Volume 2 / ISBN: 1-56931-367-9
Story and art by Asamiya Kia
Enlgish version published by Viz Comics
Copyright © Asamiya Kia 1995

Remarkably unspectacular. That may sound oxymoronic, but I honestly cannot think of another way to describe my impressions of this, the second installment of SILENT MÖBIUS graphic novels translated into English. There are too many missed opportunities in this manga — so many chances for dramatic, comedic and artistic excellence that are clumsily botched or simply ignored.
I had never read any other SILENT MÖBIUS comics nor seen any of the anime before tackling Volume 2. This was both an experiment and a test to see if this manga could capture my attention without taking too much for granted from its reader. I thought this would be like jumping directly into the deep end of the pool, but instead I'm wading in water that barely covers my ankles.
Any commentary on the plot will have to be extremely brief since not all that much happens in these 246 pages and it would be way too easy to give it all away. In a Tokyo almost thirty years in the future, evil spirits are attacking the city and only the six women of the A.M.P. (Abnormal Mystery Police) can stand in their way. This volume focuses on the spell-casting Katsumi Liqueur coming to grips with her destiny as she finds her father's sword, the famed Grospoliner, and must use it to defeat a creepy, harlequin-looking demon. Then, the young clairvoyant Yuki Saiko must come to grips with her destiny as the product of an ESPer breeding project. Finally, computer hacker Lebia Maverick must (you guessed it) come to terms with her destiny as a cybernetically enhanced being to fight a demonic computer virus threatening to cripple the entire city.
Each of these stories has promise, but I believe each falls short of truly fleshing out the characters and making the reader care about what happens to them. Just when one of the women seems about to come into her own, Asamiya undercuts her development with some whining from the heroine or lousy one-liners from the villain at hand. Rather than taking the time to really explore their inner feelings, the author keeps thrusting them into the half-hearted action. The only exception to this is a three page sequence between Yuki and her nemesis, the fellow ESPer Annie.
There are some real clunkers of dialogue here as well, but I don't know whether to fault the author or the translator. In a key scene where Grospoliner reveals to Katsumi that she is the descendent of spirits like the ones assaulting Tokyo, where her entire sense of who she really is gets thrown into question, she replies: "Your story gives me mixed emotions." Is that supposed to be sarcasm, or understatement, or just plain old-fashioned bad writing? Such cheesy lines might be more forgivable if the action or comedy were more enthralling.
Of course, I realize that many people aren't reading manga for rising plot action and character dynamism. So what about the art, and the humor? Well, quite frankly, to me the artwork is nothing special. The panels tend to vary from overly cluttered with exploding buildings and the like, to completely lifeless still frames that leave the characters looking limp and alone. I'm not sure if this is my fault or Asamiya's, but I had a difficult time telling some of the characters apart without having to seriously compare and contrast the bangs of hair on their foreheads. That can get irritating, especially when these women are distinctly different but you get fooled into thinking someone just said something extremely out of character. Even during the infrequent instances of comic relief, the super-deformed style is underdone which makes the characters look like they've been sloppily drawn rather than cleverly reinterpreted.
With the exception of some catfighting between Kasumi and the feisty Kiddy, the comedy simply fails to elicit much laughter. Much of the humor focuses on the women's weight issues or their housekeeping shortcomings, and those kind of jokes belies a tiresome sexist attitude that even these girls with amazing abilities have to worry about cutting down on sweets or learning to sweep.
Prospective readers should also be warned about reading this volume in mixed company. I was sitting on a bus, surrounded by senior citizens, when suddenly there was an explosion of fan service as Lebia wakes up completely naked while her friends cavort in her apartment's pool. I had to quickly skip over those pages at the time.
In the end, I can't say I would recommend this to anyone who isn't already familiar with the SILENT MÖBIUS universe and more forgiving of its shortcomings. In a manga market already saturated with supernatural women and terrifying demons, SILENT MÖBIUS does little to distinguish itself with this volume.

(English version) Published by Viz Comics
Black/White Format, 246 pages
ISBN: 1-56931-367-9
$16.95 US / $25.50 Can per issue
Available now in the USA
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