Merry Month of (Shojo) Manga: BLUE INFERIOR

I was recently reminded of Key to the Kingdom, which led me to take a look at the only other Kyoko Shitou manga released in English.

BLUE INFERIOR (Buru Infiria), by Kyoko Shitou.  First published in 1998 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

In the future, much of the land has been transformed into uninhabitable desert and the oceans plagued by poison tides.  Humans lived in isolated pockets of habitable "blessed" land, and Liber might be the most blessed by virtue of its beautiful seascape.  Kazuya spends his days exploring the ocean in the hopes of finding clues about what happened to his parents, but his explorations lead him to a mysterious girl named Marine.  Marine has no memory of how she ended up washed up on the beach, but the longer she hangs around Kazuya the more she remembers.  Her memories might be the key to the fate of Kazuya's parents and the world beyond the blessed lands...if a traitor from within the community doesn't stop them first.

STORY:

Much of the non-story-specific comments I made about Key to the Kingdom five years ago apply to Blue Inferior.  While the genre is different (post-apocalyptic adventure instead of high fantasy), it possesses the same strengths as that later story.

The cast here are made up largely of stock types, but Shitou lends them so much charm that you hardly mind.  Indeed, it's Kazuya's kindness and innate curiosity that helps give the story some heart and drive the story forward.  The plot itself is also quite good, with a more environmentalist take on the apocalypse.  It's an incredibly efficient volumes as there's plenty of plot set-up, character-building interaction, and even a plot twist or two.  The whole thing feels like the beginning of some forgotten YA novel series, and I mean that as a compliment. 

ART:

That being said, the story gets a lot of its charm from the art.  Shitou traveled to Okinawa for research for this series, and it shows in the many scenes of beautiful drawn beaches and shining seas. There's a dreaminess to some of the more abstract imagery that gives one the feeling of floating and swimming, regardless of where the scene is actually set.  The character designs are charming, and Shitou's fine linework lends every panel a delicacy that enhances its beauty.  It's just a gorgeous-looking book.

RATING:


It's criminal that we only got one volume of this series, because Blue Inferior's first volume is a beautiful and accomplished one.  It promises the beginning of a grand adventure, but thanks to the publisher's failure, we'll never know what that adventure would look like in English.

This series was published by ADV Manga.  This series is complete in Japan with 4 volumes available.  1 volume was published and is currently out of print.