Euro Previews: Roger Leloup’s All-Ages ‘Yoko Tsuno’ Thrills in ‘The Rhine Gold’

by Richard Bruton

The English version of Roger Leloup‘s fantastical female adventurer continues with a very different railway trip in The Rhine Gold.

Yoko Tsuno is a series praised all over for the clean lines of Roger Leloup’s artwork, the humanist principles of the adventures, and a strong female lead in Yoko. It’s fabulous and fantastical, with Yoko equally likely to be dealing with terrorists as she is with time travel in what are usually fast-paced, action-packed, and thoroughly entertaining tales.

This young electronics engineer travels the world and always seems to get embroiled in adventures that blur the line between real life and science fiction. Whether it’s across the world or through time, Yoko always finds a way to save the day, in stories full of friendship and a respect for life.

Volume 18, The Rhine Gold, finds Yoko in Köln, visiting her friend, Ingrid. But during a sightseeing trip to the cathedral, Yoko’s thrust into the middle of yet another mystery as a young Japanese woman is attacked, managing to whisper ‘Rheingold,’ the name of one of Wagner’s operas, before losing consciousness.

Yoko, of course, is intrigued and wants to get to the bottom of this mystery. It’s what she does after all! Swiftly, she’s in deep, there’s explosives involved and Rheingold also happens to be the name of a very special train.