Manga Review: Thunder 3 Volume 1 by Yuki Ikeda
Disclaimer: I received an Uncorrected Proof Copy of this book from Netgalley for the purpose of reviewing it. No other compensation was offered or requested. Some aspects of the book may change between now and the actual publication. Thanks to Vertical for the opportunity!
Pyontaro Tezuka and his friends Tsubame Azuma and Hiroshi Ochanomizu are middle-schoolers who live in adjacent houses in a cul-de-sac. They’re pretty normal for their age, absent that they’re all on the short side, getting the group nickname “the Small Three.” They are starting to get interested in girls, particularly the one from their school and neighborhood who does guitar busking. She’s not interested back and considers them nuisances.
Pyontaro’s father is a manga creator working on a series titled “Thunder 3.” He’s not a big seller, and may never get into the big time magazines like Jumpy. Pyontaro’s mother is right now a stay at home mom, as little sister Futaba is a toddler. Pyontaro considers Futaba a nuisance who walks in on him in the restroom and steals his underwear, but she admires her big brother.
It’s Valentine’s Day, not that any of the Small Three ever get chocolates from girls. A new handsome transfer student who’s good at soccer arrives at school, but this seems largely irrelevant as you can’t steal attention from someone who never had any. More to the point, homeroom teacher Doc talks a bit about multiversal theory.
The next day, after school, the Small Three visit Doc’s house to play video games. There’s a disc that’s supposed to connect to another dimension, but you need a PS5 to play it, and Doc doesn’t have one. Pyontaro’s family does have a PS5 and the kids borrow the disc.
When the boys get home, Pyontaro’s mother is going shopping and asks them to watch Tsubasa. The graphics on the “movie” on the disc are awesome, but no button pushes seem to do anything. A delivery distracts the boys, so it’s Futaba who discovers that the TV screen is now a window, and things can pass through both ways.
Futaba rapidly discovers that not all the inhabitants of the other world are friendly. Pyontaro and his friends figure out where she went, and arrive just in time to see her abducted by aliens. Now stranded on a parallel Earth, what can the Small Three do to save Futaba?
As it happens, more than you’d expect.
The homeworld of the Small Three is depicted in a simplistic, cartoony “throwback” style, which threw me off as to what the genre was going to be. The alternate world has a more detailed “realistic” style, but visitors from the first Earth retain their own art style, which causes them to stand out considerably. This gives the book a distinctive look.
Appearances aside, the two Earths are very similar, with the same people who behave in the same way. Except that aliens arrived a few months ago on the parallel Earth. The government says they came in peace, but what we see of them indicates they’re kind of jerks, standoffish and self-centered. They live among humans, but don’t socialize with them. Plus, they abducted Tsubasa to run experiments on her. And why do they need all those weapons?
It’s an interesting if somewhat contrived premise to allow our middle-school protagonists to be the ones to need to solve the problem. There’s a bit of mystery about just what’s going on behind the scenes, and if the series follows through on that, it might be one to follow.
Content note: One of the boys is fixated on girls’ underwear, and another draws pictures of boobs. Peril to children. Most middle schoolers should be okay.
Recommended to science fiction fans, particularly parallel Earth buffs.
