It's like Naruto, but worse.
...I'm
not really sure I need to write any more than that for most of you, but for the
benefit of those who would like to know 'why' (or for those of you who don't
know what Naruto is) I suppose I'm
going to have to.
Stone Monkey is an action-adventure
saga drawn, written published by Jim Round. It takes heavy influence from
japanese media and chinese folklore, not just from a story perspective but
also in the way that the pages are structured and the characters express
themselves. The problem is that it borrows too heavily from some aspects at the
cost of the things an action-adventure story requires, and the overall quality
of how the plot and character interactions are laid out is uncreative and
painfully wooden.
The
latter quality is most apparent in the writing. The job of a first volume is to
start the hero off on his journey, set
up his initial challenges, introduce his companions, all of that stuff. It manages
to do these things by using the narrative equivalent of shoving him out of the
front door. He does something mysteriously powerful which makes mysterious
people nod their heads and decide his actions for him, which he's upset about
for a half-second before being given a carrot and sent on his adventuring way.
He's not so much a protagonist as a plot mechanic. The world-building such as
it is suffers from a very rookie story-telling problem, a good example of which
would be where the main character tries to tap into his inner skill and
unleashes his mysterious power, prompting his cousin to remark on how powerful
his 'Dantian wave' is, a phrase asterisked with the following remark:
'Dantian
wave: A wave of energy created from the dantian cinibar field.'
Oh! I see now! The Dantian Cinibar field! How
foolish of me not to realize!
More seriously, the problem here is fourfold: Those who know what
dantian are don't need this comment as they can guess the meaning from the
context. For those who don't know what dantian are, this little comment does
nothing to actually explain what just happened (Dantian are Chi focus points,
if you're wondering). Thirdly, he was already talking about 'inner skill', so a
fancier name for it at that point was entirely unnecessary...and along the same
lines, the explanation itself was
entirely unnecessary, other than to show off the author's knowledge of chinese spiritual
philosophies.
It's
not the only point where he does this either, with most attacks having multiple
translations of the name in Mandarin, then phonetic mandarin, then
english...and then others just happening without any fanfare at all. I feel as
if I can see Jim Round now, rifling through his chinese-english dictionary,
piecing together clever names for his attacks and giving up on the rest. It's
not clever. It's obfuscating, pointless (Saying 'Kaimen' instead of 'Open') and
feels entirely artificial in the way it's presented; a badly translated
love-letter to the eastern media it's taken from. Particularly as the main
character is called 'Buster', of all things!
Other manga actually bother to explain how these inner-energies and abilities
relate to the rules of the world, building up a background for us to understand
how it works and why certain things matter in relation to it. As it stands, the
world and the plot of Stone
Monkey seems woefully incomplete due to an over-reliance on
foreshadowing without establishing why we should care about the events that are
happening.
And
it keeps happening. Very early on
when the main character is talking with his friend about the politics of their
realm in regards to him, this gets said:
Buster: But
my uncle said your grandpa is on his side. What does that mean anyway?
Juno:
Nevermind, look! We've arrived!
Or this gem, from one mysterious character to
another after something valuable gets stolen:
Sage: Sorry, Ryo.
I couldn't help you this time...You know what this means though...good luck...
The only reason it holds together at all is due to
a story info-dump in the first couple of pages...which has that most hated of
narrative devices in it: a prophecy. So we pretty much know how all this is
going to end anyway. Great.
It's
not just the plot that suffers from this paucity of innovation, the characters
do too. Horribly so. Typically in a comic, if the plot is slow moving (like Gunnerkrigg
Court for example) it's made up for by you caring about the characters and
enjoying how they bounce off one another, their compelling dialogue and the
interesting little touches of world-building that leak into such conversations.
Stone Monkey doesn't have any of this.
Buster, the main character, is a bad ninja who wants to get good, but that's
absolutely all he is. Completely. That's all he's ever enthusiastic about...and
as for a reason why? I couldn't tell you as he's too busy being an idiot, not
knowing what to do in any situation and being easily placated just through the
chance to get stronger. There's nothing likable or charming about him, which is
a bit of a problem when this is the main character you're supposed to be
rooting for.
True,
it's a well-worn character building device to make an eager youngster willing
to take on the world, but it'd be nice if he had a decent motivation for
it...and maybe he does, but then that falls back onto the same problem as with
the plot, namely that 'mystery' (which doesn't even exist thanks to that
prophecy) is used as a draw in lieu of actual motivation. If they aren't
two-dimensional like Buster, then they're just mysterious, like his Uncle. His friend
Juno at least is neither, but then he's not really anything else; he's just 'Buster's
skilled friend'. It's ticking the boxes alright, but only about half of them.
There's nothing to root for and no-one appealing to attach to.
At
this point I'd love to be able to salvage Stone
Monkey by praising its art and its structure. I do actually like the
Superflat style that Round uses in Stone
Monkey, and it's all technically proficient...but on closer
inspection it has glaring issues. The clothing is all traditional Japanese and Chinese
garb, which wouldn't normally be a bad thing, but turns out to be a demerit when a story requires strong visual themes
like this one does, marring truly expressive character visuals and making some people
look very similar at first glance.
More
shocking is the loose, wasteful panelling Round employs in an attempt to
generate some kind of atmosphere. I've talked a bit in previous reviews about
how good use of wordless panels can help the flow of the story and this is an
example where it hurts it. There's no appreciable context, emotion or reason
for them, and some of the other panels are similarly wasted, feeling like
either the dialogue for them is missing, or that the dialogue used in a
previous panel would be better used for
the current one. Some pages are entirely unnecessary, or could be cut
down to two panels of action rather than seven. A good editor would have helped
out Stone Monkey a lot in this
department, but I suppose that's the safety-net you go without when making
Indie comics and self-publishing.
 |
| I needed that tak tak tak as much as I needed that squint. |
Worst of all is how derivative this work is,
of Naruto in particular. The same
art-style, the same 'secret strength' main character also hated by the village,
the same use of inner energies (chakra this time), the same group of two boy
ninjas and one girl at the end, the existence of different ninja villages in
general, the same kind of building designs, the same use of scrolls...and yet Stone Monkey manages to do worse with
the same ideas. In the same span of pages in Naruto, you know the titular
character's main goal in life, why he acts like he does (being a prankster as
well as an energetic idiot), get a glimpse at all the other relevant protagonist
characters in the story and some of their motivations, start to see some
development and an explanation of how some of the world works, and had him off
on a very clearly defined mission, reasons and all, whilst still managing to generate an appreciable amount of mystery to be
revealed later. Plus- no prophecy.
It's
an introductory arc much more accomplished in every aspect than you'll find
here in Stone Monkey, which feels
like it expects you to have read Naruto
and other eastern things first already in order to enjoy it. A false expectation; as I have, and it doesn't
make this any better. Originality, character and an editor would've though, and
I sincerely hope Jim Round has found these before he rolls out Volume
2.
Summary: It's like Naruto, but worse.
