Kyokuto Necromance Review

 

Kaoru Uno lives with his elderly grandmother Umeko, who is gradually falling more and more ill.  One day, after Umeko collapses, Kaoru has a vision of small bizarre creatures surrounding her.  And then things really get weird.  A famous novelist named Yoji Amane appears at his school the next day and addresses Kaoru by name, despite the two having never consciously met.  He drags Kaoru into his car and pulls him away from school to discuss his late father’s ring, which was the only thing he gave to Kaoru before he died.  Amane explains that the ring is connected to creatures called shiryo or death spirits, which devour human souls.  This is something that Kaoru gets a lesson in firsthand as he encounters his grandma again, she barfs up a ton of shiryo and they all merge into one to attack him.  Kaoru attempts to fight the shiryo off to save his grandma, but nothing happens until he strikes it with the hand that bears his father’s ring.  This releases some sort of barbarian spirit with a rose-shaped spear that, sadly, we don’t really get to see in the first chapter, as the shiryo is then defeated by Amane.  He summons his own spirit, a bug-like girl named Chitari, who devours the shiryo’s soul after Amane turns her into a sword and cuts it apart.  He calls this process of fighting shiryo with shiryo “necromancy” (which is not right at all).  It seems that Kaoru’s father was once Amane’s partner, and he asked him to take care of Kaoru after his death.  This leads to Kaoru offering to work for Amane and the start of our story.

 

I have no idea where to even begin with all of the tropes this series has wound up borrowing from other generic supernatural battle manga.

 

I can count notes of at least Shaman King, Bleach, Jujutsu Kaisen, Soul Eater and maybe some hints of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

 

Now, I liked all those series, don’t worry.  (Bleach became a little hard for me to follow in it’s initial run, but then I read through all 50-some of the English volumes throughout one magical summer.  And the anime was good.)

 

The shiryo look bizarre enough to resemble the curses from Jujutsu Kaisen, Amane reminds me of L from Death Note, Kaoru’s shiryo reminds me of a Jojo Stand and Chitari turns into a sword a la Soul Eater.

 

Sure, it’s all very standard and it’s a hodgepodge of stuff from previous and already-established series, but sometimes standard is good.  Sometimes you just want something generic and mindless, and this series is still in its infancy, so the jury is still out on how it will wind up going.

 

That being said, I do have at least two problems with it.

 

One, necromancy is nothing like exorcism.  Necromancy involves a specialization in the dead.  Shiryo are “death spirits”, which, while connected, are not the same.  Necromancy involves more resurrecting the dead as spirits or zombies.  And I’m not sure how long I can overlook this for the sake of “Rule Of Cool”.

 

But, with all due respect, what else would you expect from non-English-speaking Japan?  It’s like how they named the South American town in Dead Rising “Santa Cabeza”.  And I suppose I’ve grown to more-or-less overlook that by now, as well.

 

Secondly, it feels like kind of a ripoff that we saw Kaoru awaken this shiryo barbarian spirit thing from his father’s ring, and then we don’t get to see it actually do anything.  I mean, it’s Amane and Chitari who wind up defeating the shiryo that was plaguing Grandma.  If Kaoru is the main character, then we want to see him kicking butt.  But at least he does get to land one hit on the shiryo before it instantly heals itself.

 

All in all, I found Kyokuto Necromance to be worth my time for the moment without being too dumb (unlike that new Yakuza manga with Academia Quirks from a space rock, which I felt to be TOO standard).  And who knows-that Anemone manga has turned out to be not-half-bad.

 

Maybe Kyokuto Necromance will be, too.

 

Check it out on the Shonen Jump website!

 

A Saint Meets A Sinful World

 

Back when Shonen Jump was running that manga “The Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins” that I reviewed last year, the site billed it as “from the creator of Takopi’s Original Sin”.  But this year, Spring of 2024, is the first time I’d even heard of Takopi’s Original Sin, or seen it on the shelves.  This feels to me like Shonen Jump putting the cart before the horse.

 

And yes: This series was much easier to follow than “Ichinose Family”.

 

Somewhere else in the universe lies Planet Happy.  This planet’s inhabitants, the Happians, are given the task of traveling the universe and using their incredible technology to make it a happier place.  Nueinukf has come to Earth to deliver happiness…but finds himself walled off by ten-year-old Shizuka Kuse.

 

Christening him Takopi, this girl is completely uninterested in his array of fantastic Happy Items.  But, with a life as bad as hers, you’d probably have given up on happiness, too.  Living in poverty, her mother is a whore who is never around, her father left, and the meanest girl in school has lost her own father to Shizuka’s mother, making her the bully’s target.

 

Every major character save Takopi has a darkness in their heart, but far more than I’d imagine the average person does.  The bully girl saw her parents divorce and her mother fall into drinking and child abuse, so, while not justified, her own anger and sadness is understandable.

 

It’s almost a sick, dark laugh to watch as Takopi learns about the darkest parts of humanity, and just how difficult finding true happiness is for us.  His species even has no concept of violence, calling it “touching hard”, and only a vague concept of killing.

 

So, when bully Marina provokes the dog who is Shizuka’s only friend into biting her and being taken away by Animal Control, Shizuka, now abandoned by all, uses Takopi’s “Happy Elastic Dog Leash” to commit suicide.

 

This being the ultimate expression of unhappiness, Takopi opts to use his “Happy Camera” to travel back in time again and again to try and prevent Shizuka’s death…with dire consequences.

 

And, while there is a happy ending, do not expect for it to exactly be a “conventional” one.

 

The simple and cute art style stands out even more than it did in Ichinose, in contrast to the darker subject matter.  The whole thing is played for horror as the Sanrio-esque simplistic cuteness of Takopi clashes greatly with scenes of him interacting with dead bodies.

 

The story also reminds us that everyone’s life is difficult, and that achieving happiness takes work.  Whether it be finding a better job, making more friends, or doing better at a sport or hobby, at least some of the outcome has to rest with you.  There are no easy routes to happiness, and achieving it can become complicated sometimes, sure.

 

There is no one path to happiness; it’s different for everyone.  But, if there is one, I would say that it starts with empathy.

 

My own philosophy, which has kept me afloat throughout my many hardships, is that “as long as there is life in my body and a tomorrow on the calendar, there’s a chance for things to improve”.  But I myself lack the kind of stick-to-it-ive-ness and follow-through to do my own work to make things better (at least, not when it really matters).

 

I could actually see myself maybe owning a copy of Takopi’s Original Sin at some point in the future.  It’s almost a form of melancholy art, like Ruth B’s “Lost Boy” or that “Fast Car” song.

 

Give them a listen, and give Takopi’s Original Sin a look, too.

 

A Decent First Movement

 

Seven-year-old Chloe lives alone with her baby brother Locke in another world’s prison city.  Police robots stop any who try to escape.  Their parents have been gone for six months, and neither child has ever left their apartment.  To keep them both occupied and emotionally safe, Chloe often sings and dances.

 

But even the tightest and hardest of prisons requires repairs, and three hardened former criminals are just the ones to do it.  Plus, this gives them insight into the vulnerabilities of the prison as they plan their escape.  Their leader is torn, though, between escaping to find his daughter and not, as he is the one keeping Chloe and Locke basically alive via donations of food left outside their door.

 

The day of the escape comes, and Chloe and Locke (who somehow learned of their plan) follow after them.  A fight with prison security ensues and Locke is unfortunately dropped and abandoned, with no guarantee that he survived.

 

Flash forward to 11 years later, where Chloe has returned, trained by the criminals, to the prison city in search of Locke.  There she must deal with street violence and criminal families to find the information she needs.

 

This is Shiro Moriya’s “Soloist In A Cage”.

 

As you could probably tell, this is a manga with a Western bent, to the point where I am not entirely sure this manga even came from Japan.  The art style is also very Western, leaning more into the old-timey comics of premiere Batman and stuff like Prohibition.  There are no cheesy attack names or fanservice in Soloist In A Cage, and only scant amounts of humor.  Battles are done with common knives and handguns for the most part.  Things are somber, with sumptuously detailed art, everyone dealing with some sort of loss, and silent fights with well-choreographed knife work.

 

It is both sad and beautiful to see Chloe’s childhood dancing skills repurposed into graceful and deliberate swings of a knife.

 

Sadly, this manga did not turn out to be my cup of tea.  There is a time and place for sadness and melancholy, don’t get me wrong.  But I am not sure if I really liked Soloist In A Cage.  It all felt a little too Western for my tastes.  In fact, let me check…It does say online that it’s being put out by Shueisha and Shonen Jump+.

 

But I still find the juxtaposition and contrast of the Western art style and names with its country of origin in Japan to be disconcerting.