So we meet again, Mr. Tanaka. I have not been kind on you in the past. I did not have a lot of nice things to say about ‘Jamais Vu’. The biggest problem seems to be that you tend towards the ordinary, the clichés, the been-there-done-that. ‘Jamais Vu’ started out with a bizarre and intriguing science-fiction idea, only to revert to “good humans VS. evil aliens” after just a few pages. It was the kind of story that Baka Ouji-sama would not stand for. (One of these days, I should review ‘Level E’…) And you gave the aliens a weak spot that only M. Night Shyamalan would consider a good idea.
Anyway! ‘Kagijin’ is based on a oneshot by the same name, and is Yasuki Tanaka’s second series in Weekly Jump after the shortlived ‘Hitomi no Catoblepas’.The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world in what used to be Japan, but is now a desert with some ruins sticking out here and there. There is an evil Empire, and a main character, Tsubame, who lives with a bunch of orphaned kids, gathering and selling scrap metal to make a living.. One day, an Imperial officer named Jilda is sent to capture and kill him, but she only knows that he is supposed to be an escaped criminal, and has no further information. When a sandstorm separates her from her men, she’s rescued by Tsubame and eventually discovers his biggest secret, and the real reason why she has been ordered to kill him: Tsubame is a kagijin, that is a being that has a keyhole in his wrist, through which he can unlock – with the right key of course – extremely great power. The kagijin have been used as slaves by the Empire, but of course Tsubame doesn’t yield to such oppression, but wants to be free.
Tsubame means swallow (the bird, not the verb), and Tsubame’s shirt is decorated with a bird print. And he wants to be free. Like a bird. Get it? The Empire’s crest is a bird cage. Subtlety is not a strength of this manga.
There isn’t much to say after one chapter, I think the series could go either way. The setting and overall storyline is pretty generic, as you’ve probably realized yourself. The characters haven’t shown themselves as very interesting yet, and Tsubame goes on my nerves like whoa, but that may be just me. I seldom like manga main characters, but I also seldom loathe them, and there’s something about Tsubame I just don’t like. I can’t put my finger on it. I also dislike his character design, which was changed a lot from the oneshot… I liked it in the oneshot, actually, so this was disappointing and might be clouding my judgment. The positive change from the oneshot, however, concerns the female lead. While she was little else but two breasts in skimpy clothes that needed rescue, Jilda of the series has clothes, a job and does more than whimper in sexy poses. Congrats!
However, I like the artwork (excluding the main character’s design). Tanaka-sensei seems to have improved a lot, and maybe also changed his style slightly. There is a hint of Akira Toriyama about the setting and the secondary characters. It feels nicely nostalgic, I like it.
I want to end this review on a positive note, I really do, but it’s hard. There’s little originality about ‘Kagijin’. The main attraction for me is the aforementioned nostalgia, which is not really a criteria, I guess… and probably won’t hold my interest for long. This manga lacks whatever it takes to make a manga really memorable or unique. I could imagine reading it for fun, without growing too attached to anything. Only time will tell.
Maybe Tanaka-sensei should team up with a writer, because his artwork is clean and nice-looking, but he doesn’t seem very good at the writing part.
