Review: BOMBER GIRL

Of course, not every series that runs in Jump can be a success.  Sometimes series fail, and fail quickly.  This is one of the few examples of such to see print in English.

BOMBER GIRL (Bonba Garu), by Makoto Niwano.  First published in 1994 and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

In a future Tokyo overrun with crime, bounty hunters compete to bring down the worst criminals with the biggest bounties.  The most notorious of them all is Rashomon Emi, a 19-year-old bombshell known for her custom tonfa sticks and her vicious, no-hold-barred attacks.  Time and time again she and her hapless neighbor/fellow bounty hunter Guy find themselves facing down the outrageous agents of Megalith, a band of terrorists determined to take over Tokyo and remold it in their own image.

Review: GUARDIAN ANGEL GETTEN

To wrap things up, let's look at a forgotten magical girlfriend series from an equally forgotten publisher (...and a later one that I wish we could forget).

GUARDIAN ANGEL GETTEN (Mamotte Shugogetten), by Sakurano Minene.  First published in 1997 and first published in North America in 2003.

 

PLOT:

Tasuke Shichiri is just another lonely, dorky high school boy with an absent family, few friends, and no girl to call his own.  This all changes when he gets a strange Chinese artifact from his father, from which emerges the moon spirit Shao Lin.  She declares that she will protect him from all harm, but can Tasuke protect her from the modern world and himself from his own growing feelings for her?

Review: SLAM DUNK

Of course, these days when people think of sports manga, they think of the fujo-friendly shonen series of recent years.  Y'know, your Frees, your Yowamushi Pedals, your Kurokos.  Let us not forget, though, one of the series that paved the way for such modern successes.

SLAM DUNK (Suramu Danku), by Takehiko Inoue.  First published in 1990, and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

Hanamichi Sakuragi is a tough guy that has no luck with the ladies.  His high school years look to be much the same until he meets Haruko.  She's cute and friendly, but she's only interested in guys who play basketball.  Thus, Sakuragi is determined to become the star of the school basketball team!  He's got a long way to go, though.  He's got to find a way to master the basics, impress the team captain, and win his way into Haruka's heart, all while fending off the goons from the upper classes.

STORY:

Wait, isn't this supposed to be a sports manga?  It's not like my last review, where the lack of sports was part of the joke.  Slam Dunk is generally regarded as one of the classics of sports manga.  So why is it then that this feels more like a shonen romance or one of those yankii-themed manga from back in the day?

If you've read any of the latter, then Sakuragi will feel very familiar to you.  Hell, all the characters will feel very familiar to you. Sakuragi is kind of dumb, stubborn as a mule, super strong, super girl-crazy, and yet simultaneously terrible with women.  He's got a weird-looking gang of hangers-on who serve as his personal Greek chorus, and Haruka neatly fills the role of the generally pretty positive girl who serves as the prize for the protagonist to win.  There are even the usual, uglier rival gang leaders and a sullen and super-strong rival for both his glory and Haruka's heart.  You have seen these character types done a thousand times and everyone is as one-note as their types would suggest.  I can't say that Inoue write them any better than the others, but they are also far from the worst.  There is one thing that distinguishes them: they all apparently attend a high school for giants.  This is a cast of Japanese high schoolers, but every boy seems to be at least six feet tall and built like brick outhouses. 

So when the story does finally get around to playing some actual basketball, how does it treat the sport?  Mostly it treats it as a substitute for the interpersonal fights.  It doesn't get terribly deep into the details of basketball, as we get a lot of dribbling practices and a few dunks.  We get more information about the local gang structure than we do about basketball, which feels both like a failing and a distraction.  When you combine the lack of sports with the lack of character, all I got out of it was a lack of interest in the series as a whole.  Maybe it gets better and earns that classic status later on, but this is far from a promising beginning.

ART:

There is one thing that holds up about this series: its reputation for great art.  While the characters may be ridiculously tall, they are all handsomely drawn, strong-looking, and have lovingly detailed hair.  Sure, Sakuragi's perma-pompadour and the team captain's Kid-n-Play flat-top may be incredibly dated, but Inoue loves drawing them nonetheless.  The only times she deviates from this is when things shift into superdeformed mode for the sake of a gag.  It's jarring at first, but she makes it work with her general style. 

The backgrounds are also exquisitely drawn.  Rarely do you see this level of effort put into something as mundane as a school gym.  Once the guys start to play some games, the action is drawn beautifully.  There's an early shot that evokes the glory days of Michael Jordan, and it only gets better from there.  It's a shame that the panels are so small because it doesn't do the art any favors.  It's hard to believe that such a good looking work could come from the pages of Shonen Jump.

PRESENTATION:

I read the Viz edition, which tried oh-so-desperately to appeal to actual sports fans by including the stats of a random player and tips for improving one's game.  It's a shame that such effort is aimed at an audience that's the least likely to be picking up a manga.

RATING:

Slam Dunk's story is off a to slow and stereotypical start, but the artwork is remarkable for its time and genre.  It wasn't enough to sell me on the series, but it did make it a lot more tolerable.

This series is published by Viz, and formerly by Raijin Comics.  This series is complete in Japan with 31 volumes available.  The 5 Raijin volumes are out of print.  Viz publishes all the available volumes and is currently in print.

Review: FIST OF THE NORTH STAR

Sometimes the universe lines up in just the right configuration to drop a little bit of luck in your lap.  That's my explanation as for how I managed to stumble across this particular (and not invaluable) volume at my local Half Price Books, tucked away amongst the American comics just in time to close out Old-School Month.

FIST OF THE NORTH STAR (Hokuto no Ken), written by Buronson & art by Hara Tetsuo.  First published in 1983 and first published in North America in 1989.

PLOT:

In a world ravaged by nuclear disaster, there is a hero named Kenshiro who wanders the wasteland.  Trained in the mystic art of Hokuto Shinken, he can take down any opponent with nothing but a few well-placed blows.  What he seeks isn't violence or dominance, though.  What Kenshiro wants is revenge against the warlord who took his fiancé from him and lords over the land with an iron fist.

STORY:

Reviewing a work like Fist of the North Star is kind of intimidating.  It's not just that it's got a violent reputation, one boosted by innumerable clips from the show and movie.  What's also intimidating is how much its still-dedicated fanbase has hyped it as one of the masterworks of the 1980s.  Now that I've finally had the chance to check it out for myself, I can see where that fanbase is coming from.  Fist of the North Star truly is more than just exploding baddies and "You're already dead."

That's not to say that it isn't violent!  Believe me, there's plenty of violence in the first half, and it tends to play out more or less in the same manner.  Some enormous, hulking marauder threatens others, Ken happens to come along, fights said marauder until he explodes, only to move on.  These instances are brief, but fairly graphic for its time.  It's little wonder that if these moments are your only knowledge of Fist of the North Star, you would presume it's just the story of Kenshiro acting as a wandering badass.  That's selling this series short, though.  There is in fact a lot more story going on here.

Halfway through, we meet Shin, the local warlord.  In fairly quick order, we learn that he has a history with Ken along with possession of Ken's beloved Yuria.  While we've seen moments of understanding, even tenderness out of Ken before this point, it's only in this second half that Ken is shown to be truly human.  He's not just some grim asskicker - he's also capable of love and regret, even in the face of a manipulative bastard like Shin.  There was a reason to care for Kenshiro beyond his great power, and at this point I was compelled.  I wanted to see what happened next, even if the answer to that was him fighting yet another hulking goon and finding a new way to turn him into bloody jelly.  In that sense, Fist of the North Star is a narrative success.  It just takes some time to get there.

ART:

It's a little tricky to talk about the art as well because the version I read has been altered from its original state.  In what I can only presume was a move to appeal to American comic readers, this version was fully colorized.  In all fairness, this was done with the full permission and supervision of the original artist, so this isn't a repeat of what happened with Marvel's edition of Akira.  It's also unflipped and printed in a large, almost coffee-table sized format, unlike the previous version released here.  Still, in doing so some of the appeal of Testuo's rich inking and hatching has been lost.  At least the colors are rich, if rather muted in hue as befitting a dark and dismal post-apocalyptic world.

Hara's character designs are both iconic and totally ridiculous.  Kenshiro, Shin, and the various thugs literally tower over everyone else.  Still, there's a fair bit of variety, even if some of the thugs are pretty much just copies of characters from the Mad Max movies.  Still, Kenshiro is distinguished by his relative litheness, an artifact of the influence of Bruce Lee on the character.  He still towers over the comparatively bland normal folk, but he's nowhere near as ridiculous looking as the monstrous, virtually cartoonish thugs he fits.  Hara's also has a brilliant eye for composition.  Every fight and dramatic moment is perfectly framed.  It's not just that every punch, kick and explosion is clear and easy to follow, it's that every panel conveys the awesome, supernatural power they wield through well-chosen poses and angles.  The composition of every page and panel perfectly fits the mood of the scene.  For me, that's what truly takes the artwork over the edge into brilliance.

RATING:

Fist of the North Star earns its masterpiece status not through its plentiful and memorable gore, but through the heroic heart beating just underneath and the beautifully crafted artwork. That makes all the greater shame that this series has never been - and likely never will - be completed in English.

This series was published by Raijin Comics, and previously by Viz.  The series is complete in Japan with 27 volumes available.  4 volumes were published by Viz and 9 volumes by Raijin, and all are currently out of print.

Review: CITY HUNTER

Of course, Shonen Jump has been around a lot longer than the 2000s, even if we've not necessarily seen a lot of those titles.  We've got a few of the big-name titles from the 1980s, such as Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Fist of the North Star, and today's selection.

CITY HUNTER (Shiti Hanta), by Hojo Tsukasa.  First published in 1985, and first published in North America in 2003.

PLOT:

There are many crimes within the confines of Tokyo that go unpunished.  There are good people who lose their lives and the police and courts can only do so much.  These are the cases that lead people to private detective Ryo Saeba, aka City Hunter.  Saeba's got a way with a gun, a quick wit, and a love of the ladies that manages to get out of tight situations time and again.  His skills are put to the test, though, when his long-time partner is murdered and he must team up with his sister to avenge his death.

STORY:

It's hard to believe that there are a time when the pages of Shonen Jump weren't filled with a bunch of spiky-haired kids but instead with lots of burly bruisers and grown men.  Compared to many of its contemporaries, City Hunter is a rather modest and understated title, as it's essentially a detective procedural that were all over TV in the 70s and 80s.  Maybe that's the reason City Hunter holds up pretty well nearly three decades later.

The stories here are fairly episodic, and it's only towards the end of the first volume that we start to see ones that span more than a single chapter.  They all tend to follow the same formula, though - Ryo investigates the villain of the week, saves the day, wins over the latest woman to come wandering into his life, and everything goes back to the status quo.  As for the stories themselves, they can be all over the place.  It covers everything from simple murder to crooked boxers to a horde of zombie-like PCP users, and while some of these stories flirt with the ridiculous, they never cross the line into it, so they remain delightfully pulpy.  Ryo himself is rather understated as a character.  He's loyal and just, and he's able to think on his feet just as fast as he can shoot.  Honestly, the only thing that distinguishes him from literally any other detective character you can think of is his lechery.  The stories make a running gag out of him hitting on just about every woman that crosses his path.  Some of these instances come off as somewhat creepy today, but for the most part it's harmless.

City Hunter doesn't start to really find its footing until the ending story where Ryo's partner is killed.  This allows Tsukasa to introduce the partner's sister, Kaori, as his new sidekick and love interest.  She's shown to be competent enough when the chips are down, but it seems the most use Tsukasa has for her is to have her smack down Ryo for being a perv.  I'm sure this gag was hammered oh-so-firmly into the ground over the manga's full run, but here it's just a dumb gag that adds a bit of levity during or after the more serious story fodder, much like Kaori herself.  When you put all of these elements together, you can see that City Hunter isn't as sensational as a lot of its contemporaries or genre-mates, which does make it a bit forgettable.  That doesn't mean that it isn't pulpy good fun in the mean time.

ART:

Tsukasa's art is handsome and grounded.  It's a fine fit for the down-to-earth setting, but it does have one mild disadvantage: everyone tends to look the same.  It's mostly in the faces; it seems just about everyone who isn't a villain has the same generically good-looking face.  What that means is that it's hard to keep track of who is who.  Still, it's very expressive and Ryo can usually be distinguished by his confident, nearly permanent smirk.  The action scenes are clean, crisply drawn (if not a little stiff) and easy to follow.  The backgrounds are beautifully detailed, taking full advantage of both the glamour and the grit of 1980s Tokyo.  Even the fanservice is handsome and grounded!  There might be quite a few ladies who end up in their underpants at some point or another, they don't get the sort of lurid close-ups and lovingly detailed undergarments that later series would employ, and the raciest anything gets is when we see some deeper than average cleavage.  Overall the art here isn't exceptional, but it's still skillful and it still has a very timeless look.

RATING:

City Hunter is a solid package of good art and pulpy fun detective stories that's hurt only by the lack of larger story continuity and some of the leading man's seedier qualities.  It's good fun for those who like old-school detective procedurals, but not compelling enough to reach modern day audiences.

This series was published by Raijin Comics.  This series is complete in Japan with 35 volumes available.  5 volumes were released and all are currently out of print.

Merry Month of Manga Review: REVENGE OF MOUFLON

Raijin Comics was one of the many failed manga distributors of the 2000s manga boom, and they were only known for three things:

    1.  Their full-color editions of Fist of the North Star
    2.  Being the first publisher to put out Slam Dunk
    3.  For publishing weird old manga and manga that simply felt old, like today's selection.

REVENGE OF MOUFLON (Hofuku no Mouflon), written by Ueno Jiro & art by Ono Yochiro.  First published in 2002, and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Sano Yohei is a popular TV comedian who got into a bit of trouble when he punched a politician in public.  Right now, though, that scandal is the least of his problems.  His flight ends up being hijacked by terrorists who intend to crash the plane into the middle of Tokyo to create financial ruin and chaos.  After the terrorists flee, Sano is the only one who can fly the plane to safety, but only if the Diet and the US Air Force don't try to take the plane down first!

STORY:

It's kind of sad to think that this manga was about the most current and topical thing that Raijin could lay claim to during their short run; most of their manga dated from the 80s and 90s.  It's certainly topical for its time, as it was all about politics and terrorism, but it's also kind of histrionic, melodramatic, and meant more to glorify the martial spirit of Glorious Nippon than tell a good story.

When I think back on this volume, there are a few things that stand out in my mind.  The first and most notable thing is that EVERYONE IS CONSTANTLY SCREAMING IN THIS BOOK!  Sano, the other passengers, the politicians, the military brass, just everyone is shouting in fear, anger, confusion, or shock.  All this shouting makes everything feel hysterical after a while, whether any given scene is meant to be or not.  The second is that the sheep metaphor is hammered in the reader so often and so thoroughly that it loses all meaning.  The title refers to the mouflon, a species of wild sheep that lives in the mountainous regions of central Asia.  More than once, Sano or one of the other supporting characters liken themselves and Japan as a whole to the mouflon, being proud and independent instead of placid and docile like domestic sheep.  It's a perfectly fine metaphor if not an entirely original idea.  It's just that after the third or fourth time that someone declared that they're not just some dumb sheep I wanted to scream.  It gets to the point where a flight attendant promises to name her unborn child with the characters for mouflon, that's how unsubtle that metaphor gets.

Finally, there's this manga's idea of what constitutes political commentary.  Like a lot of Japanese media, it shows that while Japanese people are perfectly aware of terrorism, especially in the years immediately following 9/11, but that they didn't quite grasp WHY terrorism happened.  It's very strange that for all the fuss they create, the terrorists never reveal why they take over the plane.  It's true - the plot hinges on a plan that is entirely based on the educated guesses of outsiders.  The terrorists take over the plane, only to leave without a single explanation to anyone on the plane or anyone outside of it.  The only thing we ever learn about them is that they can't be fundamentalists because they speak Japanese.  Those aren't my words - those come straight from the manga.  That's a rather naïve statement, as it presumably refers to Islamic fundamentalists, but they could just as easily be political or social fundamentalists, if not just random madmen.  Hell, they could even be ex-employees trying to bring down their former company with a massive scandal!  Why not?  It's just as plausible as "create worldwide financial panic."

The story also doesn't think much of either Japanese politicians or the US military, considering that it treats both parties like monsters that are determined to kill innocent people for the sake of maintaining the status quo.  A smarter manga might have used such a dilemma as a way to explore morality and whether sacrificing the plane for the sake of the greater good would be a necessary evil or not.  Instead, Jiro uses this as the starting point for a massive international conspiracy against the nation of Japan, and one that can only be defeated by the common people coming together to stand up to their oppressors.  This plot veers dangerously close to propaganda at points, riding high on the nationalistic sentiment and hot topics of 2002.  It's just that 13 years later, we can recognize those sentiments as hysterical and paranoid and they simply do not hold up.

ART:

Yochiro isn't a bad artist, but his style seems to be an odd match for such serious subject matter.  The characters look and act like over-the-top shonen characters, with huge gaping mouths, bugging eyes, and gritted teeth.  In fact, everything seems to be over-the-top here.  The panels feature lots of low dramatic and frequently Dutch angles, and speedlines are all over the place.  Sure, the action itself is well-drawn, and the backgrounds are nicely traced from real world reference, but it doesn't do anything to help ground all these overacting characters, and it all just adds to the hysterical tone of the story.

RATING:

Revenge of Mouflon wants to be a daring political thriller, but it's too melodramatic and paranoid to resonate with foreign audiences, much less modern ones.  It feels less like an overlooked classic and more like an embarrassing artifact of its time.

This series was released by Raijin Comics.  This series is complete in Japan, with 7 volumes available.  2 volumes were published and both are currently out of print.