In the year 2182, citizens of a dying Earth flee to a distant promised land in a massive colony ship, the Arka III. They do not reach their intended destination…
In the not-too-distant future, the Earth has been destroyed, its orbit withering and its citizens desperate to escape to the stars. The solution? The Arka project, massive vessels bound for the distant planet of Leonis.
When the passengers of Arka III awaken from their long intergalactic journey, they realize they’re not on Leonis. Not only that, their journey has taken much longer than the planned two hundred years, and has landed them in a starless, seemingly endless void. Eric Rives, the ship’s second-in-command, and his partner Jia Tang are sent on an exploratory mission to investigate the dark labyrinth that surrounds them…but what they find is beyond belief.
Rama meets colony ships. I haven’t read the original but suspect this adaptation tried to stay too true to it because there was so much plot there wasn’t room to develop any characters or explain things. I thought the sentient insects were the most unique aspect, but the plot instead focused on the explorers, which is much more trodden territory, so less interesting.
I didn’t understand Johanna’s motivations and suspected there must be some nefarious reason, but I think it was all her. Eric is a bumbling tool — it would have been more interesting for Jia to serve as the other main character to Johanna instead.
The art was pretty but the people were leaden — either neutral expressions, closed mouths when they’re speaking, or dramatically over the top. The insects were almost more expressive by virtue of body language — though I had a hard time telling them apart, which made their story difficult to follow.
