Not as good as the manga

As a big fan of the Junk Force manga, I was looking forward to tackling the novels. Unfortunately, the translators at Comics One either didn't know what they were doing or just flat didn't care, as they proceeded to translate the text so literally that what should have been a fun romp through post-apocalyptic Earth instead became a read so tedious I struggled to get through each chapter. It didn't help that a handful of grammatical and other typographical errors slipped through (pronoun confusion was a particular distraction), and author Hideki Kakinuma's unfortunate decision to switch narrators time and again (Liza would narrate one chapter, then Louis the next) made the novel feel even more disjointed.

If Comics One or its successor, Dr. Master, had bothered to take the time to proofread the translated text properly and give it more character and nuance, it would have been a fantastic book. After all, it has a good cast of characters, fun story ideas, detailed explanations of the era's technology and some well-drawn illustrations. If it had had the technical and creative textual polish to match, I would have rated it much higher. It's only because of the positive things I mentioned (plus admittedly being a fan of Junk Force) that I even rated it as high as I did. Mill has been reduced to a cardboard cutout in Comics One's shoddy translation; she's supposed to be shy and reserved, but she's still supposed to have far more of a personality than what we're seeing here. Liza and Wooty (and, to a lesser extent, Louis) fare only slightly better, but still lack some of the charm that was readily apparent in the manga. The novel could have done them justice in the right hands. Alas, the right hands were nowhere to be found.

I still plan to read the other two translated novels (four and five were not translated into English, sadly) in spite of this, but my expectations are considerably lower than they were. This may actually be a good thing... I don't know. In any case, it certainly makes me appreciate the manga version even more.

6/10