Kisama! Yatsu!

One Piece is, in many ways, a typical shounen manga; it has a lot of the similar elements that appeal general to younger males that permeate the shounen genre (the fights, the static arcs, the indomitable main character, so forth). However, while One Piece is most definitely a shounen manga, it is quite arguably the single best one. In syndication for over ten years now in Japan, One Piece, created by Oichiro Oda, is a wonderfully enjoyable work that is creative, action packed, emotional, and, quite honestly, deeply thoughtful.

There is a tendency for authors making shounen manga to “yarn” out arcs without a clear goal in mind. The story is going somewhere, but it’s like the author frequently doesn’t know exactly where, and has a tendency to go on tangents. Oda never gives you that feeling with One Piece, and he has well established in correspondance that, quite frankly, he plans out everything years ahead, and slowly works towards achieving these plans as he goes. And dear lord, does it show. Elements unveiled years ago, hundreds and hundreds of chapters ago, can return and work their way back into prominance, and in the process reveal a characteristic of the world that was unnoticed by its subtlety.

But I suppose I should actually talk about the plot of the work a bit:

“I want to be King of the Pirates!”

There once was a priate named Gold Roger, who conquered the greatest sea in the world, the Grand Line which circles the globe. He became infamous with the world government, and achieved untold riches beyond human comprehension. However, one day he was finally capture, and was taken to be executed. Before he was executed, his final words were “My riches? It’s yours for the taking if you can find it. I left it all in one piece.” In doing so, Roger inadvertantly (or perhaps purposefully…) started what became known as the “Great Age of the Pirates”, with thousands of pirates around the world rising up in search of untold fame, fortune, and freedom.

The protagonist of the story is Monkey D. Luffy, a Straw-Hat wearing boy from the Easter Seas who decides to become King of the Pirates. Unfortunately or fortunately, Luffy has eaten the Gum-Gum (Rubber-Rubber) Fruit, a Devil Fruit that allows him to stretch his body like rubber. As a result of eating a Devil Fruit, however, he is considered an “enemy of the Sea itself”, and thus unable to ever swim in any body of water, which is a bit of a problem while sailing on the hardest, roughest sea in the world. Not one to ever give up (ever), Luffy travels the sea while gaining new crew members/ friends for his “Straw Hat Pirates” while pursuing One Piece and adventure.

The Straw Hats include: A swordsman who wields three swords (the third in his mouth; he talks with the sword in his mouth, as the author explains it, “using his heart”), a female navigator (whom has a thing for money), a lying-prone Sniper (with a nose that would make Pinnochio jealous, one of the many little subtle elements Oda includes), a woman-obsessed Chef slash kicking-prone martial artist (who is perpetually wearing a suit and smoking a cigarette),  A reindeer doctor that ate a Human-Human fruit (highly gullible, likes cotton candy), a female archeologist who ate the Hana-Hana (Flower Flower) fruit that allows her to grow any part of her body out like a flower, a Cyborg ship mechanic fueled by Cola (and only wears a speedo), and… a musician, gentlemanly Skeleton who has an afro and wears a top hat (he claims to be gentlemanly anyway, and despite his love of tea and his classy dress, he’s rude as hell and amazing). Why yes, that IS the best protagonist listing for a single team ever.

One Piece has a precious combination of suspension-of-belief physics, science fiction technology (cyborgs powered by Cola? Hell yes!), and an element of supernatural power (Devil Fruits). Luffy meets such an absurd and diverse variety of people, even more varied than those included in that crew listing. One of my favorite characters, for instance, is a secret agent Okama (cross-dressing homosexual) who specialized in Okama-Kenpo and has the ability to change his body to mimmick anyone appearance wise. Stop jooooooking aarrouuunnndd~

“I want to be Pirate King… because I believe he’s the one with the most freedom in the entire world.”

One Piece is an incredibly emotional and exciting work. Oda is one of those authors amazing at building tension, building your excitement, and masterfully pulling you up and down a roller coaster of emotion. His character art may seem a bit rough in the early chapters, however, he quickly gets his groove, and his evolving art becomes more and more capable of expressing more and more in-depth emotions. As Oda explained in correspondance once, “When I want to make a character cry, I make sure they’re REALLY crying, to the point where I’m crying while drawing it.”

The characters are all well written and characterized. Luffy at many times can seem a bit of the stereotypical meat-headed shounen protagonist that infests so many works (Dragon Ball and Naruto, for one), but he’s intensely creative, and is as stubborn as an Ox made of Steel and Lead and Guts. Luffy is an interesting character, even if he’s a bit thick, and it really works for him. His slow-to-catch-on nature makes him at times actually more understanding, and it’s frequently broken by bursts of amazing ingenuity and insight that show that he truly is an ambitious character who knows very well the ramifactions of taking on the world itself, while at the same time being willing to do it because that is his dream.

One Piece is big on dreams.  Everyone in One Piece has dreams, hopes, and it’s a big part of Oda’s writing that these dreams often clash; this is where most of the conflicts come from in One Piece. People who dream of peace, people who dream of freedom, people who dream of power. These dreams meet, and clash. And the winner moves on. A crazy thing about One Piece is that not that many people actually die, which is far from actually being that cheesy in the manga; it just works. As Oda put it, “ine One Piece, people fight with their dreams on the line, and the loser who is defeated and loses their dream feels pain as great as dying. Luffy doesn’t have to kill anyone.” And it’s spot on. It makes an interesting dynamic in the work, since a lot of the antagonists aren’t evil, they just have different dreams and goals. Luffy often fights people with their own idea of justice, or no idea at all, and that doesn’t make anyone necessarily evil as a result. Sometimes, as a result, they come back later on and help Luffy out, which is awesome as hell.

The plot is a lot more complex and in depth then the basic setting implies, as well; it features World Government intrigue, a deleted history, a rather ambitious pirate named after the rather infamous Blackbeard, Luffy’s own revolutionary father, and lots and lots of adventure. One Piece has an amazing on going story, which has shown incredible guidance and sturdiness inspite of (or perhaps because of) its length. This is the ultimate adventure story, that’s it, I’ve said it.

And, of course, the fights are immensely badass. IMMENSELY.

Final Word:

One Piece is amazing, and if you read manga or comics, you are doing yourself, frankly, a disservice by not trying it. It is well worth the investment, and it certainly is THE BEST SHOUNEN MANGA CURRENTLY IN EXISTENCE. It blows everything else out of the water. Read it. Love it.

The One Piece manga is licensed, Viz Media + Shonen Jump USA are releasing it at a reasonable pace. They also seem have to have taken the hint that people have a tendency to ready ahead of where they’ve released the volumes by reading the chapters as they’re released in Japan/ scanned and translated online, so they’re looking to be releasing the recent chapters as well, a brilliant strategy to which I say kudos.

Akumetsu (アクメツ) is a manga serialized in Weekly Shōnen Champion, from 2002 to 2006. The story is written by Yoshiaki Tabata, and illustrated by Yûki Yogo.

Akumetsu can be deceiving. On one hand, it may seem simply to be the author’s creating some sort of self-insertion rage-against-the-political-machine work that uses excess violence to define the failing of Japan’s governmental system, as the authors perceive. I have seen people on other sites detail it as such, and at face value, it very well may be. However, there is a depth of human character within the narrative that reveals more. It isn’t so cut and dry, and, furthermore, is actually very human.

Akumetsu tells the tale of Hazama Shou, a highschooler in Japan looking to graduate soon in the future. Shou is seemingly the goofbag of the class; he jokes, he plays tricks, he makes everyone laugh. Nobody takes him seriously, but he’s incredibly popular.  But this, in some ways is a facade hiding an introspective, vengeful, and morally charged man whose sense of justice, and desire to protect his friends and country, leads him to become a mass murderer in the name of “justice”.

“If you had the power to destroy the evil that was making your family and neighbors suffer, would you?”

The story starts with Shou at a cafe with a girl from his school, Nagasawa Shina. They talk, and Shina kisses him, much to his embarassment, and then runs away.  Shou is left standing there confused, while Shina bids farewell to him forever in her head.

Shina’s family is in debt; in order to try to make back her family the money, she went to work an escort club. From there, she was sent to an invite-only pow-wow of bank members at a major 5-star hotel. The country of Japan is in debt as a result of these banks, and their leaders are allowed the luxury to lounge around here, taking advantage of women, while opposing reforms that could cause them lost profits. They do not have to worry about money; their fat paychecks will get replaced with a fat pension in time, and they’ll be able to retire comfortably.

Unfortunately for those meeting here, something else was there.

“This red wine… you can taste the heavy blood taxation, ya know.”

Akumetsu (lit: Evil Destruction), a masked vigilante, makes his first public appearance. He inquires to the Metropolitan Bank Consultant about how many people he’s killed by withholding money from them, to the point where they commit suicide. To not spoil the finer details, which are what make this manga so great, let’s look at the results:

“That’s Akumetsu.”

However, the others at the meeting managed to call the police, and well…

Fortunately!

Akumetsu is special.

He can be in more that one place at a time, and he can come back to life even when he’s killed. Now, as far as super powers go, this may be a bit far fetched, however, there is a catch, and there is an actual technical reason for it, but I won’t spoil it here (let’s just say there’s some rather interesting science-fiction involved).

Akumetsu wages a war against excess in the government, alongside… himself, himself, and himself. And himself. And himself! Fortunately, he and himselves are very agreeable, and they all plan to help change Japan by supporting the Prime Minister with his reforms… by killing the opposition.

Now, this may seem rather bizarre and, frankly, like some sort of crazy Turner Diaries style insane dream -without the crazy racism, of course - in fact, scratch that comparison, you don’t have much left there if you remove that. However, what’s key is that, for all that he is as a protagonist and a “defender of justice”… Shou isn’t even close to portrayed as ultimately morally good. The authors go out of the way to say to you “hey, Shou is PRETTY EXTREME, and this hardly seems right”.

For a man who apparently destroys evil, he doesn’t have a very clear definition OF evil, other then wasteful predation of others in a capitalistic environment. And people point this out, frequently, which is a great thing about Akumetsu: they don’t pretend that Akumetsu is anything OTHER than an outright terrorist, even if his cause could be considered just. One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist, and they frequently point it out, detail it, and elaborate on it.

Most importantly, though, Akumetsu is a fun manga to read. I enjoy reading it as it’s released every few weeks, and Akumetsu’s antics are both witty, exciting, and badass. The random science-fiction references, combined with the unique and enjoyable art style help make Akumetsu a rather under-appreciated manga, which deserves more attention. The tale of Akumetsu attempting to change Japan through violence, while at the same time police try to determine his identify, is vigorous and enjoyable.

FINAL WORD:

Akumetsu is a fun, violent, action-drama manga about a vigilante trying to change Japan via fear and violence. The drama caused by him trying to intimidate politicians, while the police attempt to determine the nature of his organization, is fascinating; the moral questions of his actions add some unexpected and interesting depth to the story.

Akumetsu is unlicensed and currently being translated by Izumo no Ryuu. They are roughly over 50% done, having just last week completed and released Chapter 98.

Note: Technically Akumetsu is a Shounen manga, however, due to the content, I am listing it as Seinen.

Well, looks like I need to repost everything. OH WELL.

Reviews reuploaded soon.