WaqWaq Volume 1
VIZ Media
Creator: Ryu Fujisaki
Publishing Date: August 2009
$7.99
192 pages; b&w
ISBN-10: 1-4215-2738-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-4215-2738-3
ICv2 Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars

In the far future the earth has been devastated by the war between man and machine and the black blooded remnants of humanity are forced to live in enclosed villages to survive.  Their only defense against the machines is the Guardians, humans who can fuse with the few machines that are still loyal to man.  But there is a prophecy stating one day a red blooded Kami (i.e. God) will come to save them, which comes to pass when our young hero Shio battles his first machine and finds at its heart Matsuda, a red blooded Japanese school girl from modern day earth.

WaqWaq has a solid enough premise and certainly has strong art but it doesn’t help that I’ve seen this kind of thing before.  The author appears to be more interested in all the man vs. machines battles than in developing his characters relationships; we don’t even learn Matsuda’s name until the middle of volume one. 

But most manga readers are used to the slow paced way the characters and setting are established and SF fans, especially younger ones, probably won’t mind either the familiarity (sometimes that’s half the fun of reading the genre) or all those battles.

-- Steve Bennett