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This seems kind of interesting, to the point that I may want to actually check it out. I am a little concerned with how it might handle historical accuracy and the nuances of the time period, but I think I'll look into it regardless.

I doubt it will go into certain subject matters, that some Americans might want. Especially since they are using the wild west motif, instead of the areas where the actual war took place. But who knows they might surprise us.

Though, there is one big glaring flaw. The United States and the Confederation would have never released these people.

But I am willing to ignore that if there is a good story, and even better great artwork.

Okay I'm going to have to request this book through ILL just to give it a read. After all I'm helping to build library collections too. If I've done it someone else has done it as well.

i doubt this series gonna stay good for long
i'll give this a read & see if its interesting enough to continue
maybe design are good though, can't deny that

I found this somewhere and I thought it was pretty good. spoiler[So far I think it does a good job of humanizing the "beasts". They're basically soldiers with PTSD and no one is there to support them. There are also references to the aftermath of the Vietnam War (the soldiers are shunned and demonized by society instead of being allowed to reintegrate).]

It also does address that flaw that Tars Tarkas pointed out:
spoiler[They WEREN'T supposed to be released. The plan was to have them euthanized at the end of the war but they ran away because of a certain incident.]

I personally can't wait until more is translated and released.

Being a fan of the Dusk Maiden anime, this manga has my interest (same goes for Wedding Rings, but I hope that one gets a print run). But, seeing as this first volume comes off a "monster of the week", I think I'll wait for some more reviews of future volumes.

A series that is more event, or "monster", driven is not the type that I stick with very long. Seeing characters develop is what gets me invested. So, I want to wait and see how the development side of things go with the main cast.

Sahmbahdeh wrote:

This seems kind of interesting, to the point that I may want to actually check it out. I am a little concerned with how it might handle historical accuracy and the nuances of the time period, but I think I'll look into it regardless.

It throws out all "historical accuracy" not with fantastical chimera, but with the idea that the North was "outmanned and outgunned" by the South. According to the National Parks Service's Civil War Facts Page, the North had more soldiers, horses, factories to make ammunition, and even wheat and corn than the South. And as the war went on, and the North was willing to enroll more black soldiers (which obviously the South would never do), the South only got more and more outmanned and outgunned by the North. As a Yankee, I'm almost offended. Wink

As a manga fan, this has been on my radar since I saw its preview on Vertical's website, and this review makes me want to read it all the more. Does its alternate history Civil War aftermath acknowledge slavery, or does it bypass that subject entirely by taking place in the "Wild West" (which was made up of free states and/or areas like Texas which weren't states yet?)

Edit: Just looked it up, and Texas was actually part of the Confederacy. Huh. Well, the Union had California, Oregon, and Nevada, so more of the West states were free than slave. And the Union on the whole had 20 states to the Confederacy's 11 (not counting the 5 border states on either side). So yeah, the North was definitely not "outmanned" or "outgunned." Very Happy

I got my copy earlier this month and I enjoyed this first volume. I'm pretty much of the same opinion as Theron's review. I really like the Wild West, Civil War inspired setting, since it's a nice change from the Medievil European style settings we typically get. The art is pretty good as well. Another unique aspect is that story looks at soldiers dealing with postwar life and the struggles with reintegrating back into civilian life and there aren't many manga out there that touch on this subject.

I also have the same complaints, its seems pretty episodic so far although I'm guessing a main plot will emerge in the second volume. Especially since we get a glimpse of the possible main villian. My only complaint is that Schaal's character so far doesn't seem that important to the story. She's just tagging along with Hank for the most part and it makes me wonder if Hank should be the main character instead.

Agent355 wrote:

Sahmbahdeh wrote:

This seems kind of interesting, to the point that I may want to actually check it out. I am a little concerned with how it might handle historical accuracy and the nuances of the time period, but I think I'll look into it regardless.

It throws out all "historical accuracy" not with fantastical chimera, but with the idea that the North was "outmanned and outgunned" by the South.
...
Does its alternate history Civil War aftermath acknowledge slavery, or does it bypass that subject entirely by taking place in the "Wild West" (which was made up of free states and/or areas like Texas which weren't states yet?)

It's mentioned in the review, but I don't think this is an alternate Civil War/history story. It's definitely Civil War-inspired but the overall setting is really a mishmash of the Wild West, Civil War, and even a bit of Victorian steampunk. For me, I don't count something as alternate history unless there's references to actual historical figures, locations, event, etc. and there's none so far in the story.

Is this the first manga to have a southern united states setting?

Joe Carpenter wrote:

Is this the first manga to have a southern united states setting?

Nope. Me and The Devil Blues by Akira Hiramoto is a fictionalized biography of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson and takes place in the American South. Soul Eater and Soul Eater NOT! take place in the fictional Death City, Nevada, USA. I'm sure there are others.

I'm not sure what the writer intended, but this is so far from any location and period of US history that I don't think it can be said to be based in the US. I think it would be more proper to set this in an alternate world where a north and a south had a war.

By the way this is not set in the American South. Going by the geography as drawn it has some similarity to the high plains area just east of the Rocky Mountains. That extends from the Canadian to the Mexican borders. As Theron noted, you can't get to the ocean from that area. The book has the Behemoth marching East since the end of the war. You would have to cross almost the entire continent to reach the sea and there are no seaside cliffs there south of New York and northern New Jersey, and no arid areas. The plains don't reach the Gulf coast either.

Much of the setting of this book seems to come directly from the Clint Eastwood westerns of the late 1960s, those were filmed in Spain not the US.

Schaal's dress looks sort of Victorian, but at no time in the 1800's did hems rise that high for someone of her age. Liz's outfit is right out of the late 1960's early 1970's. For a high plains town as shown, even in the 1890's a shower would be a stretch. All the water would have had to have been hand pumped into a cistern. A bath would have been more likely.

When Shaal shot John on page 12, I agree it looks as though her rifle has two hammers which would imply two barrels. However, other views of the rifle clearly show it as having only one barrel and a revolver mechanism. This is consistent with her getting off five shots, one on page 11 and four on page 12.

I bet that there are going to be quite a few people on this site who are going to think that this and the "91 Days" anime are going to be right up my alley. Of course,they might be right. This weird take on the American Civil War is going to be something I'm going to keep my eyes open for. Also,the time period's interesting because in the years after the Civil War,Japanese immigration to America started to pick up. It was very rare to start at the beginning of the nineteenth century but began to gather steam in the late 1860's. Stuff like this is one of the reasons I got involved with this in the first place.

@Snomaster1

Have you read the single volume of manga out in English yet? If not I recommend you do so. Let us know what you think then.

This is not based on the US or US history. What it is, is Japanese monsters meet the old west as depicted in mid 1960s cowboy movies. References to a civil war do not match any aspect of ours except the north/south nature of it. Everyone appears to be ethnically similar with no "foreigners". There isn't anyone who is clearly Mexican much less Japanese.

The story is interesting because the monsters are former soldiers, once heroes but now inconvenient. In a sense it can be seen as a reflection on the treatment of veterans throughout history.

Sorry Alan45. I just looked at the review and that's what it told me. I kind of just threw in the stuff about Japanese immigration to America because I thought it would be appropriate,considering it's a Japanese manga. Also,you'd better keep this away from Ken Burns or Bill O'Reilly. They might throw a fit over this one.

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