Noblesse

Title: Noblesse
Year of Release: 2007
Status: Ongoing
Story: Son Jae-Ho
Artwork: Lee Gwang-Su

Initially, I wanted to hold off on doing this one until I had a few more reviews available, but I seriously cannot wait to review this, so it's happening earlier than anticipated.

Noblesse was launched in the last few days of 2007 (December 30th, to be exact), and is published on a weekly basis hosted online by Naver (note: link is translated through Google from Korean to English), Korea's leading search engine and portal site, among other notable accomplishments. One important fact to acknowledge, however, is that this is not a manga, but a manhwa. For those of you unfamiliar with the term - manga is typically attributed to Japanese-style comics, whereas manhwa are Korean-style. Major difference, mostly recognizable by artwork and the cultural values represented within the stories themselves. I mean, even if you aren't familiar with manhwa, you can pretty much start reading and be like, "oh, this one takes place in Korea, it must be Korean-made," instead of thinking "why are Japanese people making a comic about Korea?" It's rather obvious, to be honest.

So... Noblesse. Amazing. I can't stress that enough. So apart from the fact that it's an online release only and a manhwa, Noblesse finds a delicate balance to its artwork and story by adding another feature that I'm in love with: colour. Yes, it's a full colour webtoon, meaning each panel of each page of each chapter is coloured in full. Allow me to demonstrate.

                       Tell me that isn't awesome. I dare you.

Noblesse follows the story of Cadis Etrama Di Raizel (pictured above), called "Rai" for short, an ancient Noble-class vampire who has just awoken from a 800-and-something year cat-nap at the bottom of the ocean for reasons that aren't immediately apparent. During his slumber many things have changed (see: EVERYTHING) and it seems a little overwhelming for Rai until he stumbles across his faithful servant, Dr. Frankenstein, who has searched for him endlessly over the past 800+ years. To further keep an eye over his charge, Dr. Frankenstein enrolls Rai at a school he presides over as headmaster. But with Rai's return from the bottom of the ocean, shadows are stirring and the very threat that forced Rai into his long sleep many centuries ago may appear once more, so his existence must be well hidden...

Along the way, Rai finds himself befriended by would-be assassins, other vampire nobles, classmates, and genetically altered superbeings. Filled with quite a ridiculous amount of action and well placed comedic relief, this series is definitely one of my top 5 recommended reads for those out there who were unaware of it's existence, and who always wanted to see the same school get repeatedly destroyed.

One of the most interesting spins I've come to appreciate in the series is that Dr. Frankenstein isn't your typical Mary Shelley Frankenstein monster, all zombie-like and stitched together and shit, but a real person who is alive and has feelings. He is known as Frankenstein primarily because he is a mad scientist, but it is revealed as the story goes on that he only experiments on himself, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde style, although it's referenced that he may have used unsuspecting persons for his earlier experiments. This ties directly into the story for the main antagonists, a group of scientists known as "The Union" (or "The Syndicate," depending on who translated it), who managed to find Dr. Frankenstein's experimental journal about 100 years prior and began making the previously mentioned genetically altered beings based on his recorded research.

Without ruining the story, I have to say it started out a little slow the first couple chapters, and it took me a few chapters to get into the whole coloured comic aspect, but I'm now dearly in love with it, and I often find myself at the end of each chapter holding my breath and waiting for the next release. I also find myself extremely disappointed on weeks that they don't release a new chapter. The title is based off the French expression "noblesse oblige," which is the idea that a noble must act accordingly to his or her status in society and use his or her power in a way that benefits their subjects best.

           This is how Frankenstein makes his dinner each night.

One more quick word: The creators of Noblesse have another series that's ongoing on Naver called Ability that I will be reviewing in the next couple weeks.

You can learn more about Noblesse here, or you can begin reading an English-translated version free online here.