Manga Review: Hollow Fields

Manga: Hollow Fields - The Complete Collection

Writer: Madeleine Rosca

Artist: Madeleine Rosca

Publisher: Seven Seas

I picked this up on a whim because I wanted something to read. What really drew me to is were 2 things, one being a cool cover and two being a complete series. It had all 3 complete volumes at a price of $14.99 - what a steal.

To give you a brief intro, here is an introduction for the story from gomanga:

 "Little Lucy Snow was meant to be enjoying her first day at the nice elementary school in town; however a macabre twist of fate sees her enrolled instead at Miss Weaver's Academy for the Scientifically Gifted and Ethically Unfettered--also known as Hollow Fields. Located on the outskirts of Nullsville and run by the insidious Engineers, the grim boarding school dedicates itself to raising the next generation of mad scientists and evil geniuses! Classes include Live Taxidermy, Cross-Species Body-Part Transplantation and Killer Robot Construction, and for her own survival Lucy has to master them quickly...the student with the lowest grades at the end of each school week is sent to the old windmill for detention--and so far, no child has ever returned!" 

It seems strange to send a 9 1/2 year old girl out on her own to go to school on a island, but who am I to judge. Lucy Snow has instructions to get to a Boarding School in town, but goes off one her own after she asks directions. She ends up what she thinks is the Boarding School, but it is anything but that. She goes and enters the building with her Dino companion and thus starts the crazy journey at Hollow Fields!

Nothing is as it seems throughout the entire book. Hell, at the end of each school week, the lowest scoring student gets sent to "The Wind Mill" never to be seen again. It has an air of mystery and intrigue that has to be solved - which our Lucy Snow will tackle. The Teachers (or Engineers as they are called) are also not what they seem. They look like rag dolls that run off of steam or air. Classes are just a creepy and nutty as the rest of the school and the only "humans" seem to be the students. Who are all fighting to get the best grades. Talk about being stressed!

So far it has been a good read and I would recommend this to anyone wanting something a little different than your normal stories.

Here are some page excerpts from the book with some of the Lead Characters:

Cover

 Entrance to the School

 

um - Wrong School  Lucy!

Summer Polanski

Claude McGinty

The Engineers in the early years

The Engineers Now!

Cool Inserts