Ranked #1970

NOiSE (Manga)

This manga was quite interesting. The story is very dark in that dystopian future with a secret to hide sort of way, and even though this type of narrative seems to be not all that different from the pack, the subtle touches to the story are done extraordinarily well. However, I would like to note that the single most important aspect of this manga is the art, since without it, the story could not be conveyed as well as it is here. The art is done in a sort of drab boring shade of black, with a melancholic and heavy greyness permeating throughout the work as well. In spite of these color schemes though, the art becomes very interesting when one is reading the manga considering that it has this sort of "otherwordly" quality to it, primarily conveyed by the somewhat blurry effect that is consistently in use. It almost serves to show how the main character is feeling in the story, constantly moving against time to try and find an answer to the mystery concerning the "order" and what has happened to her friend Clawsa. Thus, it essentially shows the jumbled mindset of the main character and does so quite effectively, and this really helps in immersing you into the story- not allowing you any breathing room whatsoever. In this way, it also feels somewhat claustrophobic in a sense- that feeling that something is always closing in...closer...closer.

But enough of my praise concerning the art and story, the main character- Musobi Susano- deserves plenty of praise as well. You will notice that as you read, that there is very little in the way of dialogue and I believe this serves to further place the reader into Susano's shoes- effectively portraying her feeling of loss and confusion as she wonders aimlessly through the desolate city streets. In essence then, the characters actions speak for themselves and I feel that this is much more effective then including more dialogue, since less dialogue serves to invite more subjective judgments on the part of the reader, rather then simply only following what the character says and taking that as how you should feel if you were to be in that position. I feel then, that this invites more reader immersion as well as more subsequent enjoyment for this simple reason.

As you can see then, I thoroughly enjoyed this manga and I cannot wait to read BLAME! Oh and on a side note, this was my first review here so I hope you enjoyed it.

Cheers. read more

I absolutely LOVE the art!!! I liked the story although there wasn’t much to it. If this had been drawn out a few more chapters and given a few more details and went a little more in depth I think it would have been a lot better.