Ark Angels: A twist on the Bible Story

Last week browsing the library I stumbled upon a three volume manhwa (Korean comic) called "Ark Angels" by Sang-sun Park. The author was new to me, but the cover was cute enough. I figured, eh why not.

The main character is Japhet, who was always my favorite in the ark story. In this case Japheth is a girl joined by her sisters Shem and Hamu. They are the daughters of Noah. Instead of building an ark as ordered by God, Noah and his girls (well really just his girls) are part of a collective of semi-divine creatures. The council must decide the fact of humans on Eath. The two sides want to save an anthropomorphized Earth from human pollution. While that idea is used often (i.e Bruce Coville's My Teacher is an Alien series and Clamp's X/1999), our heroines, following the biblical story, must save the Earth one endangered species at a time taking them into an extra-dimensional ark. While the overall premise is not terribly original, the creator keeps the story interesting.

While this story is a bit elementary, it is cute with "scary parts" and "dating." The plot is a collection of stories related to the animals (which to them look like humans). Each animal has their own history and story that are believable and very human. The girls are childish, but fun. Japheth has the same energy as Hikaru of Clamps' Magic Knight Rayearth. Japheth is the real focus as she looks with untainted optimism that humans can be better. It can be a bit preachy about conservation, but no worse than Captain Planet (is our hero, is going to take pollution down to zero).

I give it a 3.5 out of 5.

Peace for now!
J.R. West the Raccoon