Green Blood

When I first stumbled into this manga and read the first chapter, I thought I'm off into an ultraviolent Tarantino-esque journey through the Wild West.
Revolvers, ponchos, saloons, street shootouts, railroad barons, Native Americans, tumbleweeds, you name any general Revisionist Western trope.In the surface, I got what I expected. However, I feel like this manga is too short for the kind of scope the author wanted to convey.

I truly enjoy the noir-ish aesthetic of this manga. Illustrations are fully drawn, the shading and linework is a real treasure, and action movements felt fluid and clear. The ultraviolence felt fitting for this kind of setting.

Now, the main problem of this manga is in its short volume count. I mean, we only have 5 volumes and 49 chapters. Characters felt less fleshed and emotional moments fell flat, leaving the story to be unmemorable. I wouldn't blame the author on this problem. There may be publisher or editor problems, or simply the author lost interest in this series. These are totally acceptable reasons to me.

If you enjoy Westerns, and you want a violent and dark romp through the American Midwest, this'll be a fun little Saturday morning "eye candy" for you. I rated this a 7 (Good) out of the benefit of the doubt.

This work was like an amzing adaptation from a classic western movie to Japanese manga. Kakizaki Masasumi made such a wonderful piece of art.

The story was great, easy to understand without warped plots or difficult ideas that blow your mind. It was simple, a bad guy experienced in battle and murder has an insatiable blood thirst. He wants desperately to kill his father and avenge his mother, without his brother finding out that he's a gangster. What makes it a fantastic tale is the thrilling suspense that fills it. You never know what will happen. You expect something to happen or someone to die and then, in a realistc way another incredible thing occurs. During this outstanding manga you'll accompany the Burns brothers in their path towards revenge, a dream and their happiness. Besides the author uses some pages to tell us some historical facts as a context. These are well located in some chapters and they contain interesting info.

In regards to the draw art I only have one thing to say: Simply wonderful. Amazing battle scenes well done. It's easy to understand what happens in each panel. The scenery is awesome, delightful saloons, wonderful desert landscape, well painted animals, especially horses. All the images were drawn with plenty of details and the author used the shades in a spectacular way. The characters have an overwhelming figure. None of them looked like being drawn fast, otherwise with too much care, including those in the backgrounds.

There are only three main characters the Burns siblings, Brad and Luke and the bastard gang leader Edward King, their father. There are also some supporting characters well made. Regarding to the main characters they are well built, each of them has his background and development throughout the manga. However, the supporting characters have a little explanation, but it is must said that it's enough, otherwise I believe it will be too much. Although these secondary characters have no background they were infused with a realistic behaviour and neat goals or intentions.

I really enjoyed this story. It had one of the best draw arts I've ever seen, cool characters that fitted with this historical western work. The time I spent with this manga pretty worth it. I'm hoping to read another fantastic work of this author.

When it comes to historical settings in media (I won’t include in historical fantasy), I tend to divide them into three categories:

1.) Meticulous representation of societies and cultures and/or high historical nuance, the work almost blurs the line between historical fiction and a documentary. Mori Kaoru’s lifework comes to my mind.

2.) Setting as framework, the era’s context is quite relevant to the plot.

3.) Setting as eyecandy, it “devolves” to atmosphere going for rule of cool. Many wuxia movies and War of the Arrows come into my mind.

More on my point related to this categorization will be expressed on section [3.].First, let’s start with details on its characters, story and artwork.


[1. Opening with characters and story…]

The year is 1870 C.E, five years after the end of the American Civil War. Irish gangs dominated this infamous neighborhood, where harsh poverty, police corruption and rampant gang violence were simply put, daily reality.

[a. First describing the characters…]

Brad and Luke Burns are the mains. Their mother was killed when both were children and they were taken in by the founder of one of those gangs. Brad is the older sibling and earns a living as a hitman for that gang, and his goals boil down to safeguarding his brother and getting revenge on their mother’s murderer.

Luke is almost like a fish out of water within the Five Points, being an idealistic and innocent breadwinner in contrast with the jaded and bloodthirsty Brad, who puts on the façade of a lazy bum in order to preserve his brother’s innocence. Their chemistry is wholesome if somewhat cliché and both receive decent development.

The rest of the cast is functional, yet static. They serve straightforward roles, are not quite fleshed out and most villains are caricatures. Some were entertaining though whereas others contributed to siblings’ characterization. Be warned however: readers may be bothered by stereotypical presentations of western tropes; be it the Native American warriors, the railroad baron or the psychopathic gangsters.

[b. And second the story…]

(+) Green Blood is a rare sample among manga as a noir western, yet not original in the greater scope of storytelling, and definitely not an eye opener.

However, to say that it lacks any merit would be unfair. Highly cliché yes, but for a large part exciting if very violent, and its action-thriller twists are quite unpredictable.

Also, the mangaka has done fair amount of research and included context fitting the era depicted. The chapters don’t have too many pages, and the story isn’t too complicated, which makes for an easily digestible read if one can stomach its visceral violence.

(-) In the long run however, its story is rather unmemorable and leaves little lasting impact, this coming from a person who used to include it among their favorites.

5 volumes and 49 chapters were insufficient; parts showed lost potential and the ending felt anticlimactic. The story is largely carried by the siblings’ chemistry and the atmosphere.

In general, I believe the mangaka is more of a “virtuoso” rather than a creative writer (and drawing excessive influence from mainstream American media).


[2. And concluding with the artwork…]

Largely a visual experience, its atmosphere is one of its strongest cards and is aided by its powerful artwork.

Phenomenal care is put behind detailed backgrounds, whether depicting internal or external space, slums or rural areas. At other parts (such as in action scenes) backgrounds may be kept more minimal, but the mangaka displays craftiness in techniques such as shading and his trademark engraved linework.

Key details such as animals, characters and their clothing and weapons were also meticulously illustrated.

Character designs have mostly realistic proportions, but stepping into other people’s shoes, I feel some may find the more caricatural ones as a hit-or-miss element for they might diminish the dark feel of the story and setting.


[3. Would I recommend Green Blood as historical fiction?]

Let’s retrace my categorization. If one were to expect something akin to the 1st category, they would be disappointed. Detailed visuals and a unique setting do not suffice, for many historical elements are either framework or superficially relevant. A similar accusation can be made for many fantasy and sci-fi works, as mentioned in my Nausicaä review.

Green Blood somewhat blurs the line between the 2nd and 3rd category, but ultimately falls into the 3rd, and as such I would rather recommend it to readers wanting to be initiated into the era and real-life location and/or craving aesthetic and visceral action.

Hope you enjoyed my review! For other manga with the US as a setting, I recommend browsing for Rumspringa no Joukei and Benkei in New York.

I've seen debates about the naming of this manga. I feel its worth mentioning that Green refers to Irish and Blood to gangs (I'd assume).

Now onto the relatively short tale of revenge.

Story- 6

The story takes place in the USA, during the industrial revolution. Immigrants are flooding into the country which has led to the 6th District of New York, known as the Five Points being considered the worlds worst slum and is an area which is completely under the control and the law of various Irish gangs.

There isn't much room for development with it being short, add 40-50 more chapters and I'd probably be giving it an 8.

Character- 8

Only two characters get real development. I'm pretty sure the author planned on making it longer but reasons unknown he seemingly had to cut it short (axed?).

The two main characters are Brad and Luke Burns. Left by their Father (an infamous outlaw) 14 years prior to the story after he murdered their Mother they eventually found themselves taken in by the founder of the Grave Diggers (an Irish Gang) and now live in the Five Points.

Brad is an infamous hitman, who works for and was trained by the Grave Diggers and goes by the name 'Grim Reaper'. Brad uses a gunknife to carry out assassinations and is constantly searching for information about his Father.
There are only two things on his mind - Keeping Luke safe and getting revenge on the man who killed his Mother.

Luke works at the ports and is innocent, kind and hardworking - an anomaly in a world of corruption. He dreams of him and Brad owning land of their own and being free from the poverty they suffer. Luke is oblivious to his brothers line of work and ambition for revenge. He is basically the opposite of Brad but has significant development during the course of the Manga.

The relationship between the two is one of the highlights of the Manga but there isn't much depth to anyone else sadly.

Art- 9
Not much to say, it's similar to Attack on Titans art but much more detailed.

Overall- 8

Even though it was short it was enjoyable. If you are looking for a Western setting then you wouldn't go wrong checking this out. I just wish it was longer :(

The story begins with our dear friend Assassin-kun, you know, killing people like he always does and the thing is, he is a brooder.

So what is our brooding hero brooding over?

Whether he's doing the 'right' thing [by killing people mercilessly] and if he is in a 'good' field of work (didn't he know that the assassin-field is highly regarded by the nation's children?). So anyway, between the entirely cliché and sappy inner workings of the protagonist, you see some blood-spatter, knifings and guts being punctured.

END OF SUMMARY

The story wasn't all that bad.

The plot is reader-friendly and a wider audience (of less bloodthirsty people) might like it but, it is rather too straightforward for my liking. I mean bloodthirsty fans of the action/adventure genre (aka. my amigos) might find this cliché enough that it isn't worth reading the entire series for the short slice-and-dice scenes.

But you'd think that was bad enough, right? Being boring is a severe crime in Mangaland but NO, the Author includes a stereotypical, evil-looking clown-villain.


It may have been an attempt to insinuate that said villain's environment and his father's role in society had a big part in his (lack of) sanity but seriously, don't make him look like the Joker (I'm not kidding, he looks EXACTLY like the Joker).

The art was detailed but unrealistic and at times down-right scary (nearly all the characters had slits for eyes).

And while this was at worst eye-twitching, the worse crime that was committed was that the characters’ faces never seemed to change. They literally had the same facial expression expressing nearly all their emotions (give or take a couple of wrinkles). It really takes away from the plot, you know?

Audience: But what does all this mean? Are you dissing the story, or not? Spit it out already!

I'd say it’s an okay read; I’d say if you’re bored, feeling a little bloodthirsty and you have nothing left to read: go for it, even if it means you have to suffer the main character's perpetual whininess.

Is like another one of your average classic Old West movies. Big brute who runs around slaughtering people in order to that kill one dude to exact his vengence but has no idea where he is. Younger brother who thinks his older brother (the big brute) is a good-for-nothing jackass. Shit goes down and suddenly the bad guy comes in. Bad guy f*cks the peace of the town and suddenly there is a gunfight. Bad guy runs away, some random dude gets executed for the gunfight and the brothers unite and chase after the bad guy into the sunset. *sigh* is it not cliché?

But...its good. Its actually good. The story might be another one of those revenge stories but it is actually pretty impressive. It is well thought out and it brings out the greed, lust and violence that is the Old West.

Characters are pretty cliché though. Two good guys, one bad guy. Other greedy, horny andor violent assholes in between. Yeah, classic Old West.

The artwork is good and it compliments the story and truly brings out the scerenity of the surrounding (even a decapitated head can be beautiful if you look at it in the right angle).

Its a good read if you are into seinin mangas. Its not too gory (unlike Zetman) and not too sexually explicit (also unlike Zetman).

In short, Green Blood might seem a little cliché (ok, maybe a little too cliché) but its still fun to read and you'll enjoy it if you are a seinin fan (or a sick bastard). 9/10.

This is simply a very solid piece of work and it's worth reading. Here's what you'll get:

1) a rather unique "Old West" setting with a strong focus on portraying the harsh reality of trying to make a living in the young United States

2) a story of brotherhood, revenge and the pursuit of happiness, which is not exactly new or unique, but very well exercised here.

3) fantastic art that manages to illustrate the atmosphere of the story perfectly

4) a concise story that proceeds from start to finish without any major filler episodes. Instead, the plot moves forward rather swiftly and you'll find yourself at the end of the 5th volume in no time. Still, the story doesn't feel rushed either and, thanks to different settings and a few sensible timeskips, the manga actually manages to paint a broad picture of the Old West in this limited amount of chapters.

5) the author also uses a few pages here and there to introduce a couple of historic facts about the Old West that become relevant in the following chapters, thus offering a little history lesson which blends in well and really adds value, I felt.

Reading this manga felt like watching a good old Western. You quickly grasp the premise, you have one major plot that will be resolved in a somewhat foreseeable way, you get a couple of great action scenes along the way and the whole thing doesn't take up much time to consume. What's not to like?