Review: MUSASHI #9

We could always use more action-oriented heroines in shojo manga...maybe just not like this particular one.

MUSASHI #9 (Kyuban no Musashi), by Miyuki Takahashi.  First published in 1996 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

There is a secret organization known as Ultimate Blue that dedicated to preserving world peace.  They are a force of only nine members, but each member is like an army onto themselves.   Their most notorious agent is #9, nicknamed Musashi.  No matter whether she is saving kidnapped teens from terrorists, Russian refugees from Middle Eastern conspirators, or the President of Russia himself, Musashi can save the day and slip back into the crowd, leaving nothing but admiration and rumors in her wake.

STORY:

Musashi #9 was always going to have a hard time finding an audience in the US.  It's technically a shojo series, but its plot feels more like a political thriller aimed at the sorts of businessmen who would read Tom Clancy books for fun.  Personally, it reminded of Full Metal Panic!, albeit a version with a female lead, no mechs and that took itself so seriously as to become utterly joyless.

I can't possibly imagine how this didn't become a best-seller.

In all seriousness, this is a largely formulaic story.  We meet with some hapless teen, Musashi quietly enters their life under an alias, and the villain(s) of the week show up.  The villains themselves are not particularly memorable, but their fiendish plots get increasingly elaborate and outlandish with each new chapter.   At some random point, someone will stop everything they're doing to explain yet again what Ultimate Blue is and what they do.  Musashi proceeds to defeat the wrong-doers through subversion, trickery, and a minimal amount of violence, only to disappear over the horizon afterwards.  Lather, rinse, and repeat this for half a dozen chapters or so and you'll have some idea of what this volume was like to read.

While Musashi is more than capable of kicking ass, she's kind of underwhelming as a protagonist.  Hell, half of the time she's able to successfully pose as a boy and most people don't figure it out unless she tells them outright.  The reason she is able to blend in so easily is that she has no personality to speak of.  Even in disguise, she comes off less like a person and more as a robot posing as one, and this story isn't glamorous or outrageous enough to coast on the plot alone.  Musashi #9 promises international thrills, but in practice it's more like international mild interest.

ART:

Takahashi's art is fine on a technical level but it doesn't add much in the way of excitement to the story.  Her artstyle is very grounded and realistic, if rather workman-like.  The only time her comes to life is when the action gets intense.  Then she breaks out the page-wide panels to let the reader savor every bit of destruction Musashi wreaks (even if she cuts away before any of it can get gruesome).  

RATING:

Musashi #9 is practically a franchise onto itself in Japan, but its stone-faced seriousness combined with workman-like art and a heroine devoid of personality was always going to make this manga a hard sell.  Mostly I'm just amazed that so much got published here.

This series was published by CMX.  This series is complete in Japan with 20 volumes available.  17 volumes were released and are currently out of print.