also because it is a one-shot, it's an easy read to pick-up for catching up on Goodreads Challenges ^^


Re-read in 2022
Forgot I even read this! I love the quote from Nicholas Cage on the back cover: "Firmly based in a crossroads of afterlife and material existence, it reads and shows like an esoteric haiku by way of anime and Lichtenstein and achieves comic book poetry". Exactly what I thought about it on a second read through 😂 2/5

[Eyliune · Rating 2 out of 5]

Le scénario est assez original, mais la façon dont il se déroule est assez brouillon et difficile à suivre...J'ai trouvé les dessins sont très beaux, et j'ai adoré les designs des personnages.

Un point noir en particulier : le méchant, Whirl, est un trop gros cliché du mec fou, et ne sait dire qu'une phrase ("tu veux jouer avec moi ?" c'est presque sa seule ligne de dialogue).
J'aurais aimé en savoir un peu plus sur la personne qui est sensée ressembler à Ash au début du roman, un second tome n'aurait pas été de trop, car trop de questions restent en suspens. On ne comprends pas non plus, par exemple, pourquoi Whirl peut voir Ash, pourquoi il peut le toucher...

The Innocent présente un bon récit et est agréable à lire, mais on reste malheureusement sur notre fin après notre lecture.

[Rosemarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will admit that it took me a hot minute to understand what was happening in this story. I think the concept was really interesting, but this story didn't quite pull it off for me. I think my main issue is the main character, Johnny, is very unlikable, not that I have to like a character to enjoy their story necessarily, but in this case it was definitely a determent. Johnny was inconsiderate and selfish for most of the book, with the exception of the last chapter, and even though his backstory explains his behaviour, it was still hard to enjoy his story. I had way more sympathy for the poor angel that was supposed to be keeping an eye on him, then for Johnny himself.

[Seul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 I enjoyed the art style except for when it came to the angels. The story was fast paced as they did their best to cram an interesting story in a small book. I believe they failed as there were some good elements there were a lot of questions asked but never answered. Johnny aka Ash was able to do things normally beings in his position were not suppose to as well as the hitman. But they never really said why or how they were able to do these things. Felt like these questions were too large to ignore as were a few other things that some of the side characters stated.

[Veronica Pappolla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una lettura davvero particolare. Vieni buttato dentro nel mondo di Ash e nelle sue regole di cui ahimè non riusciremo a comprenderne bene neanche mezza.
Una storia con del potenziale ma probabilmente "rovinata" dal supporto non consono (l'avrei vista meglio come una serie, animata o meno, o un film).
Tecnicamente parlando ha usa troppe pistole di cechov e ad una struttura molto cinematografica.
Non capisco se l'ho letto troppo velocemente io ma ha lasciato più interrogativi che altro.

I disegni meritano davvero.

[Candice · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright, but completely skippable. The story was too short, so the pacing was much too fast, nothing had an emotional impact, and the characters didn't have a chance to really develop. I never got more than a vague idea of what the angel's job/situation was, or of what rules governed Ash's existence. I bought it before reading it, but I'll probably give it away since I doubt I'll bother reading it again.

[Aleksandra Pilch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Najlepsze rzeczy zawsze są najkrótsze. Żal, że jednotomówka! I zdecydowanie czytałabym to jako powieść, ponieważ fabuła jest szalona, pomysł intrygujący i widziałabym to rozciągnięte na, co najmniej, czterysta stron czystej akcji.
Można jednak pomarzyć, prawda?

[Miłosz💜✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naprawdę podoba mi się kreska i sam pomysł, ale podczas czytania wkradał się chaos, którego nie mogłem czasami zrozumieć. Dynamika sytuacji, w których znalazł się bohater, była wykonana w taki sposób, że potrzebowałem chwili na zastanowienie się co dzieje się na kartce.

[Ashe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept but poor execution with one dimensional characters and a basic storyline. It is a poor imitation of Japanese Manga. The art and concept were both fantastic, but honestly it was just disappointing.

[MuttiWrites · Rating 2 out of 5]

Graphics are amazing and so is the premise of the book. But sadly it fell very short on the story telling, background information and goal,hopes and dreams of the characters. Nice to look at - horrible execution of the story itself

[Vora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Des dessins très beaux mais une histoire expédiée, des scènes d'action brouillonent, et des points jamais expliqués.
Bref le scénariste a essayé de faire tenir un one-shot (pas par choix, il y était contraint ) tous les éléments qui aurait pu faire une bonne mini-serie, quel gâchis.

[Jorge Schumacher · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mangá em volume único muito ruim.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stilted dialogue, one dimensional characters and massive plot holes made this a painful read. Do not recommend.

[Gaia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I disegni sono un po' confusionari e poco definiti. I dialoghi sono semplici, a volte ripetitivi. Nel complesso, però, grazie alla trama innovativa, è una piacevole lettura.

[riven · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.75.
Spodziewałem się czegoś lepszego.

[Sabrina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing and not executed very well

[RahFoodie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked it up for a dollar at a thriftstore. Art is not bad. Ok story. Some of the Dialogue got repetitive, "Let's PLAY!", "I gotta do it my way!" lmao. don't pay full price for this.

[Alisha Greenlaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the art and the concept of this book, but didn't enjoy it overall. It was a slow build-up and I was quickly bored.

[Aśka Kordys · Rating 5 out of 5]

fajne bardzo

[Regalia Lenzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Przeciętniak o zemście ducha na swoich oprawcach. Średnia historia i średniejsze rysunki.

[Kimchi]

DNF