Samurai deeper kyo: not too deep

Samurai manga typically is some of the highest quality of manga; it has detailed and unique art style, complex and/or action packed storyline and, incredible characterization. Samurai Deeper Kyo couldn’t be farther from these elements sadly; it fails in all these elements despite its best efforts. Nothing in this manga is really bad as much it is mediocre in ever section, except characterization, which is lousy. The biggest problem with this manga is that it gets certain details all right, while the rest of the manga’s elements suffer. This is truly in no way a great or revolutionary work, but it is better then some other Shonen manga.

The first thing to note is that the artwork has sections that are pretty good; sadly for the most part the art is merely decent. One thing that makes this work good is the variety of main characters, however many characters have far too similar facial features. Though this doesn’t lead to confusion it does make the art rather dull after a while. The action also at times can be interesting to read, however typically the manga suffers from a lack of motion within the images and over use of posing. The best of the art work usually involve close up stills of the character with a detailed shading work, at other time it is clear this manga cuts corners with an average quality of art work. The scenery also has a variety of quality, from detailed background from full city streets, to totally absent backgrounds and occasionally the characters look as though they don’t belong with the background. Overall when this manga is at it’s best it looks fairly interesting, however these well draw scenes are far too infrequent. This makes the art typically nothing special to look at.

The story is even sketchier in quality compared to the artwork, rushing the exposition to make it the next fight. The story begins with the introduction of Kyoshiro a slightly lecherous, goofy medicine man carrying a huge sword. He comes upon the female lead a bounty huntress named Yuya Shiina who tricks him into being captured. At first she believes he is the legendary killer “Demon Eyes” Kyo (we all know where this is going). Soon after she drags him into a town and goes after two criminals then it is revealed that he has Kyo’s soul in him body and he suddenly becomes a master swords man. Soon they meet up with Izumo No Okuni, who knew Kyo before and is in love with him and Benitora an ex-member of a gang of elite assassins sent to fight Kyo.

The story’s up to this point has had less intense battles compared to the rest of the story and more focused upon exposition, which is typically contain little beyond light humor which is hit and miss and battles with various thugs and assassins met on the road. At this point in the story three big flaws quickly becoming apparent before even finishing the first volume. First off it is clear that the writer has run uses for Yuya besides as a comedy relief used for typically bland humor about her anger (which I find very sexist). Secondly the plot is clearly in most stories merely a tool to get to a battle with some opponent for the heroes battle. The worst flaw however is the lack of interest in the outcome of the storyline, Kyo (shiro) and his friends for the most part are dull and the fights out are never surprise. Kyo and his friends seems to powerful and never once is challenge in any of his battles within the five volumes I read.

After many battles where Kyo for a short time makes his appearance, but Kyoshiro get back his body by the end of the battle, things change. In the obvious and sadly clichéd way this book behaves often acts, it isn’t long before Izumo forces Kyo to be in control and traps Kyoshiro in his body. Though Kyoshiro is the not most interesting or original characters he is far more interesting then Kyo who is about as boring as characters come. Kyo is a psychopathic murder, which does what most murders do in poorly written stories, brood and act tough as nails every panel. It a good thing that at this time the most interesting character Yukimura comes to make up for Kyo’s lack of personality and push the plot along by offering Kyo information on his bodies location in return for the Shogun’s head.

Soon Kyo encounters a ninja named Mahiro who attempts once and a while to assassinate him claiming he murdered his sister (another unoriginal type of character), but never gets close and ultimately has little role to play in the story. Kyo, Benitora and Yukimura enter the tourney; sadly for the most part this interesting chance for action is wasted as most of their opponent, seem like wimps in comparison to the heroes. The only challenging battle come with Yukimura who most fight his brother who works for the Shogun, despite the Shoguns murder of their clan. The only other interesting element that comes up is when it is revealed that the head of ninja’s is actually the Shogun who ends up escaping, killing the fake Shogun. After Kyo has a battle against Yukimura that he wins again (sadly), it is revealed Kyo’s body lies in the Aokigahara Forest. He then most kill the God Shoguns and seek out his body. Overall this story at this point get really old and with disappearance or Yukimura, my interests in reading on ward likewise disappear.

The biggest weakness of this manga lies within the mostly poor characterization, in which most characters are comedy relief’s and/or bad asses. Almost no one in the manga is worth caring for and most of the heroes are just as evil or greedy as the villains. Kyoshiro is occasionally worth a chuckle, but for the most part he is stereotypically a sleazy coward. Kyo on the other hand is a psychopath who only enjoys killing it seems, beyond that he shows little unique qualities. Benitora is a failed attempt to replace Kyoshiro when he disappears and ends up being just as crazy as Kyo. I’m not sure how the author expects you to care about a team of heroes that are so tough they aren’t human and don’t carry human qualities.

Just as bad is the female bounty huntress who quickly becomes a comedy relief and has no other purpose in the story beyond always being pissed, but being fan service and complaining about the men calling her a flat chest. Why she should be so greedy to follow Kyo for his bounty, despite being clearly be far below his level and almost being killed in her travels him is a mystery to me. The only character that is interesting is the second replacement Kyoshiro, (when the writer realizes Benitora is not funny) Yukimaru, a cheerful, lustful and comical drunk who also seeks to avenge his clan. Unlike the other characters he isn’t crazy and has human qualities and flaws that make you feel for him. What doesn’t make sense is why a swords master like him needed Kyo’s help, with his abilities he should have been powerful enough to kill the shogun himself. What does makes sense that he leaves the gloomy group and goes to compete his mission on his own after the tournament.

Overall this manga is not one of the worst manga’s I have ever read however it is clearly is lacking in many elements, most noticeably characterization. If it were always as good as it’s best elements this manga would be great, however typically it is far for excellent and uses too many short cuts. As far as samurai manga goes this manga is one of the worst I have read, but for a Shonen manga it’s above the average (such as Fairy Tail). This manga is good, but when buying manga, good is simply not good enough to be worth your money. My advice go buy some Vagabond, Lone wolf and cub or Blade of the immortal instead.

The wolf of music: Wolf Rain OST 1

Yoko Kanno is a amazing musician, not only is she a amazing piano player, but she is also responsible for creating music for around twenty six anime series as well as countless other video games, movies and non-series based projects. Many Americans know her best for her work breath taking and unique arrangements that were written for the series Cowboy bebop, however I feel one of her most amazing project is far to often ignored, which is the sound track to Wolfs Rain. This series has largely been overlooked by Americans ever since it’s release date on Adult Swim in 2004, which is a shame due to the great quality of this soundtrack. As usually can be expect with Kanno be ready to a be surprised by what she does in the album. Once again Kanno create a new and wonderful sound in her music that is unlike anyone else, at the same time it carries some of her signature style even while staying original.

Once again Kanno’s music takes on a wide variety of styles and sounds making it hard to pigeon whole her music into a traditional category of music beyond that of soundtrack album (which really doesn’t say anything about the musical style). Her music on this album is clearly influenced by the classical, folk, jazz, Brazilian, world music and blues music genera’s, which appear throughout many of her songs. The album beside the basic feeling of Kanno’s music has, bares little resemblance to many of her other works such as Cowboy Bebop. However much like Cowboy Bebop, it has a very original and one of a kind qualities similar to groups like the LONESOME BROTHERS with every song being in a different character. This music doesn’t even really sound like it belongs to a sound track and, easily could stand on it’s own. However, it adds a lot to the sense of emotions and the plot conveyed within the WOLF RAIN anime which it was created.

Every instrument and voice in this album is carefully set up for special musical effect. One thing I find outstanding is the way things are put together to create a mixture of instruments and styles. Songs can range from a single voice and guitar, to an elaborate orchestra’s with voice and piano added and, all while making best use out of the instrumentation. A perfect example of this mixing of styles is “Gravity,”  which adds strings, trombones and French horns in classical and symphonic style to a ballad like style of the voice and piano, and then even for a short period adding in pop voices overlay within the track creating a rich layering. In the previous song “Run, wolf run,” their is a moving classical guitar (which is very different sort of classical then orchestrally), choir and vocal solo in ballad like way, then their is also Latin percussion and a lamenting clarinet and low flute. This is only one of the many examples of contrast within style and voicing within the album, and yet it all fits strangely together despite the contrast. This work is effective because of this ability to express a wide variety of emotions, despite the amount original character within the pieces. It remains original while keeping melodic and ave garde, all without becoming overly abstract and, difficult to listen. This work makes sure it doesn’t leave the listener attention while being filled with a amazing complexity. This make the album both pleasing to the casual listener and to those that listen closely to the music for this reason.

Despite being original and featuring Kanno’s style this album doesn’t take as much risks or experiment as much as some of Kanno’s other works such as COWBOY BEBOP. This is a good thing for the album though because of the vast instrumentation and styles of influence it takes from. The album is clearly rooted in a more folk and classical direction then her other works, with full symphony orchestral work, as well as more use of acoustic guitar and world percussion. Even with her ability to find unique and creative ways to voice instruments, it is clear that with such large groups ofinstruments that their is a need to craft music more carefully and plan it out much more delicately. In this album Kanno’s makes up for this by showing off her ability to craft beautiful melodies, epic ballads. Is an album capable of creating to symphonic soundtrack for a adventure show created for television based on such a unusual subject matter. The theme of the show including, Wolves and the rebirth show up often in the album making it fit with the shows theme, while at the same time not feeling contrived or added as a after thought. It is impossible toconceive that anyone else  other then Kanno, who be capable of such a well craft album while still capturing the essence of the work it is based off of.

Kanno absorbs elements seemingly from everywhere and in this album once again reinvents sound, creating a totally new styles of work. Their isn’t much I can really say about this album other then this, because it’s the type of album that is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t heard it already. This album istruly a masterpiece and one of the best anime and overall soundtracks of all time out. It is truly as good as any of her other albums for though for totally different reasons. You may not be attached the genera’s in this album as much as her other works and not like it as much, but it is clear that just much time and care went into this album as her other work and is of the same quality. The only warning I can give on this album is that it suddenly switches styles, which can sometime be a littledisorienting and the variety of styles may not appeal to some. However the changing of styles is also what makes this album work and is all for the better in my opinion. This is truly a great album and picking it up or ordering it is worth doing as long as you are a fan of variety of genera’s or Kanno’s other works.