Jun 20, 2022
TL;DR : good manga about military aviation and fighting giant monsters in the sky with a nice cast of characters. Not perfect but I really enjoy it a lot.
Well, it seems I’m part of the 49 people on MAL that are reading this manga and probably the first writing a review for it.
So far, I am at volume 5 ( or 47 chapters ) in the story and I must say that it’s a very good ride.
Because there is no synopsis written on MAL yet, I will try to give a brief summary of the story.
Our story starts with Shinobu, a girl that
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always felt like she was invisible to the eyes of others. It’s only when she gets recovered by the IOSS, an organization fighting secretly against some gigantic monsters in the sky, that she gets to discover that she is actually capable of turning invisible to the eyes of others but also to the monsters. She will also meet the first person capable of seeing her when invisible, Danke, he's specialized in piloting jets and despite being human, looking more like one of the monsters they are fighting against. Alongside other characters with strange capacities, they will protect humanity against those monsters with their powers and fighting jet.
The first few chapters are quite fast in terms of pacing but it is not really a problem in my opinion because it is the same for Shinobu. Everything is thrown at her face and she’s obligated to participate in a conflict she never knew about, and when it’s all over, nobody really takes time to explain everything to her, and so, in a logical way, her only answer is to run away. She then realizes that she may have finally found a place where she can belong and exist.
The first chapter managed quite well to make the main character interesting and attachable for me and same thing for the story by only revealing a little about what is actually happening. It’s not perfect, some dialogues can feel a bit unnatural and it stays during the continuation of the manga especially when characters are doing exposition. But it’s still a very strong start.
We then follow Shinobu and Danke teaming up to fight against the sky monsters and also meeting the other children working for the IOSS scattered all around the world which lead the character to travel a lot. A minor flaw I have with the story is that it’s not very original for the countries the other children are originated from. It’s your usual western European countries plus the US, China and Russia.
The story often follows a similar structure, the main duo meet a new character, there’s some tension, a new type of monster appears, they have to come together to beat it. It may seem a bit repetitive but each situation manages to bring something else to the table to make it interesting enough. Plus, there is another situation around volume 3 where all the characters we met so far come back to fight a stronger menace. The story then takes a new dimension that makes it even more interesting even if there is some element here and there I wasn’t a fan of, and so far, in volume 5, the story took a lot of great turns that will make the following even more interesting. The story can sometimes be hard to follow because the pacing between two chapters might be quite fast and also because there are some few incoherences like with the first introduction of the character named “Mum” but I do not know if I must put it on the original story or the translation I’m reading.
To talk about the character, there’s of course our main duo, Shinobu and Danke. They both have compelling stories and manage to be interesting and strong characters in their own way, but they also both are adorable and lovable characters. The other characters we met along the way are also all interesting. They each come with their own story that are more or less developed but are enough to give them the depth they need.
The characters and the different settings allow the story to go through different themes and talk about multiple subjects like racism, geopolitical conflict, handicap, ghost children in China... Also, because I’m french, I found it very interesting that for once when the story was happening in France, characters weren't confronted with patisseries and baguette but with the problems brought by immigration and the far alt-wright discriminatory movement against it. The story does not go too deep into those elements, and it can be for the better because it is sometimes a bit clumsy with it, but it’s nice to have them here because it gives more depth to the characters and to the world by showing its imperfection. And it seems to be an important part of the overall story, to come to the acceptance of the other. My biggest problem with it is that the Japanese are kinda always presented as the very open good guys when most of the representatives of other countries are presented as assholes at first. The story presents problems about the society of other countries but never about Japanese society.
For the art, I think the manga manages to look pretty good. There’s a good mix between a more stylized style for the character and a more realistic and detailed style for the monsters and the military devices like the jets. It allows good looking action sequences but also fun looking faces during more comedic or everyday life moments. And there’s also a lot of great looking panels especially when characters are in the sky and are looking at the surrounding environment. And I also would like to note that the design of the monsters are truly magnificent.
It’s also not perfect, there’s a few inconsistencies and weird proportions here and there. Sometimes it is used for comical effect but there’s also some moments where it just looks weird. There’s also some moments when the more stylized style of the character next to something more realistic can feel kinda off but it’s pretty rare and only happened twice personally.
Another thing that I think is really worth noting about the manga is the author's notes and bonuses. Sarissa does not have one or two fun 4-koma with a nice concept art and a little word from the author at the end of each volumes, It has between 10 and 20 pages in every volumes full of concept art and explanation of the mangaka about the machine shown in the manga and their real counterpart, about the lore of the story. It clearly shows that a lot of attention was put into representing our current military aviator technologies and I’m sure that someone interested in the subject will have a nice time with all that information. And I’m not kidding about their length, reading those 10 to 20 pages usually takes me a bit less time than reading the story part of the volume. There’s also the notes of the scenarist that also takes quite some space but they also give a ton of information about aeronautics, military equipment, detail about the story, fun facts or even anecdotes about the scenarist and the mangaka visiting the places they took inspiration from. The only problem I have with those notes is that it can be obnoxious to go back and forth between the story and the scenarist notes while reading. But like the ridiculously long bonuses, it shows how much thought and research was put into the story.
In the end, or at least, so far, Sarissa of Noctilucent Cloud is a very good manga. It’s not the best, it has some big and smaller flaws that are easily noticeable, but it also does a lot of great things that makes me appreciate it a lot. I don't know If it is translated in English but if it touch some subject you are interested in, I would recommend it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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