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Tokyo
Tribes Volume 1
SEP/2004
Publisher: Tokyopop
Writer: Santa Inoue
Artwork: Santa Inoue
Translation: Alexis Kirsch
English Adaption: David Walker
Price: $9.99 US/R125.00 SA
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To start with I’ll drop a bit of history on you about this
title. About two years back there was a guy who wrote a classic
column for Movie Poopshoot [www.moviepoopshoot.com]
called AK. He first opened my eyes to Santa Inoue’s
work and Tokyo Tribes in particular. The hype surrounding Inoue’s
efforts has been something fierce even in Western countries and
after seeing pieces of his stuff online many people have ordered
Japanese copies of his books just to look at, even when they can’t
read the language. Six years after it first got released in Japan
Tokyo Tribes finally gets translated and lands on English reading
shores. Has all the hype been for naught or will the book live up
to it? Let’s find out.
Tokyo is split up into different territories, each territory is
controlled by a different gang or ‘tribe’. Kai
is a member of the SARU tribe from Musashinokuni.
One night some of his boys go into Bukuro to pick up some women.
When Mera, leader of the Bukuro Wu-Ronz
finds out, he decapitates the SARU kids heads and leaves a message
for Kai and the rest of the SARU. Life is never simple as it seems
Kai and Mera where once best friends. But now life has moved on
and Kai has to venture into Wu-Ronz territory in order to find out
exactly what happened to his associates. Is Mera setting a trap
for his old buddy Kai? Will Kai make it out alive from Bukuro? Just
what made these two friends become enemies? The answers await.
The real draw card of this manga is its roots in hip-hop
and street-gang subculture. Personally my music and film
tastes tend to steer towards this kind of thing so I have been really
keen to read this book for the last couple of years.
Inoue doesn’t let you down when it comes to music
and gang references, this book is piled high with them.
The problem comes with the fact that they are dated, 1998 to be
exact, and six years down the line this makes the book lose some
of its freshness. I can only imagine how much fun it would have
been reading this when it first come out in Japan, the references
would have been mind-bogglingly great as Inoue let’s nothing
slide in his great scene-setting and attention to detail and surroundings
of the time period. From CD covers to copies of THE SOURCE
lying around and to song references aplenty, this book is a veritable
‘Where’s Wally’ of late nineties hip-hop/ R&B
and street culture. Add in a definitive Japanese feel to
the visual style and setting and you’ve got a great premise
that is fun and fresh in its conception.
When judging the story from a more traditional perspective it comes
out somewhat worse for wear. The characters are over the
top in most areas and somewhat clichéd. They come
across as boring and played out. You have your archetypal moody
and deep thinking hero Kai, your ruthless villain Mera and you comedic
support in Hasheem.
The story itself has a lot of dull moments mixed with ones
of high adrenalin but overall the feeling I get is a bit lackluster
and the story leans more towards ‘A day in the life of’
feel than a rip-roaring page turner of a plot. I can’t
quite put my finger on why but it just didn’t grab me like
I felt it should have. It might have been the over the top look
and feel of some of the gangs and certain scenes being mixed together
with the more realistic and down to earth scenes of Kai and his
world, that just left it feeling confused and incomplete as an overall
work. I personally prefer realistic portraits of ‘the streets’
like we see in Azzarello and Risso’s 100 Bullets
series [100 Bullets TPB 3 : Hang Up on the Hang Low]
series than the over the top almost gimmicky stuff we see at work
in Inoue’s work.
Disappointing… is the first word that comes to mind when looking
at the artistic side of this production. It’s amazing that
someone like Inoue who goes into such detail when it comes to signage
work in his backgrounds and culture references can produce such
up/down work when it comes to his character illustration. Much
like his writing his art also has an ebb and flow feel to it.
In one panel his perspective will be so out of whack that his characters
look like freaks out of the ‘Hall of Mirrors’ at a carnival
and the next panel will have a perfectly rendered awesome-looking
close up of a characters face that shows Inoue’s true artistic
potential.
After a long wait this book has not turned out like I had hoped
which is a disappointment. Due to a somewhat lackluster
and uninspired story and very inconsistent art this book struggles
to keep afloat on coolness factor and pop-culture reference alone.
It’ll be interesting to see where it goes in future volumes
as it does have some potential in the long run, but this first volume
has unfortunately left me wondering if I’m going to bother
to pick up Volume 2.
Score 4/10
Reviewed By:Iain Duncan
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