Orange by Benjamin manhua review

I read Remember by Benjamin a few months ago. It was pretty bad, but I noticed in that many Amazon reviewers thought quite highly of his previous work Orange. And I figured Orange had to have done pretty well for Tokyopop for them to pick up another work by the same author (though I’m probably giving TP more credit than they deserve). Besides, Benjamin’s art is nice to look at regardless of the quality of his stories, so ah well, I decided to read it.

Blurb: Her name is Orange. She’s a young girl in high school, coming of age in the heart of the city. And she has decided she has nothing to lie for. Not her shallow friends, not her parents, not school. Not even the empty promises of love. Her head filled with morbid fantasies of suicide, Orange finds herself standing at the edge of her rooftop when the drunk, enigmatic young man, Dashu, enters her world…changing it forever.

A heartbreaking tale of a young woman desperately trying to understand the bewildering world around her, brought to life by the luscious artwork of global manga icon, Benjamin, Orange is a profoundly moving story of loss and redemption.

Orange_p067Aannnd… it’s not as bad as Remember, I guess. It helps that it’s really short, with the main story covering a little over 100 pages and the rest of the volume being taken up by Benjamin’s admittedly ‘luscious’ artwork. The guy can really draw when he puts his mind to it, no question about it.

It’s also not that bad because it has a definite focus – angsty teen pretends to be happy but is actually depressed and suicidal within, let’s see what happens to her. Of course you don’t ever get to find out, and it’s never made clear what the root cause behind Orange’s rebelliousness/lack of self-esteem/mental issues is, nor does anyone ever attempt to find out. It’s sad in a way, the way millions of depression sufferers slip through the cracks every year because they’ve mastered the art of putting on a mask of normality. As a reader I was just rolling my eyes as I read her endless whinging lines “Nobody understands me” (yes she really said that) “I’m in so much pain” and so on, but there are real life people going through that sort of thing so I suppose a tiny little bit of compassion is in order?

It might almost have been good if Benjamin hadn’t spoiled the shocker ending in the first few pages. I don’t really mind an open ending that gives you stuff to think about like “How did we get here?” and “What’s going to happen next?” but it has to be an ending, not given away right at the start so that the reader goes “Yeah yeah, just forward to the part where X happens.” Maybe in a longer story where enough happens during the flashback to make you forget that might work, but it’s a risky strategy that didn’t pay off for Benjamin IMO.

LOVE the bug eyes on the elf girl.
LOVE the bug eyes on the elf girl.

Should you read Orange by Benjamin? It only costs $0.50 used, but since it has like zero rereading value, I dunno. It’s just 100 pages of Orange whining and complaining, smoking and using bad language and making out with random guys in dark corners only to stop them from putting their hands in her underwear, and then every couple of pages Dashu shows up. I’m sure if you google for a few minutes you’ll find someone’s LiveJournal or Myspace (is that still a thing) with the same content.

The only real reason to get this would be the art. Benjamin’s artwork is gorgeous without a doubt, and it’s fun to read something in full color after all the manga I’ve been reading. Not that I don’t like manga or anything, but I love the use of vivid color in manhua. It’s such a pity more of it doesn’t come out in English because I was thrilled all those years ago when Image Comics published titles like Mega Dragon and Tiger and Solar Lord. I even bought some Mega Dragon volumes put out by an inferior publishing company, I forget their name. But I digress.

At the end of the volume for the last 30 pages or so are several pages of random artwork by Benjamin, a little extra bonus for the loyal fans who stuck this out. These look really nice, plus it’s nice to get an insight into the people who draw the art for the MMORPG ads you see everywhere when you don’t have Adblock on. I said last time that Benjamin would be better off just being an illustrator, and this just confirms it. I hope he’ll put out an artbook someday.

Remember manhua review

Remember how ‘Red Colored Elegy‘ was supposed to be a highly-influential work? When I reviewed it, I noted that I could see how people would be inspired by it, but the keyword was ‘inspired’ – I never expected someone to flat out copy the whole thing. Until I read Remember by Chinese artist Benjamin, that is…

The blurb goes:

What is the fine line that separates love from hate? How can a broken heart heal from a loss so deep? When is letting go of your inhibitions worth risking your life?

International artist Benjamin depicts profoundl moving portrayals of love and loss that get at the core of what it means to throw your heart into life. The artist doesn’t offer any comfort from the despair we all feel in our lives – while we know there is no answer, we are all better off for asking the question… and remembering the struggle.

Actually the real question they should be asking is “What is the fine line that separates inspiration from plagiarism?” I will give Benjamin props for being a pretty good artist (that cover just screams “Buy Me!” doesn’t it?), but when it comes to storytelling he is utterly bereft of ideas. And he is completely aware of it too, if his self-loathing author’s comments are anything to go by.

Remember_p026Remember is made up of two short stories. The title story ‘Remember’ deals with a  Struggling artist with a bad attitude, girl who loves him for no reason, he pushes her away until she does go away and then he hates himself even more than ever, the end.  I really didn’t need to summarize that, I should have just pointed to the original story, which for all its flaws does a better job at conveying the doomed relationship and almost, not quite, making the characters relateable.

Anyway, this struggling artist submits story after story to a comic publisher only to have them turned down because they’re not enough like Japanese manga. “Chinese readers don’t want originality! They want plagiarized Japanese manga!” the editor straight-up tells him. So it’s ironic – or maybe meaningful – that the story itself is a straight-up copy of Red Colored Elegy, with better art and with the sex cut out or made ambiguous to avoid censorship.

Is this how low Benjamin had to sink to get his work published in China? Maybe. But what is more likely is that he put that scene in just to cover his inability to write a Chinese manhua that would be accepted by editors. “See it’s not me, it’s the editors, they forced me to plagiarize! Left to my own devices I could totally write a great story!” If that’s the case, why is the copy even worse than the original?

Besides, the Remember collection includes a second short story as well, about students in art school being bullied, but it’s crap. I read about a third of it and then just skimmed through it because it was just more self-loathing navel-gazing twaddle. He probably copied that from a Japanese manga as well, I just don’t know enough manga to spot which one.

Remember_p081In any case, by that time the nice art had lost its effect on me and all of Benjamin’s shortcomings as a writer were on display for all to see. Rambling, incoherent ‘I’m so deep and nobody understands me’ characters dot the pages like so many teenagers at an emo concert. They’re all flat one-note characters – ‘quirky girl’, ‘misunderstood artist’, ‘unreasonable editor’ – one defining characteristic carries them through the whole story. Even in a short story you should be able to flesh characters out a little more than that, especially in slice-of-life kind of stories where enjoyment depends on getting under the character’s skins.

Benjamin can draw, there’s no question about that, but unless he can learn to write as well it really doesn’t profit him very much. The fact that the manga goes for less than $2.00 on Amazon despite being out of print should tell you everything you need to know about that. Still I’m not a mean person, and I can see some budding talent there. I’d advise him to work on his writing skills if he really want to make it as a mangaka (manhuajia?). Failing that, there’s nothing wrong with being a dedicated artist and illustrator, since he does have the skills to back that up. Good luck, Mr. Plagiarizer!