Broken Blade Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Yunosuke Yoshinaga (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 7, 2009 | Series: Broken Blade (Book 1)

Rygart Arrow is the only one in his world who lacks the inherent ability to power up quartz, the energy source that makes all of the machines run. Good thing the King and Queen of his country of Krisna happen to be old college friends! But so is Zess, the leader of the army of mechs invading Krisna. As usual, Arrow feels useless in the face of battle, until he comes across a powerful, ancient battle suit that no one else can run. His natural affinity for the suit's operating mechanism may just turn Arrow into the most important player of all.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: CMX (July 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401218822
• ISBN-13: 978-1401218829
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.5 x 7.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,201,519 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Front Mission in desert, June 2, 2010

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Heartbreak 01 (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Broken Blade Vol. 1 (Paperback)

In this world where no fossil fuel can be found, people are born with a power to control 'quarts' crystals at will and they use it to create all sorts of things and make their life easier. AND YOU CAN'T. Our protagonist Rygart Arrow won a cosmic lottery and born as one in million who does not have this ability. People call him an 'unsourcer' and life is rather hard for him. Thanks to his father who refused to give up on him, he spent a short period of his life in a foreign military academy where he befriended future king and queen of his country and younger brother of a neighboring nation. Few years after, Rygart - a humble farmer now - has to face a new reality which turn one friend on the others.

I picked up this series by pure chance and got caught completely off-guard. There are no beam-span or full-plated plot armor, and people are killed left and right. There is no real glory in here - this war itself is an unjust conflict - and this is a grim tale of survival. I particularly liked how this manga tries to show that soldiers are humans too - but yet murderers in the end. It's not always serious though - even in dire time, we see comedy and a slice of life in them. Its story is quite engaging and has great mecha action. These quarts 'golems' do not have boosters so they have to actually walk and combats get quite physical. Military action and weapon tactics are of utmost importance in the battlefield here.

The reason that I'm not giving complete 5 star is because of translation issues. First of all, there are some inaccuracies - objects and people from Break Blade/Broken Blade tends to have names from mythology. Krishna kingdom takes names from Nordic myth while Athens have Greek (mythological) names. For example, Athenian mecha in vol 1~3 should be called 'Artemis' since the literal translation 'Ertemis' being its archaic spelling, not 'Eltmus'. Also, General 'True' should (probably) be written as 'Thor' rather.

Also, some glossary pages (JP version inner cover pages and cover folds, specifically) are missing entirely. Was this done to cut down the translation time? This utter disregard for detail is making us lose precious background information about this world, making it harder to understand.

Lastly, they are replacing expletives with a word 'd*ng'... WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS? This series is considered somewhat mature series, not to mention the protagonist and people around him are aged around 25, IN A WAR. If someone swears, write down the swear words. Didn't we have same problem when ABC aired Saving Private Ryan censored?

Regardless of some flaws, if you are a mecha fan I highly recommend it. Especially you are a real-type.