Every time Kentaro Miura shows up here I end up making fun of the man's work. To be honest I feel bad for doing it because I really love Berserk. It is to me a modern classic in the making and I refuse to believe he just got lucky. I know he didn't do the stories for Japan and King of Wolves but the art wasn't that stellar either. He had some success as an ammeter manga-ka and it's clear he knows what he's doing. You know what maybe he just sort of got dragged into the Buroson team-ups to build his reputation. He's defiantly not a bad writer so maybe if he has full control like he does for Berserk maybe things will turn out for the best. Enough speculating on the past,lets move on to Futatabi.
Futatabi was Miura's first public
release that wasn't a doujinshi. Released in 1985,it was a hit and
won him a best new authors award .This would be four years before the
first ill fated team-up with Buroson and Berserk Prototype .After
this he would end up in a rut with the falling out of his next manga Noa
but for now he had a great victory. So has this little one shot stood
the test of time or is it another work that makes Berserk look like
even more of a miracle. Well enough speculating...for real this time.
The plot is a rather simple animal,
though I 'm not sure if can be sterilized by alcohol . The twists
outside of one clever one are pretty easy to guess. It follows a auto
mechanic named Rick in a futuristic/totalitarian city and his chance
meeting with a mysterious girl named Venus. The plot heavily relies
on a series of twists that actually sets up a very interesting
premise(which I'm not spoiling). The problem is that once it sets up
said premise,it doesn't do much with it. Instead opting to go with a
weak theme of hope. So weak that it has to be explained in a short
paragraph that also reveals where the story takes place. There is
also a revelation near the end that answers question that no one
was asking and raises some new ones. The ending itself is lacking
with that ridiculous paragraph that just seems to scream “I ran out
of ink and I'm on a deadline.” It is a real gut punch as the story
had manged to draw me in and just having it end abruptly with that is
silly.
Rick and Venus are by no means bad
characters,their interactions do reveal more about the world in which
they live in. However,Rick is your stock good guy and Venus is the
mysterious girl. There are no real slants to their characters that
make them stand out from anyone else That being said,they still do
play off each other very well. The conversations they have between
themselves and with other characters really do build up this world
that I actually want to see more off but you know one shot.
The art is pretty great and actually
does help the above mentioned clever twist. It does seems to draw
from other sci-fi anime and manga without really anything to set it
apart. However it still looks very nice for an early Miura work and
shows that yes this man has a sense of perspective. Something he
seemed to forget in King of Wolves. It is also nice to see him draw
something besides barren wastelands so I actually have sights to see.
Weirdly enough reading this reminded me
of Sweet Rein of all things. Mind you,Not so much for the art or
anything but the squandered premise. Both had so much potential to be
something great but instead went in an okay albeit less intrenching
direction. This is a book worth checking out but like Sweet Rein
you'll probably forget about it in a weeks time.
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