About the Mangaka
Minagawa Ryoji debut in 1988 with Heaven, and went on to gain acclaim over his art fro the Spriggan series (released as Striker in the US). He was propelled to fame when Project ARMS won the 44th Shogakukan Manga Award
Nanatsuki Kyoichi has had several titles released, including this one. He is currently working on a series called Yami no Aegis about a tough bodyguard for hire.
About the Manga
I’ve had this on my shelf for ages, but have always been reluctant to read it since it was done by Viz Shonen, which I’ve never really liked. Since I now have the final volume I decided it was time to get into it.
Art wise, it does take some getting used to, however I have to admit I love it. The character designs are initially very rough and there are loads of faults. Especially with Ryo in the first volumes.
In truth the weird art in the first volume would have been enough for me to drop the series if I had just bought volume one. And that would have been a mistake, as I would have missed an excellent series.
Over the following volumes Ryoji’s art improved in leaps and bounds and seems to have settled down. I really go into his character designs, and liked how their designs paralleled their personalities well.
I was also surprised by how well the support characters were drawn. Even the characters that were only in for a few chapters were well drawn and fleshed out. Though I have to admit that some of the designs are a bit, well, weird.
From the first seven volumes I have to admit I preferred Misa, her personality and character design were the most consistent, and the most fun.
Where this series really comes into it’s own however is in the story. Sure it’s a generic shonen, but it’s well written and entertaining, something a lot of shonen lack. It was also strong enough to carry a series for twenty-two volumes.
These first seven volumes cover what I consider the first arc of the story. Though Viz call it two separate arcs. The first and second revelation. For me though it’s just the first arc, which covers the revelation of who they are, where they came from and what’s got to happen.
The character development is amazing, as the characters go from being normal kids, to hunted, to the hunter. The way they reach their final choice is amazing as well, as each has their own issue with which they need to overcome first.
Kyoichi writes a splendid scenario, and allows the characters to grow through the telling. We see each come to terms with themselves, battle their inner demons, and build a solid friendship with each other. Though even then there’s still some issues with them, so rather than going from emo to hero, they develop stage by stage.
I really liked this, since it means we get to see how they develop and how thing progress.
Out of all the characters Ryo is definitely the one that developed the most. Especially since he seems so solid and hero material at the beginning. The way he falls apart and then rebuilds himself has been handled really well and he makes for an excellent lead.
The only character I couldn’t get to like was Kuruma Kei. Her arrogant attitude really gets to me, especially given that her reason for being arrogant gets wiped out and she almost get splattered. Her actions in the first seven volumes, while are great character development wise; make me hate her as a character.
I would have liked to see her lose some of her arrogance after her confrontation with Ryo.
As a Viz Shonen release I had some severe doubts over how good it would be. However this is one of those rare ones where the adaptation wasn’t to bad. It has had some rewrites done, as in it’s more westernised than it was originally. However it’s not over the top, and to be honest I rather enjoyed it. I also liked how they left the SFX’s alone, though they decided to move all the translations for those to a glossary at the end of the volumes. I think a small under text would have been better, but at least they didn’t remove the originals and replace them with english versions.
This is a series that easily finds a space on my Essential Read list. However the early volumes are now going out of print, and several volumes are unavailable in the UK, don’t ask me why. For some reason volumes one, nine and eighteen were never officially released in the UK, so can’t be ordered through Diamond.
Where to Buy
