Before we move on, let’s get one thing clear: Clock Striker has nothing to do with time, but reading it is a great way to spend your time. Brought to you by Saturday AM’s writer Frederick L. Jones and artist Issaka Galadima, Clock Striker reads like a spiritual successor to Hiromu Arakawa’s Full Metal Alchemist. The story is centered around Cast, a plucky young girl who dreams of making a difference in the world as a Smith but is currently just a Striker (apprentice) for Ms. Clock, one of the last few Smiths who is a bundle of mysteries. Together, they do as Smiths do: dismantle old weapons of war and, according to Cast, “dedicate their lives to designing tools that help people.” They are a fun duo to follow who exist in a world that is buzzing with intrigue. Clock Striker is not perfect, but you get a great introduction to a world of machines, gangs, and friendship.
Clock Stricker Art Style
From laying my eyes on the cover, I knew I would enjoy the art! Upon opening the book, I looked at the pages with glee. There is a perfect synchronicity between Galadima’s art style and Jones’ narrative energy. There is a fair amount of humor, and the way the book looks facilitates this. The art is not overly realistic and makes the humor shine even brighter. This is due to Galadima being excellent at conveying character expressions and creating fantastically designed characters. Cast is a bundle of authentic positive energy, and her hand distinguishes her from other characters. Ms. Clock is dressed in a Victorian dress but wears some funky star-shaped glasses (I want them!), and the juxtaposition of the two ensures her image doesn’t leave your head.
When these characters fight, we see Galadima can do humor and action well. It is their attention to detail that makes these moments so engaging. You can see the strain of a goon as he tries to stab Ms. Clock with his iron unicorn-esque horn, or the lights go out of another goon’s head as he is smashed into the ground. Breaking environments makes you understand the force of certain attacks as they land. Speaking of environments, whether in action or slow moments, they are well drawn. Calm skies with snow falling look peaceful, foreshadowing danger, and no wall is safe during an explosive fight. Galadima’s art is of the highest tier in many regards and gives me shades of One Piece and Full Metal Alchemist while standing on its own.
Clock Striker Writing Style
Jones writes us a first volume that truly could head in a thousand different directions. We have a war where all the Smiths were supposedly wiped out, but it has left its effect on the world – whether it’s a war machine that needs to be destroyed lest the wrong people get their hands on it or it’s killing the nutrients for crops. The past war isn’t just some lore in this story. We have royal families who have a member who is missing, and we have gangs and bandits looking to profit off of it. Normally, I would say that all of these things bloat the volume, but that’s not the case here. Jones makes sure not to overemphasize any of these factors, making each one an enjoyable possible path for the story.
Jones’s characters are magnetic, drawing you along any possible narrative path. Cast is very enjoyable; she has that sparky, Shonen energy, but it’s not overbearing. There is a grounded quality to her positivity. Jones shows her in varying scenarios well, so we get a good picture of her personality. We see her ambition to be a Smith in school, why she wants to be a Smith with her sick mother and injured brother, and her genius as she invents things throughout the story. Ms. Clock has a very prim attitude with a lot of confidence. Even with all this, she is kind – to a point. The way she is written will leave readers wondering a lot about her past and whether Smiths are just your cookie-cutter good guys.
Where Clock Striker Strikes Out
Clock Striker does many things right, but a few things weren’t up to the standards it set for itself. The art during action sequences can be a bit muddled at times. During my read, there were a few panels where the speed lines swallowed up the action. Whatever relevant body parts my eyes needed to follow lacked clarity. Bolder silhouettes or a more measured use of speed lines took me out of moments as I figured out what I was looking at. The pacing of fights could be tempered. It felt like some of the fights were a special move fest. Many sequences quickly had characters smashed into walls or found in a blast. This desensitized me to such moments because characters bounced back with little explanation for how they survived a giant drill scraping them. This is the first volume, so maybe explanations come later, but it was reoccurring. This, coupled with the occasional lack of visible battle damage, took a little of the bite out of the very well-drawn action sequences. How does a character have a hole ripped into them, and we don’t get to see them experience that for a second, regardless of their regeneration ability? (I do understand battle damage of that extent might be left out for marketing purposes and such.)
In a story called Clock Striker, there are, ironically, points where time isn’t handled well, and it either loses potential for added suspense or dampens it. There is one instance where we are told that a bomb is in the building, and then it blows up almost immediately. I would have been more immersed if Cast had to come in fight some robots, and take care of the bomb while having the timer in the corner of the panels. Then, when it blows up, we have the pain of seeing her try hard and possibly die. There is another instance where the bad guys run away because of impending danger, but the danger isn’t so impending that Cast can’t have a pow-wow to figure out how to evade it. As these things stand in the volume, they are okay, but there was an opportunity to be sucked in even more by the story.
Clock Striker is a Great Way to Spend Your Time
Clock Striker is fun, and none of its flaws beat that into submission. It may have nothing to do with time mechanics (yet), but it is a great way to spend your time, and I stand on that. Jones and Galadima bring to the world of Shonen manga a gorgeously drawn story, a complex, beautiful machine of a world, and characters that you will want to return to. I want to see what Cast and Ms. Clock have in store for them in the next volume.
Clock Striker Volume 1 is available at Barnes & Noble, Target, Books-a-Million, and Walmart. It can also be digitally read on Saturday AM’s website and app.