Manga Review: Cyber Blue
“We are in year 2035 on the Tinos planet, colonized 300 years before by some earthlings. With only half of Earth’s oxygen concentration and with cold arctic conditions over most of Tinos, the human beings are forced to wear a life support apparatus that supplies the oxygen necessary for survival. The black market in such apparatuses is a flourishing business in the criminal world of Junk City. Blue, the protagonist, is in desperate need of a life suport system after being mugged, but an unscrupulous bunch of criminals cheat him of his money and leave him with an outdated model with an old AI. He is tricked by the head of the police, Weiser, into a committing murder, and is then killed himself. The AI, called Fatso, decides to save his life, and gives him a new artificial body filled with extraordinary strength and the cumulative knowledge of their combined three hundred and seventeen years. The resurrected Blue decides to get revenge and protect all those suffering under the tyranny of Weiser.” - Animea.net
This manga was written in 1988, this manga is old. But that is what is great bout this manga. This manga has aspects that the new generation of manga doesn’t have. Unfortunately, I lack the capacity to explain these aspects in words but I will try.
Cyber Blue is about a young innocent man, Blue, who dies young on a planet full of corruption. However, with his dying words he befriends a three-hundred year old robot whom he renamed, Fatso. Fatso then combines himself with Blue to form a Cyber Human, otherwise known as a cyborg. Now the reborn Blue is on a quest to end the corruption on their world. To do this he must kill the four founding families. These families, along with the young Fatso, swore a mysterious oath that now must be broken.
This manga has this old feel to it. The drawings are reminiscent of The Fist Of The North Star, perhaps because they share the same artist. Regardless you will quickly notice that the character’s poses look unnatural, as do their movements, and sometimes their physique. I greatly dislike manga drawn in this style, unfortunately this means I dislike a large portion of older manga. However, Cyber Blue does a good job of avoiding this. For the most part everyone is drawn with correct anatomy.
Of course, this old feel also translates to the plot. The plot is fairly straight forward but everything is exaggerated even the introductions. For instance the introduction for a certain character went like this: “He comes from a planet torn apart by 200 years of civil war, Sieg!! Men from that planet are all murder weapons, who strengthen their bodies with medication and have unusually advanced battle abilities!!” Yes, it is very corny. But that is part of the fun. This is a corny manga full of big guns, blood, and gore. Everything here is amusing from the action packed battles to the dialogue. It is all so entertaining!
Sources: [manga.animea.net][mangafox.com]
