| Apr. 5th, 2009 @ 12:07 am Manga Review take 1 |
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Well by Todd's suggestion I ahve tried my hand a review of a manga, it follows.
Series: Holyland
Author: Kouji Mori
Artisti: Kouji Mori
Genera: Seinen
Status in Japan: 18 Volumes (Complete)
Scanlation Status: 44 chapters
Between the Worlds of Boys and Men here lies Holyland. Where Laws don't matter and the strongest rule. In that world "HE" roamed. Kamisiro Yu, he was there.
Holyland is the place where each person belongs, where each person can be his or her self. For the lead character, Kamisiro Yu it is the night life of his city, where delinquents rule, the weak are targeted, and strength is all that matters. The first time we meet Yu he uses a one-two punch to knock out a delinquent and then retreats into the crowded streets of the night. Yu however, is not a thug or delinquent. He is a small unassuming 15 or 16 year old that is targeted by those delinquents. Bullied horribly in Middle school, to the point where he stopped going to school and just wanted to make himself numb. Burying himself into games to deaden his emotions. That is until the eyes of pity he sees everyday finally get to him and he snaps, trashing his room and coming to the one solution. To end it all. On the verge of ending it, his deadened emotions and senses scream out to live. He stops his attempt and heads home. Along the way he stops by and picks up a book on boxing, thinking that if he knows how to punch he will know how to make it hurt less. Instead he finds away to clear his mind, by counting and over time and thousands of punches a day develops his one-two combo. With this he enters his Holyland and must continue to fight to stay in it or disappear from it and fall back into his insulated world of numbness. And thus he fights and continues to fight for he does not fear the pain, but fears losing his place, his Holyland.
While this has a similar base plot to the Shounen manga "History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi", where a bullied kid trains and eventually falls into a world of conflict from it. This however is far darker with more violence and the aura of desperation surrounding Yu to not lose the one place he can be himself. This tone permeates the manga and makes it all the better. It makes the action, fights, triumphs, losses all feel far more visceral and real then other combat oriented mangas. Yu never gets absurd power-ups mid fight, nor does he win fights without noticeable injuries. There's no hidden set of rules or decorum for fights, its knock-down drag-out use what you can combat. Where the only thing that wills save you is your own strength, backup, or the cops. This is all attributed to the stellar pairing of the writing and the art. The latter of which is superb. The lines are crisp and characters look real. The kicks, punches, throws, etc are dynamic and if you don't feel like punching something when you've finished a fight then there's something not quite right with you.
From the art I move back to the writing. As previously stated, its darker and more real then most fighting style manga, but that still does not keep it from having its share of stereotypical characters, not that that is a bad thing at all. The first and foremost being Yu himself and his meek and submissive mannerisms when not in a fight, its very much like Shinji from Evangelion as he needs to be forced into a corner to switch into badass mode. While its not as played out as you standard shounen hero, it still can be a little annoying at times. Less so since he had a Heroic Blue Screen of Death (HBSOD, that is a moment that shakes them to the very core causing them to crash)moment that switched him into a berserker mode, where he cares about nothing but making those responsible pay for what they did. This happened even to the point where he would have killed someone had it not been for the interference of the "Rival boss" character.
The "Rival Boss" character is known as Aizawa Masaki, the "Charisma of the Streets", a high schooler who once was nationally ranked in boxing until he threw it away for the street fighting life. While he doesn't outright fight Yu, you can tell he wants to, but not until Yu reaches his maximum ability. He even helps Yu out of a Lynch; gives him the answer of how to stay in his Holyland; and teaches him a technique, which Yu later masters. There relationship should be an interesting one to see develop over the remainder of the series and to see if he indeed does challenge Yu.
Though back stepping a bit to the HBSOD moment, the cause of which was the lynch (group beating) of his first friend, Kaneda Shinichi, one of the few people that sees Yu for who he is and nothing else. Story wise he is a cheerleader type, with no real combat ability (thus far) and as such has been sued for two main things thus far. The first being a friend to help remove the loneliness and isolation felt by Yu and the second to be the catalyst for Yu's HBSOD moment. As such he feels at times more like a "Zoidberg" then an actual character, but its still relatively early in the series so it might change.
There remain two characters left (or character types really) to discuss. The first being the "villain", however thus far there is no single one. The "bad guys" of this series are the delinquents who beat others up for money, fun, etc and/or spend their time hoped up on drugs beating anyone up who gets in their way. While this works well right now for this series, there is a chance it can get repetitive very quickly. While I don't want it to become like Dragon Ball Z with an every escalating power level of the "Next big threat" I would like for a leader to appear. Some one that the other delinquents follow and that can organize them in some way. A final boss of sorts, that will test Yu and give him a final target that will allow him to secure his Holyland.
Lastly there remains the ubiquitous love interest character that every manga seems to have. While Yu shows no emotions towards the opposite sex that could be perceived as interest there still is one that might eventually fall into this role. That person is Aizawa Mai, the younger sister of Misaki and a student in the same class as Yu. She first shows interest in Yu early on as he seems similar to her older brother. This is further developed on as she warns Shinichi that some older students are trying to bully Yu at school (though this more goes towards Shinichi saving the older students from a royal thrashing) and later on more so when she comments on Yu skipping school to her friends. This then leads to her seeing a more wild looking Yu covered in blood and causes her to ask her Older brother for help (unknown to either that each other knew him). Where this will go I do not know as its more hints and no outright character progression. But, as with watching Misaki's and Yu's interactions it will also be interesting to see the Relationship between Yu and Mai progress (or not move at all) in the coming chapters.
Overall this is a very good manag, well written and drawn and so far has not fallen to a lot of the common pitfalls of fighter mangas. I look forward to reading more once scanlated and recommend this if you are looking for a more gritty manga or just something new to read. Please note though that I am not responsible for any urge to kick, punch, throw, etc when reading this manga. |
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