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Reviewed by Dan Polley Cloning takes a front seat in Naoe Kita’s “The Empty Empire” (Kara no Teikoku). Rose, who looks like the former emperor because he’s his clone, tries to invade the Royal Palace to free his love, Ririka. Rose manages to sneak into the palace by pretending to be one of the maid staff. But just as Rose is able to track down where Ririka is being held in the palace, there are other machinations in line to find Rose and stop him from taking Ririka from the palace. Those plans are led by a few others, who led efforts to produce another clone from the former emperor, Idea. The two factions fight against each other for control of the throne and the kingdom. But when the other clone, Idem, confronts Rose, the fight seems to get out of hand. Rose is cornered on his way out of the palace. And while he took Ririka from them, they want something back from him — Idea’s inheritance, which was given to Rose. The fight concludes on the rooftop of the palace, where Rose and Idem face off against each other again. Once Idem unleashes some of his powers on Rose, he learns that even he can’t control all the fallout from his actions. After he unleashes his powers, Idem sends a warning to Ririka — to never, ever fall in love with Rose. “I’m … giving you an order — … Don’t fall in love with him. If you do … I will kill you,” Idem says. Rose and Ririka’s friend, Eiri, manages to swoop into the action and help take Rose and Ririka to safety. But before they leave, Eiri leaves Idem a piece of advice that sets up the action for later volumes. While the plot is interesting — it’s set in the future and laden with clones and more clones — it doesn’t seem to be quite filling. “The Empty Empire 4” is an appetizer, and leaves the reader wanting the main course. There are enough twists and turns to allow the reader to remain interested in the volume. The art doesn’t win the reader over, either. Although it’s sparse and character-focused, at times it can be distracting when Kita tries to push too much action or too many characters into a panel. While the series focuses on clones, it doesn’t make it too difficult to tell the clones apart. Despite that, there’s not much in this volume, “The Empty Empire 4”, to set it apart from the pack. Think you could have written a better review of The Empty Empire v4? Write us and we'll probably let you give it a shot! --EiC PC |
12 March 2010 10 March 2010
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