A review of Kagerou (an electric manga)
by Kajamir the Giant
Starting to read this webcomic, I initially was not very impressed. In fact, my first thought concerning it was, 'oh no, not another Space Opera!'. In any case, I followed it through and my opinion did indeed become better about Kagerou. So right off the bat, for those looking to read Kagerou; just sit it out for a few chapters since the beginning is very weak to the point where it might otherwise deter people. I'll get to that soon enough. However, I need to wade through the issues that plagued a bit too much along the way.
A very noticeable aspect about Kagerou is the art. It's, well, really colorful. Sometimes these schemes are nice enough. Others, just gaudy. It's a mixed bag of nuts here. I would actually wager to say things are maybe too colorful to the point of being distracting, more often than not. A large nuisance for those just jumping into the comic at the start, will find the reader struggling to discern whose colored word bubble is whose. Eventually, some directional tags are added to those word bubbles, but not when they were needed most.
I think the amount of colored detail can be admired here, but it's not as effective as it should be. Brights, mottleds, designs, monotones... it's pretty varied, but the placement occurs as lacking aesthetics or practicality in several places.
Getting to the linework itself, I sort of debate how much of a true manga this is. To be blunt, if you compare this to the previous selection, The Rules of Make Believe, this doesn't seem a very authentic manga style at all, just the americanized version of it. You can see the influence although it's not terribly noticeable at all in the beginning. Furthermore, because the colors are distracting, it can be difficult to see what lays underneath. However, I will vouch there is significant improvement and sharpness later on. As an example, Kano's overwhelming physical effemininity isn't so excrutiating later. It made him hard to take seriously at the start.
Writing wise, again, just get past the first several chapters. While answers come later than they should, we get to see some real depth here. The star of the show is clearly Kano and his MPD. Little else than a gimmick at the start, Kano's psychosis is damnably interesting by end. His personality switches at perhaps the most dramatic times as if in a movie, but there's a sense of fun in that. Red's amoral personality is very good in particular. He's a rather thorough and graphic evil, not usually touched upon by level in other webcomics.
The side characters I've found to be less intriguing however. I mean once you've got a crazed champion with conflicting personalities; he's going to be a tough act to follow. The co-star, Cho, is mainly just annoyingly trite at first, but like all things in this comic, she's more palatable later on. Less obnoxious and contradictory to her own apparent behavior.
I found Kagerou to be a mixed bag of results, but with signs pointing to a more positive direction. I'm not sure where it's going to go from here, but I'm sure it'll be an interesting trip. I give Kagerou a 5.5 of 10 stars. I'd give it a higher score if about the first existing half of the webcomic didn't disappoint me so much. I also feel there's probably more this comic could be doing in terms of characters... but Kagerou is certainly shaping up to something nice. I imagine I'll continue to follow it, but I don't think I'll be checking it as religiously as other webcomics I read. Kagerou is largely inappropriate for young audiences due to gore, graphic violence, language, and graphic demonstrations of especially vile evil. By the same measure, that can be a plus for older audiences. |
Hmmm. Ok. Lets see what I can say about Kagerou."
I know, I'm just not really into the dark depressing stuff. Thats me. But then again, I read Black Tapestries, so its not like I'm one to stop reading a comic because its dark in parts."