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Don Alsafi
, December 24, 2010
(view all comments by Don Alsafi)
Apart from the impressive AKIRA, I've not come across many manga that have really appealed to me. But, man - I liked this a lot! While sharing a similar setting to the Jane Austen novel of the same name, it's otherwise an entirely new story, centered around the eponymous Emma, a maid, and a gentleman of the upper class named William. While the social class issues at hand (something devastatingly important to the period in question) give the ongoing romantic subplot added levels of hardship and complication, it's the author's depiction of the setting that is the true star of the book. A self-professed Anglophile specifically fascinated with 19th century London, Kaoru Mori has clearly researched the time and place to a staggering degree; her illustrations and awareness of the setting are utterly convincing in their reproduction, while the details that make them up seem nigh all-encompassing. And bonus points for being a graphic novel composed of neither sci-fi/fantasy elements nor contemporary slice-of-life/autobio comics! Something the medium could absolutely use is more stories from a wider array of genres, and this series is thus a welcome addition to the fold.
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