Sho Fumimura

Couldn't finish this one. The clumsy treatment of politics and character relations makes Sanctuary one of the worst mangas I've come across in a while. I saw it recommended alongside some of my favorites so I decided to give it a shot, but it ended up being the antithesis of great seinen manga.

The most apparent thing that makes this story such an affront is the lack of character depth. Nearly all of the characters are interchangeable and revolve around a watered-down, polarizing idea of show more power dynamics. While the main characters are made to look smart and appear both noble and ruthless by necessity, all of their would-be opposition turns tail too easily and makes nearly every mistake in the book. There are also plenty of sudden personality shifts in the antagonists when it benefits the narrative bias. The premise—two survivors who vow to change a nation from the inside—is an attractive one, but thanks to all the contrivances and repetitive "confrontations," things quickly get boring.

And what better way to make things less boring than to fill the emptiness with loads of violence and gratuitous sex? But it's all just a cheap attempt to thrill the senses rather than provide insight into Japan's governmental systems or give us any needed development for the setting or its inhabitants. This is really just a pretentious harem manga, replete with women who desire nothing else but the main characters. On top of that, extremes like blackmail and rape are handled flippantly and without consequence for the "good side." It makes no sense and comes across as sleazy, disconnected and excessive.

Throughout the story, Fumimura attempts to convince us that the old leaders are unfit and must be replaced, but his main characters' displays of brute force, selfishness and nationalism end up being more comical and misguided rather than making a case for the good side. That's not to say I'm rooting for the powers that be, but instead of having complex problems to solve that will give way to sensible but flawed solutions, Fumimura paints only nepotism as the scapegoat; a bad guy that can be toppled by youthful ambition alone. Well, what actions led to such corruption and how can it be avoided in the future? What sacrifices and changes will the main characters have to make in order to build a fairer and stronger society? Do they truly want that, or are they just as egoist and corrupt as the people they're trying to bring down? Fumimura avoids these important questions and instead just throws more guns and naked women in your face. And since the main characters are antiestablishment underdogs favored by Fumimura, they can get away with anything so long as they expunge Japan of its nepotistic Dietmen by the end of it all. Moral dilemmas be damned, I guess.

The art itself is pleasing to look at but the compositions become stale after a while due to lack of variety. Ikegami is great at drawing certain angles and facial expressions but he doesn't possess the full range that Urasawa or Inio Asano (two of my favorite mangakas) have by comparison. There's not much in the way of sprawling architectural wonders like in Pluto, nor anything evocative or daring like in Domu or Ping Pong(both created around the same time as Sanctuary). And characters that are supposed to be unjust/evil will look ugly and even deformed sometimes, further proving how there's not much freedom here for readers to draw their own conclusions. Still, +1 star for the art, otherwise I'd rate this series 1/5.

I would've liked Sanctuary a bit more if it had the unique mind games found in Death Note, or any sort of internal clash since Sanctuary's two equally ambitious main characters never have a falling out (kinda odd that their bond never wavers as they obtain more power). I had hoped that the plot would ramp up in surprising ways but it's all just a lot of setup and "payoff" without anything gripping in-between. There's no culpability or self-reflection in this story, and a more nuanced, critical take on Japanese politics fails to appear. This manga's pretty cheap at its core and its saving grace is the artwork, but overall Sanctuary is packed with distractions that aim to cover up its trite power fantasy nature. show less

Kenshiro's dedicated altruism to protecting children and villagers is nice, but his invincibility quickly becomes boring as all his opponents are merely generic evil men in Road Warrior costumes queuing up for their turn to explode from the inside out in bloody spew after bloody spew.

I have another volume on hand from the library, but I'm guessing that will be the last I read unless something dramatically different disrupts the formulaic plots.

On some level, I do admire the zany art with characters who seem 10 feet tall looming over regular folk and buckets of blood splashing over every fight scene, but reading this is getting to be a chore, especially when the characters go all in on sexism shortly after the story introduced what was supposed to be a strong female lead.

The majority of this book is a tediously long hostage situation with increasingly ridiculous, over-the-top developments.

In theory the next volume may actually have show more an opponent who stands a slight chance against the invincible Kenshiro, but I highly doubt it. This goes on for another fifteen volumes? Not sure I have any more patience for it, but I might dip my toe in again just to admire that wacky art. show less

I first read some of this series back in the late 1980s and even managed to write a college paper about it my senior year, though I don't remember what class it might have been for. I thought I'd check it out again since my local library has some of the new Viz Signature editions.

It's pretty much how I remember it, as lone hero Kenshiro wanders a post-apocalyptic wasteland on a vague quest that constantly brings him into contact with hangers-on or weak villagers needing protection from the show more many gangs that maraud and pillage. Being a true hero, he always intervenes, and being a bit of a Superman with his invincible secret martial art acupressure techniques there is little doubt that he will persevere. The only real question is how gory and imaginative the deaths of his opponents will be. Answer: Very.

It gets pretty goofy, but it's still fun in its way.

I'll pick up a couple more from the library, but I could see myself losing interest in this fairly quickly.

FOR REFERENCE:

There are multiple, distinct works labeled Fist of the North Star Volume 1. This version is the Kyūkyokuban Edition.

Contents: Chapters 1-13 -- Special Commentary: The Birth of Fist of the North Star by Nobuhiko Horie, the original editor show less