Orion

Orion by Masamune Shirow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Yamata Empire tries to bring all of the negative karma in the universe to one world to destroy it. Thing's go wrong and only Susano, god of destruction, can save the universe from the nine-headed naga.

I rated this high but I'm going to get the thing that annoyed the shit out of me out of the way first before I get to praising it. This thing is jam-packed with babble about the magic system, or psycho-science, as it's called. You know that part in every Star Trek episode where they throw nonsensical words around to explain what they're going to modify to order to save the universe? Okay, now picture a few panels of that on every third or fourth page. Yeah. The Buddha-based magic system of psycho-science is jammed down your throat, making it a whole lot less magical.

Now that I've gotten that unpleasantness out of the way, I enjoyed the rest of this quite a bit. It feels like Black Magic 2.0 in a lot of ways. There's science juxtaposed against magic until they're nearly indistinguishable, gods interacting with mortals, and big ass battles. Once you get past the psycho-science talk, the plot is way easier to follow than either Appleseed or Black Magic.

The art is gorgeous. The culture of the Yamata Empire, including the power armor and ships, shows an influence from far into Japan's past rather than being straight up science fiction, making for some interesting visuals. The character designs are the best yet I've encountered in Masamune Shirow's work, particularly Hibeme. It's hard not to be afraid of an eyeless wizard with blood trickling out of his sockets. Susano, Seska, and the Princess all had great designs as well.

The battles are of epic scope. Gods vs. monsters, gods vs. gods, and the usual mortals thrown into the mix make for some great visuals. There were some hyper-detailed panels in Appleseed but this one takes the cake. I have to wonder how many days some of the panels took to draw.

I wonder if Masamune Shirow drew any inspiration from Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light or Jack Vance's Dying Earth. I see echoes of both in this but it could be coincidence since Shirow has mythological references in all of his works.

Orion is a gorgeous book. If you can sift through the flavor text regarding the psycho-science, it's a great read. Four out of five stars.




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