Writer: Paul Venstra
Artist: Breno Braga
Independently published, April 2024
Nymphobots is a sci-fi/cyberpunk comic book mini-series written by Paul Veenstra and illustrated by Breno Braga. The story is set in the year 2147, and revolves around the concept of advanced human-like robots called the Nymphobots, which were created and sold commercially by mega corporations that effectively rule the world. As the name not-so-subtly implies, these robots were created solely for the purpose of satiating human owners’ sexual needs. Here is the marketing pitch from the creators’ Kickstarter page (be warned, double entendres abound):
Thrust into the year 2147, where innovation climaxes with the creation of highly advanced Sex bots, known as Nymphobots. An insatiable appetite for these lustful mechanisms means throbbing profits for the Mega Corporations that rule the World. But when one Nymphobot breaks the shackles of her programming and kills her Handler, she threatens to bring the dominating powers to their knees!
Nymphobots is a fun and seductive Sci-fi Adventure with 32 pages of high quality color action! If you are looking for a good time, then you found it!
Imagine if Ghost in the Shell and Cyberpunk had a baby, they would name it Nymphobots and it would be a quirky neon adventure!
The main conflict in Nymphobots, or at least in the first and second issues, is that a Nymphobot can go against programming and refuse to fulfil her primary needs, even killing her owner if need be. The premise might feel familiar to readers, as it has been tackled by numerous sci-fi yarns from both the West and the East. Fans of anime might see similarities with the plot of Ghost in the Shell, or even point to it as a horribly darker version of Chobits. One disturbing scene in particular seems taken straight from the television series Westworld:
Since the premise is not novel, it is fortunate that Nymphobots redeems itself in its execution. The verbose and somewhat over-dramatic dialogue writing may seem off-putting to readers expecting a poignant tale about self-idealization and free will, but Nymphobots is plainly targeted towards people who enjoy shonen and seinen manga, where dialogue is hyperactive and action scenes can be somewhat frenetic.
The story itself revolves around a young man named Danny, who by happenstance found a discarded sex bot in the dumpster. This sexbot was thrown out by its previous owner after resisting (the bot claims she was used as both a sex toy and a punching bag). Danny and the sexbot are eventually found by the original owner, who is implied to be a sadistic and corrupt policeman. It is therefore not surprising that the situation escalates into a physical confrontation, leaving the sexbot no choice but to defend her new friend.
The title is as heavy on the violence as it is in the sexual content. The sexbot is expectedly capable of physical abilities above those of a human. And to the artist’s credit, the violent scenes can be visually unnerving even when committed against a machine. Sparking circuits and stray wires are deliberately visually analogous to blood and innards.
The title should be enough warning, but we would be remiss if we did not mention that there is a substantial amount of nudity in the comic. This is not something to read if you are uncomfortable with sexually explicit content. The artistic style used by the team is not realistic but instead leans more towards Japanese stylized visuals, but the proportions of the body are still properly human. Like the sexbots themselves, the art serves readers looking for titillating visuals.
One criticism we have is the overuse of bright neon colors. The cyberpunk genre is synonymous with neon lighting, but Nymphobots could have toned it down a little. The inescapable neon pink strains the eyes, and particularly onerous is its use in the dialogue and caption boxes. It makes reading the text tedious.
All in all, however , Nymphobots is a comic that is suited to an audience looking for an easy-to-digest cyberpunk yarn laced with eye candy. Inevitably, the creators know their audience and is giving them exactly what they are looking for: the Kickstarter campaign was over-subscribed.
[Editor’s note: a link to the Kickstarter campaign is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulveenstra/nymphobots ]