Time Eliminator - Chapter 1

Just discovered a new shounen favorite!

Toki no Shoshitsu Ukeoinin
(Time Eliminator)
by TOMOZO

The office of the Time Eliminator offers a unique service, the ability to eliminate an event that happened in the past. Rex, the man with the power to travel through time, may look young, but he's a professional. He goes back in time well-prepared, with various gadgets and even an earpiece for communication with his support in the present. While Rex typically takes on cases for profit, he's also particularly looking for ones that might give him a chance to obtain a magical "Babylon Item".

The first case of the series is from the last remaining descendant of Fred Abberline, who was one of the detectives who failed to solve the notorious Jack the Ripper murders. Ever since then, the Abberline family has been cursed. Could the curse be the sign of someone in the past using a Babylon Item?! It's up to Rex to go back in time to the Jack the Ripper incidents and find a way to remove the curse from the Abberline family!

This is something irresistable to those who are fond of stories involving time traveling. like me. It's fun to see the characters explore these different time period and adapt to it. I love looking into the author's ideas of what things could've happened if something is changed in the past. What made this pretty unique for me is that our time traveler didn't just visit the past by accident, not just did it out of curiosity, and it hadn't been something that personal either (as in, he wants to change something from his or a friend's past). It's his job instead. His business. But even with that purpose he has a personal goal as well, which is to search for a certain item that is somewhere in those eras: The Babylon Item, one who possesses it could ultimately control time. If you think time traveling is cool, being able to control time is much more spectacular. I find it brilliant that the plot of this series is more than what it seems.

One of the greatest twists for me here is who the main opponent (but it's possible that he's just a rival though) turned out to be. He's not just some guy after the same powerful item. And he won't be your typical villain either because he plans to use the main character, not just to always get in the way like your typical villain. What's surprising though is that he has the same face as the main character! Could they be identical twins? Could one of them be a clone? Could they be the same person? Whoa! (Shet, the mangaka knows my type of fanservice huh *a sucker of seeing doubles, which of course includes identical twin bishies, etc.) Which reminds me, we don't know anything about the main character's background yet. We learned his personality, how he does his job, and what his main goal is.... but the character himself is still a mystery.

The main character, Rex Cornish, isn't just an interesting one . . . he's cool as well. This is a supernatural series with a main character looking for something supernatural . . . so you'd certainly expect him to encounter opponents that aren't ordinary. He can travel through time, but aside from that he doesn't seem to have other powers. For that he relies on (expensive) devices/materials in order for him to do fulfill his missions. Thanks to those, he was able to handle fearsome opponents. And he does that really awesomely. Not only is he capable of battle, but he appears to be knowledgeable and have deduction and analysis skills as well. For a time travelling agent, it's natural that he is aware of significant events in the past. Changing the past alters events that come after, and he should be able think of those possible outcomes and act upon it. He makes plans; thinks fast; he comes prepared. Though of course, not everything goes according to plan. He's not immune to failures; and I really love imperfection~

It also appears that Rex is a very kindhearted/sympathetic fellow for it greatly saddened him that his client risked the chance of herself existing for the sake of making her ancestors happy. He doesn't seem to be the type to kill either. He may be a very nice guy, but it had been easy to make him irritated as well, which is used for most of the comical scenes in the chapter. Thanks to him, the series had also been so much fun to read.

Yes, I obviously love the main character (I love abusable bishies, LOLz). And I know that a cool main character doesn't exactly mean that the series is cool overall as well, but the main character affects the flow of the story greatly. So if he's this awesome, no wonder the series overall is awesome as well. I'm so pleased, haha! His supporting characters seem great as well! I was so relieved that his assistant, Airedaile, was no mere maid or secretary; she actually assists him in his missions and the information that she provides are very very helpful. It also pleases me very much that the main character doesn't do all the hero stuff on his own. And as for the other supporting character, Barney, he seems to be the guy who helps Rex in finding possble locations of the Babylon item. How he finds such information is now something I am very curious about.

About the leading characters (I ship them by the way! YAY OTP!), Rex and Airedaile, don't you know that they're actually based on a car and a dog breed? Yeah, there's such a thing as a Cornish Rex and a Airedale Terrier. It seems that the mangaka did it intentionally . . . so amusing~ Haha! I wonder what other breeds the name of the other main characters will be based. Hehe (can't tell about Barney yet).

Speaking of references and stuff, the first case, as we know, is based on the Jack the Ripper cases. I'm a sucker for crime and detective stories, so naturally this series got me more hooked into it because it explored on a serial murder case. The chapter had mentioned the likely suspects of the case. There's Dr. Cream, and the artist mentioned is most likely referring to Lewiss Carroll (When I found out about that, I was like: "SERIOUSLY??!!"), and the artist mentioned might be referring to Walter Sickert. The Prince Crawlings guy is someone I'm not familiar with (Errr, sorry, am no expert in British history, if ever he is a real historical figure). Or perhaps the mangaka just made up a character referring to Prince Albert Victor? Or, he's just really someone made up for the suspect of this series to have a supernatural twist. Well, this is fiction, so don't expect everything it will be presenting as facts. I'm no expert of the Jack the Ripper cases, but I did a little research and it was fun to spot some of the differences from the actual records and the events in the manga. First is that I don't find records of Mary Jane Kelly, one of the murdered prostitutes, and Detective Frederick Abberline, the prominent police figure inspecting the Jack the RIpper cases, being lovers. The detective didn't die at age 44 either so the curse is most likely something the mangaka made up.

Overall, this series is so awesome. I instantly fell in love with it from the title alone and I was very pleased that it was even better than I had expected it to be. I love it when a series mixes various genres . . . and I especially love those that have supernatural and history as its dominant genres. I'm also happy that there's a lot of action and humor in it as well; it made the series much more enjoyable to read. And even with those it still managed to have a good plot that is very interesting and mysterious. As for the characters, they have been terrific in their on way. I'm relieved that there hadn't been a character that annoyed me. I hope this keeps up because it's already very promising. So depressing that this series is released quarterly . . .so we'll have to wait for a long time before we see the next chapter.


Random: Damn . . . the villain/rival is wearing a dark cloak/hood . . . and he's most likely a British blonde too . . . .damn, reminds me of Hetalia's Arthur (England) so much. Bwahahahahha!