Tokyo Storm Warning
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''Tokyo Storm Warning'' is a
creator-owned In the United States, creator ownership in comics is an arrangement in which the comic book creator retains full ownership of the material, regardless of whether the work is self-publishing, self-published or published by a corporate publisher. I ...
comic book series by
WildStorm Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi to publish through Image Comics, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC C ...
imprint
Cliffhanger A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious situation, facing a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction or bef ...
. Written by
Warren Ellis Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...
with art by James Raiz and Andrew Currie, it was first published as a three-issue
comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
in
2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...
.


Creation

The book was written during a period in which Ellis mostly produced books in three-issue bursts for DC imprints, along with '' Mek'', ''
Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...
'' and '' Reload'' as he had reached the end of his exclusive contract with DC, and was reassessing his next steps. Ellis described ''Tokyo Storm Warning'' as "a gentle piss-take of the giant robot genre played straight". Raiz had recent experience drawing robots for
Dreamwave Productions Dreamwave Productions was a Canadian art design studio and comic book publisher founded in 1996. Best known for its comic book adaptations of ''Transformers (toy line), Transformers'', the company shut down on January 4, 2005. History Brothers ...
' licensed '' Transformers: Armada'' series; acquainted with Ellis already, he emailed the writer during a lull between ''Transformers'' assignments and was offered the chance to draw ''Tokyo Storm Warning''. ''Tokyo Storm Warning'' has been described as a homage to the
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
''
Neon Genesis Evangelion , also known as ''Evangelion'' or ''Eva'', is a Japanese mecha anime television series produced by Gainax and Tatsunoko Production, and directed by Hideaki Anno. It was broadcast on TV Tokyo and its affiliates from October 1995 to March 1 ...
'' with
cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...
elements.


Plot

In an
alternate timeline Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...
, the capture of U-234 on 14 May 1945 and the discovery of its nuclear cargo (intended for the Japanese atomic program in Tokyo) leads the US to decide to use its first
atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...
on the Japanese capital instead to prevent the Japanese developing their own device. Three months later on August 6, Tokyo is devastated by the nuclear attack. Following this Japan finds itself plagued by giant monsters over the next sixty years. In August 2003, American military pilot Zoe Flynn arrives in the rebuilt city, on secondment to the Tokyo Storm Exo War unit. Tokyo Storm pilots the ARCangels, a trio of advanced, seemingly alien
mecha In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines, typically depicted as piloted, humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the meaning in Japan ...
that mysteriously appeared in
Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan spanning the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture, on the southern coast of the island of Honshu. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. Th ...
in 1992. Equally enigmatic is Tokyo Storm Tower's power source. Flynn is assigned to take the place of fellow exchange pilot Kaneshiro in ARCangel 3, only for the city to immediately suffer a monster manifestation. With Tokyo being destroyed, Flynn has to go straight into battle with the other ARCangels despite her only previous experience being in simulators. Like other manifestations, the monster heads for Tokyo Storm Tower, which was ground zero for the nuclear blast in 1945. With the launch of the other ARCangels delayed by technical problems, Flynn is left battling alone until the arrival of the experienced Renji Yamashiro in ARCangel 1, with the fight causing huge casualties in the city around them. With support from Yamashiro, Flynn is able to destroy the creature. Afterwards, she tries to find out more about previous unexplained robotic defenders of the city such as the Hypermen and Megashogun from Yameshiro and ARCangel 2 pilot Kishitani. Flynn later questions Sakai and Yameshiro about the unexplained appearances and motives of the monsters, but her investigation is cut short by a new manifestation - this time of an unprecedented three monsters simultaneously. All three ARCangels are launched in response, but ARCangels 1 and 2 are swiftly incapacitated. With the trio of monsters bearing down on the Tower, Sakai confesses that he is the cause of the manifestations through keeping the source of the wonders in the Tower's Terminal Command. Flynn kills him and heads down into Terminal Command, finding a young boy called Eiko who has been drawing monsters and robots since the bomb dropped on Tokyo who is somehow causing them to appear but holding himself in stasis. Flynn is able to persuade him to walk into the suspended nuclear explosion and die, saving Tokyo and causing the various monsters and robots to instantly vanish.


Reception

''Tokyo Storm Warning'' has received largely negative reviews. In an overview of Ellis' work for ''
Locus Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Mathematics and science * Locus (mathematics), the set of points satisfying a particular condition, often forming a curve * Root locus analysis, a diagram visualizing the position of r ...
'',
Claude Lalumière Claude Lalumière (born 1966) is an author, book reviewer and has edited numerous anthologies. A resident of Montreal, Quebec, he writes the Montreal Gazette, ''Montreal Gazette's'' Fantastic Fiction column. He also owned and operated two indepen ...
called the series "sloppily told and confusingly illustrated" while also being "overly simplistic", comparing it negatively to thematically similar issues of '' Planetary''. ''
Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' were also unimpressed, criticising the weak pay-off and Raiz' "cluttered and hard to follow" art.


Collected editions

The series was collected into a 'flip book' trade paperback with ''
Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...
''.


References


External links

* {{Warren Ellis 2003 comics debuts 2003 comics endings WildStorm limited series Comics by Warren Ellis Kaiju Mecha comics Comics set in Tokyo