The Last Day: The Comic: The Review

I liked it

May 03, 2024

Part 1: This is everything I wanted

In my latest critique of WhytManga’s art I drew attention to the most microscopic of microniche issues: Too many characters in OEL shonen manga disproportionally favor tough-guy character designs (“Chapter 3: Something is wrong with this face”). I wished and hoped that more comics in this niche would take a cue from Tony Valente’s Radiant and give their characters just a smidgen of cuteness.

And, two weeks later: my prayers were answered. The protagonist in The Last Day is exactly what I wanted to see.

not to be too Dramatic but this felt like a gift from the heavens

The protagonist, Silas, has a design that perfectly balances cute and cool. His big glittery eyes make him the perfect character to express a sincere wonder and excitement over the VR Arcade, but his design is versatile enough that he never devolves into being a helpless, doughy moeblob. His outfits, personality, and role in the story are definitively masculine - but he has a softness to him that never makes him too aggressive.

official character sheet so yanno what I’m talking about

In that sense he reminds me of Kirito. Nevermind how many Kirito lookalikes there are nowadays - think back to 2012, when SAO was in its first season of anime. If you were in the target demographic for Sword Art Online, Kirito was either cool enough to be an aspirational badass or cute enough to be your dream date to prom. Silas struck that perfect cross-gender appeal that I haven’t seen in an action-orientated OEL since… well, Radiant.

I will also note that I’m a big fan of his hair texture - its a tiny detail but it makes him stand out. Even in this new era of diverse manga, this specific type of wavy hair is still a bit difficult to find. The last character I can think of with similar hair is Sai Nanami, the late-stage addition to Dr. Stone.

If I may pivot to the overall aesthetic and visual design: This is a comic with expert level rendering, with the same professionalism as anything in Shonen Jump or Weekly Shonen. I was surprised how little came up when searching the artist, Liilica Aoi. There was a Fiverr page and a few social media accounts (so if you buy a commmission from them now, you’ll get infinite bragging rights that you discovered them before they hit the mainstream). This type of digital footprint is standard for many artists, but basically I was expecting the first web result to be Viz announcing a release date for their newest tankobon, not a Fiverr page. Not to diss the fine artists of Fiverr - but with this skill level, they’re definitely a hidden gem.

I keep looking over the pages while writing this review, trying to find my usual pedantic nitpicks to ham up for the sake of comedy. But I really can’t. Every page is absolutely stunning.

I guess this single foot silhouette could use a little more razzle dazzle, but who’s gonna care besides Foot Guys?

Characters, backgrounds, outfits, monster designs - these are all expertly done. I never get the sense that there’s any particular minmaxing of the artists’ skills. What’s more is the actual page layout is clean and easy to read. The fight choreography makes the punches hit hard and the little character beats rewarding.

A particular artistic strong point is the usage of screen tones and beta ink to render shadows. The base level inking is striking on its own - but there’s also plenty of creative digital effects and expert use of screentones. This is someone who not only knows the rules of shadow rendering, but also knows when and how to break them. Here’s an especially beautiful panel that was featured in their digital promo:

We see different effects and textures weave in and out, without ever feeling weighed down or cluttered.

And this isn’t the only instance of creative texturing/lighting/inking effects, but these are best experienced in the moment, as you’re reading the comic.

Part 2: Yes, I Said This is everything I wanted, But, I Have Some Notes

After all these compliments I’ll slow down and say something I wasn’t crazy about. But the story stats with a prologue. As in, a paragraph of text slapped over a shot of a futuristic city. Something about extensive text prologues in comics make me rage harder than gamers seeing pronouns in Starfield

Replace pronouns with prologue and, regrettably, that is me.

Now, no one tell the author this- but readers can skip the opening few pages of prologue and enjoy the story just fine. And all things considered, the prologue in this story might be Good, Actually. I would rather a Nondescript Narrator give me a quick n’ dirty summary of this world before the story starts, rather than have the characters bring the plot to a grinding halt to explain that The World Hasn’t Been The Same since Full-Dive VR Became Commonplace.

If anything, including the prologue speaks to a sort of self-conscious, but not necessarily fatal, beginner’s mistake. I can imagine the author thinking it’s vital the audience goes into the story with the prologue info, and just not having the confidence to let the story play out on its own. Because like I said, this chapter works totally fine without it. If it’s necessary info later down the line, that’s another issue - since I’ll have forgotten everything in the prologue by the time that hypothetical later chapter is released.

Let me backtrack and talk a little about the dialogue. The writing style of dialogue may not be for everyone, but I found it perfectly serviceable.

That is to say, it’s a tad awkward. It (probably unintentionally) has the vibe of an anime fansub or scanlation. Which might be a dealbreaker for some readers, but if you grew up with the stuff it’ll be no big deal (look, I’ll take an “awkward scanlation writing style” over “Marvel Millenial, Sooo That Just Happened writing style” any day, so this really does come down to a matter of preference). While most of it was fine, this particular line stood out as especially corny:

That’s the exact panel I became aware of the crunchy dialogue and burst out laughing. Fortunately it’s closer to the end of the chapter - so it didn’t drag down my first-time readthrough.

Where the dialogue’s writing style actively hurts the plot is Silas and Steve’s interactions (assuming Steve is the dude in the jumpsuit manning the computer). I didn’t realize they’re supposed to be friends until I read the comic’s plot summary, since all of the dialogue has that jankiness to it. Hopefully in issue 2 we see more character building moments, so the audience can believe they’re besties- otherwise Steve’s role feels closer to that of a nagging mom. And then why the heck is Silas besties with a nagging mom? What happened????

Part 3: Hopes For The Future

silhouette of trees under blue sky during daytime — Future chapters are sure to spawn from places of Hope, Goodness, and Cool Comic Books…….

We don’t quite get into the meat of the story in this first issue. Most of the plot is Silas learning and adapting to the fantasy VR game he’s playing. It exists as a perfectly quaint Lively Adventure, and ends on a cliffhanger.

Fortunately, there’s a lot more planned for this world. And I wish we could’ve seen more of it. The Last Day also exists as an audio drama - but is also receiving a comic version because the creator/writer, Jashae Slaughter, felt it was a better medium for his story. This pivot to a new medium shows how carefully and deeply this mangaka thought about this plot and world.

I’d like to once again bring up my last post about WhytManga (He’s my dearly beloved senpai, so I see it as my civil duty to reference him as much as possible). And this is an observation based on my limited perspective with no hard data, so kuma with me here: but in that post I talked about how many OEL manga feels dated, as if it’s perpetually 10-20 years behind Japanese-grown manga. And not in a “Wow, Tezuka is timeless and can be enjoyed forever” kinda way, but in a, “Oh no, did you stop watching anime in high school and now you’re inexplicably making manga?” kinda way.

And this is an issue that is completely absent in The Last Day.

The Last Day: The Comic has yet to get to the apocalyptic, end-of-the-world plot they promised in the summary… but nothing in this slow-moving chapter 1 about a VR tutorial felt outdated. I know that sounds like a non-compliment, but indie OEL manga with a contemporary twang feel especially difficult to come by.

There is something decisively modern and new about its delivery and style, despite being an incredibly straightforward Chapter 1. This is mostly due to The Last Day’s outstanding artistry and character designs, but the writing is also an understated, but key, player.

Once I got over my Prologue Rage and read over that textbox, it does feel like the writer is positioning this story to say something unique about the state of the Internet/technology/AI art/society. I don’t know what that ‘something’ will be - which does make that cliffhanger ending all the more frustrating.

Despite the teasing, this is a project I believe in and want to see more of. The Indiegogo page describes this as a “visually captivating comic series” - and this is something I completely co-sign. There’s a sharpness to The Last Day that’s especially rare, so I would love to see more.

You can back the project on Indiegogo

Support on Indiegogo

If you want to support but don’t have the cash, check out their website and give them a follow on Substack:

(This is my first pre-release review, so I hope my post can generate them enough attention that I can do more.)

Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. I’m not trying to be an art theif, just a critic. Pls no bulli.

Photo credit: 

Body of Water Under Blue Sky by Max Ravier https://www.pexels.com/photo/body-of-water-under-blue-sky-3641978/ 

Photo of clouds by Ben Vaughn on Unsplash

Dr Stone belongs to Shueisha, Riichiro Inagaki, Boichi.

All art from The Last Day taken from their Substack and the pre-release edition of their comic. Yes im saying it a third time because Im stoked i got to read this before everyone else

Thank you for reading!

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