E's Recommended

Publisher
Broccoli Books
Writer
Satol Yuiga
Artist
Satol Yuiga
Country of origin
Japan
Length
12 volumes
Year
1997

Es Volume 2

By David Rasmussen
17th May 07

It’s been awhile since we reviewed Es, hasn’t it. So let’s get right into it.
Kai used to be part of the Psi-Corps like brutal power group called Ashurum, out to brutally police those with special abilities in the name of “the public good”. But now that he’s been parted from his former masters, and finds himself in the hands of gun-for-hire Yuuki and his lovable sister Asuka, he finds that he still wants to go home… home to Ashurum. That won’t last as he barely swipes his old Crid Stick and he’s set upon by a T-800 like wanted criminal. His leash has been let out abit by Ashurum, but not for the reason thought as it looks like Kai has more potential than he realizes.

He isn’t too happy though to find out he may have been brainwashed by his former “trusted friends” at Ashurum, but he’ll be even less happy to find out the lengths he’ll have to go to live in the “normal” world and make a “living” earning “money” instead of crids in order to live. That isn’t a good thing.

Neither is the end as seemingly the series suddenly comes to an abrupt end when Kai vanishes, only he didn’t do the whole JedI death thing… he’s still alive, but with this cliffhanger ending you’ll have to wait until next time to find out where he vanished to and what condition he’s in when he “reappears”.

Short, yes, but to the point. Like the title. To the point, but worth reading.
It’s not a blowout title, yes, but it’s a solid read, nicely written, and I liked it overall.
It starts with the solid writing (though the story is abit to swallow and has abit of that seen it before taste to it’s writing), then go with the solidly done artwork and the lovable characters (which is always important as the series should always contain characters you can give a damn about lest it wouldn’t mean a damn to read the series if you can’t bring yourself to care about the characters in the series).

Rating was abit hard to go for, though, as it was a solid read but not a grand slam homerun either.
Recommended reading, I think you should check it out, so I’m going to err on the side of caution and continue to keep it’s optimistic 4 out of 5 rating until the next volume when we’ll see where the series is heading, and how it’s hopefully shaping up. Hopefully it really takes off as of next volume, but right now it’s still a solid little read you should be reading if possible. 4 happy Asukas out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 17th May 07