New Flavors: Kagijin

Kagijin
by Tanaka Yasuki
To be free like a swallow out of its bird cage, that’s what Tsubame sees in his eyes. In the East Asian Desert, #13 Salvage Camp, Tsubame works as a metal scrap collector as he tries to earn enough money to travel on his own, like a free swallow. But one day a girl was found buried inside sand and she has a key hole on her wrist, the symbol of a Kagijin, one who posses demonic powers that can withstand that of an army. The empire who kept her as a slave arrives to retrieve her, however Tsubame refuses to hand her over and promises her that he will free her. How will he do so? And what significance is there to the key that hangs around his monkey's neck? (Baka-Updates)

It's supernatural shounen! And the art looked cool, so it automatically got added in my "to-read" list without even reading the plot. Hehe~ But I've placed it in one of my priorities when I've heard that the oneshot will be having a serialization soon (and then I saw the chapters of the series just a few days after that), so I thought of reading it sooner than I have planned.

I read the oneshot first, and I really liked it! It's yet another futuristic anime, but its setting is a little different from the others that I've seen. Yes, it's one of those futuristic series wherein modern technology no longer exists, and a lot of natural resources are gone and water has become rare. But in the setting of this series, our machines, items, vehicles, etc. (like books, cars, etc.) are considered priceless artifacts in their time and they even think our era consists of magicians for being able to make such objects move or work. It's like civilization had gone backwards, instead of forward. Interesting~

It also tackles the issue of mankind not learning from the past. War lead to the unfortunate situation of the world there, and people still want to start wars because of greed It's totally still applicable to the real world. Oh humankind . . . *cynical*

I really liked the story. I have no complains on how it was presented or narrated. It had been good and I liked it that though it seemed normal in the beginning, around the middle we get surprised to see some bloody scenes of the new character's and the main character's background. In other words, it has good shifting on being lighthearted to being deadly serious. I find that good~ (I'm referring to the oneshot)

The oneshot and the serialized series actually have the same story and main concept, but there were several changes on the main character's current comrades and character designs in the actual series. I think the oneshot is better, so I had been disappointed on the changes in the series. And no, it's not only because Tsubame looks cuter in the oneshot *chuckle*.

The difference that I didn't like between the two is the main character's present comrades and situation. In the oneshot, he was sort of antisocial but not really a bad guy. He works for a scavenger group and their leader isn't the type who kneels before the government. While in the series, the main character was the leader of a much smaller scavenger group, and he does work together with some big guy with an animal face, and babysits several orphans. His kindheartedness had been emphasized in the series but . . . his group is much cooler and entertaining in the oneshot! And having kids wasting screentime by acting cute or begging to be rescued can be really annoying most of the time . . . .

There had been some changes in the series that I liked of course. Instead of a monkey, the main character's animal sidekick is a dolphin!!! It's soooo cute~ And we also got introduced to a fighting leading lady! Too bad she's no Kagijin though . . . that makes her weak compare to strong Kagijin opponents. I don't hate her, but I prefer the girl from the oneshot. She reminded me of Kisara from YUGIOH (I like beautiful slave girls with a mysterious power . . . ). It looks like she'll be showing up next time (I saw her in chapter 2). I can't wait for her to appear~

By the way, since it's a supernatural action series, this manga had some fight scenes of course! I think this attack had been really really awesome:

His sword was ordinary, but he gets to cut on such a range! I'm so dazzled~

I really like art in this manga. It had been really really cool~

I don't think it had been an incredibly unique supernatural shounen series. I actually find the story pretty familiar but I can't remember to what series I could compare this with. But anyway, it's pretty nice. I'm liking the story and the series has more comedy compare to the oneshot. Haha! I'm following this.

Sapphire Pyro	READ: oneshot + 2 chapters out of 2 scanlated chapters of a new ongoing manga VERDICT: Following
It's supernatural shounen . . . do not be surprised that I am reading this. Haha! I liked the oneshot more, but series is doing okay. I really liked this~