Captain Momo’s Secret Base vol. 1
In order to know if this latest manga that Dark Horse has published from Kenji Tsuruta is for you, ask yourself three things:
- Do I like stories in a science-fiction setting?
- Do I like cats?
- Do I like seeing women go about their daily business while being completely naked?
If you answered “Yes” to all three of these questions like I did, then you’re going to enjoy vol. 1 of “Captain Momo’s Secret Base.” While Dark Horse has been trying to make Tsuruta happen as a manga creator for several years now, neither “Wandering Island” nor “Emanon” (especially not that one…) appear to have set the American manga-reading public’s mind on fire. That likely won’t happen with this series, but it’s easily the most enjoyable of Tsuruta’s works that they’ve published so far.
That’s because it lacks the high-minded pretensions of “Emanon” and the ongoing mystery of “Wandering Island” and just focuses on showing us the charms of Captain Momo’s – yes, she’s really a captain – futuristic slacker lifestyle. So we get to see how she manipulates the replicator to produce cat toys for First Office Grandpa John, enjoy being a VR train conductor, cram herself into the broken laundry room, figure out how to save enough power to survive the trip, and maybe survive a once-in-fifty-years near-collision event. It’s all sci-fi slice-of-life stuff and perfectly enjoyable if you can appreciate its unambitious charms.