Ray: Volume 1

This quirky new manga is part crime noir, part girly exploitation and part medical drama. Writer/artist Yoshitomi focuses on Ray, a 20-something woman who was raised as part of a shadowy organ harvesting program. Though rescued from the "farm" when she was a little girl (thus avoiding certain death), she retains one mark of her past: blue eyes capable of x-ray vision. Now an adult, Ray works as a nurse and performs operations for people who can't afford any publicity: in other words, criminals. This first volume follows Ray as she becomes embroiled in a crime—giving a petty thief a kidney transplant—and then chances upon some clues about her own past, leading to a confrontation with her old captors and some elusive hints about the true nature of her childhood. Yoshitomi supplies a well-drawn and snappily written piece of work, showing a flair for sharp action sequences and seeming to relish drawing the explicit surgical scenes as much as the equally explicit sex scenes. Ray herself emerges as an appealing if humorless character, and the secrets of her back story are alluring enough to keep readers hooked. The scenes of organs being removed and other medical details should appeal to both the horror and CSI crowds. (Nov.)