Review: QUEEN EMERALDAS

Leiji Matsumoto was one of the great creators of 1970s anime, but until this year the only time we've seen any of his original manga released here was back in the mid 1990s when Viz put out a Galaxy Express 999 sequel.  You can only imagine everyone's surprise then when Kodansha announced the subject of today's review.  Matsumoto fans know it well, but it doesn't quite have the brand-name recognition of something like Captain Harlock or Galaxy Express 999.  Was there room in today's manga market for an old science-fiction manga like this or would it just come off as a strange artifact of a distant time?

QUEEN EMERALDAS (Kuin Emerarudasu), by Leiji Matsumoto.  First published in 1978 and first published in North America in 2016.

PLOT:

Across the galaxy, the name of Queen Emeraldas is one that is spoken in both admiration and awe.  She is a solitary figure, soaring her way across the stars on her own personal quest.  A determined young boy named Hiroshi Umino crosses her path one day, and from that moment he is determined to find his way back to space under his own power to find her.  What he doesn't know is that Emeraldas is never too far away, smoothing his path with her mind and her deadly gravitysaber.