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Reviewed by Michael Deeley A lot of stuff happens. And there are tits. That’s it really. IWGP is a trendy neighborhood where teens and young adults hang out, party, and hook up. On New Year’s Eve 2000, our lead characters come together for the first time. Makoto Majima and buddy Masa meet Rika Nakamura and Hikaru Shibusawa. Although Hikaru likes Makoto, he sleeps with Rika. It looks like the beginning of a typical teenage love triangle. Until Rika is found strangled in a hotel room. It’s discovered Rika was a teen prostitute. Other “subsidized girlfriends” have been found drugged and choked in IWGP, but none of them were killed. Makoto vows to find Rika’s killer and avenge her death. He enlists the aid of local gang the G Boys to find one of Rika’s “customers.” The G Boys do find the IWGP Strangler, but he claims not to have killed Rika. Makoto believes him. But before he can look for anther killer, a thug from his past kidnaps Hikaru. Biggest problem with the book: The word balloons. Most of them don’t have lines or an arrow pointing to whomever is talking. It gets very confusing when there are more than two people talking and you don’t know who’s speaking. The art also appears to be very amateurish. Some pages look like they were done with a heavy brush, others with a thin pen. Panel composition and layout is very cluttered, making it even more difficult to follow the action. I got the feeling this was drawn in a hurry. (At least with the pages that don’t have nude women.) Frankly, I’m not sure what this series is supposed to be about. Is it the relationship between Makoto and Hikaru? It looks like Hikaru’s got some dark secrets in her past. Those would be revealed over the course of a growing love. It’s based on a mystery novel, but is the mystery Rika’s murder? Is it connected to Yamai, the tough from Makoto’s past? Could he know something about Hikaru’s past that Makoto doesn’t? Is it the story of Makoto and his relationship with Ikebukuro? Or are these just the lives and events of a handful of people brought together through circumstance? If there’s a point to this story, I’m missing it completely. I just don’t care to find out; certainly not for $12.95 a volume. Comment on this review of IWGP: Ikebukuro West Gate Park v1 on the Manga Life Forums. |
6 October 2009
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