Aliens Area

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Aliens Area comes across as a rehash of the popular battle shounen trend: teenage boy goes through a traumatic event and ends up joing the special organization dedicated to fighting [insert supernatural entity]. The special flavor of this manga is the use of the buddy-cop genre and dealing with aliens. For the first six or so chapters, the story basically moves along as one would expect... cool gadget abilities, new teammates, first mission, mentor flexes their high level power, etc.

And then the plot changes for the better! We enter an episodic format where we gradually learn more about the world this series takes place in. ... One day they're dealing with an alien who is a petty thief and on another day they have to confront one illegally parking a spaceship. It's not all human vs alien fighting in this manga; the daily life of alien law enforcement is on full display. The mangaka has a fun time making these encounters both goofy and endearing.

While Tatsunami has a pretty simplistic goal in protecting his siblings, we slowly uncover more of his personality through these slice of life interactions with the side cast. The mission-by-mission story brings a sense of nostalgia I feel is lacking in the current generation of battle shounen. Instead of rushing through the plot at breakneck speed, we take in this world full of extra terrestrial visitors at a gradual pace and experience it alongside Tatsunami. The casually episodic and day-to-day life aspect of Aliens Area is something I welcome with open arms. This pacing feels like a breath of fresh air in an era of shounen where plot development is demanded every chapter.

When it comes to the art, the mangaka is inconsistent. This is unfortunate, because their rough and sketchy style looks great in most chapters. Other times it just looks sloppy. The same can be said for the paneling too. Battle sequences flow really well but there are other non-action scenes where the transition from point A to point B isn't as clear as it should be. As for character designs, most of them are pretty decent, with the more generic ones having a unique flair to them thanks to the artsyle. I mostly enjoy the designs of the different aliens, but my favorite design is the one for Sharaku. His hair, his scar, his trenchcoat, his cane; the way he is drawn just requires your attention whenever he appears in a panel.

Overall I would have given this manga a 5/10, but because of the laid-back pacing I find myself enjoying the simple advancements of the story, so I'm bumping it up to a 6/10. I recommend it specifically because of how the author takes their time with allowing the series to grow naturally.

Aliens Area likens itself to a Men in Black inspired alien detective story, with the superpowered twist of the protagonist having alien abilities. On paper this manga seemed like a wonderful addition to Weekly Shonen Jump, with its unique art style and memorable first few chapters, but in reality it squandered ample opportunity to build its world and explore its themes at a slower pace.

There isn't much to say about the manga as a whole, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. What Aliens Area does well is both fun and interesting, but it often feels inorganic and rushed. I truly think with some attention ... to detail, and more time to flesh out what it was trying to show, this would've been a pretty fun read with plenty of science fiction to make any nerd happy. It just couldn't strike a great balance between detective noir and alien fighting secret agents. The power system never feels properly explained, but seemed like an interesting take on one, albeit riddled with atypical Shonen troupes.

I would recommend this if you're a fan of sci-fi and shorter reads, as this clocks in at 21 chapters, as it was at least an interesting idea with great illustrations.

Aliens Area falls into 'that' category of Shonen series... Where initial idea shows potential, but it falls apart when developed.
Which kind of reflects with the fact it got axed. Even the whole setup showed influence of other series, so despite having fresh spark on the paper, in reality it seemed like we haven't seen anything new. It's a mixture of good elements from other mangas, but with a slight lack of enthusiasm behind it. Or rather, it was difficult to get attached to characters, plot or "world building" (power system, mechanics, etc.) from a get-go.

Plot on its own is dabbling on borderline of ... those detective noir novels (of course, painted by Shonen tropes) and sadly it never kicked off in that direction. For this kind of themes, story is heavily driven by characters, who came out slightly flat and emotionless (aside our mc, who had initially had it plenty of, but it got lost along the way). Heck, most important factor for enjoyment of such stories is villain... but at the end,one can only feel disappointment over who villain is or represents. To be fair, author hadn't had much space to develop more than this, given that this manga is only 20 chapters long.

On the other hand, art elevated the quality of this manga and, with some editorial aid in terms of writing, author could make something more impactful in future.

It's short manga. It's ok for an rainy afternoon read, to kill some time. But there are better picks for that elsewhere.