Translated by JN Productions
193 pages
Published 2013 (English translation published 2017)
Read March 14
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Still struggling to find manga that fills the Delicious in Dungeon / Witch Hat Atelier-shaped absence in my life, I happened upon this series in my library’s collection, and decided to give it a try.
Teenage Chakuro is the archivist for the people of the Mud Whale. Their entire society of some five hundred people scrounges a living on the back of the floating (possibly living) city, drifting through a seemingly boundless sea of sand that swallows anything else on its surface. Chakuro and his fellow Marked — users of emotion-fueled magic — live brief lives, rarely living beyond 30. The longer-lived Unmarked, who cannot wield magic, comprise the society’s leaders despite being much fewer in number. But the elders know more than they let on about the world beyond the Whale.
The worldbuilding is complex, and the pacing feels a bit off as a result, though Umeda never lets the exposition completely overwhelm the story. A melancholy urgency, an awareness of short lives and sudden death, suffuses Chakuro’s narration. Umeda’s artwork is gorgeous, particularly the establishing shots of the Mud Whale and the larger world around it.
Whales is no replacement for Delicious or Atelier, but it’s intriguing enough as its own thing.
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