Review: Akaneiro #1

Akaneiro #1 (written by Justin Aclin, illustrated by Vasilis Lolos) is the first issue of a comic prequel to the video game Akaneiro: Demon Hunters, itself based on Red Riding Hood as interpreted by American McGee, best known for the video games Alice and Alice: Madness Returns. All of that adds up to a rather convoluted backstory if you decide to research the origins of this comic. Ultimately, this background would be much more helpful if I had any knowledge of the Alice games, but since I do not, I can only comment on the comic itself.

I was pulled in immediately by the cover. Though it’s very different in style, it’s not false advertising: the art inside is really good. I’m not sure what it is that I love about the art; the best I can tell is that I’m drawn to the style for reasons I can’t put my finger on. The one thing that I can say for sure that I love is the coloring, for which I should really give credit to Michael Atiyeh (colorists are very underappreciated in general). The pencils are so detailed that I get the feeling (though I’m not sure) they would be overwhelming alone. By going with bright colors, they bring out the detail instead of allowing it to become a distraction. It’s there if you’re looking for it, but had they gone with more subdued coloring, the same pencils would be muddled and distracting. It’s a choice that many others would be likely to go with, but they avoided that pitfall here to great success.

Getting to the writing, it starts off slow. The beginning is very heavy on unclear exposition. I might understand it better with more knowledge of Japanese mythology and tradition (or it could be fictional for all I know), but it’s still a failing of the book that its scene setting exposition is unclear. Knowing that it’s a prequel to the game, I might get more of that background there, but requiring outside knowledge to understand the story is a huge problem.

Once it gets going, the story really starts to pick up, and not understanding that exposition doesn’t matter. The tension goes way up and Kani (the protagonist) has some really great lines (at least one will go into my mental registry of awesome quotes), but this isn’t until about the 2/3 mark. Since this is in a single issue, this gives us barely enough time to get excited, and then the issue ends. It makes me want to read the next issue, but the little that is in this issue is underwhelming.

One more point about the writing, which is probably more a personal pet peeve, is the heavy reliance on narration. It isn’t “describe what we’re already looking at” bad, but there are long stretches where we’re given almost all of Kani’s thoughts in narration. Some of it is needed, but I would much prefer that most of it be done visually. The art is definitely up to the task, but the writing doesn’t let it, which frustrates me.

Would I recommend this book for the $3.99 cover price? I’m not really sure. If I did, it would be on the potential for the future more than what is in this issue. I don’t like to make that sort of recommendation, but what is here shows a lot of promise. I’m going to be more cautious and wait to see if the next issue really gets the story going before giving it a full recommendation.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) is caught off guard by a lack of video game knowledge interfering with reading a comic, but knows that he shouldn’t be. Follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings to read his other thoughts in bite-sized pieces when he actually has any worth sharing.