Astral Project Volume 2 Review

Manga: Astral Project
Mangaka: marginal(Story) & Syuji Takeya(Art)
Publisher: Carlsen Manga(Germany)
Original Publisher: Enterbrain
Published in: Comic Beam
Price: 7,50€
Released so far: Volume 1
Release Schedule: Volume 3: January 2008
Additional Information: Comes with a lacquer cover and ~230 pages.

Today I’m finally able to present you the second volume of the latest work by marginal aka Garon Tsuchiya. It already hit the stores a few weeks ago, but as university started again for me, I had different things to attend to. For those who like seinen manga, but haven’t decided to pick it up, I strongly recommend you do so. Feel free to check out my review of volume 1 here. The people who haven’t read volume 1 yet, be aware that this review might contain spoilerish elements, so refrain from reading if you don’t want any of that.

Once again, Norito Inoue supplied the beautiful cover design; sorry for not mentioning him before. I wasn’t able to find out anything except for what seems to be his website. This volume comes with a nice lacquer cover like before and about 220 pages of actual content. As usual, click on “Read More” for the review.

Astral Project Volume 1 Review

Manga: Astral Project
Mangaka: marginal(Story), Syuji Takeya(Art)
Publisher: Carlsen Manga(Germany)
Original Publisher: Enterbrain
Published in: Comic Beam
Price: 7,50€
Released so far: Volume 1
Release Schedule: Volume 2: October, Volume 3: January
Additional Information: marginal is the pen name for Garon Tsuchiya, the creator of Old Boy. On Carlsen’s homepage they say that volume 4 will possibly conclude this series.

Whoever has read Old Boy knows what Garon Tsuchiya is capable of, so after I found out that he’s the brain behind Astral Project I immediately bought the volume. It was one euro more than your regular manga as it came with a really nice looking lacquer cover and had around forty pages more than usual as well.

The manga starts off in a modern day disco with the main protagonist, a young, attractive chap named Masahiko, getting a phone call telling him that his sister died. However the real story doesn’t start until he listens to a CD he finds in his sister’s room. To his surprise the music on the CD causes his spirit or astral form to separate from his body and he starts floating in the air. From that moment, he decides to find out what exactly happened to him and why and if there’s a connection between the death of his sister and his “outer bodily” experiences. A plot mixed between a detective story and paranormal happenings begins to unfold.