H.P. Lovecraft's at the Mountains of Madness

At the Mountains of Madness – Spoiler Free – Recommended TLDR Story – 8/10 – 8 x 0.275 = 2,2 Art – 8/10 – 8 x 0.2 = 1,6 Characters – 5/10 – 5 x 0.225 = 1,125 Enjoyment – 7/10 – 7 x 0.3 = 2,1 Total: 7,025 -> 7 Story – 8/10At the Mountains of Madness adapts Lovecraft's longest story into a four-volume manga; it is, once more, a Gou Tanabe adaptation. It is a faithful rendition of the spirit and the atmosphere of the original story, having thus the same strengths and the same weaknesses of the original: it is mostly a story-driven manga – in opposition to a character-driven story –, that mostly serves to advance the element of horror in the Lovecraftian mythos. Art – 8/10 The art is quite good, although there are no awe-inspiring panels like in Call of Cthulhu, being weaker than the aforementioned work. The cadence of the panels is great, making the story easy to follow; the character design, however, is somewhat lacking, for most characters look like the next character. Characters – 5/10 Lovecraft is not known for its characters, and At the Mountains of Madness is no exception. The characters only serve to advance the lore of the Lovecraftian mythos and not anything else. They have no personality and play essentially no role; they are not memorable, and if they were replaced by a placeholder, it would have been the same: they are essentially figurines. Enjoyment – 7/10 The At the Mountains of Madness manga introduces one of the most important stories in the Lovecraftian repertoire, adding a rather well done visual dimension to the original story. The change in the medium doesn’t affect the appreciation of work in the slightest, although the original is also quite good according to Lovecraftian standards. Since it is an adaptation, and thus rendering it hard to review, since it has to live up to the original, what can be said is that it is an enjoyable work that faithfully adapts the original content with good – but not stellar – art, thus deserving a recommendation.