Ninth Step Station s01e01 by Malka Older
Years of disaster and conflict have left Tokyo split
between great powers. In the city of drone-enforced borders, bodymod black
markets, and desperate resistance movements, US peacekeeper Emma Higashi is
assigned to partner with Tokyo Metropolitan Police Detective Miyako Koreda.
Together, they must race to solve a series of murders that test their
relationship and threaten to overturn the balance of global power. And amid the
chaos, they each need to decide what they are willing to do for peace.
Ninth Step Station is written by a collaboration of
authors including: Malka Older, Fran Wilde, Jacqueline Koyanagi and Curtis C.
Chen. Similar to all the serials from Serialbox, this story is also released in
episodes. Every episode is written by a different author.
Episode one: The Faceless Body
Enter Ninth Step Station. Enter a divided Tokyo. Half
Japanse/American and Half taken by China. The Faceless Body starts off with a mystery. A man is murdered in the subway and nobody noticed a thing. The designated police detective is Miyako Koreda, but before Miyako can start on this murder investigation she first has a meeting with her superior about a forced cooperation with an American police officer. Some joked are being made but Miyako is quite surprised when she meets her partner Emma Higashi. She has served in the military and actually knows some Japanese.
Almost simultaneously with the murder case a trucks gets hijacked in the Japanese part of Tokyo and gets smuggled into the Chinese part. This case has the main focus of Emma. As this could be a potential lead to start another stirrup in the unstable Tokyo. So a bit reluctantly Emma goes together with Miyako to the murder case. This is where the freaky part starts. The murder victims face has been removed. Lucky there is a lead for the duo in the end but it ends mostly with the victim being their at the wrong time and wrong place. Back to the hijacking of the truck. Here is a serious lead and this one shows one of the lines of the story. The tension between the Japanese and the Chinese separation of Tokyo. I bet that the faceless body also does not go without another lead in the story though.
This episode ends with a interesting sentence. "Everything is connected to it" with a reference to war.
When looking to the general promise of the story it delivers. Malka Older hits all the notes in describing this bleak Tokyo in a futuristic setting. There is not a real background of how Tokyo became divided so I hope that this gets more attention in the following episodes. One part that I enjoyed was the technology part of it. This series is compared to Crime Scene Investigation and Altered Carbon but for me it also has hints of Deus Ex in it. The body augments, though only touched briefly yet, can offer a lot of cool stuff to happen.
The relationship between Miyako and Emma is also interesting a native Japanese and an American, both have different habits and way of thinking. There are some clashes and cultural notices in this first episode. The good thing about this is, is that it is written naturally there are no scenes that read like it was forced. I think these two cultures will clash a bit more in the future episodes but that both Miyako and Emma, due to these difference will grow more towards being a team.
If you are looking for a serial to kick off your 2019 in a good way, get Ninth Step Station!
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