A Midnight Opera

Plot

The series focuses on two brothers, Ein and Leroux DeLaLune.

Development

Born in Syria, Hans Steinbach lived in many countries, including Germany, France, Turkey and Canada, before moving to the United States; There is a major issue in Tokyopop after writing a major publisher in the States. Steinbach considered the story “a little too straight forward, too linear”.  ^[1]  Because it was very much focused on the missions Einblick with the Catholic Church, Steinbech rewrote it, with help from his editor at Tokyopop, to allow Einblick’s personality to develop. He changed Einblick from an assassin to “an undead, chain-smoking metalhead with a grudge”.  ^[1]  Steinbach Was inspired by  Phantom of the Opera  , since it combined horror and music, something Steinbach wanted to do for  A Midnight Opera . His goal for the series was “to combine fact and fiction, historical facts with fictitious (and not so fictitious) characters”.  ^[1]

Steinbach has been drawn by manga artists , especially Go Nagai and Akira Toriyama .  ^[2]  Additionally, he is influenced by classical and metal music as Yngwie Malmsteen and the Dark Moor bands , Metallica , Symphony X , Iron Maiden , Stratovarius , Blind Guardian , Rhapsody , and Judas Priest .  ^[1]

Media

OEL manga

Written and Illustrated by Hans Steinbach ,  A Midnight Opera  was published in North America by Tokyopop from November 8, 2005 to November 7, 2006.  ^[3]  However, as of August 31, 2009, the series is out-of-print .  ^[4]  In New Zealand and Australia, the series is distributed by Madman Entertainment .  ^[5]  The series is also licensed in Germany by Tokyopop Germany ,  ^[6]  and in Hungary by Mangattack.  ^[7]

Volume list

No.	Release date	ISBN
01	November 8, 2005  [3]	ISBN  978-1-59816-265-3
02	April 11, 2006  [3]	ISBN  978-1-59816-471-8
03	November 7, 2006  [3]	ISBN  978-1-4278-0007-7

Animated shorts

Menfond Electronic Art adapted  A Midnight Opera  into animated short episodes. The episodes premiered on My Space along with the short episodes of  Bizenghast  ,  I Luv Halloween  , and  Riding Shotgun  in summer 2007.  ^[8]

Reception

Midnight Opera  received mixed reviews from critics. About.com ‘s Katherine Luther praised the series as a “gothic horror manga full of thrills, chills and okays, a little gore” and more appropriate for older readers.  ^[9]  KJB of IGNstated: “Steinbach has managed to take all of these elements into account.  ^[10]  Manga Life’s Craig Johnson commented on the “brave and experimental” art and that “the story is not as revolutionary as the art … neither is it accessible.”  ^[11]  Zac Bertschy of Anime News NetworkHeavily Criticized the series as “[h] orrifically cliched and hackneyed, with laughably bad dialogue and interior art”, and wrote: “It’s hard to tell if  A Midnight Opera  is an exercise in plain marketing hubris- pandering directly to the Hot Topic crowd -or simply a case of the author taking himself and his work far too seriously and churning out cliché after cliche, convinced of his own genius, unaware of the tripe he’s created. ”  ^[12]

References