Volumes: 10/10 (Complete), In Print
Seinen
Genre: Fighting, Robots, Superheroes, Scifi
Summary: Mr. Inuyashiki has an awful life. He’s only 58 but looks like an old man, his children are ashamed of being seen with him, and his wife doesn’t care about him like she used to. The only one who cares about him is his newly adopted dog. Then, he finds out he has cancer and has only three months left to live. He goes to the park lost in thought after hearing the news.
Suddenly he and a teen boy who was also standing on the hill are both killed in an explosion. He wakes up some time later and discovers he was remade into a super-powered robot by aliens trying to cover up their mistake. At first Mr. Inuyashiki is shocked by his transformation, but after rescuing a homeless guy from being nearly murdered by some delinquents, he decides that he’s going to prove his humanity by rescuing as many lives as possible with his new powers. But meanwhile his counterpart, the teen boy Shishigami-kun who was also on the hill, takes a darker path.
Review: This is a very popular Seinen title from the mangaka who is most famous for GANTZ. For those not familiar with GANTZ, it’s a Scifi action series with some fairly graphic gore, and Inuyashiki has a lot in common with it.
After an initially depressing start, the manga takes off at full speed to be a page turning thriller. Mr. Inuyashiki becomes a hero as he tries to save people, going from someone who couldn’t even stand up to loud punks on the subway, to fighting the yakuza. Meanwhile Shishigami-kun initially seems like he wants to use his powers to help his bullied friend and his mother, but is also looking for excuses to kill others. Then the police catch up to Shishigami, tragedy strikes, and what follows is an escalated conflict where neither will back down, to horrendous results. Mr. Inuyashiki and Shishigami finally have a climactic showdown as Mr. Inuyashiki tries to save Japan. But this soon becomes upstaged as news of an asteroid heading towards Earth fills the news.
All in all, it’s a real page turner with a lot of action, fights and in a bit of an unusual twist, both Mr. Inuyashiki and Shishigami-kun both have wireless hacking abilities as well as a jetpack that comes out of their backs. There is also something kind of funny about watching what looks like a shirtless, frail, old man beating up bad guys twice his size. Or Shishigami shooting people with his literal finger gun. At heart it’s a big showdown between good and evil, but even though it was a real fun ride of a read, I did kind of wish there had been more depth to it. But the comic is basically a Scifi action movie. Lastly, the ending was good but I wished that the people of Earth knew why they were saved.
Recommended: TLDR; If you want to read a page turning Scifi thriller with plenty of action that is a big showdown between good and evil, and don’t mind some graphic gore, lots of deaths and some attempted rape then it’s a great read.
Age Rating: Older Teen: Quite a lot of violence, some fairly graphic gore. Some male on male sexual assault (but not graphic), and also some attempted rape (lots of nudity but not graphic). If you have read GANTZ then this is actually tamer in comparison.
Other works in English from this mangaka: (from most to least popular): GANTZ, GANTZ G, Gigant
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