螺子 [Neji]

by Kaori Yuki, 由貴香織里

恋人=白雪姫とともに事件に巻き込まれ、惨殺されたネジ。冷凍冬眠にかけられて40年後に蘇生した彼は、強大な超能力を身に付けていた…!!

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction, Comics, Fantasy, Comics Manga, Tragedy, Thriller

208 pages, Paperback

First published June 25, 2001

About the author

Kaori Yuki (由貴香織里) is a Japanese manga artist.

She debuted in 1987 with Natsufuku no Erii (Jap: 夏服のエリー) on the manga anthology Bessatsu Hana to Yume published by Hakusensha.
She is best known for her gothic manga works, such as the Earl Cain series (Jap: 伯爵カイン, Hakushaku Cain) and Angel Sanctuary (Jap: 天使禁猟区, Tenshi Kinryōku)

Her work is typically serialized in one of Hakusensha's two shōjo manga anthologies, Bessatsu Hana to Yume and Hana to Yume. In 2010, Kaori Yuki was one of many manga artists whose work would appear in the new shōjo manga anthology Aria by the publisher Kodansha on July 28, 2010.
Her doujinshi-ka name is MoonClock.

Reviews

[Bibliothecat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Screw wakes up with no memory of his true name or past. Having been put into frozen sleep in the 90’s, he now faces the year 2033 where he has lost all his human rights. With Screw’s girlfriend as hostage - the scientific group, GERA wants to make use of his psychic abilities which he has developed during his frozen sleep. Although cooperative at first, Screw breaks free from GERA and tries to find a place for himself in this futuristic world with ESP assassins and lifelike humanoids.

Neji was my first manga by Kaori Yuki and I actually bought it by accident. Though it is not exactly an accident I regret; while not my favourite – reading this manga has led me to read more of Kaori Yuki’s works which I enjoyed more than this particular one. That is not to say that I disliked it.

The characters are fun and generally interesting. Although the concept of frozen sleep, humanoids, clones and whatnot are far from being an unusual story line, I thought the premise of the story was well sussed out. That being said, I have never been a major fan of Sci-Fi so this story is not quite my cup of tea.

Kaori Yuki has a lovely art style in general but, once again, it is not quite my cup of tea. Male characters can look very feminine at times. Nonetheless, I prefer her designs for the male characters a good deal more than that of the females. Unless they are the younger and cutesy characters, I am not too fond of how she draws females. But anyway, I still believe that she has a unique and recognizable style with a lot of detail. As a lover of nicely drawn hair, I can particularly appreciate her characters' hairstyles.

I think Neji’s biggest flaw is its length. I often prefer shorter series over longer ones but this single volume is divided into three arcs which could have easily made three books – if not more. If there would have been more volumes there would have been more room for character development and, more importantly, time for the reader to bond with the characters. There are several emotional scenes which just do not work as well if you are not somehow involved with the characters.

It is still a nice, action-filled and certainly fast-paced story that is probably well received by people who like Sci-Fi – especially ones that involve humanoids and the like.

[Holly Interlandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in Japanese, but goddamn, talk about awesome. I don't think Kaori Yuki is capable of writing a normal book... in this one, carbon freezing haunts a crygogenic governmental assassin whose girlfriend is separated into frozen organs, and later on he hooks up with a drug dealer who has a bomb in his eye socket and runs into a psychotic tycoon who builds robots named Norma Jean. How does she come up with this stuff?

[Ping · Rating 2 out of 5]

From the mangaka of Angel Sanctuary.

The artstyle is so nice. Since it is an old manga from the 2000s, it looks so typical manga to me since it was one certain style a we got introduced when manga and anime became a bigger thing in Germany.

Story is rushed and convoluted. It is a one-shot manga with 3 acts. Thankfully a German wikipedia page about this manga exists. I could look up what it is actually happening and eventually enjoy it. :D

The story itself is pretty cool actually. About being frozen and rebirthed, the usual "the government does bad experiments" and the Asimov laws.

[Aria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Me gustaron las ilustraciones, pero todo es demasiado rápido. Es decir son tres arcos y cada capitulo es un arco, demasiado compacto. Se pudo hacer un tomo de cada arco y se hubiera apreciado la evolución de personajes. Me quedé con demasiadas dudas de ese universo, es una pena.

[Mai · Rating 3 out of 5]

*2.5*

this manga felt like 4 anime seasons in one

[thyni · Rating 2 out of 5]

junge was soll das sein, characters looks so similar it’s confusing, die story line jumpt hin und her??? aber die art ist pretty

[To · Rating 3 out of 5]

Schon seit längerer Zeit hatte ich hier eine ziemlich abgegriffene Version von dem Manga liegen, ihm aber irgendwie keine Beachtung geschenkt, was eigentlich komisch ist, da ich ein ziemlich großer Fan der "Angel Sanctuary"-Reihe von Kaori Yuki bin und somit das Verlangen mehr zu lesen eigentlich nahe liegt.

Ehrlich gesagt hätte ich es auch länger liegen lassen können, denn der Manga war gerade einmal durchschnitt. Die Geschichte dreht sich um einen Protagonisten, der in diesem One-Shot drei verschiedene Abenteuer erlebt. Am stärksten war dabei der Anfang. In den anderen Geschichten flacht es etwas ab und alles wirkt ein bisschen unzusammenhängend, als hätte das ganze eigentlich eine viel längere Story werden sollen. Schade.

Optisch ist es typisch Kaori Yuki. Wer schon mal was von ihr gelesen hat, weiß was man bekommt. Ich persönlich bin großer Fan ihres Stils, würde mir aber wünschen, dass es sich in den unterschiedlichen Werken auch ein wenig unterscheidet. In diesem Manga habe ich ziemlich oft gedacht, ich hätte Figuren aus Angel Sanctuary vor mir. Nicht nur vom Stil her, sondern auch von den Posen und allem.

Alles in allem ist es ein ganz netter Manga, den man ruhig einmal lesen kann. Am besten eignet er sich, wenn man noch nichts von Kaori Yuki gelesen hat und nur mal einen kleinen Einblick gewinnen will.

[Emilya Kusnaidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manga one-shot ini terdiri dari tiga cerita, dan dua cerita pertama dibuat pada masa-masa awal debut Yuki Kaori, sedangkan cerita terakhir dibuat belakangan. Jadi terasa sekali perbedaan goresan gambarnya.

Konsepnya sendiri bagus, khas fantasy manga tahun 90’an dengan segala futuristic dystopian-nya. Less gore, tapi tetep asyik dibaca. Sayang, hanya dibuat satu volume. Padahal kayaknya keren kalau dibuat seri dan dunianya dibuat lebih kompleks lagi.

[Aurora Fitzrovia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Der Manga war an sich nicht schlecht, und die Zeichnungen mochte ich ganz gerne, aber irgendwie bin ich mit der Geschichte einfach nicht warm geworden...

[Katherina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Der Manga hat mich mehr mitgenommen, als ich gedacht hätte...

[Vanlilith]

-