I guess now that the new anime came out, this isn’t such a novel idea. But still, seeing Chewbacca with gorgeous anime eyes and a big sweat drop is incredible to me. I’m not even a big Star Wars fan, but I’ve gotta recommend it. Take this review pretty lightly.
If you’ve read a lot of commercial manga made for western audiences, this style will look very familiar. It’s very generic and a bit cheap, though not bad at all. The fight between Obi Wan and Vader is actually rendered richly, with great big action panel as the two cross sabers like samurai. There are a lot of exaggerated funny faces, but it all feels like it’s sticking on model. It’s very safe looking. The paneling is where there is the most experimentation is surprisingly. it lends a dynamic touch yet sacrifices readability on some pages.
The story is Star Wars except they’re all anime. I don’t know Star Wars well enough, but they might’ve almost recreated the dialogue line by line. I didn’t notice any manga original content either. All the moments you were hoping for are here. Greedo even talks!
I’m not sure how much more I can say, except, it’s a pretty good adaptation which is helped by it feeling ridiculous by nature of its medium. Star Wars manga?!
P.S.This review extends to all the Star Wars mangas that were made for all the movies.
