Perhaps a better title would have been “Professor Snapes School for Wayward Muggles.” (FYI, before any of you Harry Potter fans out there get your hand-knitted scarves all in a bunch, I already know that Professor Snape didn’t like muggles. My wife has already pointed this out to me. I’m just trying to make point here about how much this manga reminds me of the Harry Potter series, except with mad scientists and steampunk technology. Yeesh! =^_^;;=)

Hollow Fields vol. 1 by Madeleine Rosca is an excellent OEL (original english language) manga that proves that great manga doesn’t have to come from Japan. Not only does it have a wonderfully cute, if sometimes a bit chaotic, art style, but it also does a stellar job of utilizing the various storytelling techniques that make manga the compelling format that it is. For an OEL, this is quite a feat. I’m sure there’s a few manga snobs out there who are going to quit reading this review now that they know that its not an “authentic” Japanese manga, but that’s really a shame since this series is actually very good.

As the story opens, a young girl by the name of Lucy Snow is en route to St. Galbat’s Acadamy for Young Ladies. Unsure how to get to her destination, she decides to take a shortcut through some spooky woods and promptly gets lost. She eventually stumbles onto a rundown castle and, after a near fatal welcome, she finds herself enrolled in the Hollow Fields academy. Unfortunately, enrollment at Hollow Fields carries a very steep price for any student who can’t keep up. Buried among the promises of free tuition, free lodging, and free goodies that the school provides to its young pupils are some very deadly secrets. Not only is it training ground for the children of mad scientists and evil-doers from around the world, but the penalty for failure is death.

Lucy’s adventures at Hollow Fields play out a lot like Harry Potter’s first year at Hogwarts, except with more of an emphasis on death, destruction and morbid experiments. I hate to keep comparing this manga to the HP series, but there’s just too many similarities. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The story is very, very funny and I loved many of the characters, especially the school’s villianous faculty. Thier matter-of-fact evilness is handled in such a blase way that it makes the horriblness of their lessons all the more funny.

The art for the manga is very engaging and cute. Every page is filled with detail complemented by excellent shading throughout. My only real complaint was that the layouts felt a bit cramped and chaotic at times. The artist, Madeleine Rosca, often has parts of characters spilling over from one panel to the next, which does serve to give the story a more dynamic flow. The downside of this technique is that occasionally I’d had to re-read a page because I read the panels in the wrong order =^_^;;=

Aside from a few hiccups with the art though, I throughly enjoyed volume of Hollow Fields and I’m quite eager to read the rest of the series.

Bottom Line:
Hollow Fields vol. 1 is a great first installment that overflows with great art and an engaging story. It’s well worth the admission price if your interested in something with a Harry Potter type of flavor to it.

Final Score: 4 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by: LC1
Review Format: Manga