It's time to take a look at another failed fantasy manga from CMX, although this one is less about fairy tale romance and more about epic battles.
ORFINA (Orufina), by Kitsune Tennouji. First published in 1993 and first published in North America in 2007.
PLOT:
Fana is a lone warrior on the run from the conquering forces of Granze. Her wanderings lead her to the kingdom of Cordia and its royal family, who are stunned by Fana's resemblance to their daughter Orfina. Fana comes to know and love Orfina and her family as if they were her own, but their idyll is interrupted when the armies of Granze finally arrive. Now Fana must use her skills and her resemblance to the princess to survive and preserve the hope of the people.
STORY:
Orfina is kind of an odd duck as far as fantasy manga goes. It's got some good ideas going on and I'm always in favor of more proactive female protagonists, but I can't quite grasp the tone this series is going for and the story itself feels very muddled and mixed-up.
There are a lot of fantasy manga about warring kingdoms, but this version seems weirdly difficult to parse. Part of the problem is that Orfina starts in media res, so the reader is dependent upon later exposition dumps to figure out who's who and what's what. The other part is that there doesn't seem to be any motive behind the war beyond one side being really, really evil. The opposing forces are led by a scarred and steely aristocrat who decided to take over everything just because he's evil. It also doesn't help that this manga can't decide just how fantastical the technology in-story should be. It starts off in a very medieval mode with a dash of magical creatures, but then Fana faces off against something with Ye Olden Sawed-Off Shotgun and somehow manages to win.
Orfina wastes a lot of time faffing about with the royal family; 3/4th of the volume is spent doing this. I wouldn't mind it if this time was spent building up those characters, but most is spent either establishing how nice everyone is or how awesome Fana is at everything she does. It gets to the point where the war is almost welcome because it finally forces Fana to show versus tell. The battle are suitably thrilling and it builds up to a proper cliffhanger, but it wasted so much time fluffing Fana's ego that it has to rush. This may be the rare fantasy manga that needs more exposition, not less.
ART:
Orfina's art is typical of 1990s manga art. Thankfully the rest of the characters don't look quite as alien and bobbleheaded as Fana does on the cover, and I get the feeling looking at them that Tennouji is a fan of Masamune Shirow. That said, it's clear that they spent more time on certain characters versus others. Fana and Orfina are the ones who are drawn most consistently and attractively, while the supporting cast often goes off-model. Even then, those two can suffer when drawn from more extreme angles and everyone can come off as a bit stiff and weird at times.
The action is equally inconsistent. The poses are strong and Tennouji's really good at putting together panel layouts that make the best of his work, but the action itself is stiff and drowning in speedlines. The costumes and backgrounds get a fair bit of attention (so much so that the omakes spend a lot of time pointing out various details on them), but none of them feel very distinct and he still takes the time to draw Fana in a lacey chemise and string panties. I have to wonder if this particular detail is the reason CMX gave this book a Parental Advisory notice on the cover. I know they had a policy to keep their books at a Teen rating or less, but the violence isn't graphic, there's no sexual content, and nobody is cursing. What else could it be but that?
RATING:
This series was published by CMX. This series is complete in Japan with 12 volumes available. 8 volumes were published and are out of print.
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