Sana Takeda

I had been hearing good things about this series forever, so I finally got around to checking it out. Let's start out here: the art is absolutely AMAZING. Everyone cites the steampunk art deco vibe, but that only applies to those scenes in and around buildings. There are also all the races, monsters, and magical creatures, who run the full gamut from menacing/unsettling to chibi adorableness. There is how effectively the art and coloring convey the mood and atmosphere. The art alone does so show more much heavy lifting, which is good because there is SO MUCH going on here -- we are dropped into a world that feels so rich and dense with meaning and history and we just have this little sliver of a vantage point to start figuring it out.

A dark story very well started. show less

I was worried with Volume 4 that the novelty of Monstress had worn off for me, but Volume 5 proved that wrong. There's still a bit of a side-quest feel, but we're on track with a goal now, all the major playing pieces *seem* to be on the board (though one hasn't had a full reveal yet), and characters are evolving in new and interesting directions.

Spoilers ahoy for all that has come before.

We start back in Pontus after the last volume's side trip. The city is evacuating and Maiko is trying show more to decide on her next move. When they learn that the old arcanic fortress town of Ravenna is going to be attacked by the human Federation army, Kippa insists on going to help her fellow fox arcanics, Corvus wants to go to save his sister, and Maiko decides to go along *only* because Ravenna is on the way to the final piece of the cursed mask that she needs to destroy to prevent the terrible Old Ones (sorry if I've forgotten their actual name) from invading and destroying the world. *Obviously* Maiko isn't going with Kippa to make sure she's safe and help protect her fellow arcanics...it's just a whim that she ends up helping organize the city's nonexistent defenses. It helps to have an old god on--er, in--your side to help scare civilians into line. Meanwhile, the Dusk/Dawn Court alliance is already at odds: the Warlord wants to help Ravenna to redeem her reputation while the Baroness wants to take their so far secret airship fleet to a more strategic target. Zinn is active at Maiko's goading but otherwise wallowing in half-forgotten memories of a betrayal that he can't believe himself capable of. Not much Ren in this volume, but man, what we do get...that's one complicated cat.

I love this complexity so, so much.

Oh, and that title, "Warchild"? We've got a few. In the most literal sense, throughout the volume we get flashbacks to what, exactly, happened at Constantine when Maiko was young. Unsurprisingly (at this point), Maiko and Tuya are in the middle of it. But Kippa is also a little warchild, herself, desperately wanting adults to take her seriously and to help as many of her fellow foxes as she can, but still a child...and she makes a terrible mistake that changes her as surely as her developing arcanic gift (and perhaps more) is changing her.

Now that we're finally getting settled in this world we're getting to focus on character development. Kippa and Corvin are forced to make difficult decisions, Maika draws lines on where she takes matters (including those in her head) into her own hands and where someone else has to lead. Even Needle and Hammer, the dreaded agents of the head witch (I'm forgetting the title, ugh), get some individuality and personality. We also get some great new characters in the form of genetically modified witches and an absolutely fabulous Federation colonel who, it turns out, is a figure from Maika's past. She's the kind of person who, when told that a significant portion of her troops are in danger, grumbles about incompetence and gets someone to light her a new cigar before salvaging the situation.

It might seem odd to mention character development when a good half of this volume is dedicated to a major, action-packed battle between humans and arcanics, but Lu makes it happen. If you like fast-paced war stories, you've got it in spades.

My two obligatory nit-picks:

First, Kippa's horrible mistake seems to happen and pass by a bit too quickly for transformative that experience must be for her. But this is probably because the battle is in progress--there isn't time to stop and feel the full guilt that she'll probably face in future issues.

Second, in addition to being a 17-year-old super-soldier thanks to training from her mother that ended when she was 11, Maika is apparently a tactical genius thanks to ten months in military school, also before she was 11. I get that this is her character, but it's a bit much to believe that all this training stuck with her for six years. It was refreshing to hear her tell Corvin that she's a soldier, not a leader--so there is actually something that she can't do.

I had been dreading the end of available Monstress collections, but apparently one just published in September! So now I have to go get on the waiting list for it at NYPL and QL. show less

The story is convoluted, dense, fantastical, horrifically violent, and so, so captivating. Even when I wasn’t entirely sure of the action or motivations of characters, I was mesmerized. Maika Halfwolf is an amazing anti-heroine-- root for her at your peril. She’s in it for herself, has her own reasons for fighting, and isn’t above sacrificing others to get where she needs to go. And the artwork! Gorgeous, dynamic, and intricately detailed. I stared at pages, mesmerized. My only show more criticism is that so far, neither the story or the art have touched me-- oh yes, there have been visceral moments, but I feel them at a distance. show less

My overall impression of the title, having read all six parts in one sitting, is extremely positive but tempered a bit with what I felt at times was an unnecessary level of gore. Yet, the extreme violence and macabre nature of the story helped create the setting and the fact that this was a world at war where atrocities happened and must continue to happen for the sake of survival.

I appreciated the incredible worldbuilding that was revealed slowly through the main storyline, and then in show more cutesy cartoons at the end taught by cats. The plot was instantly intriguing, with enough mystery from issue-to-issue to keep me reading, yet enough answered for me to start developing a picture in my head. The pacing was perfect.

I loved the characters, who were stuck in a horrific world and trying to do the best they can. Maika is literally hiding a hidden demon, Kibba is sweetly innocent in a world that has gone mad, and Ren is just trying to do the right thing. I appreciated how Kibba and Ren's interactions were used to break up the at times overwhelming darkness of the story, and they soon became my two favorite characters.

Lastly, the artwork was masterful. It seemed wrong, somehow, that such a horrible story should be told with such amazingly beautiful artwork. Takeda really brought Liu's story to life.

This is a graphic novel that has been sorely missing from the mainstream: an Asian-influenced story told by a writer and a illustrator of Asian descent. It's dark and gritty and also incredibly powerful. I'll definitely be looking for more in this title.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. show less