You may recall the 2015 young adult Journey to the Force Awakens novel Lost Stars by Claudia Grey. You may recall Nanci recommending that you pick it up in her review of that novel. Well, guess what: it’s now a manga.
More specifically, it’s been adapted into a webcomic, published by LINE, by manga creator Yusaku Komiyama, and the world outside of Japan has finally gotten a taste of this adaptation in standard-manga-sized volume 1, published by Yen Press, and it’s…okay.
THE STORY
This is not a straight adaptation (for which I am very grateful. I strongly believe that material should be adjusted to fit the adaptation format. Would you like to see my hour-long powerpoint presentation on the Slayers NEXT anime versus the novels?). It does stick to the story but volume 1, at least, is presented as a framed story, with Thane recounting the past to his friend and snowspeeder gunner, Yendor (who I love in this). As such, it heavily focuses on Thane’s perspective of the story rather than splitting evenly between Thane and Ciena. You do occasionally get other points of view, but Thane’s thoughts are the only ones laid out explicitly on the page.
Other than the first chapter, in which Thane is already a Rebel and Ciena is a bridge officer on the Devastator, this volume covers their childhoods, teen years, and the beginnings of their careers as Imperial officers, ending with the destruction of Alderaan. Some things from the novel are cut out or truncated, mostly to the benefit of the pacing, but Ciena’s whole reason for staying so devoted to the Empire and refusal to question it is left out, making her seem naive and her reactions seem overblown. If some other reason was given for her loyalty, this wouldn’t be an issue but that is not the case, at least not in this volume.
If you read Nanci’s review of the original novel, you’ll see that, towards the end of the novel, there’s a questionable aspect in the treatment of character agency. Despite being nowhere near the end of this story, the manga adaptation is showing some issues with agency as well, though more in Thane’s attitude towards Ciena in the first chapter. It isn’t anything more extreme than the macho attitude you’d see in any of countless volumes of shounen manga, but it stood out nonetheless and if you aren’t a regular manga reader, I can only imagine it would stand out even more.
THE ARTWORK
Komiyama does a great job of communicating emotions through facial expressions, which is especially good since it can give you a glimpse into the non-Thane character’s minds. Action is also cleanly expressed, making the few battle scenes of this volume easy to follow. And while the character’s faces aren’t always the most distinct and Ciena’s can be occasionally inconsistent, I had no trouble telling which character was which at any given time. I would not, however, look here for close likenesses of film characters. Their manga counterparts can be a little hit-or-miss on the resemblance scale. There is an absolutely fantastic panel depicting Darth Vader’s boarding of the Tantive IV, though, and the drawings of the Star Wars tech that we all hold so near to our hearts is spot on. There’s also gives a nice little one-frame nod to Rogue One.
THE TRANSLATION
Other than the occasional minor typo, the wording is noticeably awkward at times and the translation is occasionally inconsistent (using the word “factions” to describe the different groups of settlers on Jelucan in one chapter and “classes” in another). There’s a couple points where it’s unclear whether there was an error in the translation or in the text. These don’t make it unreadable by any means, but it is a little distracting and Yen Press is an experienced manga publisher that absolutely can do better.
THE VERDICT
Like I said at the beginning, I found this adaptation okay. I found it to have a different sort of intensity than the novel and to be rather melodramatic, especially in a scene added at the end which I found rather…much. This is not inherently bad, but will certainly put some people off. If you loved the book and want to see a different version and don’t mind it being a bit more melodramatic, you should check this out. If the thought of an OT-set Star Wars manga story not focusing on film characters excites you, you should check this out. If the story sounds interesting to you and you have an easier time reading comics than prose, you should check this out.
Lost Stars volume 1 is currently available from physical and online retailers across the United States and Canada. The webcomic is still ongoing and is unavailable to read outside of Japan, but if you are in Japan, you can read it here. If you want to check it out but haven’t read much manga before, this manga is unflipped and the pages, panels, and word bubbles are read from right-to-left rather than left-to-right.
