Koroshiya 1

Wow, this manga will leave a lasting impression on you for a few days after reading it. The art in this book is incredibly detailed (Gekiga style), there are no cutting corners when drawing the characters or even the background scenery. The characters all have their own distinct personalities and they develop more and more as the story progresses. The art also gets better every volume.

This book is enjoyable, if you know what your going to be dealing with. I recommend watching the movie first just to see what your going to be reading. The amount of violence, sexual taboos, and overall insanity displayed by the characters in this book is not for the casual reader. Some scenes in this book either made me say "What the hell?" or made me squirm in my seat...

This book regardless of its content, is an incredible manga. Great pacing, art, story and characters that make you want to read the next volume just to see what situation they get themselves into next.

Finished it. Showered off all those body fluids that were flying off the pages. Held my johnson for a few minutes, just because. Took a deeeeep breath.

I found Ichi ridiculous, vile, disgusting, and wonderful all at the same time. The violence, perversions, and neuroses are off the charts, but the artwork and unique characterizations are saving graces. Yamamoto is a brilliant artist with a real ability to draw unique characters and pretty quickly give them a backstory that informs what they do in the tale. The occasional urban scenes are excellent, too.

I can't say that I loved how it ended and I want to know a whole lot more about the master manipulator, but I'm happy as a clam that Ichi exists and I got to read it.

Koroshiya Ichi is one of the weirdest things ever created by a human being. With a twisty storyline, disgustingly real artwork, and nuanced and multifaceted characters, it is one of those series that I really WANT to recommend to absolutely everyone, despite the fact that I know for a fact that it isn't everybody's cup of tea.

Hell, it isn't really anybody's cup of tea. I don't even know that I'd call reading Koroshiya Ichi an enjoyable experience. Interesting? Yes. Entertaining? Of course. Enjoyable?

...

Well...

One of the main things I like about Koroshiya Ichi is just how uncomfortable it is. Not only the gruesomeness of the imagery, but also the strange, sexualized nature of it. The way it is expressed in terms of BDSM. It's kinky, not necessarily in the sense that it titillates sexually, (I mean, unless you're really into that kind of thing) but that it is a sexualized expression of violence. In many ways, it's downright Freudian.

I suppose in order to articulately explain what the hell I'm talking about, I have to get into some amount of detail. One could say the work has duel protagonists. Or perhaps duel antagonists? Either way, neither of them are particularly good people. Together, they are each as one side of the S&M coin, Ichi being a sadist, Kakihara being a masochist, both of them taking these roles to extremes. In his private life, Ichi is incredibly submissive, almost childlike, whereas Kakihara is dominant, being the head of the Anjougumi, and imposing his will on all those around him. And yet when you look at Ichi's "relationship" with Kakihara, something flips. Kakihara was a masochist from the start, receiving extreme sexual gratification from experiencing pain, while Ichi is the opposite. He just loves killing. Like, a lot. Like, no, seriously.

And as much as I want to continue this, and believe me, I really do, I feel like if I say anything else, I'll give too much away, and you're not really likely to be reading this looking for a recommendation, as I have a feeling you already know whether or not you like this sort of thing, but for the sake of making this a "complete" review, I will say this: whether or not you can stomach this is entirely your own business, so I'll leave that much up to you. But if you can stomach the bizarre, gory, sexualized, S&M violence, then yes, I certainly do wholeheartedly recommend this. The story is excellent, and filled with colorful characters of all sorts, although mostly bad people. And it taught me one very important and useful piece of advice: Never venture into Kabukichou late at night, because you might run into one of these sick fucks.

Okay first things first, having read through Ichi the Killer I feel obligated to say - nay warn - you that this series does NOT pull any punches. The imagery used is both graphic and perverse, many of the characters possess varying degrees of sadism/masochism and the implications that are brought up are quite disturbing all in all.

Now with all of this said it's important to note that it is because of these aspects that the story works; because Ichi the Killer does not filter content it can show the darkest part of the criminal underbelly in the least flattering light possible, a light a great many of us prefer not to acknowledge exists. Thus Ichi the Killer is constantly walking a thin line between alienating the audience and drawing them in deeper into the story.

The setting, as mentioned above, takes place in the criminal underbelly (in this case the Japanese red light district) and for the most part has an apartment complex occupied by multiple Yakuza gangs act as the key location. The complex serves a few functions, the most plot relevant one being that it's acts as a cease fire zone for the gangs, which allows for them to live side by side, interact with one another on a "business" level and sort out any problems the gangs may have with one another in a diplomatic manner.

This is where the plot kicks in. We are quickly introduced to four men sneaking into Yakuza holy ground who provide us with some exposition about events that have recently transpired. Through them we learn that their leader (simply referred to as Ji-Ji) arranged for the head of one such gang to be killed by the titular Ichi and that they are going up to clean up the crime scene before the other Yakuza learn of his death, and take whatever money there is in the groups vault. This of course sets off a chain reaction which brings in the underling of the deceased Yakuza boss, the sadomasochistic maniac Kakihara to discover the nature of his boss' disappearance, whilst punishing anyone who may be involved in a gruesome manner.

The story itself follows on the perspectives of Ichi, Kakihara, Ji-Ji and their respective associates throughout the story, giving you their perspectives of the events that have transpired so far. This allows the reader to have a certain level of familiarity with the plot, though it also purposefully withholds certain details to maintain a level of tension to balance this out. By the end of the series there are some unexplained points that could really use proper explanation and certain elements when the focus is squarely on Ichi do drag down plot progression early on, but neither of these stop the end of the series from having a certain kind of payoff.

The characters in general feel fleshed out (if a bit focused on a particular character trait) and play off each other well. As this is the kind of series where people are killed in particularly brutal ways characters will often get a bit of character development before they meet their maker, which helps them leave an impact on the reader even if they might not have particularly cared for the character that has just died.

A lot of the enjoyment from Ichi the Killer stems from the humour, which ranges from pitch black to comparatively light hearted, this helps balance out the pure sadism that is frequently displayed by several characters. It should be noted that if you're particularly sadistic yourself that you may get a kick from the over the top-ness of some of the violent scenes presented, though this becomes much harder to do as the scenes get increasingly bloodthirsty.

Finally, as the artwork is of particular mention, it has to be said that Ichi the Killer is superbly drawn. Both characters and background environments are consistently drawn on model and in high detail, with each character looking distinct enough that you'd be hard pressed mistaking a character from this Manga with a character from another one. Fittingly this also means that the torture scenes (all of which are downright sickening to think about) never miss a beat either so be sure to keep that in mind.

So if you're looking for a unique psychological Manga and can stomach themes of sadism/masochism, full frontal nudity, grotesque torture and violence that goes into overkill territory then I recommend giving this a read, though if you ever begin to get squeamish during or just by reading about it then give it a miss, if anything that's the sensible thing to do.

If you are looking for something different, then Ichi The Killer may turn out to be a strange and fascinating journey into the exploration of sadomasochism and brain washing that grips your interest from the first picture. If you're not into heavy psychology or beyond the norm things, then between the waterfalls of viscera, perversion and hordes of low lifes you'll probably find many highly offensive things.

Review

Alright so starting out you know I don't like the vanilla stuff. I like things that stand out, that are strongly different from other manga (and anime

4/10 story
6/10 art
3/10 characters
5/10 enjoyment
4/10 overall.

The manga is an endless stream of sex and violence that happens for... no real reason. There are attempts to wire in deeper aspects of human psyche, but I would say in the end it falls short and reaches "a bit below mediocre" level.

In a sence it is similar to "meaningless murder and dismemberment" genre mangas like "Pumpkin Night", "Kuchikujima", "Caterpillar", "Terra Formars", "Satanofani" and abomination known as "Bougyaku no Kokekko". What sets it aside from the rest of the low quality is that grade of the story is a bit higher, and the author at least tried this time to make something deeper than a basic premise to get people sliced into pieces.

The story revolves about a "ichi" killer character, and memories of bullying and past event, however, as the story goes on the stuff in it becomes less and less plausible and stops being believable. But hey, at least they tried.

Characters are not really well characterized, and mostly serve to be mincemeat and cannon fodder. They're all screwed up in some way, and it looks like the writer is trying to play the "Let's imagine a most revolting person possible to horrify you". Which gets boring, also at moment you stop and think "how can those events happen", "why do they believe that person" and so on. Nevertheless, I've seen worse stories before

Enjoyment-wise I found the manga to be thoroughly mediocre without surprises and "wow" moments. I am however, very picky. I've found titles like "Angel Densetsu", "Properller Heaven", "Wakusei Closet", "Uzumaki", "Yajin" and korean manhwa "Solo Leveling" much more engaging and interesting compared to this piece.

So overall I rate the title as poor.

If you haven't seen a lot of material, aren't picky, but are after gore, you might consider checking it out. This "subgenre" contains a lot of trash in it, and this title is better than many other creations. However, it is still not very good.

From the works of the same author (Yamamoto Hideo) I found "Homunculus" to be much more interesting and with more depth compared to this title.

I found out about this manga after watching the 2001 Takashi Miike live action adaptation. I started out with some pretty high expectations due to the movie. Let me tell you, this exceeded all of them. Each character is methodically thought out, and even the minor characters get fleshed-out backstories and character arcs. From the mentally unstable killer Ichi, to the masochistic Anjo leader Kakihara, the mysterious manipulator Jiji, the traitorous hustler Karen, even the minor characters like the twins and Kakihara's bodyguard Kaneko get to have character, and are not just there to advance the plot or be fillers. The story is immaculate. Not only is it a well-crafted cat and mouse chase between the "ultimate" sadist and masochist, it also manages to have a decent yakuza war subplot. Both of those are interesting, and could stand on their own if they were two separate stories. The art is kind of jarring at times, and it's personally kind of ugly, but it works for the most part. The gore and torture scenes obviously had lots of time put into them, making them the standout of this series. It's definitely messed up, and i would say it unnecessarily goes too far at times, but when it's good it's good. If you're a fan of messed up, gory, or yakuza-centered manga, I'd highly recommend this to you.

Warning, this story is pretty gore. As I read more works by Yamamoto, Hideo, the more I love his work. He has this exceptional ability of capturing this dark sexual identity in horror. I often find myself relating to a lot of his stories and characters. Ichi is no different, he struggles with his identity and is still very much a kid. I can relate to all the masochism and sadism in this book, and the bullying and pent up fear and anger in oneself. Ichi is a comically terrifying character and I love him, Jiji is also quite the amusement of a character. I have only read the Prelude and Homunculus at this time, and I plan to read his other books as well. Hideo is amazing at capturing psychological horrors spirit. The unsettling nature of his stories and the darkness to his stories are amazing. The art multiplies his stories greatness. Finally, all i can say is read this book and you will start to understand how great of an author Hideo is, and how amazing he is at making his characters feel real and human.

STORY: 8
Koroshiya 1, or Ichi the Killer as I will address the serie from now on, is the story of a group of excommunicated Yakuza members who try to achieve money and pursue their objectives by manipulating and killing other criminals, aided by their partner Ichi, a ruthless killer. Ichi is in fact a young man in his twenties, with a dramatic past which caused his mental instability. This manga is his story as well. The author tackles themes such as violence, power, crime and the likes, adds a whole bunch of extreme violence, vices and perversions and builds a complex story which continuosly surprises the reader with twists and unexpected scenes. The plot is very intelligent and will surprise you if you think that Ichi the Killer has only violence to offer. Truth be told, the story has some flaws and something remains way too open to interpretations even in the finale; occasionally the dialogues are too ambiguous for the reader, even when they are not meant to be so by plot reasons.

ART: 9 - CHARACTERS: 8
Hideo Yamamoto's art is beautiful and an extremely strong point of the manga. The trait is rich and incredibly expressive: in fact, the best aspect is represented by the facial expression of the characters (who actually look Japanese! This can be a surprise for a casual manga reader), especially Ichi's and Kakihara's. Aside from the characters, the settings are also detailed and beautiful. Yamamoto's depiction of violence is extremely crude and brutal, exposing mutilations and strikingly painful situation with a clinic level of detail. Almost perfect, really.
As far as the characters go, the author decided to introduce a limited number of them (the relevant ones of course) and to make them as twisted as possible, all while retaining a strong realism. Even the most positive of the characters are not quite "good" if you look at the whole picture. But, aside from Ichi and Kakihara, the villain, who are the peak of the characterization (and develop during the story), we can remember Jiji to be particularly explored personality-wise, while the others are mostly "there" and we do not get to know them that deeply.

ENJOYMENT: 8
The tension of the story is always high, with dangerous manipulations occurring while you're never sure of their outcome, brutal torture scenes and ruthless assassinations. While the rythm increases when Ichi takes action, in general it is slower than you expect, and you'll have to read carefully in order not to lose anything important in the twisted mindgames between Kakihara and Jiji. If you are captured by the dark atmosphere and are not disturbed by massive gore and violence (be careful if you consider reading this manga, because you'll find a great deal of those), the intensity of the story will make sure that you continue reading until the ending (which is not as resolutive as I would have liked).

Overall, this is recommended to those who want a realistic, ultra-violent and dark thriller manga. It's not suitable for everyone, but for those who dig this kind of darkness and depravity it is one to read because of the complex story, engaging characters and superb art style. It has some flaws, but it's a little gem anyway.

Ichi the Killer Review

“There is no love in your violence”- Masao kakihara

Ichi the killer is a manga written by Hideo Yamamoto which ran in Weekly Young Sunday from 1998 to 2001. Before we get deep into this since this is a spoiler filled review I must issue a content warning to you my audience. As someone who is not easily disturbed or unnerved Ichi the Killer did me dirty, so if you have a weak constitution for violence, gore, sexual assault, abuse, mutilation, or anything of that sort I implore you to proceed with caution as this manga holds nothing back, in some cases I wish it did.

I’ll say it outright before i begin, I do like Ichi the Killer but I do not recommend it as it is very very disturbing and I feel most people wouldn’t enjoy it, I wouldn't even say i enjoyed it, I just appreciate it but I’d rather not revisit it for a while.

I guess the best thing to address first is the film adaptation by Takashi Miike. This is not a review of the film, but this movie is infamous for being banned in a multitude of different countries for it's obscene violence and off putting themes. Full disclosure, I have yet to watch the film because i could only imagine if they translated even a fraction of the torture scenes to live action what that’d look like.

Also some other things to clear up, I'm not a huge fan of gore, but I can handle it. I can watch things like Hostel or games like Dead Space and be fine but this manga really got to me in some places. More specifically i don't like any damage done below the waist, especially to the legs from the knee down. I think that's a byproduct of watching Pet Semetary at a young age.

Childhood trauma aside let's talk about the technical side of things, that being the artwork. The art is scarily good, Yamamoto has a way of leaving an imprint by using things like unique facial expressions, shadows, and especially gore. The torture scenes are so gruesome and sadistic I hesitate to show them, so take this instead. Now the things depicted I wish not to describe but needless to say Yamamoto does too good of a job of making you feel the impact of every cut, punch, and needle. The artwork is one of the major reasons I stuck with it, there is something just macabrely attractive about how ugly the author draws his characters, specifically shoutouts to Ichi’s dopey and ominous “smile” and Kakihara’s design which is fucking sick and perfectly exemplifies how off his rocker he really is.

Next let's talk basic plot, some schlubs contact a guy named “Ichi” to kill the head of a Yakuza clan, and steal money from his safe, this catches the attention of high ranking Yakuza enforcer Kakihara, and Kakihara sets out to find out who killed his boss, while our group of thieves plot to eradicate Kakihara’s newfound crime family, by calling upon Ichi. Much intrigue and gruesome homicide follows. It is a pretty standard but interesting enough plot that is carried by it's characters and the unflinching violence.

Speaking of lets talk character, because this is what a majority of this review is gonna focus on. I hate them. Which is a good thing because it's very clear that Yamamoto didn’t want us to like anybody. There is no “good guy” in Ichi the Killer. There is a protagonist in Ichi, and an Antagonist in Kakihara, that’s it. And honestly I really like that. I like that Yamamoto does not force us to pick a side but puts us in a helpless position as we watch the horror unfold.

Going down the list first up is the titular “Ichi”. Ichi is a traumatized, mentally unstable pseudo-sadist. Even though he is our protagonist he shockingly absent from a majority of the story, only really showing up a few times in the beginning and in the final act. Other than that he just sporadically pops up to remind the reader that *insert scene of shinji saying “im so fucked up”*. Now i don’t like ichi, I feel bad for him because he is a traumatized man who’s just being taken advantage of but just because i sympathize doesn't mean i enjoy his presence. The descriptions of his fantasies and the way he carries out his murders are just bone chilling, and serve to make him into something inhuman, he does what he does because he doesn't want to do it. His tendency to uhhh, unseal his pudding after murdering someone is very unsettling, and his confrontation with the prostitute’s boyfriend and the prostitute herself is what throws him into the unlikeable and honestly quite terrifying pile. Put simply he's fucking crazy and needs to satiate his desire somehow.

On the opposite end of the spectrum we have our antagonist Kakihara, who for all intents and purposes is the most entertaining character to watch. He just has this aura about him that reminds me a lot of some cross between Goro Majima and Heath Ledger's Joker. He is just this fucked up masochist who does whatever her has to get his way. Any scene he’s in just leaves the reader in suspense for when he flies off the handles and just goes apeshit. There is a certain danger to him, he can be air quotes “kind” but that’s only to a certain number of people. Other than that nothing is off the table for Kakihara. For the most part he is our POV character which is interesting since he is our main antagonist, but i feel this was done because he is at the center of all of this. Plus watching him deal with less than willing clientele is grim and heart pounding to watch. He contrasts perfectly with Ichi as someone who takes the utmost joy in whatever cruel acts he commits, he reminds me of Alex from A clockwork orange, just someone who takes kindly to being called a perverted S&M motherfucker and wears it as a badge of honor.

Then we have our excommunicateds, the group that contracts Ichi and caused this whole mess to occur. Those being the drug addict Inoue, the chinese pimp Ryuu, the unfortunate Noboru, and Jiiji, who i fugging hate. With the exception of Inoue and Jiiji these are actually somewhat likeable characters who get fucking decimated. Honestly the only important member of this group is Jiiji. Jiiji if i had to put it is the true villain of this story. His motive is to clean up the Shinjuku Kabukicho district of Tokyo by any means necessary come hell or high water. He’s an unscrupulous ex-cop who will use Ichi any way he can to achieve his goal. He manipulates and implants false memories in Ichi’s make him into the mindless killer he is.

The final group of characters worth mentioning is Kakihara’s sect, in specifics the twins Jiro and Saburo, the hitman Kaneko, and hostess Karen. To get them out of the way i find the twins to be the most disturbing characters in the story from their actions alone since it's very very gross what they do. They genuinely unnerve and distress me when i think about them and they are the most despicable characters the the only time the audience gets a sense of catharsis is when Ichi mercilessly slays them.

Karen is genuinely a likeable character and is pretty fun to follow, as a comrade of Kakihara it’s interesting to see someone who doesn’t really fear him but is infatuated with him. The reveal that she’s been the mole in the group and the lady on the phone sewing these thoughts of sadism and sexual violence into Ichi’s head is a fascinating turn. Her demise is a shame but expected and serves to really show how cutthroat Jiiji is.

Kaneko is my favorite character in the story, as he is the only character i feel you as an audience member can relate to. He just seems like a genuinely nice guy who got fucked over by an absurd situation. His obsession with proving to himself he is not a coward ultimately leads him to his grave, much in contrast to Ichi who wants to take comfort in the fact he is a cowardly child. Kaneko is the tragic hero of this narrative. He is the closest we come to having a good guy, and when your supposed “good guy” is a yakuza hitman well you know what they say with friends like these, you’d better not have any enemies. Him contrasting with Ichi where Ichi is a coward who calmly can kill anyone who “bullies” him, Kaneko carries himself in a confident enough manner but loses his cool under pressure, which is a very nice touch of characterization seeing how his son Takeshi ends up.

Overall the most interesting arc of the narrative is watching the build up to Ichi and Kakihara’s confrontation. As Kakihara languishes and loves every waking moment leading up to meeting his shinigami. Over the course of this time though his demeanor switches from confidence, to sick perversion, to obsession, and ends in absolute fear. Watching his degradation of his mental state is honestly what kept me reading.

That’s also something I’d like to speak on, what is Ichi the Killers’ hook? Because honestly when i was reading I wasn't enjoying it as i said earlier. Like it wasn’t something like one piece where it got me jacked, or something like 20th Century Boys where it was an enthralling narrative. It felt like I was watching a brutal crime being committed, and I wanted to see the people committing it get their just deserts. But in the time being i felt frozen with fear, I was reading it because I would be left thinking about it more having left it with no conclusion. It’s a story that grabs you and makes you watch just awful things, and you can almost feel the author looking back at you saying, “fucked up isn’t it?”.

So what do we take away from Ichi the Killer? Well I’d compare it to No Country for Old Men. At it's conclusion Ichi the Killer shows the audience that this cycle of violence Jiiji is trying to stop will never stop, if he keeps propagating it. The world is full of sickos and people who are struggling with their own demons. The characters shown in this story are that of desire, from kakihara’s desire for agony, to Inoue’s addiction, to Jiiji’s desire for justice, desire is the mindkiller. And as Jiiji says, Shinjuku is a place of desire, that eats people like Ichi and makes them look normal.

What is most disturbing about Ichi the Killer is the implication that without someone as awful as jiiji, people like Kakihara, Saburo, and Jiro would just be allowed to exist. Just awful men who do nothing but take and ruin the world, and they live with no punishment. The only thing that can potentially save the good of the world is a greater evil. The same can be said about Ichi as he is no hero, he doesn't fight for justice he fights for his own selfish, perverse motives, he is, in effect, desire incarnate.

Towards the end the concept of ultimate despair is thrown around, and that is what I felt at the conclusion of this story, seeing Takeshi in Ichi’s role is affirmation that people like Ichi can’t be stopped by anyone but themselves, and when one falls another one will take their place like nothing happened. The cycle of senseless violence will always continue and the worst part is, there is no greater reason to it. There is no greater meaning to Ichi the killer, no moral lesson, no salvation to gain, it simply ends and tells the audience “thats it” we don’t get a heroic moment, we dont get any joy from it at all. There is no “The End” just an ending. There isnt any hype fight scenes, there are no cool moves that anyone pulls off, it's just stark uncontrolled violence. There are no heroes to save the day, just Ichi, and within Ichi’s violence, there is no love. I need to go take a shower and, just go read something happy or something. Ill catch you later.