Category: Manga

Once upon a time I listed Fire Punch as a manga to take a look at during one of of manga Spotlights and back then Fire Punch was a manga with a pretty basic revenge plot that had some interesting quirks. Now Fire Punch is a completed manga with 83 chapter story spanning 8 volumes and what that story become is something I don’t think anyone could have predicted. Let me lay out the basic rundown by saying that Fire Punch is set in a world which is filled with snow and an environment so harsh that people struggle to survive. In this world certain individuals are born with “Blessings” which are some kind of supernatural ability and our protagonist Agni and his sister is gifted with the power of regeneration. Both essentially can heal from any wound and regrow limbs though the sister has a slower regeneration rate. The village which they live in has decided to use this ability to produce a near limitless supply of food by the Agni chopping his arms off to use as meet. He does so willingly and despite circumstances lives rather happily with his sister. However a group attack the village and a man with the power to shoot flames out of his hands that will never go out unless the target is dead, burns his village to the ground, killing the Agni’s sister and leaving him burning alive. However his regenerate manages to make it that the fire never truly kills him and he becomes a man constantly burning alive. With time he comes to bear the pain and use his new status as a source of strength to seek out the one that killed his sister.

Now what I stated here isn’t really anything that groundbreaking and while there are some odd elements we do still have a standard revenge plot. But it is at this point where I will go into spoiler territory as to discuss just what happens after this as I think that I cannot really express my feelings about this story without going into detail so if you have any intention of reading this I would suggest stopping here and doing so. But if you don’t really care to read this manga then continue reading this post and you may change your mind. So what I have stated so far has been straightforward but the game changer is when Agni confronts the target of his revenge, Domu and during the fight we are are given one of the most jarring character introductions in manga. During the fight we are shown panels of a girl named Togata speaking directly to the reader in documentary style. She’s a movie buff, a girl whose spend hundreds of years alive and finds everything boring besides movies. Unfortunately someone burned down her house and her collection of movies which has caused her to lose her will to live. However upon hearing of a man constantly on fire she decides to seek him out, in order to film him and create a brand new movie. Togata manages to not only find but save Agni after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Domu but then starts grooming him to become an action star for her new movie. To put things quite frankly, Togata is completely and absolutely insane which causes the narrative to turn from predictability to utter chaos.

How does one even put into context just what this story becomes? Almost a game of the author working to pull as many things out of left field to throw the reader off balance as possible. We have a man declaring to two people that he has decided their new job will be to have sex with two dogs. We have a man on fire seemly playing in the water with a girl carrying a severed head. We have Agni defeat an enemy, only for her to lose her memory which cause both of them to go into a nearby house where she then tries on a bunch of outfits to see Agni’s opinion. Halfway through the story the main villain who supposedly caused the destruction of the entire world and plans to rebirth it, declare that her primary motivation was because she wants mankind to create a new Star Wars movie for her to watch. It is completely ridiculous and yet through all this the story somehow remains engrossing and even progaint at times. It’s hard for me to look at Fire Punch and call it a good manga. Interesting, unique, and addressing fascinating issues yes. Good? hmmm…The pacing tends to be jumpy and you hit climaxes and anticlimaxes with sudden immediacy. It’s hard to get a grasp of an overarching goal or even a plot and while characters have some degree of interesting traits but a tendency to act randomly. It’s tone can be slapstick and shift to dire dark straits within moments. Most of minor antagonists are ridiculously cartoonishly evil to a comical degree. However despite all this one can see that the mangaka can pull these story elements off well but it’s just that the story he has chosen has kind of run away from him. There is a few pages of the manga which were dedicated to a joke where Togata was driving a truck and was repeatedly getting attacked which has minimal dialogue and is one of the funnest scenes of slapstick in manga I have seen in a long time. There is also a scene of Domu discussing with Agni about the need for righteous education which was excellent. When looking at things, the mangaka’s next work ChainSaw Man does a much better job of juggling his strengths and looks to be a stronger story than this one. Yet…there is something distinctly fascinating about Fire Punch.

Film seems to be a primary theme of the story as a whole as it influences many of the characters. Togata is the obvious example but may of the characters have motivations tied to film. Our main villain’s motivation for a new Star Wars movie is one and as silly as it sounds I think many of us could go to absurd lengths if it meant getting more of a show we loved. Domu who acted as main antagonist for a time reveals that his actions were in service of his god whom he watched a video of him fighting demons and he later came to realise that his god was from a B-movie that Togata claims was a piece of utter crap. Upon being asked about Heaven, Togata claims that it is a cinema, something which Agni takes very to heart. Even the main character Agni is influenced by movies as he claims that most of his life he has been acting and is pushed to act more by Togata. Throughout the story he begins to try to act in a manner that he would believe the protagonist of a movie would act only to find that his real feelings push him towards something more nefarious. People build a religion around him based on a boy that saw him like an action hero which turns into a cult of desperation. The utter hopelessness of Agni who has long gone insane and just wants to die, constantly being told to live by those he cares about. Nihilism runs through the story with peoples gods being fake illusions to avert their eyes from the most certain death of the world and Agni’s once righteous crusade being revealed to be something more selfish and personal that breaks him down into a sad shell of a man. This manga is a mess really but there is something honestly genuine about it that I think makes for a interesting read and I can be sure it will never get an anime adaption. It’s not a manga for everyone or even many people but upon finishing it I found it rather cathartic and it’s given me hope that the Mangaka can really take ChainSaw Man to interesting places. Well…provided that he doesn’t go completely insane.

On a completely unrelated note I would like to give a call out to Spy X Family. A brand new series with just two chapters out so far but I have a feeling this one might turn out to be something quite special. I wouldn’t see surprised to see an anime adaption in a few years time.

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Yakusoku no Neverland [The Promised Neverland]

Emma and her friends have a pretty good life at the orphanage they grew up in. Though the rules may be strict, the caretaker is kind. But why are the children forbidden from ever leaving…?

As you have likely have guessed, the Orphanage isn’t quite what it seems to be but as to why that might be I will avoid spoiling. It will be difficult to really go into detail as that would ruin the surprise(Though it isn’t all that surprising but regardless) but the rundown is that these kids need to escape the Orphanage. So what we have here is a kind of Great escape story where the kids formulate a plan while avoiding attracting the suspicions of the caretaker. It’s pretty tense and the artist really know how to make some unnerving imagery. I can really see this becoming an anime in the future and if so it could be really something. Highly recommend this.

Maou-jou de Oyasumi [Sleeping in Devil’s Castle]

The time when humans and demons once existed. A demon king, the existence that throws off that balance of perfect stability, kidnapped a human princess and confined her in his own castle.
People raged, and sent a hero on a journey to rescue the princess to the castle she was confined in. She was supposed to be weeping, despairing, and waiting for a rescue, but… Having so much spare time, aside from sleeping she has nothing else to do.
Now, the “imprisoned princess” does as she likes in the demon king’s castle in a seek of a quiet sleep!
This is a sleeping short comedy!!

The hero and demon king routine has become rather stale a premise in regards to anime but this manga is different in just who it decides to focus on. This a about a captured princess who loves to sleep but is constantly finding problems coming up which prevent her from getting her precious nap times. So this tale is about her overcoming such problems no matter what gets in her way, even if she has to make a bed monster hunter style. The story is pretty simple and there really isn’t much more to it than that but the humor just really works. The stories are short and sweet while never failing to bring a smile to my face.

Uratarou

As a child, Princess Taira Chiyo escaped from being captured by the Minamoto army due to the the sacrifice of her mother. Now at the age of 15, she travels the land searching for immortality. Following the rumors about an immortal named Kijin-sama, Chiyo actually finds him! But all he wants is to die?

Clearly based on the legend of Momotarou, this manga isn’t really what I would call a masterpiece. But it remains a pretty fun shounen adventure regardless with a decently original hook. It does show dangers of becoming a rather generic shounen battle manga but at this point in time I don’t see any harm in recommending it. Plus I really like a one shot the mangaka made called Zombie Maria and his artstyle is really great for detailing gory fight scenes. In fact the artwork is pretty great in general as you can likely see from the above.

 

Other Notable New works

Red Sprite (Sadly this one was recently axed but it’s still a nice read.)

Marry Me!(Yuuki Miku)

Murenase! Shiiton Gakuen

Rike ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumeishitemita

Gendai Majo no Shuushoku Jijou

Shitei Bouryoku Shoujo Shiomi-chan

Amalgam of Distortion

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Happy Sugar Life

High-schooler Matsuzaka Satou has a reputation for being easy, but one day her lifestyle of sleeping with one boy after another comes to an end. It happens when she meets the child Shio, for whom she is convinced she feels true love for the first time. Satou may seem sweet and innocent, but there is nothing she won’t do to protect their life together, including committing murder. But from where did she acquire the little girl, and how long can their “Happy Sugar Life” together last?

This is a story about love. But not in the sense of “Let’s get married and live our lives together” but more along the lines of “I will stalk you and watch you as you sleep at night, breathing heavily.” This story is about Yanderes and it certainly has them of all kinds and sizes. What you are going to get out of this depends on whether you like dark stories like myself. In this case everyone in this story is messed up in some way or another and it brings some great twists to the table. If you watched Mirai Nikki and thought that it would have been more interesting if it focused primarily on Yuno then this is the manga for you. Admittedly the main characters preaching on other characters “Love” is somewhat grating and this does depend a lot on it’s shock value. Still I think it has merit in that there are so few of these kinds of stories pulled off this well.

 

Jigokukoi; Death Life

Another series by the author of Jigokuren ~Love in Hell~. Set in the same world as Love in Hell but with all new characters.

A love comedy in hell you say? Well this isn’t necessarily a new title as the author has used this setting before in a similarly titled manga. But damn if it isn’t an interesting setting. Basically our protagonist dies and goes to hell. Hell in this universe happens to be everything you expect it to be besides the cute demon girls as it is their job to torture their subject in order to gain some level of status and money. Oh and by torture I really mean that in every sense of the word. If you are not a fan of gore you would do better to stay away from this as it does not hold back with it’s artwork. There’s people getting skinned alive, having their intestines nailed to a wall and even chopping off…yeah that’s too painful for me to even type. Regardless of the damage inflicted, once a person dies they just revert back to their old selves and thus the torture can begin anew. Despite how dark the subject material sounds this is actually more of a dark comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I would recommend reading the prequel to this as I am not too fond of the new characters dynamic. The best comparison i could make for this is that it’s like Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan.

 

Niehime to Kemono no Ou

Saliphie, the 99th sacrifice to the terrifying demon king, learns two secrets about the king: The first, that he has been letting the sacrifices go in secret. The second, that half of his blood is that of a human. She gets to know the king’s kindness and sorrow, and then it’s announced that the king has taken Saliphie, who wishes to become a source of energy for the king, as his queen, and…?

Well it’s beauty and the beast without the stockholm syndrome. This is an odd choice for me as I generally don’t go for these kinds of stories. However I must admit that their is something rather charming about this one. Maybe I just like the Dynamic between the king and the sacrifice girl as he tends to act menacingly while the girl just sees right through him. Plus i really love the design of the king and the setting of the monster kingdom. Of course there may be those of you being put off by the fact that the King is a lion and that this story looks like beastitly. Don’t worry, the king has a human form and their relationship is not sexual. I am not exactly crazy about this one but I admit that I rather enjoy reading it. It’s a very warm and fuzzy love story.

 

Canaria-tachi no Fune

Yuri is just a normal girl in high school: she loves hanging out with her friends, she has dreams, and she has worries. But one day, she wakes up in a strange forest she’s never seen before beside a man named Chihiro. As the two of them learn more about the place they suddenly find themselves in, and the oddly real dream they had of being abducted by aliens, the dark secret of where they are and what has happened to them will begin to unfold.

A man and a girl find themselves on an Alien planet without any real knowledge of why they are there. Once again this is a pretty dark story as the two come to terms with their alien surroundings. Artwork is great and so far the story has had some interesting turns. Might need a bit more time to show where it really is going but the general mental breakdown of the protagonists is enough to keep me intrigued.

 

Kangoku Jikken

Eyama Aito, a high school student, is the victim of daily bullying. One day a strange letter arrives inviting him to a “captivity game.” He may choose one person to hold captive for one month with a chance at winning a large amount of money. He chooses the ringleader of his bullies, Aya Kirishima, and the only rule of the game is to not kill her. Everything else is fair game. Eyama’s revenge begins!

Another dark concept to add to the mix. The bully and bullied which places when a boy enters the girl that torments him in a game. The rules of the game are simple, enter a name and that person will be abducted and held in a facility for one month. In that one month the one who entered the name can do absolutely anything to the victim. As long as it doesn’t kill the victim or remove their ability to speak then anything is fair game. However at the end of each week the victim is given an opportunity to guess the name of their capturer. If they guess right they get 10 million yen paid by capturers pocket. If they fail to guess the name in that month then the victim pay the capturer 10 million yen. What makes this one interesting is that their are others in the game as well who take part for different reasons.Our protagonist looks to be someone who is a potential sadist and has at least some degree of intelligence. I am hoping it doesn’t pull the rape card as that would be cheap however so far it looks like it’s sticking to just physical and psychological abuse. It might need some time before we can really see where it goes but for now I am rather fascinated.

 

Other Notable New works

Goblin Slayer

Shinyaku Marchen

Wombs

Bokura no Fushidara

Unbalance School Life

Kami-sama, Ki-sama o Koroshitai