Oh Look, We're in Love. Isn't That Nice? *stab* *hang* *suicide*

Review: Mars

Manga/Fandom

Reviewed by: Lianne

Title rating: PG-13/R (some readers may take this manga harder than others)

-15 volume manga (Japanese comic) series (1996-2000), complete
-1 volume "Gaiden" (legend) manga, "A Horse With No Name" (post-2000), complete
-English version of the manga published through Tokyopop (2001-present), still running

I can't say how final my opinions are on this manga yet, since I've only read about 1.5 volumes in English (not much more has been published in The West as of this writing). If I feel very differently about this title after I've read more, I'll update this review; still, I've read a lot of shoujo (girls') manga, so I think the judgments I make here won't differ much with more reading. Y'know, after a while you know the way shoujo works.

Meet Kira, a quiet artist who hides in a corner to sketch whilst avoiding boys at all costs. One day she meets Rei, a rebellious bishounen (pretty boy) with a motorcycle, a reputation, and an interest in Kira's art. Rei has an intense fascination with a certain picture of Kira's--a beautiful drawing of a mother embracing her child--and Kira, uncharacteristically, offers to paint the picture for Rei if he'll model for her. Kira and Rei's interest in each other swiftly goes beyond their agreement, though, and hence their odd, rather touching love story begins.

Things, however, aren't all flowers and hearts. Rei has the sort of sensuality and shocking carelessness characteristic of highly intelligent but lonely young people. He has a very strange attitude toward death: if he doesn't address it with indifference, he seems to find it just another semi-interesting bump in his hazy life, and he talks about dying often. Not only that, but Rei's past holds some very turbulent issues, and these have a tendency to catch up with him. So, well, maybe little Kira's bitten off more than she can chew--though she does seem willing to take Rei and all his baggage, which is pretty gutsy. Rei's confidence leaks into Kira, and she abruptly grows a rather remarkable backbone. The two of them take on the world with their devil-may-care attitudes while at the same time finding the true beauty of life within each other.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away ... can't say the same for the shrink, you poor b*stard.

Mars has a very surreal, often dreamlike quality about it, and its major violence and darkness mostly come off feeling, appropriately, like a nightmare. The striking difference between how Rei and Kira could care less about the world but hold an honest, childish love for each other sometimes plays awkwardly, but it's an interesting concept nonetheless. The art and layout in this manga is artsy. It's sometimes hard to relate to Rei and Kira when they just stand there with their hair flowing and these sculptured shocked looks on their faces, but the mangaka (manga writer/artist) Fuyumi Souryo does give her manga a lovely powdery feel with such art, and her color work is some of the cooler stuff I've seen in a while. This is a decent manga, honestly, even if it's a little out there.

But one can't overlook the fact that Mars isn't very "revolutionary" as far as shoujo titles go. Girl is shy and unloved. A popular, gorgeous, intelligent bad boy strolls into her life, and they quickly fall in love. Bad skanks at school who love the boy try to pound the girl flat. Boy gets in fights and shows how incredibly tough he is and how good he looks stained with a bit of blood. Angst. Romance. Shock value. There's not much unique in Mars--it has the hard-to-put-down quality of soap shoujo, yet leaves you with a tiny voice squeaking guilty pleasure! guilty pleasure! in the back of your head as you flip through the pages. Mars' surreal tone and the main characters' interesting attitudes give the manga a bit of an advantage in the waves of shoujo titles with similar plotlines, but when it comes down to it, Mars isn't a huge leap into new territory.

Rei lounges quite prettily, yes indeed.

The English fandom for this show is both decent and honest, which is nice to see. Also, I should probably note that Mars is supposedly quite popular back in Asia, so you don't have to take my word regarding it; many people like Mars more than I. For a start, check out this very flattering article about Mars on the cool online anime mag EX.

As far as fansites go, it looks like there's a still-active mailing list going on for Mars here, which would probably be a great place for fans of this growing manga to meet. You can read summaries of the Japanese volumes not yet translated into English on Jen's Mars Page, and there's some nice content and pictures (including the one below) on this Mars Shrine. My favorite site in my Mars searching, however, was definitely Burning Sunset, a fabulous all-around site with color pictures, great information, and an artsy (appropriate!) layout. Pictures for this review were also snagged from there.

Overview

Mars is a dark, surreal, rather cool love story that's worth a read--particularly if you've had as much shounen (boys') manga bravado and facefaults as you can handle for a while. I can't say Mars impresses me terribly, probably because I've read too much shoujo at this point in my life, but I enjoy following it as Tokyopop releases the volumes in English. For now I give it 3 stars out of 5; if Mars tingles me in future volumes more than it already has, I'm willing to reevaluate. And if that sounds like a challenge, Souryo-sensei ... well, it is.