Genre Action
Age Rating 13+
Price $13.95

The 10th King of Fighters semi-finals officially begin with Team K' vs. The High School Girls Team on top of the zooming "Highway Star Express." However, their match is unexpectedly interrupted by the former leader of NESTS' research department, the Phantom Pain-Kirameki Kannaduki, who suddenly attacks K'. What will happen to K'... On the other end of the world, on a sailboat on the Nile River, the second battle of the semi-finals is taking place - Hero Team vs Wolf Team. Shen-Woo vs.Terry Bogard begin the incredible battle between the two highly-skilled teams. Both fighters pull out all they have for battle, and despite the unexpected result, the sensational combat touches the whole world.

Any kid who played video games in the 90's would remember King of Fighters, one of the more popular fighting games outside of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. This graphic novel attempts to tell the story of that game with the K' team as its protagonist. I haven't read the previous volumes but managed to make sense out of everything thanks to a handy flashback scene in the first two pages and lots of exposition text boxes.

I have mixed feelings about this graphic novel. First off is the art. This is a fighting comic for God's sake so I expected it to have decent fighting scenes. On one hand, there are pages where the art is fantastic, especially considering they're in full-color. Having said that, half of the time, I don't really understand the attacks and techniques the characters are making. Perhaps the problem is that despite its anime-look, King of Fighters 2003 is drawn as if it were a Western comic and thus you don't really have those cinematic action scenes one finds in manga. This is very much a compressed fighting comic and the fact that it relies on narrative boxes too many times for comfort.

Fans of the series will probably enjoy the fact that the special moves of the various characters are spelled out whenever they execute them, even something as simple as dodging. Personally, it was quirky in the first few pages but gets tiring over the course of the entire graphic novel. But hey, that might be just me. Also, a lot of characters from the series show up here so King of Fighter fans are in for a treat.

Characterization is nothing to rave about and is pretty much formulaic if not melodramatic. But in the long run, that probably shouldn't matter since the various characters are fighting more than half the time. Overall King of Fighters fans might consider taking a peek at this comic. The biggest stickler for me is that this is all about the fights and while there are gems of eye candy here and there, the portrayal is pretty much uneven, making it less than optimal for non-fans. As long as you know what you're getting into, King of Fighters 2003 Vol. 4 is full of nonstop action and heated conflict.

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