re:mote voices

Title: Deus Vitae [Volume 1 and 2]

Author: Takuya Fujima

Publisher: Tokyo Pop

Deus Vitae is the story of a predominantly post-human race of androids. Stemming from the creation of a super computer, imbued with all human knowledge and the first android Leave, which was created in reaction to the sudden attempt by mankind to wipe the computer out. Ironically, of course, the androids won the struggle, and Leave created 4 “mothers” to create a race of Selenoids to populate the world.

This is the background detail which barely comes through in the course of the first book, and doesn’t entirely gel with the prologue provided for some reason at the end of book 1. The action of book 1 sees the attack by Ash, a member of the revolutionary organisation Re-O against the local Selenoid director. As far as the Selenoid’s are concerned Re-O are an inferior/slave brand of android, but upon capturing Ash, it seems that he might actually be human, along with many of the Re-O members. Which freaks the Selenoids out some, given that they thought that the human race had been entirely wiped out. Over the course of the first book Ash forms a bond with Lemui, a Selenoid who seems to think Ash might be her brother, or something. Fighting against this regions “mother”, Ash breaks free, ending the first book. Leading to the second, where the pair join up with a branch of the Re-O as they go head to head with the mother’s army.

The influx of manga into the UK has only really stepped up a degree in the last few years, so that there are many more titles to chose from than in the past. As a medium, the Japanese form of comics has a certain appeal, and have definitely found a few titles worth reading. But trying to decide where else to go with it isn’t always easy. So with Deus Vitae the initial appeal comes from the art, which is quite strong, perhaps with more of a western orientation or at least heavier style than much of the manga material. These kind of books tend to come in 200 page volumes, which are pretty quick reads, given that the narrative style is entirely different. Which is how I end up with two volumes, and read them in no time at all.

With the artwork, the book is also rated as for over sixteen, which led to the classic error of assuming that meant that the book was a more mature read. Having flicked through the books I had noted the nudity mixed in with the cybernetic themes. Which in itself doesn’t particularly bother me, however on reading Deus Vitae one is struck by the frequency with which the android characters are large breasted women with a tendency to lose their clothes. Quite why the a race of machine based forms feel the need to maintain humanoid form after wiping out the human race is something which isn’t explained, and to be honest there is actually no attempt made to explain. Instead Deus Vitae is a plot light action sequence ostensibly about the struggle between man and machine, and more realistically about two armies fighting with swords (even if they are at times electronic swords...).

In the same way as with films or novels, there is an issue of translation, one which is perhaps more relevant in manga. Given the fact that the translated words have to fit into a certain amount of space so as to not obliterate all the nipples, um, I mean art. So it is perhaps difficult to say who is to blame for the narrative in this adaptation of Deus Vitae – is it true to the source material, or has it been dumbed down for a western audience? I don’t know, but I do know that the dialogue in this is awful and there is very little that could be said to appeal to a mature audience between these pages. The cultural differences no doubt factor in with narrative structure, the sudden jumps and shifts in apparent logic are something I’ve come across in other manga – but at least in FLCL or Remote, when something didn’t entirely make sense, the overall piece was at least worth sticking with.

So, Deus Vitae as I said comes with an advisory age rating of sixteen, which in retrospect seems to be the exact age it is aimed at. Robot chicks with big tits – woot!