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Review

by Rebecca Silverman,

LBX

GN 1 & 2- New Dawn Raisers and Artemis Begins

Synopsis:
LBX GN 1 & 2
Van Yamano's father pioneered the creation of a unique new battle game: Little Battlers Experience, or LBX. The game allows players to customize their own mini-mechas and to pit them against others in specialized fighting arenas that look like miniature landscapes. But shortly after creating LBX, Dr. Yamano vanishes in a presumed plane crash. Five years later Van is given a special LBX by his father's associates and is asked to use it to take down a corrupt politician who wants to use the technology behind LBXs to take over the world. Van and his friends Amy and Kaz are ready to use their LBXs to save the world as they know it!
Review:

Someone once said that when you start putting Barbie and Ken in bed together, you have officially gotten too old to play with them. That same sentiment can be extended to the world of Hideaki Fujii's Little Battlers eXperience manga: when you start to use toys to try and take over the world, maybe it's time to put them away. Based on a series of games for various handheld systems (none of which are available in North America as of this writing), Little Battlers eXperience has also had several anime series, card games, and a collection of very cool models/toys, the last three of which are readily available as of this review. This speaks to either the franchisability of a story about mini battle mechs or to the infectious fun of the story, with these first two manga volumes landing on the side of the latter.

The story revolves around Van Yamano, a young boy who looks to be somewhere between ten and twelve years old. Van's dad, Dr. Yamano, initially created the LBX robots and game to provide a fun form of battle a little more involved than your average card game. Sadly shortly after they took off in terms of popularity, Dr. Yamano's plane vanished in mid-air, causing his family to believe that he had perished in a crash. Van remained obsessed with his father's creation, living the game vicariously through his best friends Amy and Kaz since his mother refused to let him have one of his own. One day, however, a mysterious new LBX armor set arrives in his favorite hobby shop, the Achilles. Shortly thereafter a strange woman forces a briefcase on Van, telling him that his father wanted him to have it and that its contents could change the world. The case contains a special LBX frame (the un-armored robot) that, when combined with the Achilles armor, becomes a super-powerful LBX that could change the world. Unfortunately Cillian Kaido, a corrupt politician who is next in line to become Japan's Prime Minister, also knows about Achilles, and he wants to use it for far more nefarious purposes. He sees the power behind the LBXs as something he can harness to rule the world, and he will stop at nothing to get it. Now Van, Amy, and Kaz have to keep Achilles out of his hands...not to mention find the other important component that Van's father hid in the prize for the Artemis Tournament, a world-wide test of LBX skills.

While Little Battlers eXperience is clearly aimed at elementary school-aged kids, there's a real sense of fun and excitement that should appeal to any fans of shounen action manga or the Gundam Build Fighters series. Van is your typical headstrong shounen hero, but he's definitely got a brain under that stylized hair and the gumption to go with it. He reasons through his motives, listens to his friends and mentors, and has the mechanical know-how to fix Achilles when it gets damaged. While he does charge headlong into most situations, he has the wherewithal to draw back and think for a second once he's gotten into whatever disaster drives the plot. Interestingly, his buddy Kaz is much more of the typical shounen protagonist, trusting to the point where we really have to wonder what his parents taught him about stranger danger. (It is worth noting that only Amy really expresses disbelief when a group of adults want the kids to get in their van.) The personalities of the three best friends do work to compliment each other, and Amy is every bit as important to the team as Kaz and Van, which is good to note since she is apparently the only female in competing in Artemis. This should make the story as appealing to little girls as boys – Amy isn't a “tomboy;” she's a girl who happens to enjoy and be good at LBX. She also isn't drawn quite as sexualized as the girls in the Pokémon franchise, another point in her favor.

Hideaki Fujii's art is clear and stylized, with more detail in the robots than in the characters. Since the LBX are ostensibly the stars of this series, it works well, and each LBX is distinct in its build and weaponry. We see from early on in the first volume that the base mech is just a skinny frame to which players attach plastic snap-on armor, so that Kaz's mech is beefy with an animal head while Amy's has a feminine shape and another sports a jester's cap makes sense. It would seem that the mechs are named after their specific armor sets, but that could be conjecture on my part. There is the usual over-the-top dramatics that we tend to find in game-based manga, but this is mitigated by the fact that we do see the LBXs take damage, as opposed to in a card game-based story.

Little Battlers eXperience is a fun, easy read with a fast paced plot, a villain with appropriately sinister plans (even if his decision to use toys is a bit much), and a team of heroes who are close-knit and work well together. Kaido will stop at nothing, not even abusing children, to achieve his goals, and Amy and Kaz won't let Van become as extreme in his battles against him, maintaining his humanity and love of the game even when things get tough. It may be aimed at little kids, but LBX's first two volumes are still good reads if you want something fast and action-packed.

Grade:
Overall : B
Story : B
Art : B+

+ Fast-paced, good group of protagonists. Amy is not as sexualized as some other girls in similar series, each LBX is distinct and detailed.
Clearly for little kids, so not a lot of depth, Kaido's plan to use toys feels a bit far-fetched. Volume two drags a little in places.

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Production Info:
Story & Art: Hideaki Fujii
Licensed by: Viz Media

Full encyclopedia details about
LBX - Little Battlers eXperience (manga)

Release information about
LBX - New Dawn Raisers (GN 1)
LBX - Artemis Begins (GN 2)

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