Gear School

Pretty good. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great either, and it had nothing especially meaningful.

Gear School is about thirteen year old Teresa Gottlieb who attends a military academy for operating mechanical powerhouses called Gears. The academy experience, thought brutal during training, is just like any other school, and the kids are just like any other kids. Now, Teresa has to deal with school, boys, growing up, and passing her prelim training. Although, Teresa is not the most talented pilot, despite being accepted into the prestigious academy. She apparently failed her prelim test, which featured only one requirement: turn on the gravity dampers on her Gear. And it's not like it was a complicated process. All she had to do was voice it, and the Gear's automated system (the system appears as an anime-style avatar) would carry out the command. Though simplistic, she ends up crashing her ship. Good thing it was only a computer simulation.

I found the ending, following an intense and admittedly cool bout between Teresa and an alien ship, awkward. It was empty. Teresa saved her friend, Moari, the officers commemorated her, the mess was cleaned up, and that was about it. Nearly all the conflicts begun were silently resolved, but left me with an "okay, and?" kind of feel. I will assume that this series will be continued, because it resolved every problem, but introduced a new mechanic that could be a potential basis for the next issue: the alien's ability to teleport.

Gear School had some fantastic art. The environments were lush, full of life, and very detailed. Characters were also very detailed, and sometimes sported this odd sheen that made hem look like they were made out of marble; it looked great. The character designs were unique. Teresa's was especially well done, I think. Her look somehow fit her role and personality; this went for many of the other characters, namely the officers. One of the officers, whose name escapes me, had hair that stuck out parallel to the ground, and then curved a perfect 90 degrees towards the ground. The authors decided to include scraps in the back of the novel. It showed random sketches of characters in different stages in their development, and even some of the scenery. I was surprised to learn that they had kept their environment and their character artwork separate, and then merged them at the end when both were complete.

Presentation: A
Story: B
Art: A+
Overall(not averaged): B+