Kurosagi

Introduction: Growing up I loved watching police procedurals and crime dramas/comedies such as Diagnosis: Murder and older shows such as Quincy M.E. So when I found out that Kurosagi was done in a similar vein as a police procedural I knew I had to pick it up.

Plot Overview: Kurosaki, the main character, is a Kurosagi (Black Swindler) that only targets Shirosagi (White Swindlers), swindlers who swindle others out of their money. Not much else is known about Kurosaki initially other then his motivation for targeting Shirosagi is born out of revenge for something that happened to him in his past.

Review: Kurosagi is a procedural at it's heart and as such focuses more on the cases and how Kurosaki is going to swindle the Shirosagi out of their money much more than character development. In fact there are only three consistent characters in the manga with the rest either being villains/victims of the week or showing up every blue moon or so. But this is fine for what Kurosagi wants to do which is present a fraud and how it is done and then show how Kurosaki swindles the swindler.

Conclusion: Kurosagi is great for those who like police procedurals as it's take on the genre is both fresh and entertaining. But if police procedurals aren't your cup of tea then you are better off looking for a different manga to read.

Guardman's Grade: B+

Categories: Drama, Procedural, Mystery

Eyeshield 21

Introduction: I decided to read Eyeshield 21 just out of my pure love of football (not soccer) and my unending curiosity about how it could be translated to manga form.

Plot Overview: Eyeshield 21 is about a small, perpetual gopher named Sena who through his years of running errands for bullies has developed near super-human speed and cutting ability. Seeing this the twisted and ingenious quarterback, Hiruma, of the Deimon High School American Football team, the Devil Bats, blackmails Sena (and eventually anyone else he finds useful) into joining as the mysterious and anonymous Eyeshield 21. And so begins the unlikely journey of Eyeshield 21 and the high octane Devil Bats as they follow their dream towards playing in the Christmas Bowl.

Review: The first thing that comes to mind when reading Eyeshield 21 is that it does a great job of capturing the fun and excitement of football. The author, Riichiro Inagaki, and the illustrator, Yusuke Murata, show the amount of effort and research they put into Eyeshield 21 by the way the equipment and body movement reflects how actual football players look and move (you know minus the special effects). The games themselves are also very good as where one could get bogged down in play after play, they instead streamline them, focusing on the big plays and interactions while subtly hiding the fact that they are skipping a lot of plays. As for the characters, they are all very well done, with each one having an unique style, personality, and way they hold themselves which makes it easy to tell who is who even with all the football equipment on. Even the football teams have their own personality, plays, and easily distinguishable uniforms, from the tricky high octane Deimon Devil Bats to the stoic defense of the Ojo White Knights to the overpowering gunslinger offense of the Seibu Wild Gunmen. The only real problem with Eyeshield 21 is that it was obviously made for an audience that has limited exposure to football as there is never a penalty called and there are a lot of little things that a person with knowledge of football would spot and say that's not right.

Conclusion: Eyeshield 21 is a fun, energetic, and funny sports manga full of great characters that is easy to enjoy and get addicted to if you can get pass some of the inaccuracies and idiosyncrasies in the way they portray the game.

Guardman's Grade: B

Categories: Shounen, Sports, School Life, Comedy

Gin no Saji

Introduction: Sometimes you stumble onto little gems not because you are looking for them, but by pure happenstance. I began reading Gin no Saji aka "Silver Spoon" not because I was interested in reading a farming manga, but because Arakawa Hiromu is one of my favorite mangaka, and after Fullmetal Alchemist I am willing to give anything she creates a chance no matter how uninteresting the initial concept might sound to me. And personally I am glad I did.

Plot Overview: Hachiken Yugo is a student from Sapporo who enrolls in an agricultural high school after failing to get into his high schools of choice on the mistaken belief that the easier course load will give him more time to prepare for college. Unfortunately for him he is woefully unprepared for not only the hard labor that comes from being in an agricultural high school but from the moral and ethical problems that one must face in the ever challenging world of farming where you literally hold the fate of other living creatures in your hands. This combined with his ever helpful nature leads to him having to confront not only himself, but his beliefs and what he wants for the future.

Review: Despite my initial assumption that this would be another school, coming to age, shounen manga only set in an agricultural background instead of the usual setting, I was quickly proven wrong when the coming to age part proved to have little to do with maturity, but instead was about shaping one's ethics and morals. Combined with the fact that instead of fanciful elements providing the moral choice, we are given the very real life examples of killing animals you are attached to for food or ethical debates on engineering produce and livestock. But despite the sheer weight of the coming to age elements, this manga is anything but depressing. It is full of hope, life, and even quite a bit of comedy that only Arakawa Hiromu can pull off.

Conclusion: Due to the subject matter and the fact that the problems faced are very much ground in real life this manga isn't for everybody, but for those that are either looking for a good coming of age manga to follow or are fans of Fullmetal Alchemist I strongly recommend reading Gin no Saji.

Guardman's Grade: A-

Categories:  Shounen, Slice of Life, School Life, Coming of Age, Comedy, Drama