Valkyrie Profile

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Woo! Rushed! Woosh-waddaboom-ca-crash! Done!

That's the feeling I'm left with after this manga. It tries to tell a grand story, but with 12 chapters à 30 pages there's not a big lot of stuff you can do. While the story - which itnerested me becasue of its Norse Mythology setting (I'm Norwegian) -, was really good, and had everything it needed, it lacked the chapters to do so, which made it feel rushed. Lenneth's quest of finding Einherjar isn't as grandiose as it should be; only a few EInherjars are shown to us, actually.

The characters will, of course, also have limited time to be introduced and ... developed, and this was where the manga suffered the most. While they all had the potential, and you could see the small hints and nods in the direction of them being well-developed charcaters, their development seems too rushed, which leads to me not being able to connect with them the least bit., which to me is important in any series. Be it Lenneth's love story, her development of regaining her memories and awakening, it all happens too fast, adn the same can be said about the others.

The artwork however, stands very much out. There's a lot of attention paid to detail and quality, and the style fits perfectly with the manga's Norse setting. Charcater desings are realyl good (though their heads seemed a little... long at times. Backgrouidn details and general page layout is pretty decent too, kudos to that!

All in all, Valkyrie Profile is a good manga, but its low amount of chapters make it feel too compressed and rushed; it tells too much in too little time.

Valkyrie Profile originated as a video game for Playstation. Its recently spawned a sequel and has garnered attention from numerous doujinshi artists. This, however, is the official manga adaption released by GanGan Comics, approved by Enix.

[STORY] Due to the immensity of the game's storyline, the plot had to be heavily cut and condensed for a two volume manga. Because of this, the quality of the storytelling suffers. It is suggested for the reader to have played the game to understand the manga and fill in the unexplained for themselves, but it is not necessary.
Because the reader is assumed to be familiar with the plot points ... of the game, the manga is able to explore characters and events it otherwise glossed. For example, we learn a lot more about Loki that will enhance our understanding and enjoyment when playing Valkyrie Profile.

[ART] The art is beautiful, fitting the style and mood of the game and the norse mythology is represents. The pages are simple and clean, but the characters are accurately detailed.

[CHARACTER] Many characters suffer stunted explanation and development because of the length restraint on the manga. Numerous ones have been cut out entirely. But for those that remain we are able to enjoy the subtle details and clues left for us to find.

[OVERALL] This is an impressive adaption for a game that is rather intimidating in scale of story and characters. The manga does an excellent job with Lenneth and adds a new dimension to the story for us to enjoy. I for one, after reading the manga, was compelled to play the game all over again.