Wednesday, June 8, 2011

MEKA - Adam Borgia


1. Analyze: Falling Action - Primary
Ryan has already established how important the Event is for this story, that of a large-scale mech battle... I would add an Event within that Event (one that is part of the larger whole, but more specific to the characters) which may be identified as their mech being destroyed. I would label this smaller Event as the climax for this volume, making the results afterward the Falling Action (and thus the preceding actions part of the Rising Action). The battle still continues for the two characters, but their method of survival has gone from being one defined by technology to one defined by personal drive and instinct, the latter being thrust upon them by the failure of the former. I believe this deserves to be identified as "primary" if only because the narrative is driven by these two characters working together in the face of danger, and would be just as coherent (as much as possible in a French comic anyway) if done in any other setting or period.

2. Rating: PG-13
There is a lot of pervasive violence going on, though most of it is between machines or between man and machine. Physical bloodshed is shown, but mostly from a distance as part of the atmosphere, and the story doesn't dwell on it. Nudity is present, but not explicit. The panels and shots are organized in such a way so that you know they are naked because of circumstance, but like the gore mentioned earlier, the story doesn't dwell on it. The rating is due more to the violence than any nudity.

3. Springboard:
Both Ryan and Chad have already discussed the attention to detail in the architecture of the environment and the construction of the machines, either large or small. You can review their comments for more insight into this. I did appreciate how the artist/creator didn't completely ignore physics, which sometimes happens in science fiction. Bodies reacted fairly believably to explosions, quakes and being thrown around violently in a giant mech (I would totally expect that to play out in such a way...). Since there are numerous grenades being tossed like candy toward the end, and the two characters are always covering up their ears, I was interested in looking into how grenades affect hearing. Warfare has been documented to cause temporary or permanent hearing loss. And those with sensorineural hearing loss have a different threshold for sound--the softest sound audible to them is louder than the softest sound perceived by those with normal hearing.

4. Apply:
I don't want mechs in my story. I like them, but I don't think they belong. I do like French though, so maybe putting that in somehow... My treatment also doesn't have the vibe of a survival story, but there are elements of desperation that I could use.

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