Megafauna meets meatheads.
Creative Staff
Story: Keiichi Hikami
Art: Shin Yamamoto
Translation: John Werry
Adaptation: Stan!
What They Say
It is an age when monsters rule the world, soaring through the sky, treading the earth and filling the seas. Humanity survives on the fringes, relying on a special kind of hero to defend the people from danger – the Monster Hunters!
Hunting giant man-eating beasts is no job for the weak-hearted, but along with courage, it takes skill and experience to be a good Hunter. It also takes good teamwork. Raiga and his comrades are experts now, but when they started down the path of the Monster Hunter, they lacked these qualities. When they head off to confront the dragon-like Queropeco, they quickly learn that this flaw could cost them dearly…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Monster Hunter is almost singlehandedly keeping Capcom alive these days, but the property never really took off in the west despite having its start on the Playstation 2 way back in the day. That didn’t really stop Capcom from trying to have it gain a following here, even going so far as to have manga based on it released here. With the upcoming release next year of Monster Hunter World I figured it would be a good time to dig into some of the ancillary material available for the Monster Hunter franchise, like this manga, Flash Hunter, which is turn is an adaptation of a light novel spin-off.
The story follows three novice hunters who are trying to build up their skills to become professional hunters. It depicts a world where hunters aren’t just a profession, but a necessity. Despite creating its own characters with their motivation, the video game roots are showing through hard with the way the characters interact with each other and with all of the monsters, armor, weapons, and abilities the characters use. It assumes the reader is familiar with the source material, but it’s also generically shonen enough to not require any sort of pre-existing knowledge of the stuff either.
Raiga is the lead, the spiky haired protagonist wielding the series signature weapon; a great sword made out of monster bits. He is, unfortunately, also the group’s Leeroy Jenkins, the guy who rushes in at the monster with no plan other than ‘hit it with the sword.’ This is fine if you want to be that guy in a solo game where death has no meaning, but this story goes out of its way to explain that in their world these kinds of actions have consequences. Torche is the newbie who takes too much time setting up elaborate plans exploiting gadgets and weaknesses and is too soft spoken to get others to listen to her. Keres thinks he has all the answers and is the most level-headed of the bunch but he’s also risk-adverse.
The opening of this book is done conclusion first, which immediately fills me with dread about just how much these characters will grow over their adventure. Raiga is still shown rushing in like an idiot, and although there is trust with his party members… er… fellow hunters, he still feels dangerously impulsive at what is supposed to be the end of their adventure.
Also, as someone unfamiliar with the games I wish there was more world building going on. It’s clear that there is a distinct culture with its own styles and fashion sense (so many half-shirts) but it’s just background dressing. We don’t dwell in any one location long enough to learn more about their world.
I do have to say that the artwork for this series is quite nice. The linework is surprisingly thin and delicate, and there’s a high level of detail for all of the monsters and armor, even if the character designs are rather plain.
For extras, there are a couple of short gag comics from the artist and comments by the author and artist.
In Summary
Flash Hunter exists somewhere between a lovingly crafted fan-letter of a manga and generic shonen adventure romp. Characters fit into easily written tropes and the story is a simple coming-of-age journey of gaining inner strength through combat. However, that means that the reader is going to have to suffer through the leads bickering and acting like idiots until they can grow a little as characters. The artwork is nice and clean, with some impressive spreads which really give you an idea about the size of the things the kids are going up against. The action is solid and the pace is quick, but not rushed. The real draw here is probably for long time fans of Monster Hunter who would be reminded of their own time with the game.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B +
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: A –
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz MEdia
Release Date: April 12th, 2016
MSRP: $10.99
