Tsukasa Hojo ought to consider suing for lost wages. That is the extent to which he has been ill-served by half-hearted attempts to license his work outside of Japan. More so than most manga writers, he never earned the respect and accolades his work merits if only for its influence. As we covered in the last column, his first major work, Cat's Eye, was a smash success in Japan that could likely have translated into international acclaim had it gone overseas. It never did, and while this was a loss for western fans, it may have been an understandable business decision given the era.
Hojo's next work would not lend itself to such excuses. 1985's City Hunter ran for six years in Weekly Shonen Jump, and was such tremendous success that it is ranked among the most beloved manga of all time in Japan. It even spawned a shamelessly campy live action film starring Jackie Chan back in the early 90's. With honors like that on its resume, it was no surprise when City Hunter was licensed for North American distribution by Gutsoon! Entertainment and finally saw English-language releases as part of Raijin Comics back in the early part of the last decade.
Unfortunately the story does not end there, as fans of Raijin Comics well know. The magazine folded back in 2004 after losing its domain name and being unable to compete with the western version of Jump. A few of its series, including Slam Dunk, were lost to other companies. City Hunter has remained with Gutsoon!, which has thus far left the series only partially translated and released up to volume 5.
This is a crying shame, since the fanbase never had a chance to grow and readers learned precious little about protagonists Ryo and Kaori. Their love-hate relationship made City Hunter not just another tour of well-worn noir and private eye fiction tropes, but a timeless adventure comedy that combined great drama, action, and heart. I see a bit of Ryo Saeba, the series' hero, all over Japan in innumerable video game and anime male leads.
His is a common set-up in shonen manga, to be sure. From Devil May Cry's Dante to Outlaw Star's Gene, Japanese manga is full of irreverent jack-of-all-trades take-any-job tough guys. Ryo Saeba certainly wasn't the first, but he was definitely one of the best. He exemplified the serious dramatic protagonist and goofy sidekick rolled into one personality; Ryo's fondness for young attractive female clients and general horndogishness paved the way for Trigun's Vash and other heroes comfortable with their own silliness.
For my money, no series has combined classic noir with shonen manga action as accessibly and humorously as City Hunter. It is a marvelous Spring or Summer read for idle Saturday mornings, and more than deserves to be fully released in the west.
Turning to more recent offerings from Shonen Jump, 2009 saw the serialization of Ryuhei Tamura's delightfully original dark comedy Beelzebub. Tamura just so happens to be a former assistant of Toshiaki Iwashiro, author of last months' profiled work Psyren. The influence of his mentor is apparent not only in artistic style, but also in humor and choice of subject. Psyren's Ageha Yoshina has more than a little in common with bad dude Tatsumi Oga, delinquent high schooler and main character of Beelzebub.
Instead of trying to save the world, however, Tatsumi finds himself tasked with raising the story's eponymous demon spawn Beelzebub. He is selected to look after the little hellraiser after being deemed sufficiently violent and sociopathic by the dark powers that be. Our anti-hero is, to put it mildly, a bit reluctant to be a father figure for the son of the demon king. Fortunately he gets a consolation prize in the form of a sexy demon maid assistant named Hilda.
Beelzebub was originally published as a single short story in volumes 37 and 38 of Weekly Shonen Jump back in 2008. It garnered enough critical praise and fans to be serialized the following year starting from volume 13. If that is not enough to make Iwashiro pleased with her pupil's success, the subtle homage Tamura's work pays to Psyren in its style should help. Shooting for the same target audience, fans of Bleach-style action with a generous helping of twisted comedy are in for a treat. Now if only some company would translate and release it.
