Hollow Fields Recommended

Publisher
Seven Seas
Writer
Madeleine Rosca
Artist
Madeleine Rosca
Country of origin
US
Year
2007

Hollow Fields Volume 1

By David Rasmussen
6th Oct 07

The school setting genre in Anime/Manga slash AmeriManga slash OELManga.
If I had to list an even dozen genres in the whole that has been seen a great many times? One would have to be the school setting genre without a doubt. New person in school who quickly finds him or herself in the obvious fish out of water situation? I think we’ve all heard that one before.

Not the most original of genres, yes, and off the top of my head I could rapidfire name about a dozen or so titles that fit this genre dead on. However, in regards to Hollow Fields, I do have to say that it does take a wee bit of an innovative stance to the genre and make it feel rather fresh and new. Setting the series in an “Evil Genius” school for the mad scientist in our young does give it that splash of fresh innovation that I haven’t seen much of in this genre.

Lucy Snow seems to live a rather detached life from her parents. So much so that they couldn’t even be bothered to leave their “busy” lives to escort her to her new “life” in a faraway girls’ boarding school slash dumping ground. Shipped off to the middle of nowhere, destination being a small village with an obscure girls’ school set within? Sure, she is so loved by her folks (not). I guess we can’t blame her then for not being the most attentive of people in this trying situation, but that is no excuse for becoming lost in a dark forest and then wandering into the wrong school only to end up enrolling herself in said school without even taking the time to figure out what the heck she was getting herself into.

Maybe it was the creepy (yet strangely Harry Potter slash Hogwarts-esque) school grounds that should have gave her the first sign of illwill to come.
The morbid atmosphere perhaps, or the dark ambiance of the grounds.
Maybe the fact she is first attacked by and then greeted by a strange doll like female (with a soft mechanical voice) named Miss Notch that should have had her Danger Will Robinson sense whirling away like Bill O’Reilly’s anti-culture o-meter on a good day.
The most telling thing she probably should have paid attention to, however, was the contract that she blindly signed without even so much as reading said contract. The lure of a hot meal, warm bath and soft bedding apparently stripping her of common sense or intelligent thought (or both).

But sign she does, and the minute she puts pen to paper she becomes the property of the school for mad scientists and it’s staff of the mostly undead (strange beings called “Engineers” that seemingly are willing to do just about anything, including becoming set pieces for a Nightmare Before Christmas sequel from the school guard that looks like the second cousin of Oogie Boogie to the female “engineers” that all look related to Sally… only without being good, like Sally) who observe a rather -- Darwinian approach to learning. Why? Well every week they take the student at the bottom of the learning curve and make him or her “vanish” into “Detention” on the school grounds, never to be seen again. This is “survival of the fittest”… or maybe it’s just a way to keep the staff alive and kicking… someone.

Lucy’s first week at the school, subsequently, may be her last… until she runs into a little mad scientist in a box hidden in the library who decides to join forces with her with a goal of ultimately escaping the school… but not before Lucy vows to free those locked away in “Detention” before escaping.

Then Volume 2 comes about (sometime in the future) and Lucy (still wading her way through body splicing, grave digging and killer clockwork robotics) runs into one of the “unfortunate students” sent to detention when it (he or she) tries to escape. After that maybe it’ll not be as much if Lucy can save those in detention as much if there is enough body parts or human DNA of said people in detention that she can actually save.
Doesn’t help that her first save from Detention came at the price of one of the popular girl’s in school’s best girlfriends (marking Lucy for “social death” (if not literal death) as she goes out of her way to ostracize Lucy as she blames her for losing her best pal in the school to detention).

But whether Lucy Snow can make it through mad scientist school (which is odd since the box thing seems to note in this volume Lucy’s hidden aptitude for robotics) and manage to save whatever “innocents” (if such a thing can be said of kids sent to learn the dark arts) she can free in the process? That will have to wait for a future review. For now…

Series creator Madeleine Rosca aims to please with Hollow Fields. She takes a been there done that genre like the school setting genre and makes it fresh and new with it’s setting in a dark school for the mad scientist in us all. Yes, the basic formula of “new girl being the fish out of water in a new school” setup is still present, but with this interesting dark school (and it’s sexy beautiful crazy disturbingly familiar wicked staff of “Engineers” and freaky classmates and “extras”) the genre feels like it got a splash of freshness in the face. Solid writing, nicely done artwork, good cast of characters and a well done overall feel to the title makes Hollow Fields a recommendable AmeriManga slash OELManga that you should check out.

Joining the ranks of other great female talents in the AmeriManga/OELManga genre like Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon), Alex de Campi (Kat & Mouse), Amy Kim Ganter (Sorcerers and Secretaries) and hentai lesbian erotica scribe Colleen Coover (Small Favors) for starters? Hollow Fields Volume 1 earns a more than passing grade of 4 immunity passes against detention out of 5.

Now class dismiss! We’ll see you when Hollow Fields Volume 2 hits (though you can see it right now on Seven Seas’ web comics if you can’t wait that long -- if memory serves that is).

-- David Rasmussen 6th Oct 07