WITCHBLADE TAKERU MANGA (Witchblade Takeru) （ウィッチブレイド丈琉） • Yasuko Kobayashi (script), Kazasa Sumita (story & art) • Bandai/Top Cow (2007) • Akita Shoten (Champion Red, 2006-2007) • 2 volumes • Seinen Superhero Horror • 16+ (crude material, extreme graphic violence, frequent partial nudity, sexual situations)
Licensed adaptation of Top Cow’s Witchblade superhero comic. The plot has little relation to the 2004 anime series. Takeru, a wide-hipped, sexually repressed high school girl raised by Buddhist nuns, discovers that she is the chosen partner of the Witchblade, an ancient living weapon which comes to life in a mass of oily tentacles and squirms all over her body, turning her into a superpowered, lusty killing machine. (“My body…burning…I feel so hot…and sweet!”) Now she must both fight demons and resist with her own evil cravings, while her guy friend Kou—the descendant of demon hunters—watches in horror. Just like the original American version, the transformed Takeru wears a skimpy bio-organic outfit which leaves nothing to the imagination, and former ero-manga artist Sumita comes up with new innovations in sexual imagery (love the crotch sword) and exploitative camera angles. (Sumita in his author notes: “I love eroticism. I have no interest in anything that is not sensual.”) However, his art is attractive and super-detailed, his anatomy is excellent, and the mood is enthusiastically dark, making this one of the best, or at least most earnest, Japanese spin-offs of an American superhero comic. A throwaway plot and a noticeably rushed ending, including some predictable cheap shots at the U.S. military and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, can’t dampen (or perhaps, dry out?) the wet-and-slimy care which Sumita lavishes on his subject matter. For what it is, it’s good. The English edition is published in two formats; a colorized, left-to-right monthly comics version released by Top Cow, and a B&W, right-to-left graphic novel edition from Bandai, following the style of the original Japanese.
I may get slammed for giving two and a half stars to Witchblade Takeru, but as Japanese adaptations of Western superheroes go, it’s way above average. It’s only the ending which really seems rushed and falls apart. Of course, anyone who doesn’t want their eyes rubbed in tentacular crotch shots had better stay clear — but compared to the many manga of this sort which are poorly drawn and barely comprehensible, I have to give it credit for meeting its modest goals.
Another day, another giveaway of five manga! This time, the lucky winner is Ash B. of Pennsylvania — congratulations, Ash!
Meanwhile, what are our previous winners doing? They’re sending in their photos for a chance to win still more manga, of course! Today’s photo is of Gary Martin, proudly displaying his prizes “Love Hina” and “Purgatory Kabuki”!
Stay tuned tomorrow as THE HEAVENS OPEN UP AND MANGA POURS OUT UPON THE THIRSTY LAND! Or, as I post another review and give out five (or ten) more manga. I’m not trying to be melodramatic, this is how I always am!
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