Double Arts is for me the perfect example of a manga with awesome ideas that for some reason or another just didnt get going properly. So lets break it down:
Story:
The world of Double Arts is one in which a rampant disease kills hundreds every day. The disease can be passed on through contact with any part of the infected persons body, and is always fatal - its just a matter of time. Handily occasionally some girls are born with a resistance. These girls can absorb the toxin of the disease, temporarily staving off death for a sufferer though never curing it. They are called the Sisters. Of course, they still have the disease even if they will not die from it soon, so can only touch each other.
A sister can choose to keep healing until they succumb themselves, or stop eventually and live the rest of their life training the next generation. So we join El, a sister dedicated to working until she dies to save as many as possble.
When she is finally about to succumb to the disease, both terrified and glad she has saved so many a boy grabs her hand and pulls her up from her coma. At first worried shes infected him, she quickly finds that letting go of his hand for even a few seconds results in her going back into the death coma - and he apparently shows no signs of the disease itself. Now he knows hes her cure though, he isnt letting go of that hand - even though its awkward.
When the organization finds out about this they realise he is a complete cure for the disease, and they begin efforts to receive him at their home base. Unfortunatly for them there is a group hinted to be behind the release of this disease, and they plan to kill off his cure.
So does that sound good? Better motivation than most Shonen manga right? even Luffy initial motivation seems stale and kinda silly compared to this (and i love one piece)
Characters:
As ya might have guessed, this man can get our story on characters included. Elraine is adorable, but also determined and flawed and all those great things we love. she represents the feminity brought to the manga, the thing to protect for Kiri, and an obvious love interest whilst also providing a lot of the worlds backstory for us.
Kiri on the other hand is simple, fun, artistic and good hearted - and puts me into mind of essentially the ideal boyfriend material for the double that obviously seems to represent a first love sorta thing in the never stopping holding hands deally. He represents the bravery aspect, the willingless not to go back on his word at one point even though hes sure he will die and scared as hell is endearing, and marks him out as the shonen you will like for the series.
Meanwhile the background it equally well populated. Prepare to meet the ultimate definition of GARMoe - terrifyingly cute in Sui. Normally a psycho anger fuelled warrior girl with a lust for battle, the very occasional shine of adorability breaks through when she is beaten for the very first time is downright fantastic. She seems to represent rivalry perhaps, at the very least the irritant factor for Kiri.
Finally we have Fallan Denzel. Undoubtedly this man is strength. But hes an interesting variation on the whole wise master who teaches them. First of all he seems damn young, mid twenties about. Next of all he has hundreds and hundreds of rumours about him, about the numbers of people he has killed and the feats of strength he has peformed. He denies all of them and makes it seem like he is a normal person, except that doesnt explain why all the animals nearby are terrified of him.
At first it seems like he is just an overexagerated man, he is not scary really and very unthreatening. Then he jams a mans face three feet into a solid stone pavement in a panel. He also informs Kiri and El that he has made an oath never to fight for anyone but himself - but im having a feeling this is enforced by more than just a will of his own. I think if this had gone on Fallan would have represented the unpassable wall of power, being insanely strong but also not a help to Kiri or el because hes sworn not to. In short, this world meets its Kenpachi early and hes a lot scarier for having his boundaries never exactly defined...
So an impressive cast as well it seems.
Art:
Not mind blowingly impressive - but certainly better than most first tries youll see. It looks like the work of a man whos been doing manga for a long long time and doing it well. Expect a lot of varied faces, some interesting character designs, and actually quite well realised towns and villages. Seriously, youd be surprised at how good the street scenes look in this, with cobblestones, people, stores etc. its quite underrated.
The character design is also pretty good - if only hed been given enough time to get really into it im sure he could have given us greatness. The clothing is perfectly modelled for each character, the enemies dress fantastically and dangrously whilst the guy also knows how to draw our cuteness factor in.
So overall im sad this didnt get to be a full manga, but if ya want something bitesize youll enjoy and some cool characters to love, check it all out. ill be surprised if it doesnt endear to you.
