Cosmic Juice

Most of what I Love about Takano's work are the intelligent, sexy cute, individualistic female leads. Yes. This book is a good long, weird, dreamy story. AND RARE. Even my comic book store didn't have it, but the owner read it and ordered it for the shop. Yeah! Worth it 4 sure.

Lovely art style, imaginative story, overall very charming-love it<3

My daughter loves it

Love it, a very dreamy adventure. I'm a big fan of Aya Takano's art, and while from a story perspective it's rather straightforward, it was like one of her paintings come to life.

I really love the book. Aya Takano is an amazing artist!!

As is usual with Japanese comics, Cosmic Juice is read right-to-left, and is kept that way for the English translation. It is finely printed on high-quality paper used for art books, and has a sort of faux dust jacket.The front and back covers are in colour, as well as some interior images; however, the comic itself is in black and white. It is very sketchy, more like a first draft or story board, with greys added in for shading using, it appears, Photoshop (or similar), rather than the commonly-used screen tones.When translated to English, there are a few words at the beginning that do not translate well, but notes are given to the readers that may not have heard of them before. There are only two or three of these, and is not something prevalent throughout the comic, making it much smoother in reading.The story itself is good, though short. It feels as if it could have been spread out longer: This would allow readers to engage, understand, and care for the characters more than the comic currently allows. Sometimes there are jumps from one thing to the next, which can be quite baffling; it seems to suggest readers should take everything for granted and accept that these things can just happen in the comic because it says so, rather than because it actually makes sense to happen in that moment.There are times, too, that one is left guessing about certain aspects, or the reader may not pick up on the subtle cues. Sometimes this is due to the drawing style; usually, things a comic artist wants readers to focus on are made apparent, but this is not always the case with Cosmic Juice, and, as talented as Aya Takano is as an artist, it seems to show a naiveté in communicating certain actions and ideas in comic book form.There are many references to mythology, history, and fringe hypotheses; if you have seen Ancient Aliens on the History Channel, some of the images and ideas will probably be quite familiar to you. Although I was familiar with the ideas presented in the book, I don't think that a person that is not will have a difficult time understanding what's happening, as everything important about those aspects are explained within the story. Knowing about them, or taking the time to read about them if you haven't before, may add more of an in-depth understanding, but is not completely necessary.As I am a huge fan of Aya Takano myself, and revel in the fact that I own anything she has made, this comic is a proud addition to my collection. This may also mean my rating is 'too nice', but I don't think so. Though it could have been expounded upon, it is also a good idea with cute and interesting characters. Even with its bumps along the way, Cosmic Juice is a story you can get into and a story you can go back to.

I love aya takano's artwork. The drawings are drawn with her cool simple lines with a flat grey color added in photoshop. I think the story writing could be stronger. Comic panelling could flow more smoothly. Felt a little jumpy and abrupt at times which makes it hard to really get engaged with the characters and story. The story gets stranger and stranger. Strange is good if combined with some reason to believe it (however small). But after a while, it really got unbelievable for me and I could not connect with anything the story fed me. But still it dragged on. As an artists, Aya is one of my favourites. But her comics could still improve.

aya takano writes a really entertaining story about a 13 year old zoroastrian herald who trips on mushrooms with grey aliens,and travels to the interior of the earth. its strange, creepy and really pretty. and takano touches on just about everythingfrom the lost continent of mu to panspermia and the "stoned ape" theories.the art is executed in her usual naive, shakey hand. its disarming and really sincere.the interior is black and white like most manga. (i miss the color that she uses in her paintings though)you should read it while listening to music and keep your laptop open to wikipediaso you can look up all of the obscure references mentioned throughout the book.its a quick read, really fun and most importantly, good sci-fi.