MANGA REVIEW | "Tesla Note" - Volume One
Nikola Tesla was a man beyond his time. Many of his inventions were the envy of Thomas Edison, to the point where the two found themselves in heated competition. But where many of Edison’s inventions are still in use today, some of Tesla’s are still considered too complicated to initiate today. Worse, some were dangerous enough to bend the fabric of time & space. In Tesla Note, a group of agents attempts to keep those dangerous ones in check, albeit with two of their top members wise-cracking it all the way through.
Our main heroes of Tesla Note are high schooler Botan Negoro and Agent Kuruma, who start things off on a shaky note. Kuruma can’t understand why someone so young is tasked to retrieve something as dangerous as the Tesla Fragments. But it’s on Botan’s first mission where Kuruma sees the potential in the young girl. However, it doesn’t help when Botan constantly rubs her potential in his face, especially with one of the smuggest faces you’ll ever come across in manga.
The danger these Tesla Fragments holds is showcased in the damage that it causes. Trains, cars, and other vehicles are mangled to bits, with the people inside melted along the walls. But as there are always people craving chaos, a committee known as “Little House” attempts to steal these fragments for their own personal gains. And if they get a hand on the one known as the Tesla Note, well, let’s just say it could be Game Over for Planet Earth!
There’s a solid storytelling beat that runs through Tesla Note, thanks in part to the dual writing skills of Masafumi NIshisa and Tadayoshi Kubo. The two of them are able to bring a great comedic vibe to Botan and Kuruma’s chemistry, while at the same time showcase the seriousness of the mission. But the manga is at its strongest when Kouta Sannomiya’s illustration skills are at work.
Right at the get-go, the fight scene between Botan and the mystery assailants is filled with amazing detail and style. How kicks and punches are connected here are drawn in ways that make it look like a choreographic scene rotoscoped. At its most gruesome, the art can be disturbing, as evident by the melting bodies onboard the crashed vehicles. Yet nothing will make you snicker more than Botan’s meme-like smile, which somehow looks like something straight out of Cyanide & Happiness!
Within the fights and faces of Tesla Note is the heart of the story, as Botan and Kuruma race against time to find a fragment. It leads towards a boy and his widowed father, whose bad ways are due to the racism these two face often in their country. Botan connects with the boy, as both had lost a mother in mysterious ways. Thankfully, the sadder elements don’t hold back from the fun and excitement that this series wants to deliver.
Volume One of Tesla Note sets itself up well, thanks to some memorable characters and beautiful action. While it can suffer from a little Rush Hour Syndrome, it nevertheless has enough of a drive to make it stand out from a few of the other spy series out there. Hopefully if it keeps its imagination flowing, Tesla Note can succeed in the authors’ mission to deliver one exciting ride throughout Botan and Kuruma’s journey. (Just don’t watch the recent anime adaptation of it. I’m sure Sannomiya’s crying somewhere after what Studio Gambit did to their baby!)
FINAL GRADE:
Promotional consideration provided by Tomo Tran of Kodansha Manga
