Nocean by Efa
Published by Europe Books on February 22, 2023 by Europe Books

Graphic Novel, Eco-fiction, Dystopia, Young Adult
* Recommend for the positive friendship between the two young female main characters, and the grandmother's restaurant. *
Loved the colors used for the artwork. The details of her home interior and Iaia’s restaurant were especially nice. The positive friendship and motivation to make change engaged me, though overall left me wanting more. I would’ve liked more time spent on character development than with the plot, though I understand the need to keep a forward momentum for pacing purposes. Even so, Atari and Tika are great characters.

For those who enjoy dystopian stories, this was a decent read. Nothing that new in terms of plot and worldbuilding: dystopian city/government, oceans destroyed, and terrorists groups fighting the evil government while some common kids who have lost parents are stuck in the middle. That’s all pretty cliche and doesn’t move much past it. That said, the main character has some tech skills and the friend she makes is pretty awesome, nice design there, so that pulled me along.

I’ll likely purchase a copy for my daughters (around late elementary school to junior high school age), and would recommend it for around that age on into high school. Fun Robin Hood sister duo. The story overall lands with a pretty decent messaging in terms of doing the right thing and being wary of negative influences. While, thankfully, this volume was satisfying on it’s own, I am interested to see what the author does with volume 2.

Thank you Europe Comics and NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review. I’ll keep my eyes open for more.

Final rating: 3/5 stars. Loved the Atari and Tika friendship and the colors; wanted more character depth and less of the basic plot.

wow, the plot was so interesting. it made me think about our future in this planet. the water is an important supply in these days, what would happen if one day is limited.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book

Graphic novel seems okay. Kind of a classic topic for graphic novels, speculative/scifi/environmental. It is quite predictable and the dialogue seems kinda unnatural. I liked the art style.

This is highly imaginative and colourful. Set in a dystopian version of earth, sea levels have risen due to the melting of the ice caps. The world is run by a government called Systema, and the rich live in privileged ghettos. In the midst of this two young girls find ways to resist and struggle against the oppression.

The artwork is bright, vivid and captivating. I enjoyed reading this. This is only the first volume so much of the story was introducing the characters. It is a good first volume and I am looking forward to the next!

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I found the cover art and description of this comic to be very intriguing. A world that has fallen to the effects of climate change and is ultimately run by corporations does not seem implausible, so it was disappointing that this comic didn't explore any part of these concepts in depth. Instead this fell back on the commonly told story of rebels vs. the system in a dystopian world, albeit without the nuance and thoughtfulness that could have still made for a compelling read. The overall pacing of the story moved way too fast before any proper character development could occur. The motivations for (and eventual arguments against) the depicted rebel group really should have been described in more detail, otherwise it sends a woefully dangerous and superficial message about the power balance between the oppressor and the oppressed (violence by the oppressor and violence by the oppressed against the oppressor are not the same).

A super short graphic novel that packs a massive punch. This explores the kind of dystopian society that is very plausible and could definitely happen, maybe even in this lifetime. I can't wait to read the next one, I'm invested!

In this world the oceans have become deadly, which is why they are called Noceans.
We mainly follow Atari, a head strong person who has lost a lot at a very young age.

I liked the art style a lot. Everything was beautiful to look at, and also really clear.
I would have liked some more world building though, but I understand the limited capacity of a comic does not always lend itself to that.
I am intrigued enough to keep reading the rest of the series, because I really want to know what is up with Tika.

Nocean is the story about Atari, a young girl growing up in a post-apocalyptic world where the oceans turned toxic and water became a luxury. The Story starts with Atari losing her mother to the Systema, a military type group keeping order and most importantly the rich safe. The actual story starts after a time jump of 12 years.
This was a very quick read with beautiful illustrations and cityscapes, but the story moved way too fast. This ended up confusing me a lot and it felt like some parts of the story were missing. Especially the way the characters met and immediately trusted each other felt too fast and too convenient. The setup should have been a little longer and more focused on developing genuine relationships. The book ended with a found family after only 60 pages.
Nevertheless, this felt like a nice setup for future volumes with interesting worldbuilding and the potential for strong character development.
It also needs to be mentioned that the actual quality of the comic was quite low, which made it a little hard to read.

This is an intro to a futuristic world where the human race didn't do everything right. Where they messed up and the planet couldn't right itself after the destruction the human race brought upon it. The story centers around a women of color who's mother died trying to escape a group of people set on separating the society into different sections of the city.
Excited to see more of the world! From the little sneak peaks of the world through the art, I'm excited to learn more about the twisted world and the different sections.

Beautiful artwork. Story very relatable. But at some points felt like we were rushing through the story itself. But I am intrigued for what's next to come from this.

A quick read, the art is gorgeous although I think the colours schemes were a bit off in places. I didn't really like the main character at the start, although I don't think there was enough chance to give her more substance.

Generally the story was ok, but the dialogue felt so off sometimes, and obviously with it being so short everything happened so fast, there wasn't really a lot of build-up or time to trust (and then be betrayed by!) certain characters

The ending really helped a lot though, it was very sweet and heartfelt, and it definitely needs a continuation!

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This was a super interesting graphic novel. The storyline kept me interested and gripped the entire time. The art style was also perfect for the story. I look forward to learning more and getting to know the characters more in the future.

I really enjoyed the comic. This was my first time reading a different type of comic other than a manga and I love the art style! There was emotion from the beginning when our main character was a little girl and I love that she's trying to make everything a better place. 4.5 stars for me. I totally recommend.

Nice, colour-rich aesthetics of the world - who doesn’t love themselves a little bubblegum environmental dystopia — were a promising start, as was the choice to engage with the question of protest movement vs terrorism; but the execution was very simplistic, not leaving much to nuance and too fond of dramatic proclamations. I don’t know how much of it is due to its target audience (it feels very middle grade), how much is attributable to the fact that it‘s an opening arc of a larger story, but I would have happily let go of any concept of closure or answers if the questions were asked more impactfully.

This had an interesting concept but I thought the way it dealt with the conflict was a bit simplistic.

While I think this overall may be a promising start, I'm not entirely sold on the series yet. I have a bit of experience with sci-fi at this point, especially with sci-fi focused on the environment and the potential dystopian spin-offs that can stem from that. It didn't quite feel like this book did anything unique there yet. I also generally find it hard to believe in peaceful protests in such clearly dystopian worlds like this, especially when the main characters seem to hold little political power to start with. As Babel so wonderfully illustrated, sometimes violence is a necessity, and I'm not convinced that it isn't in this world yet. While I do definitely see that the group that Atari fell in with originally was selfish, I also mourn the loss of Atari's anger from the beginning of this volume. (Which, considering this volume is only 60 pages approximately, felt like a quick shift on top of that). However, I do still have some interest in the world itself, and can see myself trying another volume or two in the future, to see if the story turns into something I end up really enjoying. There's a good base here, and since so much of the world is still heavily shrouded in mystery, I'm interested in seeing more layers to this world before passing a full judgement on whether this series is for me or not!

A relatable story of pollution, water shortages, and social pandemics, but poorly executed. The author feels the need to spell out everything for the reader, leaving no room for subtlety. The language is forced and unrealistic and the main character has few likeable traits.

I thought Nocean was going to be about revolutionaries and found family but it really wasn't. I hated the ideologies stated here in this book. Of course, you'd say "violence breeds violence" and "revolutionaries are just as bad as terrorists" when you're not living in a hellish dystopian society where every movement of yours is being oppressed by a system that you can't fight back lest you become a "terrorist." Because of my life experiences in Myanmar during a revolution, this book leaves such a sour taste in my mouth. People fighting back against a regime sometimes have no choice but to choose the road of violence. And even then, it doesn't make them as bad as the system which has been long-implemented and strictly upheld by the rich and the authoritative. The art and the story is good enough for me to rate it 2 stars. But Atari isn't actually fighting the system. In fact, I didn't see her do anything at the end of the book. I won't be following up on this series as I find this book superficial and judgemental when it could've been deep and life changing.

[3.5]
I really loved the art style in this one! I loved the dystopian landscape and the futuristic elements. However the plot fell flat for me, and while it has good fast-paced action and dialogues, it just didn't click with me. The characters, Atari and Tika, were likeable though, much more than the Drop people. I felt that the pacing was too quick, what with the book being only 64 pages long, and therefore there were so little details and lots of plot holes. The names of the places in this book were so on the nose, it either irritated me (like Nocean, the dangerous and unusable ocean; and Systema, the new government) or amused me (Toxi City, get it? I love this for some reason). The trope that eco-activists are actually eco-terrorists wasn't,, done nicely? I don't know, but I can't believe they were so mean in general and also ready to kill a literal child at one point. I hope the next book would be more detailed and answers most of my questions.

Thank you NetGalley and Europe Comics for the eARC!

The bold colors of the cover and the premise intrigued me: a world where the ocean swallowed up land and turned poisonous, where corporations and a new government seized power amid the ensuing chaos, leaving a large portion of the population to fend for themselves. Neat idea, right?
This premise, however, is only briefly alluded to in the beginning. I was hoping for a more environmentalist angle, but Nocean's setting quickly devolves into just another generic cyberpunk-y dystopian city. Apart from water shortages (which you could swap with any other resource without altering the story in the slightest), you don't feel any impact of the environmental disaster that apparently had changed the whole world. This is a wasted opportunity and a shame because I think it was a very promising idea and could have set Nocean apart from other stories. That being said, I liked most of the character designs and the world had a little of a The Fifth Element-feel to it, especially Atari's "new" apartment - that's a positive in my book.

Other parts were less successful. I felt the overall writing was not too great and the pacing was clunky and rushed. What I really dislike about Nocean, though, are its politics. I want to echo what another reviewer said: the whole "we're just as bad as them if we use violence!"-sentiment expressed in the story needs to die.
The revolutionaries Atari meets are portrayed as relentless bullies who are unnecessarily rude to restaurant staff and, at one point, are ready to kill a child/teen. Nocean portrays revolutionaries as needlessly cruel and mean-spirited, ready for violence even if it doesn't serve their cause. This flat characterization serves as grounds for Atari to dismiss the group as "equally as bad as Systema" and that is a really harmful take in my opinion. An oppressor perpetrating violence and an oppressed people doing it are NOT the same. Saying the two ARE the same simply is a lie, often used to discourage revolution, and here, I feel this idea is even used to conclude that everything is not as bad as it could be.
In the beginning, Atari is living with Iaia and is mad at her for not fighting the status quo, which prompts Iaia to say that there wouldn't be much use anyway, so she rather keeps a low profile. Atari leaves, stumbles upon a group of revolutionaries, concludes that she isn't onboard with their way of achieving change and, in the end, returns to Iaia, this time content with her living conditions and conceding that Iaia was right all along. Though she vows to change the system "the right way" going forward, we don't know what that means and it seems like she is okay with the status quo.

Additionally, the blurb says Atari & Tika become "modern-day Robin Hoods", even though that storyline doesn't come up in this volume. Though, based on what I've read, I wouldn't be surprised if the story concludes just this way: Robin Hood is not a story about enacting systemic change, but about an individual who decides to help out other individuals in a bad system. Nocean seems to me to follow the same notion (haha, puns), and it is just one I don't agree with in the slightest.