It has been a dry season at my local library (but isn’t it always?). A while aback, I saw Volume 1 of Shu Sakuratani’s Rooster Fighter on the shelves…and immediately dismissed it as more goofy, isekai random Japanese nonsense. You know, like Reincarnated As The Dungeon’s Only Vending Machine or So I’m A Spider, So What?
But an exceptionally dry spell without any really new manga on the shelves and a boring couple of weeks had left me desperate for something new to review. Really needed to stretch those creative muscles.
And, surprisingly, this manga did NOT suck.
The back of the manga espoused it as “one ordinary but heroic rooster is mankind’s only defense against giant monsters-beware his cock-a-doodle-doo!”.
I did not make that up: The aforementioned cock-a-doodle-doo is actually his finishing move, a crow that resonates with the bodies of his opponents and makes them explode.
Granted, it is just as comedic as the premise and the blurb make it sound, but it’s more than that. The rooster, Keiji, is pretty much every Gritty 90’s Anti-Hero trope rolled into a tiny, feathered package. He is, for lack of a better term, a man’s man who claims to not like kids, hates to see women cry, and beds a different one in pretty much every town. The characters he encounters have deep, emotional backstories. And he is even on a quest for vengeance against the monster that ate his beloved little sister.
Imagine if someone like Jotaro Kujo was a rooster. Seriously, even the artwork is all gritty and realistic.
If I had to describe it, Rooster Fighter is a battle/horror comic much like Jojo, but with more comedy to it, from physical comedy to funny faces to our running gag of Japanese-style humor that I’ve talked so much about. The demons are bizarrely humanoid and born from the everyday stresses of average people (for the most part). Many of the characters can exhibit strange and bizarre personality traits (even Keiji, who often walks the line of Comically Serious). And then we have the humor of a tiny ordinary rooster, not even two feet tall, running around on the skins of demons to peck at them once or twice before finishing them off with a sonic, shattering cock-a-doodle-doo.
Despite its premise, it is far south of the sliding scale of dumber comedy manga like Bobobo-bo-bobobo, or just another dumb isekai. Not much is explained, but not much needs to. There is occasional graphic violence and adult themes, but, at the end of the day, it’s just a goofy, fun romp.
That being said, while I will keep my eyes open for it when I go to the bookstore from now on, I doubt that I will be actually making a purchase of this series any time soon.
PS: I have recently begun following newly-released manga from Shonen Jump, albeit translated and released on their website every Sunday.
Do you people want to see me reviewing some of those?
Wait a second-I already have, back when I posted my review of Candy Flurry last year. So I guess I will go ahead and do that, if I happen to run into another dry spell and find myself desperate for material to review.
Not like anyone really reads this blog, anyway…
(sigh)
No comments:
Post a Comment