I’ve realized that if I don’t write something immediately after finishing a series or a volume, I end up not saying anything at all. Which is fine, I guess, but it does rather defeat the purpose of having an anime blog, doesn’t it?
Outlanders is a 1985 classic sci-fi/romance manga by Johji Manabe. It tells the story of Wakatsuki Tetsuya, a freelance photographer whose world is destroyed – literally – when aliens invade the Earth claiming they were here first. The aliens are led by headstrong Princess Kahm, and by the end of volume 1 she seems to have taken a shine to our young Tetsuya. Calling the manga a ‘romance’ is a bit of a spoiler though, because as of volume 1 she’s still actively trying to kill him. But the author notes at the end identify it as such and so does Wikipedia. If I have to be spoiled, then so do you.
I’d heard a lot about, but never actually read it until two hours ago. I’m kind of sorry I waited so long to try it because I enjoyed it. The story itself is slightly predictable (of course the army is going to fail to stop the invaders, duh) but all disaster movies/series tend to be predictable to an extent. The real fun comes from three things.
1. The designs of the various spaceships and organic weapons the aliens use. All holes and tentacles and protrusions and stuff. It’s all unpleasantly organic at first, but once you find out they’re all alive, they start looking just a little bit cute. They are extremely detailed as well, so I believe Johji Manabe when he says they were a nightmare to draw, especially for a fledgling artist
2. It’s a conspiracy theorist show with a small cast. I enjoy conspiracy theory shows to an extent, but in practice most of them have sooo many different parties doing sooo many different things and new people constantly coming out of nowhere that they’re a nightmare to follow. Here there’s definitely some shadowy ‘Great Leader’ pulling the strings on earth but there are only two real factions – Earth vs. Aliens with Kahm & Tetsuya in the middle, so it’s like conspiracy-lite. I can deal with that.
3. The natural translation and hand-lettering really takes me back. I’m an amateur translator myself, and when I read scanlations and recent official releases I find it quite easy to picture the original line in Japanese. And that’s for those that bother to localize and don’t just use honorifics and Japanese terms wholesales. Those that whine “waah, it’s so hard, waah I caan’t” [caveat: it is hard, and I’m equally guilty] can go back and read these and other releases by Dana Lewis and the late Toren Smith, or just all of Studio Proteus’s work in general. That way you can’t argue that Outlanders doesn’t deal with a lot of Japanese culture and stuff.
As for Wayne Truman’s lettering, well I just like lettering. And after the horrendous fonts and typesetting in Dororo, and indeed in all of Vertical Inc’s releases, it’s so refreshing to see font that isn’t too large and bubbles that aren’t overcrowding and a font that shouldn’t be mercifully put down. Truman’s lettering does suffer from the usual tendency of comic letters to bold seemingly every other word no matter how relevant/irrelevant it is, and it isn’t centered most of the time, but it still doesn’t matter because the overall effect is fresh, open and lively. Computer lettering is so convenient I can’t imagine anyone going back to doing it by now, so we just have to treasure these old comics where we can. I couldn’t find much info about Wayne Truman online, but I hope he’s doing well and lettering more comics even today.
Volume 1 of Outlanders was mostly action, with Tokyo quickly being trashed and plenty of explosions and decapitations. That was gripping in its own way, but now I’m about ready for some explanations. And for some exploration as Tetsuya gets to be my earthling eyes and explore the alien world for me. I wouldn’t mind seeing that spoiler romance finally come to fruition as well. This should be good.
