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Queen Emeraldas #1
Queen Emeraldas
Indiferente a los designios ajenos, una mujer solitaria recorre el espacio infinito en pos de un sueño. Es la dueña de su propio destino, de su propia nación. A bordo de su imponente nave, el Queen Emeraldas, surca el océano sideral desafiando múltiples peligros. Bruja, pirata, caza-recompensas, libertadora… Unos la temen, otros la desafían… Nadie sabe qué busca, nadie sabe por qué lucha, nadie sabe qué secreto propósito guarda con tanto celo en su corazón. Solo hay una única certeza: Emeraldas seguirá vagando incansable entre las estrellas hasta que la llama de su vida se apague y su estandarte de la calavera blanca sobre rojo sangre se desintegre en billones de átomos.
416 pages, Paperback
First published July 26, 2016
9 people are currently reading
168 people want to read
About the author
Leiji Matsumoto
191 books76 followersFrom the Wikipedia page:
Leiji Matsumoto (松本零士) is famous for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato. His style is characterized by tragic heroes; tall, slender, fragile-looking heroines with strong wills and in some cases, god-like powers; and a love of analog gauges and dials in his spacecraft.
Leiji Matsumoto (松本零士) is famous for his space operas such as Space Battleship Yamato. His style is characterized by tragic heroes; tall, slender, fragile-looking heroines with strong wills and in some cases, god-like powers; and a love of analog gauges and dials in his spacecraft.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
May 10, 2021
Llegué a Queen Emeraldas por cierta llamada de la nostalgia. De pequeña veía Capitán Harlock, y aunque no es una serie que me volviera loca (creo que me faltaban un par de años para entenderla mejor), llevaba tiempo queriendo leer algo del manga original... Este año Satori ha publicado en 2 volúmenes Queen Emeraldas, que simplificando mucho podría ser la versión femenina de Harlock.
Por lo que conocía del personaje, sabía que me iba a encontrar con una protagonista femenina independiente, que se enfrenta a todo aquel que se le ponga por delante sin medias tintas, cuya aspiración es navegar por el mar espacial hasta el fin de sus días defendiendo el concepto más amplio de lo que significa la libertad... Enigmática, con un sentido marcado de la justicia, solitaria, con una fama que la precede allá donde va, ha sido sin duda lo mejor de este manga.
Lo malo es que Emeraldas comparte protagonismo con Hiroshi Umino, un chico que parte desde cero para convertirse en otro pirata espacial, que construirá su propia nave y a quien Emeraldas hará casi de tutora a distancia. No me abandonaba la sensación de que le estaba quitando páginas a la protagonista...
Otra dificultad añadida para mí es que no soy aficionada a las odiseas espaciales y sabía que me iba a costar meterme en este mundo nuevo sin cuestionarme nada... Y vaya si me he hecho preguntas... Es normal si tenemos en cuenta que comparte universo con Capitán Harlock, a quien se menciona en alguna ocasión, cuya serie empezó a publicarse en 1977, mientras que Queen Emeraldas empezó en el 78 (aunque ya había protagonizado una historia corta en una revista shojo en el 75).
Visualmente me encanta el diseño de la obra, es decir: ambientes, universo, trajes, personajes y no me ha molestado que el dibujo sea antiguo o desproporcionado. Me ha parecido un estilo muy de contrastes entre mujeres etéreas y secundarios feísimos. En guion, me gustó la combinación de ciertos elementos típicos de aventuras de piratas con westerns en el espacio, pero me sobraron repeticiones y el ritmo me pareció muy desigual.
Por lo que conocía del personaje, sabía que me iba a encontrar con una protagonista femenina independiente, que se enfrenta a todo aquel que se le ponga por delante sin medias tintas, cuya aspiración es navegar por el mar espacial hasta el fin de sus días defendiendo el concepto más amplio de lo que significa la libertad... Enigmática, con un sentido marcado de la justicia, solitaria, con una fama que la precede allá donde va, ha sido sin duda lo mejor de este manga.
Lo malo es que Emeraldas comparte protagonismo con Hiroshi Umino, un chico que parte desde cero para convertirse en otro pirata espacial, que construirá su propia nave y a quien Emeraldas hará casi de tutora a distancia. No me abandonaba la sensación de que le estaba quitando páginas a la protagonista...
Otra dificultad añadida para mí es que no soy aficionada a las odiseas espaciales y sabía que me iba a costar meterme en este mundo nuevo sin cuestionarme nada... Y vaya si me he hecho preguntas... Es normal si tenemos en cuenta que comparte universo con Capitán Harlock, a quien se menciona en alguna ocasión, cuya serie empezó a publicarse en 1977, mientras que Queen Emeraldas empezó en el 78 (aunque ya había protagonizado una historia corta en una revista shojo en el 75).
Visualmente me encanta el diseño de la obra, es decir: ambientes, universo, trajes, personajes y no me ha molestado que el dibujo sea antiguo o desproporcionado. Me ha parecido un estilo muy de contrastes entre mujeres etéreas y secundarios feísimos. En guion, me gustó la combinación de ciertos elementos típicos de aventuras de piratas con westerns en el espacio, pero me sobraron repeticiones y el ritmo me pareció muy desigual.
August 19, 2019
What a repetitive bummer. Such a tremendous let down to a great premise, space pirates are you kidding me? Lone lady pirate voyaging thru space she's a bounty hunter, she's a freedom fighter, and an assassin. This should be exciting but it is boring. It is so boring, there is no backstory. there's no motivation. This story is convoluted and repetitive. She spends the whole book protecting this space travel motivated child. She kills at least 3 ppl to protect this lil guy only to reveal if she ever finds out why she's doing it she'll have to kill him. It kinda reads like a spaghetti western where the cowboy is in love with his horse. Or like if a gal builds a car and the trips that she makes are supposed to be more interesting because she built the car with her own two hands, but 300 of the 412 pages are dedicated to the car, or the relationship to the car or problems facing the car. I was way more interested in the aliens but they were few.
February 8, 2022
Tengo sentimientos encontrados con esta obra. Por un lado la historia me ha interesado, pero por el otro el ritmo y las frases sexistas me sacan del relato.
Espero que el giro final del guion sea el que se insinuaba cuando Emeralda encuentra la nave.
Las historias autoconlcusivas son un buen añadido al tomo, el cual también destaca por la calidad de su papel.
Espero que el giro final del guion sea el que se insinuaba cuando Emeralda encuentra la nave.
Las historias autoconlcusivas son un buen añadido al tomo, el cual también destaca por la calidad de su papel.
March 14, 2023
Geçtiğimiz aylarda vefat eden büyük üstadın bilmediğim bir eseriydi.Huzur içinde yatsın Leiji Matsumoto bir çok yapıma ilham kaynağı oldu, çocukluğumuzda ufkumuzu açtı mükemmel tasarımlarıyla.
Bu eserinde ise bir nevi Captain Harlock'un dişi versiyonu başrolde ama tabi ana karakter olarak değil.Yıldızlar denizinde gezip korku salan ölümsüz bir varlık Emeraldas.Tabi her zaman böyle değilmiş.Kendisiyle çok benzer bir kaderi paylaşan,kendi uzay gemisini inşa edip yıldızlar denizinde seyahat etmek isteyen bir çocukla karşılaştığında acımasız korsan Emeraldas'ımız yumuşar ve çocuğa yardım eli uzatır.Böylelikle çocuk yazgısını çizmek için yola koyulur.
Negative-space dediğimiz sayfadaki boşlukları değerlendirme üzerine tez yazılır bu manga hakkında o derece ustaca kullanmış Matsumoto.Çizimleri kimine göre çocuksu gelse de benim için Jeff Smith ve Tezuka arası yumuşak bir geçiş gibidir.
Havalı kadın ana karakter,sci-fi ama uzayda yolculuğun kolay olduğu ve havalı tasarımları seviyorsanız öneririm.
Bu eserinde ise bir nevi Captain Harlock'un dişi versiyonu başrolde ama tabi ana karakter olarak değil.Yıldızlar denizinde gezip korku salan ölümsüz bir varlık Emeraldas.Tabi her zaman böyle değilmiş.Kendisiyle çok benzer bir kaderi paylaşan,kendi uzay gemisini inşa edip yıldızlar denizinde seyahat etmek isteyen bir çocukla karşılaştığında acımasız korsan Emeraldas'ımız yumuşar ve çocuğa yardım eli uzatır.Böylelikle çocuk yazgısını çizmek için yola koyulur.
Negative-space dediğimiz sayfadaki boşlukları değerlendirme üzerine tez yazılır bu manga hakkında o derece ustaca kullanmış Matsumoto.Çizimleri kimine göre çocuksu gelse de benim için Jeff Smith ve Tezuka arası yumuşak bir geçiş gibidir.
Havalı kadın ana karakter,sci-fi ama uzayda yolculuğun kolay olduğu ve havalı tasarımları seviyorsanız öneririm.
October 2, 2024
Reading these partly as fanfic research and partly because I just like Emeraldas. It's interesting to see the differences between the anime and the manga.
Would recommend this one for adults. The manga says 16+ on the back, and that's pretty accurate. This is the literal wild west of space. People die. Cruelty and death get showcased at times. In typical sci-fi fashion, we have a lot of "meaning of life" questions here, and it's interesting to see how Matsumoto tries to answer them (or not).
Would recommend this one for adults. The manga says 16+ on the back, and that's pretty accurate. This is the literal wild west of space. People die. Cruelty and death get showcased at times. In typical sci-fi fashion, we have a lot of "meaning of life" questions here, and it's interesting to see how Matsumoto tries to answer them (or not).
May 23, 2022
Ever since Gene Roddenberry talked NBC into making a "wagon Train to the stars" in the form of Star Trek, sci-fi fantasy makers have taken turns at trying to equal the "western in space". Queen Emeraldas is Matsumoto's twist on the theme and is has it's share of success and failure. This effort is not on par with Leiji's other works, but taking it as it stands, the tale of the Pirate Queen Emeraldas and Hiroshi, a young man,or old boy - you pick -- from Earth who builds his own space ship and crashes it into Mars and happens upon the Queen, who has a deep secret she cannot share with him (or she would have to kill him -- no, literally, that's a plot device). I guess space ships are available in a sort of kit-car way in the far future, it's never really explained how Hiroshi got the material for the craft.
Seems she is as much a loner as he is. Some weird captain the Queen told Hoshi to catch a ride with punches Hoshi in the face when it turns out he is broke. Later Hoshi is about to be flushed out into space -- apparently for his weight, like 90 pounds could make the difference -- and Emeraldas shows up just in time to aid the boy wonder in the fight for his life. After that there are a series of loner moments with the Queen and her thoughts punctuated by her saving Hoshi from some new mistake -- I guess she is sort of his Batman and he her Robin, or she is just a weird stalker. This is definitely a "to be continued" book.
The art is rather plain black and white and is very 1990's, a mix of anime style and American cartoon, and nothing really rises to spectacular. But, if you like weird tales about weird people, it has a quality to it. Think of it as Matsumoto in the raw. A translated primer of his experimental phase in the late 1990's.
Seems she is as much a loner as he is. Some weird captain the Queen told Hoshi to catch a ride with punches Hoshi in the face when it turns out he is broke. Later Hoshi is about to be flushed out into space -- apparently for his weight, like 90 pounds could make the difference -- and Emeraldas shows up just in time to aid the boy wonder in the fight for his life. After that there are a series of loner moments with the Queen and her thoughts punctuated by her saving Hoshi from some new mistake -- I guess she is sort of his Batman and he her Robin, or she is just a weird stalker. This is definitely a "to be continued" book.
The art is rather plain black and white and is very 1990's, a mix of anime style and American cartoon, and nothing really rises to spectacular. But, if you like weird tales about weird people, it has a quality to it. Think of it as Matsumoto in the raw. A translated primer of his experimental phase in the late 1990's.
January 30, 2021
Maybe two and a half stars.
I read this book because I couldn't find Galaxy Express 999. It was recently Leiji Matsumoto's birthday, so I wanted to celebrate and finally read one of his works. I had heard of him and his titles for years and years, and he might have actually read some of my comics earlier this year as I entered some in a manga contest that he was judging. It felt appropriate to read some of his work, too.
I was pretty disappointed. The book is often more about this Japanese kid named Ushino who has big dreams for space travel. Ushino builds his own spaceship, crashes it, builds another, crashes it, and Emeraldas kind of follows him around and helps him out directly and indirectly. She is supposed to be super cool and awesome, and we learn that she stumbled on some dying lady who owned the Queen Emeraldas (a super-duper spaceship that coincidentally shares the main character's name) and was given that ship, and now that ship is really powerful and she goes around with impunity being tough and mysterious. She has some goal, but we don't know what it is, and she wants to tell the goal to Ushino someday and then kill him.
I just didn't care much about the story. It reads fast, though, and I liked some of the art of the tech. Matsumoto depicts space as a ruthless place, but at the same time Ushino is always meeting people who give him stuff for free. It happens so often it's kind of funny.
Ugh, I wish I had liked it, but I didn't. The end.
I read this book because I couldn't find Galaxy Express 999. It was recently Leiji Matsumoto's birthday, so I wanted to celebrate and finally read one of his works. I had heard of him and his titles for years and years, and he might have actually read some of my comics earlier this year as I entered some in a manga contest that he was judging. It felt appropriate to read some of his work, too.
I was pretty disappointed. The book is often more about this Japanese kid named Ushino who has big dreams for space travel. Ushino builds his own spaceship, crashes it, builds another, crashes it, and Emeraldas kind of follows him around and helps him out directly and indirectly. She is supposed to be super cool and awesome, and we learn that she stumbled on some dying lady who owned the Queen Emeraldas (a super-duper spaceship that coincidentally shares the main character's name) and was given that ship, and now that ship is really powerful and she goes around with impunity being tough and mysterious. She has some goal, but we don't know what it is, and she wants to tell the goal to Ushino someday and then kill him.
I just didn't care much about the story. It reads fast, though, and I liked some of the art of the tech. Matsumoto depicts space as a ruthless place, but at the same time Ushino is always meeting people who give him stuff for free. It happens so often it's kind of funny.
Ugh, I wish I had liked it, but I didn't. The end.
September 7, 2021
2021.09.07 - reread - I reread this to see if I was going to keep it as I couldn't remember the story. Emerald as is a space pirate who travels the sea of space hunting down evil. She gives no second thought to the viscous and. In return, shows them no mercy by shooting on sight. As she travels she searches for a mysterious man of whom she'll tell no one. She meets up with Hiroshi a young man who insists upon traveling space under his own power. She befriends him and continues to either meet him or arrive at his destinations either just before or after him. This is definitely a keeper for my shelves in a beautiful hardcover.
This is stunning and beautiful. The art is fantastic. There is a lot of negative space, a lot of black. Some characters are realistic while others are cartoonish. In fact, the male lead reminded me of Weirdly Gruesome from The Flinstones! LOL. The story is gorgeous with an ethereal sense to it. Emeraldas is a very mysterious woman and we only learn a bit about her or the other characters. And yet, it is violent, not graphically but this is a world where survival of the fittest rules, more to the point survival of the fastest draw. I loved looking at it as much as reading and can't wait to see where the plot will go with the second volume. This is also a beautiful book, hardcover with slick glossy pages.
This is stunning and beautiful. The art is fantastic. There is a lot of negative space, a lot of black. Some characters are realistic while others are cartoonish. In fact, the male lead reminded me of Weirdly Gruesome from The Flinstones! LOL. The story is gorgeous with an ethereal sense to it. Emeraldas is a very mysterious woman and we only learn a bit about her or the other characters. And yet, it is violent, not graphically but this is a world where survival of the fittest rules, more to the point survival of the fastest draw. I loved looking at it as much as reading and can't wait to see where the plot will go with the second volume. This is also a beautiful book, hardcover with slick glossy pages.
September 27, 2016
Fun sci-fi, the sort of space opera that Matsumoto is known for. Originally published in the late 1970s, but just now (I think?) published in English. Will I continue on with the series? I'm not sure.
September 6, 2018
A little vague, plot-wise, but most of the stories center around a boy trying to build spaceships to get off planets, crashing on a new planet, and starting over. It's got a fairly harsh view of life in space, but pairs well with Captain Harlock's philosophy of what it means to be a real man.
December 10, 2016
So it took me a while to get into this, with the older art style but once I got going, it was really poignant and beautiful.
May 10, 2017
I'm always excited when I find Matsumoto material that I haven't read! The whole volume is a little light on the plot, considering it's over 400 pages, but it's an enjoyable read.
May 28, 2018
A femme Captain Harlock 70's manga space adventure!
June 23, 2019
Finished the two volumes of Queen Emeraldas by Leiji Matsumoto, and my ratings would be the same for both.
I like how quiet and spacious it is, there's some cool places, and there is atmosphere but it's very annoying how Emeraldas introduces herself constantly and keeps saying the same things about herself, the story is just way too impressed by the characters and ominous plot points seem to be dropped or ignored (unless they carried into other related stories).
There's a Harlock crossover in the second volume with lots more humor, the cat being attached to the pole to eat the bird was funny. I was amused by the dad executing his own bratty daughter in the main story but I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be funny.
Read half of the first Captain Harlock book, much more comedic but still has some of the same annoyances. I dropped it, completely leaving the second book (hopefully I'll finally stop buying multiple comics in a series before I've read the first, thank goodness I didn't buy the third Harlock book and Space Battleship Yamato book. I'm worried I wont have the patience for my Hellboy omnibuses).
The art isn't especially great but I vastly prefer it to the more recent incarnations by other artists. He sticks to the same body types to a curious degree but the sheer amount dark open space is nice, the ship is quite cool.
It's a cruel galaxy until kindred spirits with similar goals of absoloute freedom help each other out.
Some of the animated versions (Matsumoto seems to write most of them?) are supposed to be great, but there's hundreds of them. It's all one big Matsumoto universe.
Had wanted to read Galaxy Express 999 if it ever came to english (the succession of recent Matsumoto translations made me suppose it would in a year or two, but who knows), but it's doubtful I'll want to try it now, even if it is considered his best.
I like how quiet and spacious it is, there's some cool places, and there is atmosphere but it's very annoying how Emeraldas introduces herself constantly and keeps saying the same things about herself, the story is just way too impressed by the characters and ominous plot points seem to be dropped or ignored (unless they carried into other related stories).
There's a Harlock crossover in the second volume with lots more humor, the cat being attached to the pole to eat the bird was funny. I was amused by the dad executing his own bratty daughter in the main story but I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be funny.
Read half of the first Captain Harlock book, much more comedic but still has some of the same annoyances. I dropped it, completely leaving the second book (hopefully I'll finally stop buying multiple comics in a series before I've read the first, thank goodness I didn't buy the third Harlock book and Space Battleship Yamato book. I'm worried I wont have the patience for my Hellboy omnibuses).
The art isn't especially great but I vastly prefer it to the more recent incarnations by other artists. He sticks to the same body types to a curious degree but the sheer amount dark open space is nice, the ship is quite cool.
It's a cruel galaxy until kindred spirits with similar goals of absoloute freedom help each other out.
Some of the animated versions (Matsumoto seems to write most of them?) are supposed to be great, but there's hundreds of them. It's all one big Matsumoto universe.
Had wanted to read Galaxy Express 999 if it ever came to english (the succession of recent Matsumoto translations made me suppose it would in a year or two, but who knows), but it's doubtful I'll want to try it now, even if it is considered his best.
October 7, 2024
Una grata sorpresa. Nunca había leído nada de Leiji Matsumoto y puedo decir que, sin ninguna duda, es un gran mangaka. No puedo esperar para ver cómo continúa (y finaliza) la historia de Queen Emeraldas en el segundo volumen.
Este primer volumen hace muchas cosas demasiado bien y eso es de extrañar incluso en algunos de los más grandes exponentes del manga actual. Creo que el hecho de que no sea una serie regular y que tenga un principio y un final claro ayuda mucho, ya que no tienen que buscar enganchar a los lectores semanal o incluso mensualmente con nuevas aventuras.
La historia no tiene prisa por contarse, pero tampoco necesita de muchas páginas para hacerlo. En este primer volumen, se alcanza un balance perfecto entre historia y creación del mundo (world building), no prevaleciendo ninguno de los dos sobre el otro.
Queen Emeraldas es un personaje fascinante (una pistolera aguerrida y cruel que no parará hasta lograr su objetivo), a quien muchas personas de distintos rincones de la galaxia cometen el error de querer cruzar.
Realmente es un soplo de aire nuevo para las historias de piratas, a la vez que también abreva mucho del género del spaghetti western. Una combinación muy buena y efectiva, que, por otra parte, los dibujos y el entintado explotan al máximo.
Si hay que señalarle algún defecto, el defecto es que en algún momento se llega al final.
Muy recomendable para los amantes de la aventura, el western o de las buenas historias en general.
Este primer volumen hace muchas cosas demasiado bien y eso es de extrañar incluso en algunos de los más grandes exponentes del manga actual. Creo que el hecho de que no sea una serie regular y que tenga un principio y un final claro ayuda mucho, ya que no tienen que buscar enganchar a los lectores semanal o incluso mensualmente con nuevas aventuras.
La historia no tiene prisa por contarse, pero tampoco necesita de muchas páginas para hacerlo. En este primer volumen, se alcanza un balance perfecto entre historia y creación del mundo (world building), no prevaleciendo ninguno de los dos sobre el otro.
Queen Emeraldas es un personaje fascinante (una pistolera aguerrida y cruel que no parará hasta lograr su objetivo), a quien muchas personas de distintos rincones de la galaxia cometen el error de querer cruzar.
Realmente es un soplo de aire nuevo para las historias de piratas, a la vez que también abreva mucho del género del spaghetti western. Una combinación muy buena y efectiva, que, por otra parte, los dibujos y el entintado explotan al máximo.
Si hay que señalarle algún defecto, el defecto es que en algún momento se llega al final.
Muy recomendable para los amantes de la aventura, el western o de las buenas historias en general.
March 10, 2021
Tiene la misma aura que Capitán Harlock: de héroe que lucha por la libertad. El hecho que la protagonista sea una mujer que no necesita que la salven tiene más valor teniendo en cuenta que se publicó a finales de los años 70s. Siendo de esa época es lógico que haya expresiones tipo "Los hombres no lloran", pero también tenemos a una heroína autosuficiente con una misión que no nos revelará hasta el final de la historia.
La lectura es muy ágil y la trama engancha. Casi me da un ataque de risa al ver que la nave Queen Emeraldas tiene la calavera pirata pintada sobre un corazón, pero son esas cosas de mangas de otra época XD
La lectura es muy ágil y la trama engancha. Casi me da un ataque de risa al ver que la nave Queen Emeraldas tiene la calavera pirata pintada sobre un corazón, pero son esas cosas de mangas de otra época XD
March 22, 2021
Leídos los dos tomos, no tengo más que decir que la obra de Leiji Matsumoto nunca me defrauda. Emeraldas es, junto a Harlock, de los primeros personajes que conocí del autor. La esencia y estilo de sus historias y de su dibujo son sencillamente increíbles. Personalmente, se nota que me encantan estos manga, y me pasaría horas leyéndolos. Respecto al contenido de este manga, resulta ser esclarecedor sobre el leijiverso que por entonces comenzaba a conformarse en la mente del autor. Todo está conectado, como él mismo dice en la entrevista del tomo 2.
Mi reseña completa en https://cosmoversus.com/queen-emerald...
Mi reseña completa en https://cosmoversus.com/queen-emerald...
September 24, 2017
A haunting tale of the mysterious Emeraldas, a lonely woman wandering the space-ways for reasons only she knows. Despite shopping at the same clothing store as Space Pirate Captain Harlock, Emeraldas and her vessel the Queen Emeraldas have a very different vibe and go through a different sort of adventure. One that I'm looking forward to continuing in the next volume of Leiji Matsumoto's classic manga.
April 14, 2018
Beautiful, and a superb English translation.
A rare kind of protagonist for manga, and brave use of negative space.
A rare kind of protagonist for manga, and brave use of negative space.
July 23, 2018
Not spectacular but it is a great price of classic late 1970s culture in Japan.
June 15, 2019
Another space opera by Maysumoto about a young man/boy over his head in the vastness of space. Oh, and Emerladas is kind of hanging around. It's fine.
May 25, 2020
good art, story is repetitive
March 13, 2021
Classic Matsumoto. Emeraldas is my Queen. ❤️🏴☠️
Read
May 8, 202170s shojo is my jam, 70s SF not so much. Very cool if you like this kind of thing tho.
August 18, 2021
Ha envejecido regular. Extremadamente repetitivo; la protagonista no tiene ningún tipo de volumen como personaje. El niño es odioso. 21 euritos malgastados a ver si lo revendo por wallapop
January 8, 2022
I gave this an extra star for the design of The Queen Emeraldas.
June 5, 2023
Beautiful art, story a bit hard to engage with, concerned with myth making as it is.
January 25, 2019
I've long been a fan of the Leiji Matsumoto universe, but up until recently I mostly knew it from the various animated films and television series that had their heyday in the post-Yamato era; and as more of the original comics get translated, I've been playing catch-up. So far I'm enjoying the ride. I've always liked Queen Emeraldas and her fabulous dirigible-shaped ship (complete with pirate ship gondola) and we get plenty of it here, as opposed to her more limited (but important) roles in some of the other Matsumoto-associated works in which she appears.
The animated version of the Leijiverse is wonderful, but there's a tendency to tone down some of its more bizarre aspects. Here in the comics though, we get the pure, uncut stuff. It's mostly pretty entertaining, but over two volumes, it gets a bit samey. How many old west frontier-style towns are there in the Leijiverse anyway? And why does every ship interior have the *exact* same dials and radar screens? And how many times can we read a caption over the final page about how Queen Emeraldas eternally roams the vast sea of stars accompanied by a picture of her staring off into the great unknown, the state of her heart unknowable? In short, it all probably worked a bit better in short installments, but it's still pretty fun.
N.B. This review is for Volume 1, but could just as easily apply to Volume 2.
The animated version of the Leijiverse is wonderful, but there's a tendency to tone down some of its more bizarre aspects. Here in the comics though, we get the pure, uncut stuff. It's mostly pretty entertaining, but over two volumes, it gets a bit samey. How many old west frontier-style towns are there in the Leijiverse anyway? And why does every ship interior have the *exact* same dials and radar screens? And how many times can we read a caption over the final page about how Queen Emeraldas eternally roams the vast sea of stars accompanied by a picture of her staring off into the great unknown, the state of her heart unknowable? In short, it all probably worked a bit better in short installments, but it's still pretty fun.
N.B. This review is for Volume 1, but could just as easily apply to Volume 2.
July 31, 2016
I am so glad to finally read this! I'm a big fan of Leiji Matsumoto, so I was pretty disappointed with a now defunct anime company called ADV only releasing half of the OVA animated series that was loosely based on this original 1978 manga. That was like a decade ago, and there wasn’t really a good way to get the rest of the story legally. Flash forward to 2016 and not only can you buy things like a legit copy of Captain Harlock on DVD, but one can also buy this original manga in a beautiful hardcover edition!
If you like space operas, I'd definitely recommend checking out some of Leiji Matsumoto's works if you are unfamiliar. He is, perhaps, most well-known (by a casual audience) for inspiring the fabulous animated music videos for the French House music duo Daft Punk during their Discovery era. These videos were later collected into a film called Interstella 5555. Older fans may, no doubt, recognize his other works such as Star Blazers (Yamato) or Captain Harlock – it’s all the same guy.
Matsumoto has woven a fine tapestry of interconnected stories with stoic characters that anyone can love; unfortunately, most younger anime fans ignore classics and he has somewhat fallen out of the mainstream as of late. I was assuming that some of his older comics would never come out here, until I read a recent news article from Publisher’s Weekly, touting VERY strong sales of older comic titles at Anime Expo such as pre-orders for this very book!
“At the Kodansha Comics panel on Saturday, Ben Applegate, director of publishing for Kodansha Comics, cheered the ongoing rebound in manga print sales. “You’re probably seeing all the industry people here smiling, so you know that the manga industry is doing really well," he said. "This resurgence of manga is allowing us to take chances on different series we wouldn’t usually in the past.” […] An example of a title that, in the past, Kodansha might have thought was too risky to publish in English is Leiji Matsumoto's Queen Emeraldas, which the publisher is releasing in August. An older, classic SF adventure, the advance hardcovers of the book were sold out by weekend's end.”
As for the book itself, the story surrounds a boy named Hiroshi Umino, who strives to be a powerful star captain so that he can live by his own rules and sail the "sea of stars" like his heroes. His run in with Emeraldas changes his life forever, as she slowly becomes his mentor (of sorts). Emeraldas is basically like Xena in this book, a total badass that kicks booty and takes names. You often see supposedly feminist comic characters that end up being some sort of fetishistic dominatrix-style sexual wish-fulfilment trope, but that’s not how Emeraldas rolls. I wouldn’t name my very own cat after a character with skeevy undertones like that! We see Hiroshi and Emeraldas sharing eerily parallel origin stories until they meet again later on.
If you are also a huge fan of Matsumoto's works, or are familiar with stories like the aforementioned Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Galaxy Railways, Arcadia of my youth or Maetel legend, you will absolutely love this. This story adds more substance to a somewhat overlooked character that constantly shows up in various shows as a background character. Otherwise, this book stands on it’s own well, and acts as an introduction to a character that thankfully appears in a ton of material. If you become a fan you will want to branch out and see more. And hopefully, if this book ends up selling well Kodansha will release more Matsumoto manga!
If you like space operas, I'd definitely recommend checking out some of Leiji Matsumoto's works if you are unfamiliar. He is, perhaps, most well-known (by a casual audience) for inspiring the fabulous animated music videos for the French House music duo Daft Punk during their Discovery era. These videos were later collected into a film called Interstella 5555. Older fans may, no doubt, recognize his other works such as Star Blazers (Yamato) or Captain Harlock – it’s all the same guy.
Matsumoto has woven a fine tapestry of interconnected stories with stoic characters that anyone can love; unfortunately, most younger anime fans ignore classics and he has somewhat fallen out of the mainstream as of late. I was assuming that some of his older comics would never come out here, until I read a recent news article from Publisher’s Weekly, touting VERY strong sales of older comic titles at Anime Expo such as pre-orders for this very book!
“At the Kodansha Comics panel on Saturday, Ben Applegate, director of publishing for Kodansha Comics, cheered the ongoing rebound in manga print sales. “You’re probably seeing all the industry people here smiling, so you know that the manga industry is doing really well," he said. "This resurgence of manga is allowing us to take chances on different series we wouldn’t usually in the past.” […] An example of a title that, in the past, Kodansha might have thought was too risky to publish in English is Leiji Matsumoto's Queen Emeraldas, which the publisher is releasing in August. An older, classic SF adventure, the advance hardcovers of the book were sold out by weekend's end.”
As for the book itself, the story surrounds a boy named Hiroshi Umino, who strives to be a powerful star captain so that he can live by his own rules and sail the "sea of stars" like his heroes. His run in with Emeraldas changes his life forever, as she slowly becomes his mentor (of sorts). Emeraldas is basically like Xena in this book, a total badass that kicks booty and takes names. You often see supposedly feminist comic characters that end up being some sort of fetishistic dominatrix-style sexual wish-fulfilment trope, but that’s not how Emeraldas rolls. I wouldn’t name my very own cat after a character with skeevy undertones like that! We see Hiroshi and Emeraldas sharing eerily parallel origin stories until they meet again later on.
If you are also a huge fan of Matsumoto's works, or are familiar with stories like the aforementioned Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express 999, Galaxy Railways, Arcadia of my youth or Maetel legend, you will absolutely love this. This story adds more substance to a somewhat overlooked character that constantly shows up in various shows as a background character. Otherwise, this book stands on it’s own well, and acts as an introduction to a character that thankfully appears in a ton of material. If you become a fan you will want to branch out and see more. And hopefully, if this book ends up selling well Kodansha will release more Matsumoto manga!
August 8, 2016
If you're of a certain age, chances are Leiji Matsumoto was one of your first introductions to anime, most likely either through Star Blazers, the Americanized version of Space Battleship Yamato, or the first Galaxy Express movie. Alternately, you may have encountered him through the Daft Punk film Interstella 5555 (or at least the music videos culled from it). No matter how you came at him, though, there's no doubt that he's one of the big names in science fiction anime.
Queen Emeraldas is set in the main Leijiverse, home of both the Galaxy Express and Captain Harlock. Like Harlock, Emeraldas is an infamous pirate who sails the spaceways dispensing justice in a manner reminiscent of Barbarella, but with much better fashion sense. Early in the story, she encounters Hiroshi Umino, a kid who escaped from the hellish dystopia of Earth in his own homemade spaceship (which took him about a week to build, but hey, this is a universe where people ride trains through space -- you just gotta roll with it). She sees a little of herself in the kid, and spends much of the story serving as his guardian angel, though they do occasionally have adventures independent of each other. The narration at the end of each chapter, however, indicates that Emeraldas has other motives that may not be in the kid's best interest.
If you're not familiar with Matsumoto, you may be taken aback by some aspects of the art. Matsumoto's style is much more cartoonish than a lot of modern anime and manga, with some characters looking like Yosemite Sam's distant cousins, but when violence occurs, it's violent. In one chapter we see a young woman executed by firing squad, her body riddled with giant, bloodless holes that would be comic if not for the expression of shocked agony on her face and the pathos with which her father comes to retrieve the body.
If you are familiar with Matsumoto, there's a different issue you'll have to contend with. Matsumoto is a practitioner of the Star System, where, rather than coming up with new character designs for each work, a manga artist reuses the same designs over and over, treating them like actors who can be cast in the roles that best suit them. In this case, Emeraldas and Umino look exactly like Maetel and Tetsuro from Galaxy Express, except that Emeraldas has a scar on her face. (Matsumoto later retconned this by making Emeraldas and Maetel twin sisters, though there's no explanation for why the moppets look alike too.)
But of course you don't come to Matsumoto for the characters. It's really all about the space ships and alien worlds, and here he's at his best. We don't see Emeraldas's ship in the clear until late in the first volume, but when we finally get a look at it, it's well worth the wait. The Queen Emeraldas is what a space pirate ship should be, blowing away Harlock's Arcadia in every respect. Apart from the Galaxy Express, it's Matsumoto's best design.
Queen Emeraldas is set in the main Leijiverse, home of both the Galaxy Express and Captain Harlock. Like Harlock, Emeraldas is an infamous pirate who sails the spaceways dispensing justice in a manner reminiscent of Barbarella, but with much better fashion sense. Early in the story, she encounters Hiroshi Umino, a kid who escaped from the hellish dystopia of Earth in his own homemade spaceship (which took him about a week to build, but hey, this is a universe where people ride trains through space -- you just gotta roll with it). She sees a little of herself in the kid, and spends much of the story serving as his guardian angel, though they do occasionally have adventures independent of each other. The narration at the end of each chapter, however, indicates that Emeraldas has other motives that may not be in the kid's best interest.
If you're not familiar with Matsumoto, you may be taken aback by some aspects of the art. Matsumoto's style is much more cartoonish than a lot of modern anime and manga, with some characters looking like Yosemite Sam's distant cousins, but when violence occurs, it's violent. In one chapter we see a young woman executed by firing squad, her body riddled with giant, bloodless holes that would be comic if not for the expression of shocked agony on her face and the pathos with which her father comes to retrieve the body.
If you are familiar with Matsumoto, there's a different issue you'll have to contend with. Matsumoto is a practitioner of the Star System, where, rather than coming up with new character designs for each work, a manga artist reuses the same designs over and over, treating them like actors who can be cast in the roles that best suit them. In this case, Emeraldas and Umino look exactly like Maetel and Tetsuro from Galaxy Express, except that Emeraldas has a scar on her face. (Matsumoto later retconned this by making Emeraldas and Maetel twin sisters, though there's no explanation for why the moppets look alike too.)
But of course you don't come to Matsumoto for the characters. It's really all about the space ships and alien worlds, and here he's at his best. We don't see Emeraldas's ship in the clear until late in the first volume, but when we finally get a look at it, it's well worth the wait. The Queen Emeraldas is what a space pirate ship should be, blowing away Harlock's Arcadia in every respect. Apart from the Galaxy Express, it's Matsumoto's best design.
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