Sunday, February 20, 2011

Setsu

Kiba Kouichi is something of a legend in my mind, and it was not too long ago I was writing about how sad it was that a talent like his had vanished into the wasteland of the unappreciated and unemployed. But it turns out he did have a job at last, serializing this Olympic Gold Medalist track star becomes a cop manga.
So, um, yeah. It's not particularly memorable, sadly. Something I never really thought I'd say about a Kiba manga. It very much feels like him playing it safe, and trying to get something just mainstream enough to not get canceled. As far as I know it still hasn't been, so yay? The premise is decent enough, and he certainly has the artistic dynamism to sell her breaking into a run. But the first three stories feel like really cookie cutter cop plots with only a couple of oddball notes added in. The moments of forced comedy tend to undo whatever hope the weird moments create.
The only thing that keeps me buying the second volume is the fourth story, which features a seriously amazing moment where a smarmy politician's son (the mythical type of politician's son that the police can't even attempt to arrest even when he's running over policemen in the streets for shits and giggles) puts his arm around her and she projectile vomits in his face. In a two page spread. I can't say this was a moment for the ages, but at least it didn't feel like something any other manga artist could have done.

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