Appearing thirty years after the first Druuna book, and thirteen after Book 8, Clone, Anima features a very different Druuna drawn in a quite different style from the previous books.

What narrative there is is implied rather than told in words, for there is no text, and the images are lighter and more colourful than Sapieri’s earlier books. The Druuna character is still the heroine, forever searching for her true self as she faces possible enemies both human and animal, but the textlessness allows for more individual interpretation. Is this an allusion to the paradise of the creation story, or a parable in self-defence, or a search for true meaning? At the end Druuna again faces herself, or a version of herself, in the cracked mirror, and maybe finally recognises that the truth was within her all the time.

It all feels as though this is maybe the best possible conclusion to Serpieri’s perfect-woman fantasy.

Anima was published by Glénat.