Title: Madara Volume(s): 6 Author(s): Sho-U Tajima/Eiji Otsuka Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right Publisher: CMX MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Fantasy Rated: Mature (18+)

"Madara" is a series without a prayer to pray and a leg to stand on. Considering who the protagonist of this series is, I'd say that this is a rather fitting way to describe the series. The series revolves around a young boy named Madara, who feels out of place in his village. And no wonder, too: Madara is not completely human. Due to an accident that is only too convenient for the readers, Madara is half machine, half human. The person responsible for this is the old man who found Madara, who Madara calls "Grandpa." Madara has no dreams, no future, and no purpose in life. Then one fateful night, a deadly rabbit (I'm not joking) makes his way into Madara's village, randomly kills Madara's grandpa, and Madara gets to the scene just in time for his grandpa to kind of give Madara a speech, which ends up being used as a clue for Madara to go on a quest and find his real body. Why didn't Grandpa tell Madara that he had a real body out in the world before he died? Because we wouldn't have a story then.

Anyway, Madara decides to go on this dangerous quest to find his real body, avenge his village, and kill the evil bunny that killed his grandpa (I told you already, I'm NOT making this up). Phew! That last paragraph was one of the hardest paragraphs I've ever had to write. Not because I was at a loss of words, mind you (although I certainly was for awhile), but because it's hard to describe the story without falling down and laughing like it was some April Fool’s Day joke. "Madara" is one of those series that makes the mistake of creating looney characters, looney situations, and an implausible story, and yet expecting us to take it seriously. The authors behind this series probably thought they were making something creative, but I'm sure the makers of "Independence Day" thought they were making a compelling movie too, and look how that turned out. One thing that is definitely ironic, though, is the fact that DC Comics bought the license for this series. The creators of this series had always intended for "Madara" to be styled after American comics. The action sequences mimic superhero fights, the artwork reads left-to-right instead of right-to-left, and the dialog is just as cheesy as any American comic book (although this could partly be the translation’s fault). So with that in mind, it seems kind of perfect that DC Comics ended up picking up the one manga series that was intended to be exactly like an American comic book.

Madara when he's excited...

So yes, this means that left-to-right is the CORRECT way to read this series, and no, I'm pretty sure DC isn't going to flip the artwork just because you've gotten used to reading manga right-to-left! Speaking of art, the artwork in "Madara" is one of the only things that ends up working in this series. The artwork is dark, gritty, and full of attitude. Characters have rough edges, the blood splatters everywhere, and the American action style inspiration is all here. The action sequences drawn in this book are extremely well-done, and pretty cool-looking. Of course, one of the drawbacks to the American action inspiration is that quieter moments don't work as well, as facial expressions are questionable. When two characters are talking about their relationship, they appear to be mad for some reason. Maybe they've already got the later years of their life planned to a tee, but it doesn't help the mood of the moment. Overall, the artwork ends up working most of the time, it just doesn't work when characters are supposed to interact with each other, as their facial expressions almost never change. I also have to point out that a lack of facial expressions hurt the action sequences, as it's hard to determine the progress of a huge battle when Madara's facial expressions all look exactly the same.

...and Madara when he's angry. Can you tell the difference?

Still, there is one thing the battles have going for them: blood. Lots of blood. Which means if you get a kick out of watching people gushing gooey red stuff all over the page, then this series is for you. Personally, I do not, unless the blood is essential to the story, and in this case it just feels like the blood gets in the way. Like all my other CMX reviews, I am referring to the translation of the series as "no comment." Moving on to the topic of the quality of the books themselves, "Madara" has got to be the lousiest book out of all the series CMX has released so far. The binding is terrible, the paper feels extremely cheap, I just opened up the book and the cover got damaged. What kind of "quality control" is this? Amongst all this chaos, CMX somehow managed to be thoughtful enough to include the color pages in this book (something most manga fans appreciate). What the heck? If CMX could put enough thought into this book to include the color pages, why couldn't they make a book that people could actually read with breaking? This is the kind of thing that frustrates a journalist to death, when he has to fail the quality of the product only to give it a couple of points for at least doing this or that. Overall, my impression of "Madara" is one of complete disinterest. The story itself is kind of confusing, the characters look mad all the time, and the quality of the books is abyssmal. And CMX wonders why they are the joke of the manga industry right now.

Somebody call my agent, he he told me that my gig in "Monty Python and the Search For The Holy Grail" would make me a REAL star!

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -