After fending off General Ii Naosama’s army, Shimazu Toyohisa. a 16th century samurai, treks through the pitch darkness of Uto Hill, Sekigahara, Japan. Soused in blood, the young samurai suddenly feels his feet cross the threshold of death and into a pristine foyer.
Basked in white light, the hall is lined with doors ad infinitum, while at the center of the room sits Mura Saki, a cryptic man gazing at his newest warrior. The reticent man looks at his watch, then, with a swift stroke of his pen dispatches Toyohisa to the fantasy within Kohta Hirano’s latest manga, “Drifters.â€
Published by Dark Horse Manga, the first volume is eleven-acts of manga mediocrity set within one of Tolkien’s discarded drafts of middle earth.
Filled with elves, dwarves, and magicians, Hirano’s latest manga is yet another war between good, played by ‘drifters,’ and evil, ‘ends.’
Instead of the usual giant robots, ninjas, or enslaved monsters summoned from holographic cards or elaborately colored balls, a major trend in manga that doesn’t look to stop anytime soon, Hirano takes a worthwhile gamble by plugging in famous historical figures to star in this manga.
Toyohisa, on the verge of dying, right, like that will ever happen, is saved by two young elves. He is then taken to ‘the castle ruins’ where two other Japanese warriors have taken refuge: Oda Nobunaga, 16th century Japanese lord who initiated the unification of Japan, and Nasu no Yoichi, 12th century legendary Japanese archer from the Genpei War.
Toyohisa, Nobunaga, and Yoichi are the three musketeers leading Hirano’s group of ‘drifters.’
In another part of this mysterious middle earth a group of magicians, called the Oct Magicians, are holding strong against an attack by The Black King. Hooded, hidden, and holding a staff even Moses would adore, The Black King leads the other group of abducted historical warriors, ‘the ends’.
Joan of Arc and Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova are two of the more prominent names headlining the team in this premier volume.
Arc, the original human torch, has been given the supernatural ability to explode into flame, while the Grand Duchess has the mystical ability to create blizzards.
Other notable Ends include Hijikata Toshizo, the former vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, a special police force of the late Shogunate period, Gilles de Rais, a French compatriot of Arc’s, and Minamoto no Yoshitsune, considered to be the most famous of all samurai fighters in Japan’s long history.
There’s no question that Hirano has gathered a nice group of characters, each with their own past and reputation. The problem in this manga is Hirano’s failure to develop any of them.
Beyond introducing whom they are, where they’re from, and their relationships to one another in the page, you will learn little to nothing about how these characters feel, what motivates their actions nor any insight into their thought process.
The artwork in “Drifters,” also done by Hirano, keeps this manga tolerable. Following the manga customs of clean, crisp, imaginative drawings the action scenes here are well drawn but misses the imaginative execution that made Hirano’s previous works so captivating.
With “Drifters,†Hirano squanders away a golden opportunity to refresh legendary heroes with an intelligent adventure. He forfeits believable characters readers look forward to for compressed dialogues with manic sequences of mindless gore.
What you get in this manga are historic monsters programmed with unimaginative robotic dialogue who are enslaved by Hirano’s pathetic attempt of a sophomore manga. Save your mind, consciousness, and your money, from drifting into oblivion.
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