I wrote my first impressions post on the comic Giants just yesterday, and I expected this to be a comic that took me a bit of time to get through. But I managed to sit down in the evening and get through the whole thing in its entirety, minus the more recent sequel that I am yet to read. I wrote a lot of positive things about Giants, for one the art style was really colourful and unique, with a filmic style that almost looked as if it had been pulling inspiration from things like Akira in terms of tone and design. It is definitely one of the better looking comic series that I've stumbled across in the past few months, and that side of things remained a great strength throughout it. I have to say though, I did expect the comic to be significantly longer than it was, and this is ultimately where the main fault is in things. The story gives us the perspective of two young teens that are living deep underground after a comic hit the Earth, leading to monsters and giants roaming the land above with the Earth remaining a frozen over dangerous wasteland. These two are tasked with going onto the surface and finding a rare material in order to get accepted into a more notable gang in the underground where much of the people live, and this is no ordinary task. Naturally, things go south for the two and they're separated.
One manages to find his way back to the underground and becomes a bit more battle-hardened as a result of his experiences for survival above the surface, and the other is found by a group of survivors that live on the surface, utilising the material that the giants leave behind upon death as a means of fertiliser to grow crops, which is something near impossible to do due to the state of the environment. It also serves as a fuel for heating to those underground, which is its primary use given its more explosive properties. The one that survived above the surface is taken in and shown a better way of life, while the other struggles for survival upon returning home. I liked this contrast in how the two are split up, but I did notice that this was clearly setting itself up for something that would definitely lead to some form of conflict later on. I suspected that this would take place significantly later in the story, but with the small number of just five volumes, the story quickly has the two catching back up again. Now, they're struggling to get along. Their friendship is no longer, instead they've managed to become enemies. I didn't really like this aspect of the story, it didn't really give us enough time or conflict to see the two switching against each other. We sort of just had to accept that one blamed the other for what happened in the past. The use of the monsters wasn't all that utilised in the story outside of what looked like a big metaphor for the upcoming conflict, one side good and one bad. This was evident in the way that one of which seemed to be a bit more gentle around humans, almost mirroring the personality of one of the characters.
I do wish there was more world-building, but the story was more about perseverance and growth in the hardest of times and environments. Pretty much told directly to the reader at the very end of the comic. While I haven't read the second one just yet, I suspect that a lot of this is simply to give the series more room for exploration later. Had I not known of the sequel, I don't think I'd have the same level of appreciation for the first one. Starting off incredibly strong and then sizzling out a little bit. But the real star of the comic is the art. The interiors and exteriors are incredibly well drawn, with really nice use of colour and detail. And with the action sequences the strength was definitely in the monster design mixed with creative use of perspective to project great scale and severity of encountering anything living out in the frozen wastes. It was nice to see a wide variety of these creatures that navigate the world, each with their own unique designs but definitely inspired by the world of kaiju. Exaggerated monster designs and features with more realistic, human looking anatomy made them look incredibly odd. There were these snippets of science-fiction visible, but it never felt like this would be a comic that would take place in a specific time period, and I quite liked that side of things, you never really knew when things were taking place, or when the world ended up the way it did.
I would've liked to have seen the characters face more challenges, to have had to venture out into the world which also would've given us some additional snippets into the world-building but also growth of the characters as they learn and adapt. The lack of this did make the more interesting parts of the story feel either glanced over or a bit thin. But in the few moments that the comic does really pick up, the views of this world we do see are incredible. Unique monster designs, an empty frozen-over world, and various factions that are evidently thriving while others struggle. I did expect a bit more of this when I first dived into it, I assumed it would explore a wide range of characters and locations, but the limited time it does have still manages to be interesting enough.
I'd say it's worth a quick read, it didn't take me long at all (and here I was thinking I'd be sitting down reading it for hours and it'd take me a week or so to get through). It's a very different idea and I think that alone allows it to stand out with all the other comics that have been released in recent years. The main downside really is that once you've really managed to sink your teeth into it and begin questioning where this is all heading, you realise you're already aware and things are quickly coming to an end. I'll be off to read its sequel comic 'Ghosts of Winter' which I hope does fix a few of these problems I had with this first one.