I don't read a whole lot of manga and I'm not generally a fan of anthologies, but somehow Raijin Comics hits right where I wanted it to. This is like the grown-up cousin of the just launched American version of Shonen Jump, a huge fat manga book with a variety of features aimed at a teenage and older crowd, and the lineup is pretty impressive. In these pages, there's a basketball/romance comic, a hard-boiled period martial arts comic, a modern-day action comic and a futuristic action/humor comic. And while not every feature resonated with me, a surprising majority of them did, and I find myself anxiously awaiting the next installment. Which, fortunately, is scheduled for next week.
A few words about the formatting of Raijin Comics: The books read right to left, as is traditional in Japan, and the creators have chosen to leave the original Japanese sound effects in place. So the book will no doubt appeal to those who are hardcore manga fans, and who prefer their manga experience as true to the original as possible. However, in what seems like an amazingly simple innovation, Gutsoon has numbered the panels, so that there is never any confusion in reading the stories, and has provided a key to the Japanese sound effects complete with examples. The design of the book is well thought-out and well executed.
Raijin opens with "Slam Dunk," an immensely popular manga about high school romance and basketball. I'm not generally a sports fan, but I am a fan of sports manga, weird as that is, and "Slam Dunk" is very interesting. The first installment really has little to do with the game of basketball; in fact, it's mostly about a freshman on his first day of high school, trying to turn his romantic life around and finding out that the girl of his dreams loves a game he hates, namely basketball. Takehiko's take on Sakuragi makes him out to be not entirely likable, as he does have a bad temper and doesn't seem entirely bright, but there's enough in the writing to make him sympathetic, and I want him to win the girl of his dreams, perhaps to overcome what seems like an amazingly harsh 50 rejections in middle school. In addition, there's some great comedy in this first installment, as Takehiko undercuts a dramatic jump shot to indicate Sakuragi's novice skills at basketball with a terrific slapstick panel. "Slam Dunk" is the standout of the book so far.
Coming in right behind "Slam Dunk" in my estimation, however, is "Fist of the Blue Sky," the story of a deadly martial artist in 1930s Japan and China. Creator Hara Tetsuo tells me a lot about the history of that region that I didn't know, but he also sets up an interesting cast of hoodlums and assassins, and then sets about making those with honor and loyalty the heroes of the piece. While the notions of friendship, honor and loyalty are a big part of the feature, what really sets it apart are the martial arts sequence, and Tetsuo does a fantastic job in showing off the skills of Ken's abilities, as he takes on a gang of would-be assassins using common kitchenware and a deadly and explosive martial arts technique. Tetsuo's artwork shines on these action sequences, but it is equally impressive in regards to the faces, detailed clothing and settings of the book, and "Fist of the Blue Sky" might just have the best artwork in the book for my tastes.
Then there's "City Hunter," a long-running manga series that even a neophyte like myself is somewhat familiar with. I found the hero of "City Hunter" to be a little less of a ladies' man (as he's described in the text) and a little more of a lech, and that character trait made him less likable to me, but once I get past what seems like a sexist leaning in the pages, I quite enjoyed the feature. Saeba Ryo, the bounty hunter/assassin at the center of the story, may be a bit of a sexist pig, but it's hard not to like him as the hard-boiled hero of the piece. His trick with the .357 Colt and the hostage-taker in the second chapter is a fantastic action sequence, and his gunplay in the first chapter also speaks to his expertise and sense of irony. The skills of the protagonist and the unusual cases that creator Hojo Tsukasa create won me over in the end.
The only feature that didn't really hit with me, in fact, was "Bomber Girl." It's a cute idea, and I can definitely see that the style is meant to be over-the-top sexy humor, but the emphasis on the heroine's...ahem... assets and the goofy, almost stupid behavior of most of the antagonists didn't really work for me. It's not a bad feature, but it didn't seem to fit into the same realm as the rest of the offerings in the book, which I enjoyed a lot more. And while that kind of variety is good for Raijin Comics, it does mean that there was one section of the book that left me a little disappointed. Not enough to make up for the amount of enjoyment that I got out of the other pages, though.
Five dollars a week sounds like a lot of money to add to a comics budget, but Raijin Comics is definitely plenty of bang for your buck. There's something here for just about everybody, and I love that the book offers up genres that are untapped by most of the rest of the market. Raijin strikes me as something for the manga enthusiasts as well as those with a casual interest, and the first issue sets a high standard for the rest to follow.
