<b>Review of Tokyo ESP #1 by darkstorm</b>
Rinka Urushiba is a fairly normal, if financially poor, high school girl who one day after school finds a flying penguin, which leads her to some strange glowing fish that seem to be swimming around town but only she can see. One such fish swims right into her and the next morning Rinka wakes up with a special ESP power to phase through any object. As the shock of it hits her she luckily meets fellow student Kyotaro Azuma, who has also gained ESP powers through contact with the fish, but with the power of teleportation. Through strange circumstances, the pair decide to work together; with Azuma wishing to be a hero of justice and Rinka being more interested in finding out exactly what the flying fish are and how to be rid of her new powers.
Reading the blurb above, Tokyo ESP doesn’t scream originally at all; school kids with super powers trying to save the world whilst finding a way to control their new gifts has been done many times over in various mediums. The mangaka, Hajime Segawa, knows this too, so thankfully he doesn’t waste his time or ours by trying to drag out the beginning by introducing a normal girl and her quiet life in detail before smacking her with a life altering destiny. Tokyo ESP has 4 colour pages at the top, and then on page 2 BOOM girl phases through the floor of her apartment. The how and why she got her powers is told briefly in flashback, which is the best way to go about it. We know what will happen before we’ve opened the book so getting on with it works in the series’ favour.
The same goes for the comedic vibe Tokyo ESP goes for; it’s not a laugh out loud series but the material doesn’t take itself overly seriously, the fact that the characters gain their powers from flying glowing fish is enough to induce an eye roll. The fish are nothing more than a magical McGuffin; it could’ve have been an ancient relic, a mysterious book, or even a radioactive spider. It doesn’t really matter because they all perform the same function, a gateway from normal to supernatural. The series relishes its silliness further by using the powers the characters get for visual gags such as Rinka phasing through and losing her clothing behind, or her father’s magnetism attracting a car park’s worth of cars to him and causing a mad scene in the middle of traffic. On top of this everything moves at a fast pace, with lots of yelling from the leads and jumping from one scene to the next, so if the story at least intrigues you but you want a light read, Tokyo ESP ticks the right boxes.
The two leads that carry the story also fit nicely into the stereotype boxes; one doesn’t want to be ‘special’ and have gifts, another wants to wear a mask to hide his identity and save the world. For the first few ‘episodes’ the characters do little to break their mould, but towards the end of the book small elements start to build into their characters and make them engaging. Rinka doesn’t whine constantly that she just wants to be ‘normal’, she tries her best to help out her new friend and the fact that her father finds out about her powers early on also breaks them away from a lot of clichés other series of this type tend to grind into the ground. Azuma also manages to avoid being too goody-goody and high spirited about his new-found powers and ‘hero of justice’ shtick by having a troubling upbringing, and not the typical parental ignorance/abandonment issues either. That’s not to say that the edges that come into play later save them from being lost in a sea of similar characters of this ilk, but at least they’re engaging enough during the story they’re involved in.
Tokyo ESP's manga came out several years before the anime (the latter is due out in Feb 2016) but the art of the former looks like still images of an anime. The style is very dynamic; it has simplistic lines and lacks depth sometimes but every character looks alive on the page, especially for the colour pages where it looks like they’re about to pop out, and the action scenes have greatly detailed close ups so we’re right in the thick of it. Visually, it’s a thumbs up all round.
The first volume of Tokyo ESP is actually a two-in-one release, so you get a large chunk of the story to delve into and lovely colour pages at the top and mid-way through the book, however both parts seem to have been handled separately when translating. The first half has inconsistency in font styles, which admittedly will only be distracting for the more finicky reader (such as myself), however in the first volume they refer to the thief (first antagonist of the series) as ‘Black Fist’ but in the second half they call her ‘Kobushi Kuroi’ with a note on the side of the panel pointing out it translates to what was said in plain English before; consistency would be nice.
Tokyo ESP is not going to set the world on fire but it knows that; a familiar story met with humour, charm and nice art make it work just enough to warrant a recommendation, it’s at least perked by interest in the anime release next year.
<b>Final score: 7 out of 10</b>
Rinka Urushiba is a fairly normal, if financially poor, high school girl who one day after school finds a flying penguin, which leads her to some strange glowing fish that seem to be swimming around town but only she can see. One such fish swims right into her and the next morning Rinka wakes up with a special ESP power to phase through any object. As the shock of it hits her she luckily meets fellow student Kyotaro Azuma, who has also gained ESP powers through contact with the fish, but with the power of teleportation. Through strange circumstances, the pair decide to work together; with Azuma wishing to be a hero of justice and Rinka being more interested in finding out exactly what the flying fish are and how to be rid of her new powers.
Reading the blurb above, Tokyo ESP doesn’t scream originally at all; school kids with super powers trying to save the world whilst finding a way to control their new gifts has been done many times over in various mediums. The mangaka, Hajime Segawa, knows this too, so thankfully he doesn’t waste his time or ours by trying to drag out the beginning by introducing a normal girl and her quiet life in detail before smacking her with a life altering destiny. Tokyo ESP has 4 colour pages at the top, and then on page 2 BOOM girl phases through the floor of her apartment. The how and why she got her powers is told briefly in flashback, which is the best way to go about it. We know what will happen before we’ve opened the book so getting on with it works in the series’ favour.
The same goes for the comedic vibe Tokyo ESP goes for; it’s not a laugh out loud series but the material doesn’t take itself overly seriously, the fact that the characters gain their powers from flying glowing fish is enough to induce an eye roll. The fish are nothing more than a magical McGuffin; it could’ve have been an ancient relic, a mysterious book, or even a radioactive spider. It doesn’t really matter because they all perform the same function, a gateway from normal to supernatural. The series relishes its silliness further by using the powers the characters get for visual gags such as Rinka phasing through and losing her clothing behind, or her father’s magnetism attracting a car park’s worth of cars to him and causing a mad scene in the middle of traffic. On top of this everything moves at a fast pace, with lots of yelling from the leads and jumping from one scene to the next, so if the story at least intrigues you but you want a light read, Tokyo ESP ticks the right boxes.
The two leads that carry the story also fit nicely into the stereotype boxes; one doesn’t want to be ‘special’ and have gifts, another wants to wear a mask to hide his identity and save the world. For the first few ‘episodes’ the characters do little to break their mould, but towards the end of the book small elements start to build into their characters and make them engaging. Rinka doesn’t whine constantly that she just wants to be ‘normal’, she tries her best to help out her new friend and the fact that her father finds out about her powers early on also breaks them away from a lot of clichés other series of this type tend to grind into the ground. Azuma also manages to avoid being too goody-goody and high spirited about his new-found powers and ‘hero of justice’ shtick by having a troubling upbringing, and not the typical parental ignorance/abandonment issues either. That’s not to say that the edges that come into play later save them from being lost in a sea of similar characters of this ilk, but at least they’re engaging enough during the story they’re involved in.
Tokyo ESP's manga came out several years before the anime (the latter is due out in Feb 2016) but the art of the former looks like still images of an anime. The style is very dynamic; it has simplistic lines and lacks depth sometimes but every character looks alive on the page, especially for the colour pages where it looks like they’re about to pop out, and the action scenes have greatly detailed close ups so we’re right in the thick of it. Visually, it’s a thumbs up all round.
The first volume of Tokyo ESP is actually a two-in-one release, so you get a large chunk of the story to delve into and lovely colour pages at the top and mid-way through the book, however both parts seem to have been handled separately when translating. The first half has inconsistency in font styles, which admittedly will only be distracting for the more finicky reader (such as myself), however in the first volume they refer to the thief (first antagonist of the series) as ‘Black Fist’ but in the second half they call her ‘Kobushi Kuroi’ with a note on the side of the panel pointing out it translates to what was said in plain English before; consistency would be nice.
Tokyo ESP is not going to set the world on fire but it knows that; a familiar story met with humour, charm and nice art make it work just enough to warrant a recommendation, it’s at least perked by interest in the anime release next year.
<b>Final score: 7 out of 10</b>