Eldo Yoshimizu

Interesting graphic novel, kind of a Japanese take on Modesty Blaise. Problem with this graphic novel is the fact it is artsy. Don't get me wrong I like artsy stuff but sometimes this can come up as a problem because not everyone sees the world in the same way especially when it comes to artistic presentations of inner turmoils.

As a consequence although art is truly one of the better ones I saw in manga sometimes it is so shrouded in darkness and ink blots that it truly takes a lot of concentration to figure out what is going on. As a consequence reader will lose the thread and might be in ??? mode because story is standard Yakuza/Criminal/Revenge opera with great accent on action and movement and not that much on dialogs. So visual presentation counts.

Story wise we follow Ryuko, daughter of deposed Yakuza boss as she fends off the criminal gangs in imaginary Middle Eastern country when suddenly she is told her mother is alive and kept prisoner. Story gets a little bit convoluted because we constantly move between present time and past (1980's and Russia's war in Afghanistan) so it requires the reader to concentrate in order not to miss anything.

In general very interesting graphic novel but slightly affected by artistic touch [in a negative way at least for me].

Recommended to all fans of manga and crime stories in vein of Crying Freeman.… (meer)

Volume two suffers from the same things I mentioned in comments for volume one. Art is great but at some points it is very, very difficult to figure out what is going on because of ... darkening? ..... of the scene.

Story also feels a little bit rushed at the end. Revelations about Ryuko's mother and what it takes to become the heir to this hidden criminal empire are very much in vein of Crying Freeman (crime-opera mangas all have the very similar flavor) but the ending looks like author had plans for volume 3 but decided against it. It all ends rather abrupt and without explanation - ending reads like a collection of slides - bing, bang, badadboom, the end.

So all in all very interesting graphic novel but could use some more development story-wise to be thoroughly enjoyable.

Recommended to all fans of crime inspired manga but due to the art approach first check if you like it (it is visual media after all and this art style might not be for everyone).… (meer)

Five Earth spirits get into a disagreement about how to best wipe out humanity and manipulate a sixth spirit as a pawn in their genocidal civil war. It's dumb, but it looks good and it reads quick, what with half the book being full-page panels or two-page spreads.

But I rarely like any book that ends with one -- or occasionally both -- of the two laziest cliches I know of in speculative fiction nuclear armageddon and/or a new Adam & Eve restart scenario. That's just bad writing. Ugh.

I didn't realize until the end that this is the same creator who did Ryuko Vol. 1. This is at least a little better than that mess.… (meer)

Just a mess. The story jumps around constantly from the present day to a military coup in an imaginary country 18 years ago to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. There are heists, massacres, assassinations, and action galore -- usually over the top, often featuring young women in bikinis and/or high heels. Ostensibly, it's a convoluted revenge yarn, with dead and missing parents, secret princesses, disgraced yakuza, and bitter military veterans, but mostly it's just cheesy B-movie garbage.

There are occasionally striking images in the art, but the flow isn't very smooth, and often the artist just splashes everything with ink until it is hard to tell what the hell might be going on.… (meer)