Space Pirate: Review + Interview
If you like Shonen, Star Wars, and, comedy then check out this
Sci-Fi, Action, Indie Manga Created by CrystalRocks. I read nearly ten chapters, so get ready to read my review with a few spoilers. Plus, the interview with the creator for a behind-the-scenes experience.
SYNOPSIS
In the distant future, Earth's destruction has led to the space colonization age. A totalitarian empire by the name of Blue Sun rules over the cosmos. While mankind exists among its alien neighbors mostly in harmony, a sub-species of humans known to the masses as space pirates has evolved. This supernatural human is feared among even the strongest of creatures. Blue Sun's number one priority? Destroy the space pirate threat at any cost so peace and order can be maintained.
This tells the story of a particular space pirate on the tail of a bounty hunter. Unknown to him, he is about to get dragged into a conflict of galactic proportions. The story begins in the skies above the planet Gar.
REVIEW
PLOT
The first chapter is paced well with the right amount of action, drama, conflict. It begins with Space Pirate 200 pursuing a bounty hunter, but he runs into a group called Blue Sun who don't care about civilian casualties to get their mission done.
Space Pirate is a fun read because it has many questions to ask, based on how the chapters are structured. Questions like, who's behind the mask, how long has he been searching for this guy, the power-ups, what's Space Pirate 200 real name, and why does it matter?
The chapters structures are not too long or too short. Each chapter focuses on a specific event in the journey, fight, or debuting of a new character that progresses the story and character motives. I give the pacing of Space Pirate a thumbs up.
CHARACTERS
The characters in Space Pirate are a mixture of some iconic pop culture personalities in Dragon Ball Z, Star Wars, and even Marvel comics.
The character designs have a lot of Star Wars resemblances. One of the bad guys looks like Darth Vader. If Link from Legend of Zelda and Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z merge together, they would resemble Space Pirate 200.
Space Pirate 200 is pretty much your typical shonen manga as the protagonist. Goofy, arrogant, but very strong. The side character is a rude, powerful, intelligent lady. The back and forth between the characters are shonen-like and what I mean by that is you can almost predict what they're going to say.
It's a formula that works and makes it easy to read and follow the character's motivation and persona.
ART
Space Pirate is hand-drawn traditionally.
The action scenes are impactful and bring the series to life along with the sound effects. The anatomy of the characters is okay. It's good in some angles but struggles to stay consistent when drawn from a different perspective.
The backgrounds aren't consistent enough, laking detail at times, for example, having too much white space in a few sequences.
Despite that, the background captures the establishing shots and creates scenery for the chapters.
CONCLUSION
If you're a fan of a shonen-comedy about space bounty hunters,
then please consider picking up a hard copy from Etsy to support the creator, or you can read the free digital version on Tapas.
Interview
1. How long have you been creating comic books? Not too long, about a year and a few months. I jumped right into it with Space Pirate I dabbled with making comics back in 2005 when I was still in high school, but I never really went far with it.
2. What inspirations did you have behind this project?
So I get asked about this a lot, but in episode 1, there's a quick blurb about how Space Pirate was originally an RPG Maker game back in 2002ish. It was around the time Tenchi Muyo started airing on Toonami and I was heavily inspired by that. Particularly by Ryoko and Kagato being superpowered characters that could spawn lightsabers out of their hands. The concept was really cool to me at the time being a fan of both Dragon Ball and Star Wars, so I took my own spin on it. I even named the main character Kagato, but changed it to Kaguyo for the manga, haha! Nowadays, my writing is inspired by Dragon Ball and Star Wars mainly.
3. What are the main themes behind this project? A lot of {themes in} Space Pirate is going to focus on real-world problems facing us as a society. The constant need to keep fascism and totalitarianism away along with the things that come with it - racism, sexism, lies told by government-run media, the ever-compounding problems of capitalism, etc. At its core, it really is a story about fighting not only the tyranny but the villains that it creates by rallying regular people to its side.
4. What do you have to say about a certain character from your series? I think I have a good amount to say about the female lead role, Chiara. She's currently my favorite character to write. A lot of my sarcasm, humor, and overall "screw this, I can't believe this is happening" attitude is reflected in her. She's an interesting character in that she's part of the empire having been born into it while also simultaneously hating it and everything it stands for. She's going to be an important character down the line for sure.
5. How do you come up with the characters in your story? That's a tough one to answer, they kind of just pop into my head I guess. I know the structure of the story already since it follows more or less the same path as it did when Space Pirate was a video game. So, I really just pop personalities into characters that fit for the scenario they're introduced in, then develop them further as they progress.
Logan the coward, Chiara the sarcastic, Kaguyo the aggressive, etc
6. How long are you planning this series to run?
As long as it takes to tell! It's going to be a few years for sure
7. Any teasers you want to give your readers? There's some good melee action in the upcoming next few episodes :)
8. Anything else you want your readers to know? If you're a regular reader and want to help support the project, consider picking up a hard copy from my Etsy shop! Everything is currently printed and bound by me and I give free shipping on bundle orders in the US. Copic markers are expensive, so any sales are a big help.
SUPPORT THE CREATOR
Read it Here: https://tapas.io/series/Space-Pirate/info
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacepiratemanga/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/manga_pirate
ABOUT ME
My name is Imani aka MaddMoniArt, I’m the creator of the psychological thriller manga Bleakville, and the founder of MaddIndies, a blog where I review and support independent webcomics. Go behind-the-scenes into the creative process of Art & Comics with me, as I draw stuff, review webcomics, interview other creators, share techniques, and try to create my own manga.
Follow me on Instagram @MaddMoniArt
Watch me on YouTube.com/maddmoniart
