Tower Dungeon vol. 1

Princess Ignelia has been kidnapped by the evil necromancer who slew her father!  He has taken her to the top of the floating tower and a call has gone out to everyone in the kingdom for warriors valiant enough to help get her back.  Answering the call is Yuva, a farmboy who is incredibly strong, but completely lacking in fighting acumen.  He’s teamed up with a group of royal guards who are still licking their wounds after a monster midway up the tower showed them who’s boss.  They’ve got a plan to deal with it and all Yuva has to do is carry the salt.  There’s no telling what awaits them beyond that, however…

I wasn’t originally planning on buying this, even though it comes from mangaka Tsutomu Nihei who previously graced us with “BLAME!” “Biomega,” and “Knights of Sidonia.”  His previous series, “Aposimz,” continued his trend of pursuing a more simplistic style when it came to his art and storytelling, to its ultimate detriment.  The reason I picked it up is because it brought a recent order from the Crunchyroll Store over the free shipping threshold by a few cents.  So I’m grateful that it did that, if nothing else.

As for the manga itself, it shows that the mangaka is still pursuing simplicity above all else.  That’s true in regards to the one-dimensional characters that populate this volume and its straightforward dungeon-crawling premise which offers no real surprises.  While this is also the case in regards to his art, Nihei hasn’t lost his eye for composition which results in the occasional memorable vista, and weird monster design.

The truth is that there’s nothing really bad about this first volume of “Tower Dungeon.”  It’s just a straightforward story competently executed with generally decent art throughout.  The only thing that’s really working against it is if you’re more of a fan of Nihei’s older works and appreciated their intricately detailed art and esoteric storytelling.  If that’s the case, then this will likely come off as a disappointment to you and you’ll be better off re-reading “BLAME!”  Everyone else is going to find some decent fantasy comfort food and nothing more.