By Jonathan Edwards

As it turns out, Hollow Fields Vol. 1 was originally published in June of 2007 and black & white. Cut to roughly and a half years later, and Seven Seas Entertainment has opted to re-release this full-color version. I can’t say I’ve heard of that being a particularly common practice, at least in terms of the traditional manga publishing industry. However, Hollow Fields is not a part of the traditional industry. It’s an “original English-language” manga. And in this case, that means the writer and artist is Australian. I know some people have a huge issue with manga produced outside of Japan by people who aren’t Japanese, but I’m not really one of them. Sure, you’re inherently going to get some stylistic changes thanks to cultural differences, but if the general themes and tropes are congruent, then why should overseas works be excluded? Especially when there are people who dismiss any and all Japanese animation solely on the premise that they “don’t like anime.” This is despite the fact you might be trying to get them to watch Spirited Away, and all they’re familiar with is the likes of Bleach.