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.

 

A New Series Blooms!

 

It is a sad fact of life that everything has to end sometime (except, apparently, for superhero comics).

 

And now, ever since Tenmaku Cinema, The Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins and Fabricant 100 have all ended, Shonen Jump has been kind of fumbling for new material.

 

I mean, God knows they’ve tried with this spate of new sports manga like Martial Master Asumi, Green Green Greens and Dogsred, but, deep down, some part of me has been hungering for something new and wild and kind of creepy.

 

Does anyone else have any fond memories of the Battle Royale manga written by Koushun Takami and illustrated by Masayuki Taguchi?  Well, Taguchi also did this one really weird horror isekai where people were apparently sent to some other dimension and began to mutate into half-animal monsters and had to survive against the harsh wildlife and each other.  It was called “Lives”.  I’ve only read one volume, but it was so weird that it really stuck with me.

 

And now, apparently, it’s been reborn in the pages of today’s modern Jump as Rin Matsui’s new series “Dear Anemone”.

 

After the standard opening of a guy exploring an unknown island and getting killed by some seriously creepy Body Horror monsters, we cut to a year later, following high school student Gaku Hachiue on a ship in the Atlantic.

 

It turns out that the ship in question is ferrying 15 people to the Galapagos Islands, an archipelago that, due to being formed fairly recently, has had no contact with other lands in its early years, thus apparently leading all life on it to evolve independently of everything else in the world.

 

The more you know.

 

And did you know that the Galapagos were actually where Darwin first came up with his theory of evolution?

 

Well, apparently some tragedy occurred on the island a decade ago.  Some sort of explosion that wiped out the entire population and soaked the island with all kinds of unknown chemicals and pathogens.  Days before our story takes place, said virus and chemicals had apparently diffused enough to allow for humans to enter and investigate the island once more…if any of their special teams had ever made it back.

 

So Gaku and his 14 teammates are going to spend a month combing this island to try and rescue the missing research team, as well as receive a financial reward for doing so.  But Gaku has his own reasons for coming: one of the missing team members was a friend of his from high school, a budding young biologist who taught him not to give up.

 

But a lot of good that lesson will do when you’re faced with a bird-gorilla capable of voice mimicry (with creepily disturbing humanoid teeth) and a chameleon whose camouflage powers are so advanced that it can literally shapeshift into a human being, maybe even one you know…And they’re both in an alliance to eat you.

 

And did I mention that they can tank machine gunfire, crush your rifle with their bare hands and can rip off your head with their freaking tongues?!

 

Yeah, it’s that kind of manga.

 

Think Toriko plopped right into the Gourmet World, or Gon plopped right onto the Dark Continent.  Only they have no superpowers.

 

After a moment of indecisiveness, Gaku finds his grit and tries to fight one of the monsters to save a teammate.  Naturally, this does not work; it merely forces the monster to change targets.  But, in true manga/anime protagonist fashion, Gaku gets saved by an astonishing coincidence: some of his blood falls onto a nearby anemone flower, and it grows into an androgynous humanoid vine-creature that resembles Hisoka, killing the bird-gorilla creature and saving his life.

 

Now, I’m just a humble Midwestern data clerk, but I’m pretty sure real-life evolution is very different than that.  To my understanding, it works more like this: Somewhere on Earth, a single giraffe is born with a slightly longer neck, which can help it reach the tree leaves better than its regular fellows.  Elsewhere, somewhere else on Earth, another long-necked giraffe is born to another set of parents.  Soon, more and more long-necked giraffes are being born, to the point where the short-necked giraffes have begun to go extinct and the long-necked giraffes have become the new norm.

 

By that logic, more of these monsters would theoretically be being born across the world.

 

But this is just me showing off my knowledge of stuff; I can suspend my disbelief a bit for the sake of coolness.

 

Not that the series is without its problems, of course.  Early on, one person (a “Ryuichi Yashiki”) gets irate at the mysterious government backers for their lack of explanation, and, a few panels later, we see what appears to be that Ryuichi himself talking to Gaku and seeming to react to what he himself just said, as if he hadn’t been the one to say it.

 

And yes: my trying to understand that (after multiple readings) was as hard for me as reading that last sentence (and probably this one) was for you.

 

(Or so it would seem: on my fourth or fifth read through, AS I WROTE THIS VERY ARTICLE, I spotted the character’s finger pointing at Gaku, saying that [Gaku] was the one with “the eye of the tiger” who “snapped” and not, apparently, himself.  Whether that was from my own obliviousness or a problem with crammed manga panels or something, I’ll let you decide.)

 

And, if there’s any motive to the government’s knowingly sending in unqualified people, fully expecting them to die (besides the typical sociopathic “wanting to see what will happen for the sake of curiosity/science), then I’m not getting it.  They make some more talk about how cruel and beautiful evolution is, but that’s about as close as we get in the first chapter.

 

But, because this is only the first chapter, there are theoretically any number of ways that the story can evolve (if you’ll pardon the humor).

 

Perhaps it’s because, as I said, the vine creature resembles noted creep Hisoka, that it could be in a creepy “love” with Gaku for creating it.  And is it male or female, or does it even matter because flowers can be both at once?  Could it be ripening him up to eat (again much like Hisoka), or will it be more of a back-and-forth between two reluctant allies on this adventure?

 

Given what I know of anime and horror stories, I’ll wager that the Japanese government were the ones to cause the initial explosion on the Galapagos, and have plans to create more monsters to take over the world.  The monsters may also actually be mutated human beings, one of which would likely turn out to be Gaku’s old friend, who he will have to tearfully kill for survival (“of the fittest”, if you’ll pardon a bit more humor).

 

But we will see soon enough, as the second chapter is just on the horizon.

 

Or, at least, I will.  But I sincerely hope you will, too.