Written by: Kevin Panetta
Art by: Paulina Ganucheau
Publisher: Dark Horse
I love the entire Magical Girl genre. I dreamed of becoming a Sailor Scout, I desperately wished I could fight evil with my Clow cards, and I spent every morning hoping I could get dressed through the power of a magnificent transformation sequence. Thus, when I heard about Zodiac Starforce I couldn’t help but smile and cheer at the fact that I may soon again be able to dive deep into a world where fighting crime in cute outfits was the norm.
Unfortunately, Zodiac Starforce misses almost every single mark in regards to what made genre powerhouses like Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura so good in the first place.
The first major problem I had with the series is that it tries to start this series out fresh by heavily alluding to past evils and fighting said evil. While some series can do this well, Zodiac Starforce did it so often and with so much detail that I actually found myself looking up the series online to make sure I hadn’t missed a previous series, pilot, one-shot, cartoon, webcomic, or basically anything that would’ve told me more information. It was often confusing and led to some very shallow character development in that they essentially introduced characters at will without letting us know anything about them. All because they mentioned them 5 pages ago. This also means we get to start out the series knowing that all these characters have cool, awesome abilities that they don’t use because they don’t want to or don’t need to or it’s not cool being a magical girl or whatever.
She forgot about them being so strong because 2 pages later she’s going to deny they exist.
The problem I have with this (besides being confusing as hell) is that it greatly reduces the fun that we had with the series that basically founded the genre. We all remember Usagi (Serena if you’re only familiar with the American version of Sailor Moon) meeting the rest out of Sailor Scouts and how those were some of the best episodes. And the reason they stood out is that we got to be introduced to each character individually and learn about their various personalities and talents as they discovered who they were. In Zodiac we barely get introduced to the various characters but we’re supposed to somehow believe that this is a lifelong crew of warrior women here to save us.
The other reason why this is so terrible is that all of the characters seem to have the personalities wet cardboard. Basically, what thin personalities they do have are nothing more than shallow attempts at having a diverse crew. However, they’re so similarly presented that the only two characters I can describe off the bat is one who is apparently the boy-crazy fashionista who’s always surrounded by boys and the edgy kinda punk-rock (used as loosely as possible) who wants to protect people. If this sounds familiar, it is. Oh, and they aren’t planets or anything. They’re Zodiac signs. Super original, I know.
The worst part, however, is the the main character is a girl named Emma who spends the entire comic convincing everyone how everything is perfectly fine despite fighting 2 monsters. Considering this is a first issue of a new series, the fact that everyone has done nothing but talk about how they used to fight monsters, and that apparently the big moment was watching a gang of bad girls ruin a party, it was all too obvious that something was going to happen and it’s a damn shame that Emma was utilized as nothing but a plot device.
Which, speaking of a plot, is also almost nonexistant. Zodiac had a promising start by opening with a pretty cool battle sequences, but writer Kevin Panetta chose to instead have all of his characters essentially argue over whether or not they should ever even fight evil against because they like, already defeated it and stuff. So when trouble comes calling and one of girls gets put in danger, it’s less of a shocking moment and more of a superb time to roll your eyes because no shit the evil was coming. They fought it in like the first 2 pages!
The artwork by Paulina Ganucheau is the best part of the series by far. It’s colorful and cute and power effects are stunning. There’s also a few pages in which our heroes travel to an “otherworldly” place (for lack of a better term) that’s absolutely gorgeous in how it’s portrayed. Characters are also drawn with a ton of diversity (even characters who serve as background extras) and that makes for a way more interesting and easier read as well.
However, I can’t quite place a finger on why I don’t love it and why there’s a part of me that flat out doesn’t like it. It’s definitely one of the more colorful series out there but it also looks slightly generic. The best way I can describe it is that it looks like 90’s era Polly Pocket designs. Which fits with the Magical Girl nostalgia but also demonstrates how so much of this comic is a cheap rip off of other ideas.
It’s not the time to discuss your crime-fighting team while fighting evil. In fact, never talking about it again is the best idea.
The costume changes were also extremely lackluster to the point that I barely even realized they transformed. And, in a genre in which transformations are key, I can’t find a single reason why they would be so rushed and boring. I can understand that a comic might not want to devote panels upon panels to transformation in its limited space but holy hell, at least give them actual costumes. I can give the artist points for at least making the costumes practical but when your Magical Girls have more interesting everyday clothing then why even bother with the transformation?
As a fan of the Magical Genre, I desperately wanted to like this. Even as I read the issue I hoped I could write the references off as a tongue-in-cheek look at all the series that helped create it. Instead it was a mash-up of stolen themes, poorly executed plot points, and characters so boring and one-dimensional that I can’t find a single good thing to say about it.
Perhaps it can work out its problems one day and become worth reading. But I have zero hope for a series where even its own heroines don’t want to fight.
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