Bouken Elektriciteit-tou
Wandering Island

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Tsuruta Kenji’s paramount best work by far! When people say "a picture can tell 1000 words," it's art like this they’re referring to, and as dramatic as that sounds, I don’t think another manga has ever managed to expound so much rich characterization and intrigue over the course of just four chapters, which comprise the first of, unfortunately, only two volumes.

Tsuruta’s highly artful approach to storytelling is realized to an uncompromised extent throughout the pages of this masterpiece. It’s clear to see the deliberation, thought, research and meticulous attention to minutia he put into this manga to help it feel so lived-in. Similarly to Emanon, ... something about the general tonality of Tsuruta’s work evokes a very misplaced, odd feeling of nostalgia. It’s an adventure manga through and through, but an atypical one, rid of the trite that so often comes with that genre tag. Wandering Island feels incredibly subdued, and at the same time, awe-inspiring.

And there are no better words than that to describe our protagonist—well, there probably are better words, but who has time for that? Amelia sure doesn’t. She immediately leaves an impactful impression with her instantly striking character design, and despite the design in question being fairly underclothed, it never comes off like Tsuruta’s capitalizing on sex appeal—well, he is, but it's not patronizing, or pandering, or some other word starting with "p" that I can't think of. The way Amelia carries and prostrates herself is so stoic that it dispels any notion of shallowness on the part of the reader. She reminds me of a character from a Taniguchi Jiro manga in that regard.

It’s easy to make comparisons to Miyazaki's rather similar Castle in the Sky, which is comprised of a similar conceit. The key difference here is the relationship between the protagonists and the arcane legends they pursue. Whilst Sheeta and Pazu seek out and involve themselves in a grandiose quest of adventure, Amelia, in her ever-abundant curiosity, is consumed by obsession and develops a neurosis of sorts, as seeking out this elusive island comes to define itself as her life goal, which she is determined to fulfil, seeing as she's finally found something to give her life purpose. Even down to these legends I speak of, Laputa is enchanting in its own way but feels like an anticlimax somehow; it's not as mystical as I envisioned, whereas, Elektriciteit Island really feels like someplace I’ve been before in a dream. The island's architecture is so vivid, but at the same time, impossibly vague, and it's that carefully balanced line between vivid and vague which elicits this, illusory quality, making the island's atmosphere seem so ethereal and idyllic, without somehow coming off as passé or banal, or purposely dreamlike.

As the newest edition to my favourites, I felt somewhat obligated to write at least something so I could solidify my thoughts and feelings after catching up with its tragically short catalogue. But to be honest, I don’t really mind how long Tsuruta takes to publish the next chapters, that is, if they're actually coming at all. He can take as long as he needs to flesh out and explore the mystifying, enigmatic nature of Elektriciteit Island—because really, that’s what’s required for a manga of this calibre.

Short version:
Tsuruta's rough-looking art is absolutely beautiful, and more than makes up for the slow and sometimes complete lack of story. Buy the physical release to get the best experience!

Long(er) version:
This series feels like a cross between two Ghibli movies: It has the biplane-flying ocean setting of Porco Rosso, and a mysterious, legendary island like in Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Going a little further with this comparison, I could say it has the laid-back, almost whimsical attitude of Porco Rosso and the sense of wonder and imagination that drives Laputa.

These are the things that made me read and later buy a physical volume of ... Wandering Island, but the best asset of this series is the art. I don't want to sound like an advertisement, but I really want to stress how good the art looks in the physical volume (I got the U.S. Dark Horse volume - it's really high quality!). The manga mostly sticks to within the borders of the panels, and then, as I flip the page... the art EXPLODES out of the panels, spilling out to the very edge of the page in a huge 2-page spread. I never really noticed that when reading the scans, and I can't get over how such a simple thing could have so much impact.

Anyway, Tsuruta has a rough style that always looks hand-drawn. If you look closely, some lines are kinda crooked, making things like fingers and clothes look funky, but it always looks great when put together. The character design of the main character and really the whole thing looks a little like it's from Blade of the Immortal. In contrast to that, though, the story is really slow, to the point where some chapters have almost no dialogue at all - just panel after panel of Tsuruta flexing his artistic skill.

Check this out if you're looking for a slower seinen series like YKK or Aria, and definitely consider buying the physical release! It's well worth the money.

As of this review, Wandering Island has 2 volumes officially released. It didn't seem to have any new updates so I might as well say something now.

Wandering Island is a story revolving around Murika's time in her mission to deliver something to the island of "Electric Island". I can tell you now that you are in for an interesting story.

The narrative of Wandering Island doesn't take its time in unnecessary exposition. It does relatively well in setting out the story as if they were going at the MCs speed, which is fast and to the point. I can say that because the first volume is ... everything I have just described. Murika is quite a dedicated, fixated character spending most of her time setting out her plan in going to this new island. Taking it to the next level here, but you can converge her thinking process to the actual pacing, whatever actions she takes seems to take up space in this story accordingly well. It makes for a nice read with the added getting to understand the character. It comes at the cost of a story, however, but relative to this world, more or less a mirror image of ours. The events that take place are still interesting despite not having much of anything noteworthy.

The art is amazing, very detailed and you can tell a lot of time has been put into it. I can't say you should expect less from Tsuruta because he is the same dude who made the Omoide Emanon manga adaptation.

I enjoy this. You should be able to as well. It is mostly inoffensive but it does tend to drag at the start. It also lacks major enthusiasm due to realism. But even then if I have made a note of such a case, it could be said that maybe it was taken to an extreme level. Honestly though, nothing bad here all in all.

I can't recommend you read this now. Do so, if ever, anything new comes out, the drop off here is a bruh moment so I would wait with this one. But I won't command you to do something you don't want to do. Do as you see fit. Will give it a 7.5/10 so far.