I was glad I didn't read this one first. The series is SO GOOD later on, but it makes sense it would take the artist a while to build up steam. This was interesting for completists, but compared to the stuff that comes later it doesn't hold up. It's mostly engaging from an acadmic perspective. More than once he takes two pages to gloss over a story arc that other comics would take years to cover. Like how The first two seasons of The OC were. Really? Kai infiltrated the Noh? Oh wait it's over. All the Noh operatives kill these different kingpins? Oh wait it's over. The end result is that you don't engage with the characters much. But still, interesting that for a violent/action comic, it's much more focused on the cerebral/internal action, even this early on.
Also this reprint is fairly poor quality. The binding makes it so it's hard to see the art towards the middle of the pages, and much of the text is almost illegible. Boo to whoever proofed these pages.
In summation, read Scarab and Skin Deep and Alchemy.