From Far Away

From Far Away (1/14)
Hikawa Kyouko
Viz Media

Kanata Kara or From Far Away as it is known in the English version is yet another series where the main protagonist get whisked away to a different world.

One day Noriko, a high school girl is supposed to be a victim of a terrorist bombing but instead she transported into a mysterious and dangerous world. Upon Noriko’s existance in this world, a prophecy has began to unfold, that she is the “Awakening”. Now every kingdom is desperately seeking for the “awakening” as it is forseen that this being has the power to awaken the Sky Demon. Noriko meets Izark a sort of a warrior; he’s agile, brave, good at swordmanship and handsome to boot. Noriko doesn’t have any option but to trust and depend on Izark for her to survive in this chaotic and deadly place.

Well the first volume of From Far Away is underwhelming. I was expecting a kind of caliber to Basara or Please Save My Earth’s first volume. Although I like that this new world has its different fauna and flora, though creepish. Its interesting that the main characters has language barrier, its quite fun to see that Noriko tries to understand the language of Izark. I also like the twist of the series to the “girl in a different time”. Whereas in most series this being plays a part that is for the goodness sake of the humanity but in From Far Away Noriko is deemed to cause turmoil to its land.

I find this first volume somewhat lukewarm. The character interactions for the most part, especially in the beginning felt amateurish. Something is off with the the characters way of dialog maybe its just me but its bleh bland.. Its quite annoying that the characters, especially Noriko would tell (subconscioulsy) whats happening around her its like she’s guiding the reader to whats happening around her. I felt that I was treated like a kid but then again maybe its because of the “language barrier” but it isn’t that, sometimes she would even say the obvious occurences.

I won’t dismiss this series yet. There is plenty of things thats going for it. I like Izark and his role in this. Noriko is a bit the “damsel in distress” in this first volume but she is determine and shows a bit of strong will and courage..

From Far Away is an old school shojo fantasy/adventure. The first volume leaves much to be desired but then again its only the beginning. I’m not giving up yet, after all there should be a definite reason that From Far Away won the Seiun Award. I’m looking forward for this to get better.

On a different note though, I prefer its original Japanese title “Kanata Kara” than the English “From Far Away”. The original sounds epic and exciting. From Far Away is so shojo-ish title that when you base your first impression by that title its some sort of melodrama love story. Well thats how I perceived it anyway..