The manga this week
The Violence Action
Manga by Renji Asai, story by Shin Sawada (Shogakukan)
The first Japanese woman to fight with a gun was probably Yae Yamamoto (known as Yae Niijima after getting married). She was born as the daughter of an artillery master of the samurai class during the last days of the Tokugawa shogunate and came to be known as the Japanese Joan of Arc.
Precisely 150 years ago, Yae wore men's clothes and fired guns and cannons. Her life became the theme of NHK's annual TV period drama series in 2013, with Haruka Ayase playing the protagonist. A growing feeling among the public -- not just among a certain type of otaku geek -- that "Girls shooting guns are really cool" fuelled its production.
Anyhow, there is a profusion of girl-and-gun combinations in the world of manga -- "Black Lagoon" by Rei Hiroe; "Gunsmith Cats" by Kenichi Sonoda; and "Gunslinger Girl" by Yu Aida, just to name a few. Among all of them, I feel the best this season is "The Violence Action" -- the manga this week.
Kei, a student of a bookkeeping school, has a part-time job where she is dispatched to clients who call upon her via the internet. It probably sounds like she's a call girl, but the service she provides is not solace -- but murder.
Kei is so beautiful and does not appear smart, to the point that no one would ever imagine she could even kill a bug. But she is, in fact, the most powerful killer in the underworld.
This heroine is cute, but her story is absurdly cold-blooded, and most definitely not recommended for the general public. Yet I can't help but introduce the manga here because Kei's personality is so extraordinary. For her, murdering someone is only a means of making a living and no different from serving as a cashier at a convenience store. She humbly dreams of passing the grade-2 exam of bookkeeping, and opens her textbook right at a murder scene to study for a mock exam. Due to Kei's complete lack of concern for justice or evil, even Golgo 13, a ruthless sniper and long-standing manga star, appears more humane.
In the world of "The Violence Action," a maiden's fluffy, gentle daily life coexists quite naturally with bloodthirsty murder. The stylish covers might almost make you forget, but the content is exactly what the title states -- and it's addictive stuff.
You could describe this manga as a Japanese version of "Kick-Ass." I enjoyed reading the original U.S. comic, and I'm probably not the only one who fell for Chloe Grace Moretz shooting away with two pistols in the film adaptation.
If you liked that, then "The Violence Action" is a must-read.
Ishida is a Yomiuri Shimbun senior writer whose areas of expertise include manga and anime.
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