Manga Review: Planet Ladder by Yuri Narushima

Planet Ladder by Yuri Narushima isn't exactly something I would normally pick up. There is a teal and purple cover with “planet” in the title and a very doe-eyed heroine on the front. Nevertheless, somehow it appeared in my shopping bag. Perhaps it was the tarot card reference on the back.

I was turned off from page one because of the poor printing quality. I suppose this art technique was used to outline a dream sequence, thankfully the art production was better once the character woke up.

Kaguya is a school girl who is kidnapped on the same evening her father is arrested for money laundering. Instead of just taking the girl, this kidnapper removes her entire room from the house. She finds herself in her room, but in some strange land with an android. The doll man filters water by sucking it in and then kissing the girl to give her a drink. Although this is a cool concept, it wasn’t enough to save the book for me.

There are a large amount of mangas that start with a dream sequence that makes the reader unsure of what is going on. Normally that is okay because it’s like a clue that you will slowly find out about later. In this instance, the book is full of these dream sequences and by the end of the book I still did not understand what was going on. It definitely did not make me want to find out what confusion would await me in the following volumes.

One cool aspect of this manga is the extras in the back. The artist gives an awesome two page android sketch with notes.

If this sounds like a manga that would interest you, check it out at Amazon.com.