MANGA REVIEW: Scavengers Another Sky

 

SCAVENGERS ANOTHER SKY
by Ryo Furube
Available January 27

Toto may look tiny and adorable, but she has a serious job. She's a Scavenger: a girl trained since early childhood to go on dangerous interdimensional missions to gather salvage and fight off strange monsters. The result is a mix of quantum mechanics, military action, and unexpected moments of cuteness.

Volume 1 of Scavengers Another Sky throws readers right into the action as Toto and her partner Hana dive into a BP, or Black Parade: an alternate dimension that, at least on these early occasions, bear a striking resemblance to Earth locations of the past. However, BPs can look surreal and even defy the laws of physics. It all depends on the entity at its center, who's dead set on ensuring that its treasures aren't scavenged. But with Toto angling to rack up a cool million, the fight is on.

An afterword points out that the team behind Scavengers Another Sky is made up of military otaku, and it shows. But you don't have to love military action to find this series fascinating. The worldbuilding, shown through action and divulged in between-chapter notes, is on a level with the alternate-universe science of Gunbuster. Scavengers use quantum superposition to travel to their alternate dimensions: entering a closed-off space like Schrödinger's hypothetical cat, then being brought back by the home team opening the "box" and observing their presence. Fail to get back to your starting point by Observation, and you could be stranded for minutes in our dimension, but days in the BP.

Scavengers Another Sky dips into so many specialized fields to build its world, but never leaves readers feeling overwhelmed. Everything comes together surprisingly smoothly, and this first volume hints at a deeper, darker world yet to be explored. I really hope this series gets much more attention in the West.

TEA PAIRING: Wonderland Tea Party

Somewhere between the topsy-turvy nature of the BP and Hana's comment that Toto smells like marmalade, this Alice in Wonderland-themed blend felt like a perfect fit. Use my code KARA15 for 15% off this and other tea blends from Chapters Tea & Co.!