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A review by versmonesprit
Mobilis by Juni Ba
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
Inspired by Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Juni Ba creates an original eco-fiction that not only is utterly urgent for our times, but also has a timeless message about the importance of preserving our common cultural heritage as well as our planet.
Mobilis is a deceptively simple graphic novel. At its surface is a speculative/SciFi tale that sometimes veers into the Lovecraftian territory, about humanity’s future in which all has been swallowed up by the seas, and a child is found in a pod centuries after she was put in it. She’s raised by the submarine Nautilus’s AI, and eventually taken under the hesitant and haunted captain’s educative wing.
As Mobilis goes on and the child, Arona, grows, we learn the story of the now long-gone crew of the Nautilus while darker forces threaten to take over.
Ultimately, Mobilis is about hope, humanity, sacrifice, duty and responsibility, fraternal love, and of course, at its heart, environmentalism.
It is a solid story (no plot holes or rational inconsistencies) with so much heart, intriguing and absorbing, moving and striking. Yet again: its simplicity is surface-deep. Let your head break the water, and beneath you will discover that so much thought must’ve gone into it. Nothing is haphazard, nothing is random. From the importance of the name Nemo (which will land at the end) to the motto taken from Jules Verne (“mobilis in mobile” — moving with movement, changing with change) Juni Ba has done a marvellous job in plotting and executing a story that will stay with the reader long after the last page has been turned.
Readers of any and all ages can and should read Mobilis, and if you love a highly visual graphic novel experience, you will fall in love with how so much of the story is told by the images themselves. Hats off to Ba, and thank you for creating this beautiful book.
Mobilis is a deceptively simple graphic novel. At its surface is a speculative/SciFi tale that sometimes veers into the Lovecraftian territory, about humanity’s future in which all has been swallowed up by the seas, and a child is found in a pod centuries after she was put in it. She’s raised by the submarine Nautilus’s AI, and eventually taken under the hesitant and haunted captain’s educative wing.
As Mobilis goes on and the child, Arona, grows, we learn the story of the now long-gone crew of the Nautilus while darker forces threaten to take over.
Ultimately, Mobilis is about hope, humanity, sacrifice, duty and responsibility, fraternal love, and of course, at its heart, environmentalism.
It is a solid story (no plot holes or rational inconsistencies) with so much heart, intriguing and absorbing, moving and striking. Yet again: its simplicity is surface-deep. Let your head break the water, and beneath you will discover that so much thought must’ve gone into it. Nothing is haphazard, nothing is random. From the importance of the name Nemo (which will land at the end) to the motto taken from Jules Verne (“mobilis in mobile” — moving with movement, changing with change) Juni Ba has done a marvellous job in plotting and executing a story that will stay with the reader long after the last page has been turned.
Readers of any and all ages can and should read Mobilis, and if you love a highly visual graphic novel experience, you will fall in love with how so much of the story is told by the images themselves. Hats off to Ba, and thank you for creating this beautiful book.