TACTICS VOLUME 1
July 16th 2011 03:17
Category: Manga
Story & Art by: Sakura Kinoshita & Kazuko Higashiyama
Translation by: Christine Schilling
English Adaptation by: Lianne Sentar
Retouch & Lettering: Star Print Brokers
Production Artist: Michael Paolilli
Graphic Designer: James Lee
Publisher: TOKYOPOP
Cost: AU$2.00/US$9.99
This particular volume I managed to pick up for a literal steal in a recent manga madness sale online at Madman Entertainment. Considering that the US division of Tokyopop has gone belly up and there various English translation of Japanese titles as well as in house titles aren’t going to be taken up by anyone soon…at least as far as I’ve heard, so it’s understandable as to why their titles are going at such bargain basement prices. That doesn’t mean that the product is bad though, certainly as far as I can tell it’s all pretty good manga just a shame that there might not be any continuation of them in the foreseeable future.
Set in Japan during the Taisho period Tactics revolves around the actions and schemes of one Kantaro Ichinomiya, a folklore scholar and yokai buster. No doubt you’re sitting there reading this and wondering just what the heck is a yokai? Well from what I’ve been able to gather over the last few years reading various things, including other manga, yokai is a catch all term for supernatural entities. Yokai can thus be anything from a goblin to a rain spirit to a werewolf to a vampire to a ghost, they come in shapes and sizes and all kinds of temperaments essentially much like everyday people. In most cases though they’re not readily visible to the average Ichigo, Chad or Ken on the street. Kantaro though is one of the rare individuals who can see yokai and over time attempts to save yokai from harm at the hands of humans and other yokai.
Our first story in this work sees Kan-chan eventually discover the legendary ‘Demon Eating Tengu’ whilst attempting to help a young woman, Miss Chizuru Yamamoto, who is having yokai problems. In essence her boyfriend Kouji is not acting the way any normal boyfriend should and Kan-chan suspects that there is yokai involved although he’s uncertain as to the specific type of yokai. Sadly it just so happens that Kouji is possessed by an enki demon, the one kind of yokai our protagonist is lousy with. Still as part of his ‘investigation’ he does manage to release the ‘Demon Eating Tengu’ and naming him Haruka gains his allegiance and thus manages to save the day both for himself and Miss Yamamoto.
One would say that the key protagonist of this manga whilst having boyish good looks and a certain cutesy charm is something of a Machiavellian master manipulator whose depths of evil are hidden behind his looks, he appears as someone Italian grandmothers or even Japanese grandmothers just want to coddle and squeeze his cheeks. But past the charming faced Kantaro Ichinomiya has a cunning streak a light year wide and a very sharp intellect…although his morals are questionable. Still unlike say Light Yagami from Death Note Kan-chan is a rather likeable character if possessed of a rather dubious mind set. When I first read this work I couldn’t stop laughing, I found to be hilarious. And apparently like so many other popular manga it has an anime incarnation…so if you’re someone looking for little bit of light humour and supernatural action with a distinctly early Twentieth Century Japanese feel you can’t go pass Tactics.
| 23 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
