Strain (manga)

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Strain ( Japanese ス ト レ イ ン , sutorain ) is a manga series by the Japanese author Buronson and the illustrator Ryōichi Ikegami , which appeared in Japan in 1996. The his own manga has over 1,000 pages and is about the self-discovery of a hit man based on his family history.

action

The Japanese Mayo lives as a contract killer in Malaysia and kills for five Malaysian dollars. One day, through his contact, Sai, he is hired by a Chinese-Malaysian syndicate to murder the mother of a prostitute. But their daughter Shion brings Mayo to let her mother live by giving him her innocence and ten dollars for which he is now working against the syndicate. This sends a group of corrupt police officers, who can be defeated by Mayo. Now Sai wants to kill Shion's mother herself, but she dies shortly before of a serious illness. Shion moves to Mayo, with whom she now lives.

Mayo is the younger brother of Shunichiro, the head of a Japanese oil company Kusaka , which searches for oil in the countries of Southeast Asia. Mayo also has a lover, the prostitute Kyoko, a mama-san in Malaysia who works for Kusaka. Soon Mayo is wanted for drug trafficking, whereupon Kyoko offers him help in secretly working against Kusaka.

Publications

From 1996 to 1998 the series was published in the Shogakukan Big Comic Superior magazine . The chapters also appeared collectively in five tankōbon .

The manga was published in English by Viz Media and in French by SEEBD on the Akuma label . In Germany, the series was published in five volumes from 2008 to 2009 by Schreiber & Leser .

reception

In comparison to Crying Freeman , another collaboration between Ikegami and Buronson, Patrick Macias was disappointed with Strain : the story never begins to warm up, and Ikegami's drawings lack variety and richness of detail. In the German funime , the realistic style is emphasized, " no too big limbs or exaggerated looking eyes, straight panels, captivating figures and lots of clean speedlines " . The eroticism and violence contained in it never have a disturbing effect, but is always adapted to the situation of the action. The “ very serious and realistic story ” without “ slapstick or a sugar-sweet mascot that has to give the plot a boost ” is only appealing to a more adult audience.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jason Thompson (Ed.): The Complete Guide to Manga. Del Rey, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-345-48590-8 , p. 352.
  2. ↑ Funime No. 40, p. 29.