RalΩGrad

 

The team of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata seems pretty much invincible when it comes to dialogue-led manga.  Death Note came out and gained legions of fans and Bakuman pretty much did the same again, but what happens when that team is broken up?  RalΩGrad (we’re informed not to pronounce that omega) has the same artist, but the impact of a different writer is interesting to read.

Ral is a prince possessed by a shadow at birth which has the power to assimilate and consume its host.   With the threat of his transformation imminent, Ral is locked into a prison without light before he can attack his father’s kingdom.  Over the years Ral forms a pact with his shadow (Grad) to work together as equals, and when asked to defend their home from invasion, they fight together against a common enemy.

RalΩGrad’s biggest problem is its dumping too much information on its readers.  The unnecessarily convoluted descriptions on shadow classes (who basically range from possessed humans to full-blown monsters) and the endless world-building starts to take its toll on story progression.  The fights could’ve acted as a break to even things out, but they are tactical in nature with an equal emphasis on dialogue as much as action.  Also working against it are overly-complicated monster designs that are squeezed onto the pages.  Even at the end of the final volume I still couldn’t really tell you what Grad looks like as we never get a proper look at him.  Essentially the comic’s trying too hard to impress and doesn’t find much time to relax.

It’s not quite as bad as I’m making out though.  The artwork is amazingly detailed and Obata’s clearly gone all out after his stint on the more internally dramatic Death Note (great manga, but for an artist drawing a guy writing in a note book it’s not much to play with).  I also really enjoyed the crude sense of humour of  Ral and his penchant for ‘boobies’.  For a shonen manga this contains a lot more nudity than you’d expect as he nuzzles in on many a nearby cleavage.  It’s really stupid, and helps things from becoming too po-faced in an otherwise typical and straight-laced manga.

With only a 4 volume run, this is a brief and rushed affair.  Far be it from me to give a manga a bad review, but I found it difficult to read at time due to its sheer density.  Most manga can be read in a matter of minutes, but it took several attempt to fight through.  This is stodgy stuff and perhaps only really worth checking out for curious Death Note fans.

Toriko

With curiously non-descript (and to be brutally honest a bit naff) covers it’s hard to tell exactly what this series is all about. It’s one of Viz’s more recent titles to come through their Shonen Jump line, and proves to be a sturdy addition to their range.

Toriko is a Gourmet Hunter on the path to discover his perfect full-course meal. He may be a huntsman, but rather than grab a rifle and snipe away he’d much rather run straight at his target and punch it in the face. This is a manly shonen manga where the men eat MEAT and the animals are BIG. It’s less a world of cute deer and fluffy foxes, but rather one is filled with four-armed gorillas, giant crocodiles and I quote a ‘Troglodyte Pterodactyl’. These outrageous beasties come in all shapes and sizes, all ready for Toriko to fight (and eat) his way through.

It probably sounds quite brutal on the surface of it, but Toriko fully respects the world’s natural order, only killing what he fully intends to eat. There are those who kill for sport or personal gain, currently depicted as remotely-controlled robots, and such people are treated as the bad guys of the manga. So basically we get to see Toriko beat the crap out of the local wildlife while still maintaining some form of eco-friendly message.

To be honest there’s no point picking at the arguably inconsistent sensibilities of the series as there's not an ounce of realism in here. You can slice an 18-metre long alligator’s head of with your bare hands, and being shot through the neck with a lazer barely counts as a flesh wound. This isn’t a place to sweat the details or take itself too seriously, just switch your brain off and indulge on some mean shonen-style action.

Naruto

Believe it!

For a title to reach its 50th volume is a pretty big deal. Only the most popular manga get to even double figures in Japan, but its even rarer for this success to translate to the western market (aside from Inu Yasha and One Piece I can’t actually think of any others). Viz has done well to make Naruto one of the biggest titles in the western market, and while connoisseurs might turn their nose up to something popular or mainstream, it must be doing something right!

You probably know the story of Naruto - the wannabe outcast ninja who had a evil fox-demon’s spirit fused with him at birth. It’s the typical shonen thing about ‘doing your best’, proving yourself against your peers, having a tournament and beating the bejesus out of bad ninja. And that’s pretty much how things proceed for many, many volumes.

There’s probably something to be said about a society which is happy to send 12-year-olds out and off into the battlefield, but Naruto is a fun, goofy character who is accompanied by a vast number of easily identifiable cast members. True a couple will annoy the hell out of you, but Naruto knows what it wants to do and it does it well. Nothing wrong with that!

Having sucked an entire generation of fans into his world by following the well-trodden path, the story then jumps a couple of years into the future and kicks the franchise off into new directions. The characters are already developed and pre-installed, so the series can cut the crap and go off into one long sprawling saga. And by scale I don’t simply mean just Kamehamehas or Spirit Bombs, but more characters, secret organisations, political coups and a plotline that feels like it has actual direction as opposed to being an excuse to create more merchandising opportunities.

Yes it still essentially boils down to ninja vs. ninja action, and for many that’s reason enough for many potential readers to hide the bargepole. It’s certainly not perfect, but given half a chance Naruto will totally suck you in.