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MANGA REVIEWS

Vol 1 of 4
Story and Art by Kudo Toshiki
Copyright © 1998, 1999 Lucasfilm Ltd & TM





Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back
—by Peter Kenzaburo Cahill

Honest to goodness, I actually know someone (I'll just call her K) who has not seen any of the STAR WARS movies. Really. And no, she's neither over 60 nor under 5 years of age. I'm not going to show the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK manga to K, because I want to study her "pristine" reaction to PHANTOM MENACE. As for everyone else, it depends on how much you like manga in general. After all, how odd is it to read an English translation of a Japanese manga based on the Japanese translation of an American film?
  Kudo Toshiki takes up where Tamaki Hisao left off in the manga version of A NEW HOPE. Jeremy Johnson reviewed that series in issue 4.1, and much of what he said stands for this series as well. This is a very good recreation of the movie, with few noticeable changes to the script. And like many great book-to-film adaptations, neither of these mangas were afraid to modify the story slightly in order to fit the new medium. This may be manga based on a film, but it's still manga.
  The artwork is superb, with wonderfully expressive faces and very faithful technical designs. The action is vibrant and the layout, even though reversed, is dramatic. At times, all that's missing is the soundtrack. And the dialog reads as smoothly as an English script... because it is the English script! Unless you're a K, you'll hear the original cast in your head as you read classic lines.
  Now for the other hand: Just one look at the cover will show you what will turn off many fans of the movie. Yes, Harrison Ford was a younger man when STAR WARS first came out, but he wasn't 12 years old! My first glance at the cover brought nightmare visions of the MUPPET BABIES.
  The original character designs, as it were, have been altered slightly in order to fit this format. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? But this is to be welcomed as well as expected. Just as a movie version of a book doesn't (usually) have to include a verbatim narration of every line in the text, neither does a graphic novel have to look exactly the same as its movie. What would be the point? However, with that said, do Chewie's arms really need to be lengthened? And since the deadpan expression of a droid was one of his most interesting qualities, does C3-PO really need to sweat and smile? With these relatively minor and excusable changes aside, I found only one omission that marred the story. (Cover your eyes, K.) The deliciously evil scene where Vader uses the Force to choke one of his admirals while promoting the man next to him is illustrated very well, but the scene mentioning the admiral's costly mistake is not. So readers like K are given no reason for this entertainingly cruel act. But the rest of us will hardly notice, since we all know better than to drop Lord Vader's fleet out of light speed so close to a Rebel base!
  In the end, most of us will get a kick out of the cast's newfound youth, Han and Leia's wild takes, and sweaty protocol droids. The second volume of this series is available, with the remaining two coming at the ends of March and April. Hiromoto Shin-ichi's RETURN OF THE JEDI - MANGA will follow in early July. These new perspectives on old classics are interesting, especially with new blood on the horizon.

Originally published in Japan in 1998 by Media Works Inc., Tokyo.
Published in North America by Dark Horse Comics, Inc.
2 volumes out, ongoing
black/white, 96 pages
ISBN 1-56971-390-1
$9.95 per issue
Available now in the USA
Where to buy


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