LUCKY DOG 1 BLAST

Gain is so awesome and cool. Its original and the art is fantastic! All the characters are distinctive and are not copied off each other. My fav however is Giulio. He's beautiful, silent, reserved.People can say he is kinda creepy but I loved the fact he is so attached to Gian. This is my all time favorite of all times! Prison Break with all hot guys. Damn that is good. The manga is really similar to the game but without all the BL in it.

Ever dreamed of being lucky enough to escape from tight situations?

I feel your pain, fam.

But I just found someone who can:
Gian Carlo Bourbon Del Monte (is his name answers to a crossword puzzle?)

He’s a member of the Toscanini Family and he’s stuck in jail (AGAIN {can’t a guy get a break around here?}). Chill guys, I really meant it when he was lucky; he’s escaped from jail so many times it ain’t even funny; so don’t you go thinking I’m just SOME kidder unless...

You want to be startin something, maaaaaaaan.

So back to prison, Gian is bored out of his mind, well until he meets up with almost all the syndicate’s captains who had all been simultaneously set up and is ordered under Omertà to get them the Hell out of there. And now.


Okay first of all, what is up with the main character’s ridiculous name! I mean, he is SUPPOSED to be a badass Mafia member and he’d even convinced ME of his badass-ness but his nickname is ‘Lucky Dog’ [damn unlucky if he has that crappy nickname]! If you want a good laugh just try imagining that this fella is alive now, he would have been picked on throughout most of his life. Examples of awkward questions he will no doubt face: ‘Is your name JEE-ANNE or GUY-IAN?’, ‘Is Carlo your maiden name or is it really Del?’, ‘Can I call you Gee-Gee?’, ‘Do you REALLY only like bourbon, I mean why not give brandy a chance?’ Or better yet ‘is that supposed to be a joke, I mean seriously, what’s your name?’
The only way the author could have made a sillier name was put sledgehammer somewhere in there but in Italian.

I have to be honest; the plot is seriously interesting and the best part: it doesn’t have gays nor a romantic ‘twist’. But still being honest here, the cover sucks. So do yourself a favour and give it the blind-eye and cold shoulder routine because I know you’re gonna miss out big. The author has seemingly sent me a blessing because as of now, the suspense is still building and I love that.

The characters are very tricky. You can just chuck them into stereotypes or actually pay attention and try building personalities and characters. I know you might not be bothered but it’s almost rude to just ignore the opportunity the author has given you since a lot of Manga just go straight for the stereotypes when this story is trying to distance its characters from the same thing. The characters are all captains of a powerful Mafia syndicate and you can tell as the story progresses that every single one of them has a problem even the main character, which is realistic, and I deeply appreciate that.
Logically, you can’t go around being a powerful murderer who has HORDES of subordinates ready to fight at your command and still be ‘fine’.

But alas, the art. Agh, the art. I wish I could just skip this part of the review because MAN, is it a downer. The art slits all hope for style, detail and proportion. It’s not like it’s completely disgusting but… Actually (grits teeth) it is.

*Sigggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhsssss*

If only the illustrator had a tinge more imagination and a shove of effort than I wouldn’t be here forcing myself to be truthful in saying that the art is mainstream and plain.

That finally said...

The truth is, the story ain’t a third as bad as you think and I’d recommend this read because:

a) it’s badass,
b) the character personalities are realistic [AWESOME]
c) the story has suspense and intrigue. [MORE AWESOME POINTS]

What more can anyone want when reading awesome Manga?
Wait.
You know what? Don’t answer that.

I know you’re all sulking because of the art.

*Audience: booooooooo!*

Hey, only God’s perfect!
Give the author some slack, come on!

Quick First Impressions:
Prisoners here want to get out of prison mainly because it's their order, and they have a bigger mission outside. Hopefully, their opponents (particularly the cops) won't be that easy (they managed to catch such high ranking criminals after all).

So far so good. I think it's very interesting. Hopefully the manga adaptation will focus more on their escape and their adventure out of prison... rather than on the... disturbing parts (I'm not a a yaoi fan, ya know)

Reading this manga, I was first struck by the clichés: there's the best friend from childhood, the bishie heart-breaker with heart-breaking past, hot-tempered delinquent, psycho-killer--the gang's all here! Or are they? As the manga went on, each character developed interesting twists and depths that delighted and surprised. The plot is the same way: it's a jail-break story, one from a vast collection that all start to sound the same after a while. Lucky Dog BLAST overcomes this hurdle by adding a new dimension in the first chapter--the main character's unexpected promotion--which complicates the characters' goals and motivations to the mastermind's chagrin and the reader's pleasure. In addition to interesting characters and inner-circle intrigue, Lucky Dog BLAST offers an off-kilter sense of humor and a series of mysteries at a steady, page-turning pace. Finally, you've got to love the main character, Gian Carlo. He boasts a reputation as a genius escapee, smooth-talker, and of course, lucky dog. But it's when he talks himself into trouble, when he gets too cocky or has to back-track at top speed that I liked him the best. He's a genius--but he's also extremely human, which is about 90% of why I actually love this manga.

Happy reading!

BLGame turned into manga. But nope. Manga is not yaoi or shounen-ai. Maybe if you squint hard.. you'll find BL hints here and there (especially if you're a fan of the game itself). But overall, it's just a mafia related story with a plot.

Story: 9/10

I played the game and I actually love the story of LD1 (putting aside the yaoi). It's very interesting and thrilling especially since I love mafia stories and action.

The story is about Gian, a low-ranking member of CR:5, (the name of their group) often gets thrown in the prison but always manage to escape whenever he wants. He earned the nickname "Lucky Dog" because of his incredible luck in almost.. everything. But then an unfortunate incident happened and 4 captains of CR:5 were captured as well. Now this is where Gian enters. He received a letter from the boss of CR:5 telling him that he got promoted into captain and he will also succeed him as the new boss IF he can escape the prison along with the other 4 captains.

If it will follow the storyline in the game, the setting will be like this: Prison -> Escape -> and finally their destination, Daivan, where Gian will become the boss. I'm not sure with the canon ending because there are different endings in the game (different routes) but all of them are good though. And it actually made me cry.

Art: 8/10

Art is good.. though there are times that it's a bit.. off but overall it's good. The art in the game is much more awesome though.

Character: 10/10

Haa... I guess I'm being biased but I super super really really reaaaalllyy love all the characters here! Especially my faves, Gian and Giulio. Combine these characters:

Gian - A happy-go-lucky kind of guy
Ivan - An idiot who has a temper but kind of tsun
Giulio - A guy who has a passion in killing but is super loyal to Gian
Bernardo - Like a mother-figure of the group maybe
Luchino - I would describe him at the smartest in the group and the playboy maybe

And you'll get a really interesting group. They're really lovable T^T

Enjoyment/Overall: 9/10

This is very entertaining to read! And I enjoyed it alot. Especially if you played the game, you'll really appreciate the manga.

If you're up for a thrilling-action with lots of bishies manga, then give this a shot~

I recommend you to play the game as well (that is if you're a BL/Yaoi fan) because you'll get to hear their voices and feel the excitement of the story! Plus it will definitely make yaoi fans HAPPY because they can pick their fave pairing!

A manga about Mafias... I had to read that... After I finished with Hitman Reborn, I came across another mafia story so I picked it up and began reading.

Story - 8/10 Funny, entertaining. It's based on a BL game, but so far in the manga, there's not really any BL scenes except for a few scenes here and there. The "BL hinting" scenes in the manga are actually from a scene from each route in the game. Like there's one scene with Bernardo and Gian that occurs if you're on Bernardo's route in the game, and the scene with Guilio and Gian that occurs if you're on Guilio's route... So basicly, the manga gave you all 4 of the scenes... Okay what I said there is a bit hard to follow, but it's alright. But anyway, this manga has just begun. In the game, it does through three stages, Prison -> On the way -> Mafia (They actually have names, but I forget what they're called so I'm just going to go by Prion, On the way, and Mafia) In the manga, it just finished the Prison part.

Art - 9/10 It's a little wee bit awkward from here and there, but overall, I really like the art and shading style.

Characters - 10/10 Contains one of the best characters ever xD The main character, Gian, is a lazy butt of a person who's so carefree and whatevs, and he's a slob too. If you have played/watched/read the game through the bad endings, you'd see that he's not a Gary Stu either, but we're talking about the manga, and the manga hasn't got that far yet. The other characters are a stupid person who can't take a joke, (Ivan) but he's so funny lol. A guy who gets turned on by dead bodies... (Guilio) but he's also funny. A friend of the main character, (Bernardo) that flirts with the main character as a joke, and their flirtings are so funny lol! And lastly, the big guy who's popular with the ladies, (Luchino).

Enjoyment - 10/10 Funny, interesting, not boring at all, really nice to read.

Overall - 9/10 =D