neko's thinkbox

Page 01

This is the first time I am reviewing a manga on this blog, and, err, I have no experience whatsoever, so bear with me ^^;

Besides, I had 39°C fever this morning, it went a little down in the meantime, but I’m still not feeling better. Headache + coughing is killing me. x_x

Ar Tonelico ~arpeggio~ by Aya Megumu is is one of the few finds I would never have discovered without online manga reading services like One Manga, because I never imagined there would even be a manga of it out there. Curiosity killed the cat – I ordered the manga, and here we go.

Summary/Teaser:

A little bit about the premise of the story.^[1]

Espada, a young freelancer traveling the world to find and resell Grathnode crystals, returns to Firefly Alley to meet his lifelong friend, Kauron, a researcher in the field of Reyvateil singing and Grathmelding. Both of them get along very well; however, they differ on one single point: Espada despises Reyvateils. Six years ago, a group of berserking red-eyed Reyvateils killed his parents, and he’s been cold towards people ever since. The only thing he inherited from his father was a sword, which is said to be of the legendary Lost Technology.

Kauron reports that a weird phenomenon is happening: a new illness is spreading that befalls only Reyvateils and puts them in a coma. The origin and consequences of this illness are still unknown, though. As Espada leaves the place to roam through Firefly Alley, an explosion occurs in the laboratory. An infected Reyvateil that was isolated in the labo has awakened and is going berserk. Her eyes are red – exactly the same kind that killed Espada’s parents.

Page 08 Espada is such a cool badass,

Page 09 he poops icicles and kills viruses.

Espada stands little chance in battle against that mad Reyvateil, who keeps unleashing red song magic (attack magic) at him. As everything seems lost, a young man from the Teru Tribe, Adagio, comes to his rescue. With his barrier spells, he is able to ward off the Reyvateil’s attacks, allowing Espada to counter-attack. Fueled by his hate against Reyvateils, Espada is all set to kill her – but then, another Reyvateil appears. Enter Sonnet, a young Reyvateil from Platina on a mission, who explains that the crazed Reyvateil is infected by the Reveris disease, and that she shouldn’t be killed. With the help of her song magic, Espada and Adagio manage to put the rampaging Reyvateil back to sleep.

As things have calmed down, Sonnet explains that the Reveris disease is infecting the Cosmosphere of the the affected Reyvateils, rendering them vulnerable to any negative influence (Viruses) within the Tower. The only item that could bring an end to this disease is… Espada’s sword. Obviously, he refuses to hand it over, not only because it’s his father’s memorabilia, but also because Sonnet’s a Reyvateil, which is double the evil. Desperate to take possession of the sword, Sonnet decides to attack Espada. A fierce fight ensues.

Well, that’s as far as I’m going to tell you. Interested? Read it here (ten chapters scanlated to date) or buy it at amazon Japan.

Impressions:

The characters are likable and develop quite well. Espada is an overly cool and composed guy and an excellent swordsman, but he is often blinded by his unfounded prejudice against Reyvateils. Adagio is the usual happy-go-lucky type, playful and immature; but despite his careless appearance, he’s also a very reliable person. Unlike his next of kin of the Teru Tribe, he is very tolerant towards humans, and gets along well with anybody. Sonnet is very cute and straightforward, but she is a pretty naive and gullible character. Then again, she only 14, and having lived all of her life in Platina, she doesn’t know much about the world yet. As a Reyvateil herself, she feels very protective towards other Reyvateils.

The design may look a little stiff at first, but it gets better by the chapters. One thing that struck me as odd was the… composition though, it feels a little amateurish. Especially in the first volume, a lot of panels seemed out of place… Rather, unfitting. I cannot really describe it. Take a look at these two pages for instance:

Page 21 Page 21

Page 22 Page 22

It just feels weird. Is it the order of the panels, the point of view, the angle, the background, the text, the contents altogether? I can’t really put my finger on it. Well, the quality (tidiness) does improve considerably towards the end, though, so it manages to redeem itself quite well.

Apart from that, the story is very enjoyable, with a lots of ups and downs. The narrative is relatively fast-paced, so a lot of details (like the pasts of either characters) seem a little vague. Sometimes it also feels a little farfetched too, as far as the Ar Tonelico universe is concerned (details about the Teru Tribe, Reyvateils, and other stuff), but then again, this is just me nitpicking. The entire plot is more than acceptable, as this manga has a more fanfic/doujinshi feel, rather than being a full-fledged official AT spinoff.

All in all, I liked this manga. Not so much for its amateurish style and design, but for the emotional value of it. Especially to those who have played Ar Tonelico, this is a great story because of all the different references they are already familiar with, e.g. places like Firefly alley, Nemo, Em Pheyna, Platina; Reyvateils, Hymmnos; even a couple of cameo appearances from characters of the game. Speaking of which, though, I have to say it is a little regrettable that this story was a spin-off, so the main characters were not the ones we know from the game. Would have been interesting to see what Lyner, Aurica & co. would have done instead. But it’s good.
(Besides, Ar Tonelico ~arpeggio~ appeared in the Comic BLADE (Mag Garden) magazine… where ARIA got serialized as well. So it has to be good! :P I kid.)

I loved especially the occasional Hymmnos excerpts, but that’s also because I am slowly starting to understand the Hymmnos language. I can already read the Hymmnos alphabet, but I still need to look up a lot of words. Still, it’s great fun. Once again, props to Akira Tsuchiya.

Ma ki gagis exec guard mea.

To the contrary, it doesn’t have much to offer to those who never played the game, since it does not really explain anything within the manga, so most people will go nuts at Grathnode Crystals or Reyvateils. The scanlators were more considerate and inserted a full page with some short notes about Reyvateils and Hymmnos, but it still remains pretty obscure.

In this case, well, what can I say? Go play Ar Tonelico already, you lazy bums! :P

In the meantime, I’ll read the Ar Tonelico 2 manga. Bye!

1. Note that this is a spin-off – the main characters from the game are not featured in this manga. [↩]