Xenon (manga)

Xenon (重機甲兵ゼノン) is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Masaomi Kanzaki. The manga was published in 1986 by Shogakukan and 2000 by Kodansha. The manga was licensed by Eclipse Comics in 1987 and by Viz Communications in 1992. The manga is licensed for a French-language release in France by Génération Comics and Semic Comics, licensed for a German-language release in Germany by Planet Manga, and licensed in Taiwan by Taiwan Tohan. A 2006 sequel Xenon -199X R- was serialized in Tokuma shoten's Seinen magazine Monthly Comic Ryū.

Manga
Kodansha published the manga's 4 bound volumes between March 1986 and March 1987.

Story
A dramatic story set in contemporary Japan, about a guy with amnesia, who finds out he was turned into a super-cyborg in a corporate weapon research program. He goes on a mission of revenge. A little shallow, perhaps, but a good example of Shonen SF/action manga. The manga ended abruptly, because the magazine it was being serialized in changed its target public and it was decided that Xenon didn't fit in anymore.

Reception
The French Manga-News regarded the first volume as "a good action manga if you like the author or the genre, but dispensable for others". While praising the art, the Manga-News reviewer felt the story was unoriginal. He felt that the "non-stop action" prevented the series from sinking into caricatures, and noted that the popularity of the manga kept the manga going into a fourth volume, and found the last volume "most interesting".

On a little known site anime news network 12 users have reviewed it to varying responses with 1 user calling it excellent,4 votes for very good,2 for decent,2 for mediocre,2 for not very good and 1 vote for weak.

On good reads volume 1 of Xenon has garnered an average rating of 3.19 from 16 different reviewers .The second book garnered a rating of 3.07 reviewed by 14 people .The third volume received a 3.50 rating on good reads and a 5 star rating on amazon although both reviews were by a hand full of people. The fourth and last one was reviewed by 8 people and garnered a rating of 3.38.