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Reviewed by David Rasmussen What can I say? When a series is this short and punchy it can be quite easy to recommend since it's easy to get into, easy to cover (so few volumes to collect), and easy to read from beginning to end. This collection comprises just enough volumes to carry on a plane with you and just enough to give you something to pass the time while waiting through a delay or during a flight (if you are one of those people who can read on a moving plane). From the creator of Rurouni Kenshin & Buso Renkin (sorry, I never reviewed either title) comes a tale of the Old West told in a fresh new way. Now I missed Volume 1, by the way, so I'm just going to recap from the start of Volume 2 and get you up to speed (sorry about that). Sorry again, also, for the first volume recap. I know I covered that in my Volume 2 review but one more time just for the record. It's America in the 19th Century and we're hanging with a young boy named Viu. Viu has a dream to become a gunslinger. He lives over in Winston Town, Illinois, with his older sister Cissy. Well, as you probably guessed, one day Viu's world is flipped upside down when he meets one Marcus Homer (a gunslinger who is doing the whole Wagons East thing heading as quickly away from the West as he can). With Marcus' help, Viu stands up against two outlaws, managing to apprehend them despite getting his tail handed to him quite badly. So during a brief bonding moment, Viu blurts out "I want to become stronger" and Marcus points him on a little quest to become stronger by heading him westward-bound towards a "promised land" called "Gun Blaze West" (same name as the title of course). Here is supposedly a place where only the strong who are confident in their ability to wield lead-spitters and other weapons of bodily harm can enter. The two end up vowing to take the trip West (which is kinda odd since didn't Marcus just hightail it East from the West before meeting Viu?!?) but that doesn't go well when Marcus ends up taking a bullet during a challenge with a cowardly bandit leader, who ends up taking the long nap himself when he and his little gang gets wiped out by a righteously-pissed Viu. Five years later from this point, Viu is still underaged, and he's heading west where he starts off by dropping in on the city of St. Louis (future home of the St. Louis Cardinals, St. Louis Rams and St. Louis archway) where he ends up getting caught up in a battle between rival saloons (which continues into Volume 2). When he leaves St. Louis he has a new companion in a guy named Kevin (master of the rope... no, not like that). Along the way Viu and new companion Kevin end up running into a traveling circus and it's many strange talents. There he runs into his next traveling companion, the asian beauty Colice Satoh, mistress of blades. Viu ends up getting dragged into a fresh conflict with some very strange shooters, this time his talents with the gun needs to be upgraded to face the new threat he has found himself stuck into. At the end of Volume 2 he's once again on the trail to Gun Blaze West, with a new female companion on his trip. As Volume 3 open the trio reach Fort Smith… and by the abyss do these three move so SLOW!! It's the third part of the story (the end) and they are nowhere near Gun Blaze West!! As for the place they just arrived? It has a bit of a bad rep for having a certain Hanging Judge who likes to string people up for being criminals and all (which is not a good thing I suppose). Who cares?! They are barely into the local saloon and already they've run up against an oddly-dressed cowboy, and they nearly throw down with the entire town before a hulking Middle-Ages armored knight guy walks in between the gunfire and brings everything to a halt. Yeah, the weirdoes are coming to town! Apparently they (and more to come) are all going to race to Gun Blaze West... so then the story is going to just turn into a race to the finish where... well, you'll see. And that's that. Don't want to ruin anymore since this is the end of the short series. Now let's see... is this worth reading? Yeah. It is. Really. A nice punchy little yarn about a young man looking to become stronger, and his companions he meets along the way on his quest to becoming stronger (and a man in the process). A nice balance of action, drama and storytelling with a nice artistic style and pretty solid cast of characters (main, secondary and incidential cast). I was at first convinced it was a string of old Incredible Hulk TV Series incidents (Viu enters a new location and ends up getting caught up with the problems of the locals, growing as a gunslinger as he has to fight his way out of the situation he's found himself in, gaining new friends along the way) but it proved to be more once I comsumed all three volumes and finished up the read as a whole... OK, technically speaking it wasn't all, as I missed Volume One but I'm going to pick it up in the future to make a complete set. You should do that too. For a read that is actually quite good this short little run of Wild West rampaging (though it takes all the way to the end to reach the wild wild west) is recommended reading, take it on your next trip out of your comfort zone and it'll be a nice steady time-passer on your next mosey regardless of whether you're headed West, East, South or North. B+ from me to you, and I think that's a pretty good score, don't you think? Interested in writing for MangaLife? We're always looking for talented reviewers and columnists, so drop us a line! Charles Webb Editor-in-Chief, MangaLife.com |
1 September 2010
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