Bijoux, Les

    (Tokyopop, 2004)
™ and © 2004 Tokyopop
reads right to left; b&w

It’s bad enough that so many manga these days are sporting fractured English in their titles, but points should be taken off the top of this one’s grade just for the pretentious and gratuitous use of French. (It means “The Jewels,” by the way.)

Sadly, here’s another comic book that can’t live up to its cover. There’s stunningly beautiful, highly detailed art on display, but the artist can’t maintain this look throughout his pages, so there’s a constant uncomfortable shift between it and a much less developed style.

Moreover, it doesn’t help that the storytelling is flaccid, the panel-to-panel continuity weak, and the ordinary fantasy world peopled by beautiful but annoying characters, half of whom can step on their own hair. (In places, it resembles a Korean version of A Distant Soil.) But for those who like this sort of thing, there are helpful background text pages in the back about the creators and their world.

— S.A. Bennett
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#3

June, 2004
Cover Price: $9.99
1 copy available for $14.99 		Joe Eun-HaPark Sang-Sun