He’s a blind swordsman… she’s a prepubescent girl who can see the future. They fight crime!
Creative Staff
Story: Hiroshi Takashige
Art: DOUBLE-S
Translation/Adaptation: Stephen Paul
What They Say
Haruka Tooyama is a twelve-year-old girl with incredible precognitive abilities. But her accuracy in predicting the future has made her a target for any number of greedy corporations that would use her power for their own profit. When she is kidnapped, Haruka uses her gift to seek out someone who can help her escape and fixes upon a blind man making his way through the busy streets of Tokyo. Though it may seem an odd choice, Haruka’s powers have not led her wrong. Despite his inability to see, her chosen protector’s fighting skills become apparent when he draws a sword from his walking stick and deftly takes out her captors. Knowing she will always be pursued for her gift, Haruka begs the mystery swordsman to keep her safe…“until death do us part.”
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
There’s something about Until Death Do Us Part that invites comparison’s with American comic fare. It’s not so much about the look, this is still a long form manga with a distinctly Japanese aesthetic, although it’s drawn in a highly detailed and more realistic way than the norm. It has more to do with the feeling of the writing, and how the story is being presented, that gives it that homegrown feeling. The way that the science-fiction is used, often in an exaggerated fashion, along with the meticulous pacing, reminds me of an American drama. In the first few chapters the premise is meticulously laid out for the reader, with the only details left unexplained being the secret dark pasts of the leads. We even get the title for the series right away!
The premise is simple, a girl an her family are kidnapped by yakuza under orders from a terrorist organization who want her for her precognitive abilities. The girl, Haruka, manages to escape and reach out to a man she instinctively knows will protector her, except at first it looks like she’s made a horrible mistake because he’s blind. The next thing you know he’s slicing apart the yakuza thugs, and their guns, with relative ease, all while carrying on a conversation with a mysterious third party on an earpiece.
From there, it’s a hunt for the terrorists who kidnapped Haruka, to put a stop to their crimes. Mamoru, the blind swordsman, and his techy partner Igawa, work for a coalition of victims who decided to fight back against the criminals the system can’t touch. Also chasing down those criminals are other cells of the same organization, and a hard-boiled cop, with his rookie partner.
The action is absurdly over-the-top, in stark contrast to the grounded in reality design of the art. The author does play fast and loose with science to explain his hero’s powers, although for some reason whenever Mamoru draws his sword against a group of armed thugs my suspension of disbelief shatters. I usually have no problem with absurdity, but Mamoru needs to take a few hits once in awhile because right now he’s just too good for his own good.
Most of the characters fit into easily definable archetypes, outside of Mamoru, who is just enough off type as to cause me to wonder at his motives. The cop duo, the members of the strike team, even the bad guys are all the sort that you’ve seen in a million action movies. The lack of depth in characterization bothers me, although the story is still early so hopefully the characters will be fleshed out more as time goes on. Haruka, especially, has very little personality beyond being a strange catalyst for the actions taking place around her. Her wide eyed gaze is oddly unnerving, like a permanent 1,000 yard stare. Her revelation at the end of this double-wide volume, and the title statement which is the catalyst for Mamoru’s involvement in rescuing her, rubbed me the wrong way and set off warning sirens in my head. The last place I want this series going is into illicit relationship territory. Luckily, it set off warning sirens on the supporting cast too, judging from their reaction. Despite the creepy direction the story could eventually take, there is surprisingly little questionable material here beside some gore typical of heavy action series like this. There isn’t even a panty shot to be found, not even during a shoot-out where the adult female of the cast was wearing a short skirt!
The artwork is excellent, with highly detailed characters and plenty of dynamic action scenes spread throughout the book. The characters have a wide range to their designs as well, even down to the minor thugs. The action is quick paced but lacks confusion, even when the view switches to Mamoru’s wire-frame vision.
The extras for the volume are sparse. There are several color pages at the beginning of the book, making use of unused cover art. There is a page or two of translation notes. The artist’s extras are intact, providing a humorous recounting of how the original volumes came to be and giving credit where it’s due to his assistants. This is one the few manga I’ve seen that’s gone beyond a mere nickname for the assistants and actually gives them ages and genders along with a comic insight as to their personalities. Though it creeps me out to see that it was one of the women on the team that was asking why there were no panty shots. Oddly, there’s no commentary from the author at all.
In Summary
Rote characterization mars what is an otherwise strong start to Till Death Do Us Part. The art is great, the pacing is solid, and the intrigue is there, but I can’t help but feel that these characters are nothing but shells waiting to be filled in. Still, it’s a fun ride that will hopefully expand into something even greater than the action packed saturday matinee that it is right now. It’s also a great gateway drug for manga-shy American action comic readers to get some exposure, and at 450 pages it’s a lot of bang for your buck. Despite the flaws, I’m looking forward to the next volume.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: A –
Packaging Grade: B +
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: May 29th, 2012
MSRP: $18.99
