Oh... Wow. Just, wow.
I received my issue just today, and I frankly skimmed through a larger section of it.
Must admit, I was incredibly disappointed. It should've been expected that trying to fit 6 whole other books (as the manga originally was 2 books per the original novel) would be an impressive failure, especially for people that only followed the manga. I mean, for THOSE sorts of people, Deltora Quest as a whole would seem INCREDIBLY dull. Incredibly.
I'm not even sure where to start... Subjectively, there is a whole lot of bad in this book. I was really hoping that, since this was the final book, Makoto would've pulled out all the stops. Mrgh...
I think, partially, (or mostly) the pacing contributed to the 'unwow' factor. Not only did the book have to depict the Cave of The Beast and the Valley of The Lost, but it also had to carefully choose how long it would consider each relevant piece of information. It just didn't do that well. The final confrontation is SO compact, everything feels like it's moving at a blur! So many details that enriched the original story are cut out in favour of the bare bones and some of the mangaka's own interpretation.
Perhaps it's only because I was super excited to see Fallow in all his awesome action that was shown in the anime, I was seriously dumbfounded by how... Uninspired the resolution and climactic battle went. That, and the last two books at least promised SOMETHING. Though it definitely wasn't as strong as the game or anime adaptation, there was a certain charm about Book 8 and 9. And there was DEFINITELY a charm about the first and second book! So much attention to detail!
Lastly, before my thoughts fail me, the actual illustrations... Hrm. HRRRRMMMM. In case you've not yet read it, I suppose there's no reason to go into that deeply. Once again, all I can say is I was truly shocked by the overall lack of quality that was present through most of this issue. I was always aware of the mangaka's rather... interesting art style, but never was it so consecutively awful at producing compelling scenes. Except maybe Book 7.
I think a major beef I have with the art style (and what I had from the very beginning) was that it tended to clash. And not in a necessarily good way. The first style is present mainly in Book 1 (before Jarred is declared a traitor) and parts of Book 2. This style is basically very clean, and has its own characteristics. High quality episodes of the anime (particularly episode 1 and 51) mimicked this style to a tee, often noticeable when slightly thicker outlines are used. THEN, of course, we have the lazier style, which is unfortunately used throughout most of Book 10. It's characterised by very rough penwork, an affinity for using 'action lines' as shading, and constantly off-model characters.
Whoops, I went a bit in depth there, didn't I? It probably sounds like I'm whining so much, but what can one expect? I don't read manga often, but the manga I HAVE read are definitely of a much higher quality than this.
And that's my general thought on this adaptation. Of course, there is so much to say if one were to analyse a bit further, but I see no point at the moment. All I can say is... thank goodness for the anime. And I thought THAT was lacking in a touch of polish. Hoo wee.
Topic: Deltora Quest - Issue 10 Discussion (Read 6655 times)
