Star Wars Rebels Manga: Vol 1 by Akira Aoki

January 25, 2021

Star Wars Rebels Manga: Vol 1 by Akira Aoki

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Oh my goodness this was such a fun and engaging read!! It is 162 pages long but dang it went fast! And it wasn't just straight copying of dialogue from the TV show either as it included several additional conversations as well as of course some thought bubbles. And the artwork was so perfectly manga-esque that the whole book felt like it was just a Japanese story from the beginning. Ugh, I am so incredibly impressed by this work!!

As a side note, this version of the "Rebels" opener is a tiny bit more adult with some very mild curse words. But they actually work oddly enough. It is a bit strange not seeing words like "karabast" in place of Earthly versions of these words but somehow this did not take me out of the story so I'm not going to complain.

Story-wise, this volume covers most of the "Rebels" premiere, the TV movie, "Spark of Rebellion." We see the Ghost crew run into Ezra on Lothal and then take him in and then instead of including the whole debacle on the Gozanti-class cruiser with the Wookiee prisoners and Ezra being left behind, we go straight to the spice mines of Kessel and Kanan revealing himself as a Jedi (see below). The story still flows just fine without that bit although it causes some character development to be lost in the mix. Luckily, we do get some very heartfelt moments between Kanan and Ezra at the end although the bit about Ezra stealing Kanan's lightsaber is also skipped over. Regardless of all the story that was left out, the flow and connectivity was very well executed and I absolutely enjoyed the ride!

For a special treat after the "Spark of Rebellion" adaptation had concluded, there was a brief adaptation of the beginning of the Lords of the Sith novel complete with Darth Vader attacking some of Cham's men in orbit over Ryloth. This section was dark and scary and intense (see below), definitely not including the shojo-manga style facial expressions (see below) seen in "Story 1: The Boy From Lothal" parts I, II, and III in the majority of the book. And at the very end we get completely random glimpses of Luke on Tatooine looking up at the binary suns...not sure what that was trying to accomplish especially with Luke's last words being, "I promise...!" in response to...nothing on the page at least. I was left a bit confused with these last two pages but with 160 other pages displaying utter perfection, I really can't complain!

A great quote from Hera on Ezra in response to Kanan asking, "What...makes you like him so much?" Hera--"His eyes! When he stood up to those Imperial soldiers in Capital City...everyone else's eyes already accepted defeat. His eyes alone looked like blades."

A deep quote from Vader on the Jedi, "The Jedi were incompetent. Harmony? Peaceful coexistence? How are those things supposed to put an end to chaos and war? Being idle for all that time, as though they had become comatose. That's why I destroyed them." *shivers* This is some really great stuff that adds to the Lords of the Sith novel's mythos!

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Trivia:

-Kanan pulling out his lightsaber and revealing himself as a Jedi to his enemies is called a 22 Pickup...named a Manual 22 here.

-Ezra was 14 at the beginning of his "Rebels" journey.

-Ezra's parents were taken by the Empire when he was 7 years old.

-The Kessel spice mine the Ghost crew invades is Spice Mine K76.

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So a super fun retelling despite not including the whole story. I highly recommend this for anyone but especially those of you who enjoy reading manga because Star Wars in this format is just killer! And with that, I'll leave you with some more fabulous artwork from this truly delightful manga!!