Continuing with the theme of isekai from the 1990s pulled from my pile of random volumes I’ve picked up over the years is From Far Away / Kanata Kara…
…Volume 5.
SPOILERS
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Thank goodness that From Far Away is popular enough that not only has it been scanned, but you can also still find all of it online, because I don’t know what happened to me that I picked up the fifth volume in a series.
But, I’m all caught up, so here goes–
Like all isekai, From Far Away starts in the modern world. Average high schooler, Noriko, has been dreaming of a distant land. Every day at lunch, she tells her friends about her crazy nighttime adventures.
Meanwhile, the town she lives in has been under the pall of terrorist attacks. On this fateful day, thinking she’s following an errant ball that someone kicked, Noriko stumbles across a bomb. Is she blown to pieces? Maybe? But, something happens in that moment to carry her bodily into another world. Even her school bag arrives with her.
Almost immediately upon arriving in this strange new world, Noriko is attacked. Luckily, a broodingly handsome (by 1990s standards, anyway) rescuer appears from the shadows.
Not gonna lie. I love the 1990s anime hottie mullet.
After defeating the carnivorous plant with his superhuman speed and strength, the handsome stranger then introduces himself as Isark kia Tarj. Well, actually, it takes some pages before they actually exchange names, because for the first two volumes of this manga Noriko doesn’t understand a word of the language of this new world.
In fact, nine tenths of their interactions go like this:
But, of course, despite this language barrier, a bond begins to grow as the two of them as they begin to travel together. It helps that Isark has some built in hurt/comfort. It seems that whenever he’s overextended himself, he collapses and Noriko must take care of him.
Over the course of the story, we learn that Noriko fell from the sky on the very day that The Awakening was meant to begin. Isark, and many other factions, had been hunting the Awakening, as it a harbinger of doom. It is said that when the Awakening appears it will draw out the Sky Serpent and the world will change.
Savvy readers will probably only need the fifth or sixth time that someone watches Isark fight and says something to the effect of, “He’s superhuman!” or “He’s like a monster!” to realize JUST WHO the Sky Serpent likely is.
If you don’t catch on to those clues, Hikawa-sensei helpfully draws Isark’s teeth as fangs whenever he’s close to overextending himself.
I should probably not find all these tropes endearing, but I kind of do. I did quit once I reached the end of volume 5, but I enjoyed the entire ride up to that point. There are lots of little side quests and interesting characters that Noriko and Isark find along the way, and while Isark is clearly the more interesting of the pair, effort is eventually made into letting Noriko come into her own as a magical girl. By the time I quit, Noriko had learned to telepathically link with Isark and bravely kissed him even after he had fully transformed into the Sky Serpent.
I think my favorite little throwaway trivia about Noriko is that her dad is a science fiction novelist, so she’s fully aware of the idea of the multiverse.
So, I mean, there’s a lot of enjoy here, if what you’re looking for is a light romantic adventure story.
Especially if you’re into the mullet look. I hear it’s coming back into style.
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