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ME2, Volume 1
Aki is a shy, introverted teen trying to cope with the death of her older brother. Coupled with the daily pressures of being the most bullied kid in school, she keeps having mysterious blackouts. Entire days begin to be unaccounted for as Aki finds strange items in her closet. Adding to her bewilderment, the cutest boy in school is suddenly taking an interest in her. Aki wonders if her grip on reality is slowly slipping away, but something even more shocking might be behind this haunting tale...
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Published August 14, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 27, 2007
Shy Aki is struggling with her perfect older brother’s death. Her parents offer little aid in recovery, and she constantly feels the pressure of comparisons to her dead sibling, both externally and internally imposed. As a victim of escalating bullying, she retreats further and further into silence and shadows. Her longing for her brother’s protection is threaded through every scene as she sinks farther and farther away from reality. Then suddenly up pops Kai: a confident, brash girl who swaggers through Aki’s life, dealing out justice to her tormentors. The problem is: where did Kai come from? As Aki experiences longer and longer periods of blackout, it becomes all too clear that her savior may be very close indeed. Is it her brother’s spirit come back to defend her? Or is she simply losing her mind? Does it matter, if in some small way she can get her brother back?
Sho Murase fills her pages with swirls of gray tones, blacks, and lines with remarkable style, and depends a lot on her superlative sense of design to carry the emotional weight of the story. The dialog and text retreads a familiar tale of dual personalities, but the art elevates it into a moody examination of isolation and the need for a hero. ME 2, a psychological mystery, will appeal to teens who want something a little less frothy than the usual manga romance. The mystery is not so much who Kai is but more how her presence will affect Aki’s place the in world and her recovery from grief.
Originally written for No Flying, No Tights, a graphic novel review website
Sho Murase fills her pages with swirls of gray tones, blacks, and lines with remarkable style, and depends a lot on her superlative sense of design to carry the emotional weight of the story. The dialog and text retreads a familiar tale of dual personalities, but the art elevates it into a moody examination of isolation and the need for a hero. ME 2, a psychological mystery, will appeal to teens who want something a little less frothy than the usual manga romance. The mystery is not so much who Kai is but more how her presence will affect Aki’s place the in world and her recovery from grief.
Originally written for No Flying, No Tights, a graphic novel review website
December 21, 2014
This is the first (and only published) volume of a proposed trilogy. It follows Aki a shy, introverted and scarred teenage girl struggling to deal with the death of her brother in a swimming accident in which they were both involved. She's bullied at school and confused when the school hunk takes an interest in her because of her poetry. She has black outs and although it seems confusing, seems she's manifested an alter-ego due to the trauma of her brother's death.
This promised to be really interesting - It blurs the lines of fantasy & reality and teases with the idea that nothing is as it seems - though if there is a plot twist you certainly don't get it by the end of this volume. I adored all the references - Edgar Allan Poe, Longfellow, Stephen King's Carrie and Nancy Drew. The plot is interesting enough with the mystery of what really did happen to her brother to keep us interested.
The artwork is very stylised. You're either going to love that or hate it. Personally its not to my taste at all, but I can appreciate that some people are going to be blown away - its certainly striking and bold and really suits the gloomy emo themes.
A real pity there's not more of this, I think had it continued it could have really come into its own as it is it kind of leaves you hanging.
This promised to be really interesting - It blurs the lines of fantasy & reality and teases with the idea that nothing is as it seems - though if there is a plot twist you certainly don't get it by the end of this volume. I adored all the references - Edgar Allan Poe, Longfellow, Stephen King's Carrie and Nancy Drew. The plot is interesting enough with the mystery of what really did happen to her brother to keep us interested.
The artwork is very stylised. You're either going to love that or hate it. Personally its not to my taste at all, but I can appreciate that some people are going to be blown away - its certainly striking and bold and really suits the gloomy emo themes.
A real pity there's not more of this, I think had it continued it could have really come into its own as it is it kind of leaves you hanging.
October 28, 2019
Read it in high school and have been forever in love with it. Unique art style and a gritty story.
May 13, 2008
Overall Rating: A-
Synopsis: ME2 is a shojo/josei manga series by creator Sho Murase. The story follows Aki, a shy high schooler whose older brother, Ken, recently died. Aki sports a nasty scar on her cheek, and is bullied at school, so when the most popular boy in school starts talking to her, she isn't sure what to do. To add to her problems, Aki has been suffering from blackouts, and she wakes up in unexpected places and finds strange clothes in her closet. Aki struggles with her school life, and trying to figure out what's causing her blackouts.
First of all, the art in ME2 is fantastic. It's striking and unique from other shojo/josei series. Unfortunately, the storytelling falters a little. The plot ges overly confusing at some points, and a little too vague in others, but that may be resolved in later volumes.
Overall, I like the concepts in ME2, but I'm a philosophy nerd, so questions about what's real, and whether someone's insane or there's something deeper going on, fascinate me. I like the Aki character and there are some great teasers about what happened to her brother Ken.
ME2 is definitely worth checking out if you are looking to broaden your shojo/josei collection, or think girls that kick ass are cool (and who doesn't?)
For more manga and anime reviews, please check out Hobotaku.
Synopsis: ME2 is a shojo/josei manga series by creator Sho Murase. The story follows Aki, a shy high schooler whose older brother, Ken, recently died. Aki sports a nasty scar on her cheek, and is bullied at school, so when the most popular boy in school starts talking to her, she isn't sure what to do. To add to her problems, Aki has been suffering from blackouts, and she wakes up in unexpected places and finds strange clothes in her closet. Aki struggles with her school life, and trying to figure out what's causing her blackouts.
First of all, the art in ME2 is fantastic. It's striking and unique from other shojo/josei series. Unfortunately, the storytelling falters a little. The plot ges overly confusing at some points, and a little too vague in others, but that may be resolved in later volumes.
Overall, I like the concepts in ME2, but I'm a philosophy nerd, so questions about what's real, and whether someone's insane or there's something deeper going on, fascinate me. I like the Aki character and there are some great teasers about what happened to her brother Ken.
ME2 is definitely worth checking out if you are looking to broaden your shojo/josei collection, or think girls that kick ass are cool (and who doesn't?)
For more manga and anime reviews, please check out Hobotaku.
January 26, 2011
Again, Sho Murase's artwork is gorgeous -- the fluidity of space, the brilliant use of patterns, the Art Nouveau sense of design combined with the Gothic expressionism. And again, the story and characterization leave a lot to be desired, although they're slightly better than Sei, possibly due to the contributions of a cowriter.
Aki, suffering from the recent death of her idolized older brother, struggles with the vicious status battles of high school; Carrie is often invoked, and no one seems trustworthy. It's not clear whether the book in fact takes place in the "real world" or in Aki's head; she has odd lapses of memory, an alternate personality, her parents discuss psychiatric commitment, and there are hints that her relationship with her brother Ken was not as idealized as she currently remembers it. I'd be upset at how all the other women are bitches and Aki's only recourse appears to be the cute boy who's interested in her, but I'm not sure the cute boy isn't hiding something either. The only real character here is Aki, and reading the book as an expressionistic nightmare exploration of her disintegrating psychological state makes it all worthwhile.
But it's definitely more for the art junkies than the story fiends.
Aki, suffering from the recent death of her idolized older brother, struggles with the vicious status battles of high school; Carrie is often invoked, and no one seems trustworthy. It's not clear whether the book in fact takes place in the "real world" or in Aki's head; she has odd lapses of memory, an alternate personality, her parents discuss psychiatric commitment, and there are hints that her relationship with her brother Ken was not as idealized as she currently remembers it. I'd be upset at how all the other women are bitches and Aki's only recourse appears to be the cute boy who's interested in her, but I'm not sure the cute boy isn't hiding something either. The only real character here is Aki, and reading the book as an expressionistic nightmare exploration of her disintegrating psychological state makes it all worthwhile.
But it's definitely more for the art junkies than the story fiends.
June 26, 2014
Sho Murase's art is amazing! It suits the atmosphere of this manga entirely. Aki is a strange and shy girl going through the hardship of high school and life. She reminded me a bit of Catwoman because of her bipolar personality who is borderline on schizophrenic. Though I really liked the plot what was a real negative point is the lack of volume 2....
August 30, 2007
The art was amazing, but the story was not.
April 30, 2010
I love her sense of graphic design, but the story structure was pretty impossible to follow.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews