Wild Adapter, vols. 1-3 (Kazuya Minekura)

[chomiji]

As this noir-ish urban tale opens, we see a young man with a strangely furry right hand apparently escaping into the streets of Tokyo. It's perhaps typical of this intriguing but frustrating series that we won't encounter him again until the end of the volume. The scene next shifts to Yokohama, where we meet Makota Kubota, an extremely cool-headed, disaffected young man who isn't attending school or working for a living or doing much of anything except playing mahjong. It's mentioned that he's the bastard son of someone important - the name rang no bells for me - and one of the city's leading detectives is his uncle. His personality and lack of occupation attracts a local Yakuza gang leader, who recruits him to be the head of the gang's youth division.

Kubota's utterly impassive personality is a source of much consternation to a number of people in this underworld community, from young gang members who are offended that this outsider has been placed over them to the prostitutes who are meant to serve as his incentive and reward. But they - and the police - have other things to worry about. Foremost among these is the strange new drug known as Wild Adapter, which has been killing people and leaving the victims with strangely animal-like features. Soon things are going seriously wrong in the gang, and Kubota wants out - but you can't just quit the Yakuza.

This is an odd series. To me, a huge Saiyuki fan, most of the characters look unnervingly like members of the Saiyuki cast. (Kubota, especially, looks like Hakkai's slightly younger brother.) There's almost as such violence as in Saiyuki, but it's played far more seriously. There also isn't much of a plot, thus far: Kubota, eventually accompanied by his strange friend Tokito, wanders about nosing into things that probably ought to be let alone, most of which offer up only tiny clues about the Wild Adapter drug. It may be that like many manga series, it's suffering from a slow start. I miss the camraderie of the Saiyuki boys: Kubota and Tokito can't really carry the whole thing on their skinny shoulders themselves, and although there a couple of other recurring characters, they're definitely not part of the main action.

Wild Adapter, vols. 1-3 (review)

The strange fugitive of the first pages turns out to be Tokito (and man, I wish he didn't have that name - it's shared by my least-favorite Samurai Deeper Kyo character), who is picked up by Kubota more or less as a pet. It's implied that they have a physical relationship, but this is never shown very explicitly: they spend a lot of time draped over each other, but that's about it. During the third volume, the whole idea is played for laughs a couple of times, leading to the funniest scenes so far: once, when they discover a surveillance bug in their apartment, they give the thugs monitoring them an earful of apparently hot sex - but when we see them in action, they're sitting next to each other on the couch, fully clothed, faces bored, hamming it up verbally for their unsuspecting audience. Shortly thereafter, when they're plotting to infiltrate a religious cult, Kubota thinks up a really good cover story for why they want to join: "We're seeking spiritual guidance because we're gay, sex-addicted couple who are half-brothers disowned by our family after consummation of our forbidden love." That oughta satisfy the cult recruiters!

I really wish that somehow, the boys would pick up another partner or three. It keeps almost happening: I love the strangely beautiful and androgynous Chinese herbalist Kou, who first shows up when Kubota needs medical help for Tokito shortly after finding him, and the runaway pregnant girl in volume 2 and the reporter in volume 3 both had possibilities, but thus far it seems the whole story is going to center around the two boys. It's rather frustrating, but I'm going to persist, just to see what happens. Presumably, sometime, we'll find out what Tokito's fuzzy hand and the Wild Adapter drug have to do with each other, and why he keeps having these grim flashbacks ... .

Comments

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about Bus Gamer as compared to Wild Adapter. Bus Gamer has a more interesting premise and does more with it quickly. Plus the difference between the three series in terms of number of leads - 4 in Saiyuki, 3 in BG and 2 in WA - has a real impact on the possible character dynamics.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

That's a very good point. I don't really remember much of anything really happening in Wild Adaptor, whereas Bus Gamer was pretty fast paced. The main characters in Wild Adaptor also barely interacted with each other, while both Saiyuki and Bus Gamer started with the leads already working together and with an established vibe. Wild Adaptor, I think, was also a little too caught up in being dark dark dark and edgy, while Saiyuki and Bus Gamer eased you into it(well, what little there was of Bus Gamer, at least)

[chomiji]

Yeah, I keep feeling as though the two of them are going to rattle around the seedy sides of Yokahama forever, never getting anywhere ... .

[chomiji]

I remember your commenting on liking Bus Gamer when we were talking about Minekura at one point. It's available in English?

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

It's available in a sort of pilot edition.

http://www.amazon.com/Gamer-1999-2001-Pilot-Kazuya-Minekura/dp/1598163272/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196737392&sr=8-1

[chomiji]

Hmm ... I may have to get myself a little holiday present with the next batch of Amazon ordering I do for everyone else ... thanks!