Manga & Anime Comics

May 21, 2010Angela Eastman

Saturn Apartments is the newest release under VIZ Media's SigIKKI manga imprint. The science fiction manga by Hisae Iwaoka is rated 'T' for Teens. Saturn Apartments will be relased May 25, 2010. The first 8 chapters are available for free on VIZ Media's SigIKKI website.

Sometime in the future, humans have evacuated the Earth and declared the planet a nature sanctuary. they now live in a ring-like structure that surrounds the Earth, which is controlled by a rigid class system. Young Mitsu has recently graduated from school, and is following in his father's footsteps by becoming a window washer, an important but lowly job. as Mitsu comes to terms with his father's death and whether it was accident or suicide, he gets a new view of the apartments and the home humans left behind.

A look at Humanity Through Saturn Apartments

The apartments were meant to be the new home for humans, but every person is left feeling uncomfortable by it. The lower classes become sick from a lack of natural light. they are trapped, as one story shows a man who forgoes grad school after being told he will never get a job in the middle levels because of his place of birth.

Even the upper classes feel as though they are trapped in a cage. an old man wants to make his apartment look like the ocean for his whale, the last in a failed breeding attempt. A scientist is frustrated by his inability to make a machine that is greater than man.

As every good sci-fi story does, Saturn Apartments takes a good look at people and the human condition. The stories in this manga display the frustration humans feel when they believe their actions are pointless - why go to school if you can't move forward, why invent if nothing you make will be great? It makes the manga reader wonder why these humans bother existing. But then they are able to see true light, or gaze at the Earth's surface, and remember why it's worth it.

Art of Hisae Iwaoka's Manga

Iwaoka gives her manga's characters a childlike charm, with people made up of irregular circles and soft curves. This adds to the manga's easy-going, if melancholy, feel. But despite the simple-looking characters, the backgrounds of Saturn Apartments are busy and full of detail. Cramped cities show the ever presence of people trying so hard to live.

Surreal awe is shared with screen tones and and shading when Mitsu uses film to make a man's apartment look like the bottom of the ocean. The inescapable beauty of the untouchable Earth is felt with Iwaoka's richly detailed, sweeping continents, and readers understand why the people of Saturn Apartments never truly tried to leave it behind.

Homesickness Felt in Saturn Apartments

Though Saturn Apartments is a relaxing read, the manga gives people an ache with each story told. It's the ache created by the memory of a place (childhood home, a school, a dear friend's house) that you loved with all your heart but to which you can never return. But for the people of Saturn Apartments the place they're homesick for is always in sight, just out of reach, so they can never forget it for a second.

Mitsu understands this in the first chapter, as he continues to struggle with whether his dad meant to die or live. Either way, he can no longer hate Aki for it. Mitsu has seen the Earth, their home, the same way his father did - he felt the same pull, and now knows the burning, uncomfortable desire to return there.

Saturn Apartments is a bittersweet manga. Readers have experienced the stuck-in-place struggles and will relate to the manga's characters. Enough humor is interjected to keep the manga from being totally serious, but it remains a touching a meaningful story without getting too heavy. Saturn Apartments gets a 5/5.

• ISBN: 978-1-4215-3364-3
• Release Date: May 25, 2010
• MSRP $12.99 USA / $16.99 CAN

Saturn Apartments by Hisae Iwaoka - Manga Review

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