Shamo

Author: Izo Hashimoto
Artist: Akio Tanaka
Published: 1998
Licensed: No
Scanlated: Yes
Length: 25 volumes (on-hold)

The story of Ryo Narushima begins when he is admitted to a reformatory school for murdering his parents. He’s a bad guy, but you’ll pity him at first. That’s inevitable, when you see how skinny and frail he is and the horrors he endures at his monstrous reformatory school. But your opinion of our devilish protagonist will change, and at what point in the story your opinion does change will probably say more about you than you realize or intend.

He begins a repentant and neurotic mess, but the tragedy of Ryo Narushima is that he is wholly indoctrinated into an unforgiving world of violence, growing more depraved and twisted with every passing chapter. Will you love Ryo, hate him, pity him, or... envy him?

If you’ve read the works of Kazuo Koike (Offered, Lady Snowblood, etc), then you’re used to grim manga storytelling built upon a tapestry of violence, rape and unbridled enthusiasm. What you’re not used to, however, is this tapestry marvelously applied to the shonen formula, without ever feeling gratuitous or self-parodying. Yes, there’s the shonen notion of progress, and an ever-continuing set of obstacles for our "protagonist" to overcome. But make no mistake, this is no shonen manga.


Yes, that's the same character.

When a shonen hero says he’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done, he doesn’t really mean it. When Ryo says he’ll do whatever it takes, he will. Whether that be provoking a world-class boxer into fighting him in a televised match by raping his girlfriend, taking steroids in preparation for said fight until his heart almost explodes, biting off a man’s penis in self-defense, or working as a gigolo to make ends meet, you can be sure that Ryo will pursue the goals his ego sets before him, in the most un-heroic yet effective way possible.

The art style is fantastic, presenting a wide range of facial expressions and body types in a realistic and effective way. This is necessary, because the transformation of Ryo from a skinny 16 year-old to an utterly ripped gangster and beyond is gradual and nuanced (to explain all that entails that “beyond” would constitute massive spoilers, and ruin what was a rather unexpected surprise).

For beautifully drawn Machiavellian seinen, please do yourself a favor and check out Shamo. It won’t disappoint.