Animus Review: You’ll Want More

One of the things many adults remember doing as a kid is going to the playground. They’ve made plenty of memories there./ One thing that some kids wish is that their playgrounds were in some way magical or even cursed. Writer/illustrator Antoine Revoy took this idea and created a comic called “Animus” which has plenty to like and some not too much.

In Kyoto, Japan kids are going missing left and right. Meanwhile, two elementary school kids Sayuri and Hisao meet a mysterious masked kid named Toothless who says that the playground they are playing in is cursed. When a kid Hisao knows falls under this curse Hisao and Sayuri must break it by finding out who Toothless really is.

This may not be an original concept, but Revoy manages to spin a tale that is interesting Both children are likable and you do wish to see how they go about interacting with this playground and how they will save this kid.

The playground is the best thing about the story. Each piece of playground equipment has an extremely creative use for it. It comes off as something that a kid would come up with and will use this as a game to play with other kids.

The only major problem with the story is the ending. Not much is explained and there seems to be some story that’s left untold. There seems to be room for a sequel or even a side story explaining more of what happens but for now, all the reader can grasp is speculation as to what happened.

Of course, another interpretation is that this story is just an adult’s memories of when they were a kid and it was so emotional that it changed them forever. What happens to the playground, in the end, may also have triggered this memory and we the reader are seeing it.

While technically not manga, the comic does have that comic look to it. The way the characters are drawn, the panels and the sound effects are all manga. This is a great move by Revoy in that it’s keeping true to the setting fo the story. However, the comic reads like a western comic (it’s “flipped”) and while the characters have the small mouths associated with manga, the eyes are drawn in the typical western fashion of what East Asians’ eyes look like. Revoy also draws an amazing cat.

“Animus” has an interesting story and nice art but the ending leaves the reader wanting more. Not the greatest comic or even the worst, Revoy still weaves a story that is worth reading.