Deadman Wonderland 1 by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou: B+

January 31, 2010 by 3 Comments

deadmanwonderland1From the back cover:
The Great Tokyo Earthquake. Ten years ago, it destroyed lives as it tore buildings asunder. Among those who lived through the disaster was Ganta Igarashi, now a middle school student finally getting a footing in his own life… that is, until the day the “Red Man” appears at his school and turns his world upside down again. Ganta’s entire class is brutally murdered, and although innocent of the crime, Ganta is sentenced to death and sent to the bizarre prison known as “Deadman Wonderland.” There, a brutal game of survival begins, where Ganta must discover the truth behind his classmates’ murder.

Can Ganta break out of Deadman Wonderland… or will it break him first?

Review:
The year is 2023. Ten years ago, the Great Tokyo Earthquake struck, leaving 70% of that city submerged by water. Ganta Igarashi used to live in Tokyo, but doesn’t remember anything prior to the evacuation. Now he attends middle school in Nagano, loves soccer, and has a couple good friends among his classmates. All of that changes on the day when “the red man”—a wonderfully creepy cyborg-looking fellow—arrives and murders all of Ganta’s classmates. In a rush to judgment, the authorities blame Ganta for the carnage and sentence him to death, at which point he’s shuffled off to Deadman Wonderland, the single privately owned prison in Japan, which doubles as a tourist attraction.

There, Ganta must learn to survive in the irrational environment or die. He’s fitted with a collar that is continually injecting him with poison—his death sentence—and the only way to delay it is to take a candy antidote every three days. To buy the candy, one must earn “cast points,” which are awarded for winning the various challenges put on for the benefit of the visiting public. When Ganta loses his first dose of the candy, he enters a deadly race with the hopes of using the prize money to procure another. Meanwhile, he meets a strange girl named Shiro who claims they knew each other before, gains some new super powers, and befriends his gentle-seeming cell mate who is hiding his true intentions.

There’s an awful lot going on in Deadman Wonderland, a fact made clear from the very start with a series of color pages depicting the moments right before the earthquake, but it all boils down to the fact that Ganta is likely not the normal kid he always thought he was. Sometimes I grow frustrated with stories that advance this many mysteries simultaneously, but it’s handled very well here, and the sense of a sure, guiding hand is palpable. I also really, really like “the red man,” who is not the only villain of the piece but merely the most visible. His character design is magnificent and menacing and you just know some crazy stuff is going to go down when he appears.

Ganta himself is also likable, as he rallies from his confusion and depression to fight for his life. I feel a little like one of the Deadman Wonderland patrons for enjoying watching him cope with some of the awful situations he faces, but he pulls through heroically enough that I can avoid feeling too bad.

This first volume of Deadman Wonderland does an excellent job introducing the reader to Ganta’s world and instilling a desire to read more about how he adjusts to his extreme circumstances. I also look forward to him learning more about some of the things at which the color pages hinted, like the truth of his early childhood and why, exactly, he’s been drawing a certain symbol on his possessions for years.

Deadman Wonderland is published in English by TOKYOPOP. The series is ongoing in Japan; seven collected volumes are currently available there.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

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Wild Adapter 1-6 by Kazuya Minekura: A-

September 24, 2009 by 14 Comments

wildadapter1I’ve heard a lot about the works of Kazuya Minekura over the years—mostly in praise of Saiyuki and Saiyuki Reload—but was never particularly tempted to see what all the fuss was about. That changed when MJ, who has uniformly good taste, raved about Wild Adapter on her blog back in June, and was immediately greeted with a chorus of agreement from other trustworthy sources. The time had come, it seemed, for me to have a look for myself.

On its surface, Wild Adapter is the story of Makoto Kubota, a former leader of a yakuza youth gang who is looking into a string of gruesome deaths, victims transformed into beasts by overdosing on a drug known as Wild Adapter. He takes in a “stray cat,” Minoru Tokito, with no memory of his past and a bestial right hand that indicates he’s had at least some exposure to the drug. Together, they attempt to unravel the mystery while Tokito strives to regain his memories and rival yakuza groups pursue Kubota for various reasons. Delving deeper, Wild Adapter is about two broken men who care for each other deeply but are so damaged that their affection manifests in unusual ways.

wildadapter2The first volume of the series serves as a prologue, introducing Kubota as he was before he met Tokito. He joins the Izumo syndicate on a whim and spends seven months as a youth gang leader, forming a close relationship with his second-in-command, Komiya. It’s primarily through Komiya’s eyes that we see Kubota, who seems to shirk his duties and is underestimated by many until he single-handedly administers violent payback to a rival organization. This Kubota trusts only himself, and says things like, “It was him or me, and I only choose me.” After Komiya is killed for investigating Wild Adapter, Kubota quits Izumo and takes in his new houseguest.

Beginning with volume two, which picks up a year later, the series features Kubota and Tokito together, following various leads on Wild Adapter and getting into dangerous predicaments. Each volume is self-contained and introduces a new character who gives an outsider’s perspective on the leads and their relationship. This storytelling approach is fascinating, because by never really allowing us into Kubota’s head, he’s able to come across to the reader the same way he does to the characters who encounter him, like “a wildadapter3 mysterious, untouchable man who seemed to float on air.” Tokito is much more openly expressive—as Kubota notes, “he can only tell the truth”—and though his past is unknown, who he is now is not nearly so difficult to ascertain.

Kubota has never cared for anyone before meeting Tokito, and is gradually changed by the relationship. Throughout the series there are quite a few poignant moments where he demonstrates how much he cares for and even needs Tokito and by the end of volume six, he has evolved from someone who only chooses himself into someone who will unhesitatingly risk his own death in order to rescue his kidnapped friend. We probably get the most insight into how Kubota feels about Tokito in volume five, where our point-of-view character is Shouta, an elementary school kid and aspiring manga artist who lives next door. Shouta finds his neighbors cool and exciting and is drawing a manga based on them. He confides to Kubota that he’s having trouble with the character based on him, and in a rare moment of candor, Kubota suggests that the character was searching for something to make him feel alive, but didn’t know what to do once he got it.

wildadapter4We begin to see that Kubota wanted to feel a connection like others do, but the only person he’s ever been able to rely on is himself, so it’s difficult to trust in someone else. “He really cares about Tokito,” the observant Shouta concludes. “He just doesn’t know how to express it.” Interestingly, these insights and the undoubtedly positive influence Kubota and Tokito have on Shouta can lull one into thinking Kubota is a good guy, an impression thoroughly tested by the Kill Bill-esque levels of vengeance on display in volume six.

Tokito, on the other hand, immediately trusts Kubota and gets petulant a couple of times when details of Kubota’s past of which he was not aware come to light. Although he’s by far the more endearing of the two, I find I have less to say about Tokito, perhaps because his origins are still shrouded in mystery and therefore all we have to gauge him by is the present. Readers receive a small tidbit of information about his past in volume six, and he’s had a few flashes of memory, but one can only assume that further development for Tokito will come later.

wildadapter5In addition to possessing fantastic, nuanced characters and a well thought-out approach to storytelling, Wild Adapter also boasts terrific art. In a word, it’s best described as “dark,” with black margins on every page and a gritty and shadowy feel that befits the subject matter. Kubota, in particular, has a knack for appearing distressingly cool while committing heinous acts. Despite the darkness, the art is seldom hard to follow and can also be much brighter, especially when the leads are enjoying some pleasant time together in their apartment, as well as versatile, like when Minekura draws the characters in the style of Shouta’s obviously shounen manga. I’m also impressed by the covers, each of which depicts the characters with a barrier of some kind, be it barbed wire, prison bars, or police tape. The cover on which they are the least obscured is for volume five, which just so happens to be the volume in which their missing first year together is finally revealed. Coincidence? I think not.

wildadapter6About the only complaints I could make is that the Wild Adapter plotline is occasionally sidelined for volumes at a time—volumes four and five, specifically, though these are also my favorites, so make of that what you will—and that there isn’t more! I’m sure Saiyuki fans are thrilled by announcements of new spin-offs, but I’d much rather Minekura work on this series instead!

Wild Adapter balances action, mystery, suspense, and strong character development while being downright addictive and capable of inspiring passionate devotion. In my quest to have more Minekura to read, I might even defect and check out Saiyuki, but in my heart I’ll really be wondering, “How long until volume seven?”

Filed Under: Boys' Love, Manga, Suspense Tagged With:

Be Buried in the Rain by Barbara Michaels: B-

July 11, 2009 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
There are secrets buried at Maidenwood—dark secrets that span generations. Medical student Julie Newcomb, who once spent four miserable childhood years at this rundown Virginia plantation, would rather not resurrect ancient memories, or face her own fears.

Yet Julie cannot refuse her relatives’ plea that she spend her summer caring for the bedridden—but still malevolent—family matriarch. Reluctantly, Julie agrees, praying that life at Maidenwood will not be as bleak as before. From the first, though, Julie finds Maidenwood a haunted place, not merely echoing with grim reminders, but filled with dark secrets that will become part of her life even today.

Review:
Med student Julie isn’t thrilled when she’s asked to spend her summer caring for the cruel grandmother with whom she spent four dismal years—years that are strangely blank in her memory. She complies to spare her mother the thankless task, and ends up in the middle of a local mystery. Shortly before her arrival, the skeletons of a woman and infant were found on a road cutting through the family property, known as Maidenwood, and Julie and her family are besieged by reporters, archaeologists, and psychic anthropologists who are interested in the story.

Although I enjoyed reading Be Buried in the Rain, there are several things about the way that it’s written that puzzle me. For example, nothing really happens for about 80% of the book. It registers about a two on the suspense-o-meter. Oh, little things occur that do turn out to be important later, but mostly it’s Julie coping with her hateful grandmother, complaining (rather bitchily) about a co-helper’s cooking, caring for a stray dog, and bantering with and/or eventually rekindling a romance with her ex-boyfriend, an archaeologist who’s been given permission to dig at Maidenwood in an attempt to locate the burial site from which the skeletons were presumably exhumed. Things finally start to move near the end after Julie begins work on reconstructing the face of the adult skeleton based on the skull—apparently someone doesn’t want an identification to be made.

The ending leaves rather a lot to be desired, though. One question is not answered particularly well—how the kooky psychic manages to unearth a genuine archaeological find—and a couple of others not at all, including how the skeletons wound up in the middle of the road. Although the book is grounded in reality throughout, at the very end, Michaels throws in a random dollop of supernatural hijinks, with Julie believing she’s been in communion with the dead woman’s spirit and putting forth the theory that each year, the skeletons pop up again and have to be reburied by the party responsible for their deaths. I’d more easily buy this explanation if there were any notion of supernatural doings anywhere other than the final ten pages or so of the novel.

Still, though I have my complaints I still found Be Buried in the Rain to be reasonably entertaining and expect that I shall read more by Barbara Michaels in future.

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Fire Investigator Nanase 1-2 by Izo Hashimoto and Tomoshige Ichikawa: B

June 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment

nanase1After losing her parents in a fire, Nanase Takamine resolved to become a firefighter. Now 21, she has achieved her goal and works as a fire investigator, not actually battling fires directly but determining where and how they started. Three years ago, while she was still a student at the academy, she came upon the scene of a hospital in flames. Rushing inside, she saved the life of a burning man, ignorant at the time that he was actually responsible for setting the fire. After he escaped from the ambulance, taking the lives of a pair of paramedics in the process, his identity as the wanted arsonist Firebug became known. Now, as Nanase is facing some puzzling cases, Firebug has contacted her and, in an effort to repay her for saving his life, provides clues and insights that help in her investigations.

When a story features a young female investigator receiving hints and advice from a notorious criminal, comparisons to The Silence of the Lambs are inevitable. What Fire Investigator Nanase reminds me most of, though, is actually Gosho Aoyama’s long-running mystery series, Case Closed (Viz). You’ve got the rookie investigator spotting things that others with more experience miss and piecing together the elaborate methods used to commit and obscure crimes. Even the little boxes that introduce the suspects and the anonymous way the culprits are drawn pre-reveal are similar. Unfortunately, the cast of suspects is more limited in this series, making for predictable outcomes in most cases.

The cases themselves are mildly intriguing, and certainly fast reads, but I found them to be easily forgettable after I’d put the book down. One story, too, cuts off rather abruptly, with Firebug taking off in a burning car with an arsonist while Nanase, left behind, thinks, “How horrifying.” It took me several pages to realize that the next chapter had moved on to a different case entirely.

Nanase is another problem. She’s plucky and determined as one might expect, but early on she’s portrayed as klutzy and cries frequently. I had been hoping for someone more… badassedly professional, I suppose. Firebug is the real star of the series, wonderfully creepy in his omniscience and equipped with the ability to disguise himself as others in order to get close to Nanase. The moments when he appears before her, managing to elude her attempts at capture while doling out just enough information to get her on the right track, are eclipsed in greatness only by chapter sixteen, “Stalker,” in which he protects Nanase from an assailant in order to preserve her for his own evil purposes.

Tomoshige Ichikawa’s art works well for action sequences, with a good sense of place that makes it easy to keep track of characters’ locations within burned or burning structures. Less successful, though, is the depiction of people. The two adult males that figure most closely in Nanase’s career—her supervisor, Tachibana, and the police arson detective in pursuit of Firebug, Ogata—look superficially similar, with slick-backed black hair, sneering smiles, and arching brows, and it took me a while to be able to tell them apart. Too, there’s a shower scene in which Nanase’s torso is so asymmetrical it looks like she’s missing some bones.

On the whole, I found Fire Investigator Nanase to be a bit of a disappointment. It isn’t bad by any means; it’s simply just not as cool as I was expecting it to be.

Fire Investigator Nanase is released in English by CMX and two volumes have been released so far. It’s complete in Japan with seven volumes.

Review originally published at Manga Recon.

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20th Century Boys 1 by Naoki Urasawa: A

February 25, 2009 by Leave a Comment

I reviewed the first volume of this well-regarded series for Comics Should be Good. Check it out!

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Monster 18 by Naoki Urasawa: A

January 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment

After eighteen action-packed volumes of murders, secret organizations, suppressed memories, and the most exciting book donation ceremony known to man, Naoki Urasawa’s Monster has come to a close. With its multitudes of well-developed characters, unique setting, expressive art, and interwoven plot threads, the tale of Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a gifted surgeon who is out to stop a murderer whose life he saved in the operating room, has been a rich and rewarding reading experience. It can be hard to have faith that such an ambitious undertaking will hold together, however, and I wouldn’t blame anyone who had put off reading it until they’d heard whether all of the lingering questions had been satisfactorily answered in the end.

Well, the answer to that question is “mostly.” Throughout the course of the series, various people have played a part in the creation of the monster that is Johan. Unfortunately, anyone expecting the final volume to provide a conclusive explanation for exactly how he turned out the way he did will be disappointed. Some additional insights are revealed, though, which at least will give readers a basis upon which to come to their own conclusions.

On the positive side, several of my other questions were unambiguously addressed. On the whole, I found the conclusion of the series to be a satisfying one. In a volume full of important scenes, my favorite moments were those between Tenma and his pursuer, Inspector Lunge, who’s quite the fascinating character. The penultimate chapter also catches up with a few characters who haven’t been seen in a while; I can’t think of anyone whose fate was left to dangle.

While Monster is not without flaws, they are far outnumbered by its virtues. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this series to anyone.

Review originally published at Manga Recon.

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Monster 17 by Naoki Urasawa: A-

January 4, 2009 by 2 Comments

From the back cover:
In the little mountain town of Ruhenheim, life is simple and peaceful. Neighbors greet each other on the street, and the biggest case the local authorities have to worry about is a lost dog. But this bucolic splendor is about to change. Will Tenma, Grimmer, and Inspector Lunge be able to prevent the massacre Johan is planning for this sleepy village and its unknowing inhabitants? Or will the cobbled streets of Ruhenheim soon run red with innocent blood?

Review:
Of the unanswered questions listed in the review for volume sixteen, only the fifth is answered. The identity of the child who was taken to Red Rose Mansion and what they experienced is, indeed, cleared up.

Plotwise, we get one of those situations where some characters seem to know where to go and what Johan’s planning without the audience having any idea how. Eventually, some explanations are given, but I think my confusion over that kind of hampered my enjoyment of the malevolent happenings going on in a secluded mountain town. It’s fairly interesting, but not nearly as good as the previous half a dozen volumes or so have been, even if Grimmer and Lunge are awesomely working together.

At this point, it’s kind of hard to say anything that isn’t a spoiler of some kind. If it’s not evident by now, Monster is not a series without flaws, but it’s got an exciting story full of twists, turns, and random awesomeness.

Oh, and I still love Dieter.

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Monster 16 by Naoki Urasawa: A

January 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Tenma is lying low, but his brief respite is doomed to be short-lived. Milan, one of Tenma’s new friends, is planning to assassinate a man with deep ties to “Red Rose Mansion.” Can Tenma dissuade him from this drastic line of action? Also, a seemingly unrelated string of murders by various serial killers hints at a sinister connection with Johan. How many more people need to die before the monster’s work is complete?

Review:
A tremendous lot of stuff happens in this volume, but I shall resist the temptation to summarize. Instead, I have a new list.

Answered Questions:
1. What is the story of the twins’ parents and birth?
2. Who are the last two people running the organization in Frankfurt?
3. What’s the story on the “devil’s apprentice”?

Kind Of Anwered Questions:
1. What’s Johan’s agenda?

Unanswered questions:
1. How are the recitals at the Red Rose Mansion inducing the kids into violence? What, really, is the experiment?
2. Who was the guy who came to the Lieberts’ house the night they were killed?
3. Whatever happened to the other Lieberts pretending to be Johan’s parents?
4. What about the MPD theory?
5. What’s the deal with Nina’s memory of welcoming herself home? “The man in glasses” made a possibly telling remark, then Johan seemed to swing it one way, then the final panel threw all into a muddle again.

I also want to take this time to praise Urasawa’s chapter beginnings. They’re always interesting, unique, and immediately engaging. Too, I applaud the two strong female characters that kick some butt in this volume, and once again, am kind of surprised I am cheering for Eva. Taking a bitchy person, making her even more unlikable, and then suddenly turning her into someone sympathetic is quite an achievement!

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Monster 15 by Naoki Urasawa: A

January 4, 2009 by 5 Comments

From the back cover:
Dangerous men of influence hoping to exploit Johan’s frightening mind for their own shadowy purposes are also hot on the “monster’s” trail, and they’re willing to use Eva, Tenam’s ex-fiancée, to identify him. But what will happen to Eva when her assistance is no longer required? Will her only chance for salvation rest on the shoulders of the very man who’s been hired to kill her?!

Review:
It’s late and I’m tired, so it’s definitely a list this time.

Awesome Things:
Nina goes back to Munich and enlists the aid of Doctors Reichwein and Gillen to recover her latent memories. The resultant session with Gillen is terrifically creepy.

Super Awesome Things:
There are two perfect chapters in this volume, and both feature Eva, believe it or not. In the first, Martin defies his boss’s orders to kill her and faces the consequences, and in the second, Eva and Tenma share a somber conversation over coffee. I adore Martin, and I really hope Eva’s on the path to redemption this time.

Confusing Things:
I still have no idea what’s up with a particular scrap of memory Nina keeps remembering, but I’m sure it isn’t good. I just hope that we don’t get some utterly kooky explanation that makes no sense.

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Monster 14 by Naoki Urasawa: A

January 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment

From the back cover:
Tenma’s long quest for justice, Johan and Nina’s search for identity—all roads converge on the mysterious “Red Rose Mansion.” Is Nina prepared to confront the dark memories this cursed house will awaken in her subconscious? If Tenma gets there in time, will he find a clue that will help him save the life of his ex-fiancée Eva? Or will Johan, as always, remain several steps ahead of everyone?

Review:
These books really are quick reads. I think it’s because there’s nothing extranneous in the panels. The art is fabulous, to be sure, but there’s nothing like shrinky-dink text or frenzied panel layouts that might detract from the story. Back to a list this time!

Awesome Things:
1. Someone—it isn’t clear who—recalls some events from Nina and Johan’s childhood, including when they were initially found near the Czech border, a photo op with the Lieberts after they made it to West Germany, and the night Johan asked Nina to shoot him. It’s good to finally get some detail on this, and I love how it’s internally consistent with what has been previously established.

2. We see a few more of the stories by the picture book author, as creepy as the first.

3. I actually kind of love the last chapter, told from the point of view of a thug assigned to guard Eva. He hates taking jobs involving women, and she drives him crazy, but he eventually feels the urge to protect her and ends up getting shot. I’m not a fan of hers, but his reaction to her is great.

Confusing Things:
1. Some guy arrives at the Liebert’s house before Nina finds them all shot. Who was that?

2. When Nina and Johan are near the border, she calls him Johan and asks him to say her name. He replies that they have no names. Later, General Wolf says, “They didn’t have names when I named him Johan.” So, is Johan really his name or what?

A Note:
Sometimes, with this series, one just has to give up asking, “Now, how did he know that, again?”

Filed Under: Manga, Seinen, Suspense Tagged With: , ,
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