Nextworld Vol 1 / Osamu Tezuka : 3 of 5

Since I finished the Astro Boy series, I wanted to start reading Black Jack to take on more Tezuka, but the first volume was unavailable on Amazon for some reason (it's back now), so I ordered Nextworld instead. The story starts out right away with Mustachio and Kenichi from the Astro stories - it's fun to see familiar characters in a new setting. I have to say that I had trouble getting into the book - the plot involves lots of characters and moves really fast, so things aren't clean-cut like an Astro story. The artwork is also pretty rushed - no detailed cities or anything (though there are some awesome crowd scenes with a million things going on!). Still I had a good time reading it, and I'm going to have to buy the next volume since the story isn't finished here! The story involves atomic testing that has created a new species called Fumoon that are superior to humans (though only a few inches tall), set against the backdrop of several counties (one is the Uran Federation, which sounds funny to Astro fans!) who go to war over whether nuclear weapons should be regulated or not. I guess my main disappointment is that the story moves so quickly that you never get to know the characters (at least not yet). The Phoenix series is much better at that, but maybe Nextworld Vol 2 will be better.