Buronson’s classic, Strain, (illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami) simplified:
“Hello. My name is Shigo Kusaka, your half-brother. You took out my father, molested my turtle, and framed me for running an illegal ‘Yu-Gi-Oh!’ trafficking ring. I escaped from a maximum security Malaysian prison, turned into an unstoppable hitman, and left a trail of dead on my way to your corporate offices. I just took out your five bodyguards and an elderly accountant, using solely a toothpick and my ingenuity. Prepare to die.”
“Alright. I’m ready. Go ahead, shoot me.”
“Oh. Wow. NOW now? I dunno, I was hoping we could stretch this situation for about 1,000 more pages of exquisitely photorealistic manga.”
“How?”
“Well, I can say things like that: ‘You don’t even DESERVE for me to kill you.’ I’ll repeat that every time I show up to kill you.”
“That’s only going to work two or three times; the readers aren’t stupid.”
“We can pad things if we add lots of family secrets and revelations. Maybe we can balance the violence with touching scenes in which I bond with my niece, a 12-year-old would-be prostitute. We can even add thoughtful subplots dealing with Japan’s relatively weak economic status as an oil-poor country; the homosexual club sub-culture of Kuala Lumpur; and the plight of the Bui-Doi, the biracial children of American soldiers and Vietnamese women left over after the Fall of Saigon.
“Dude. You should just shoot me now. If you don’t, I’ll sadistically disembowel your favorite Sailor Moon character.”
“I would like to see that!”
“Oh, I WILL make you watch. Or you can just shoot me now.”
“You would like that, wouldn’t you?! I don’t think so! I’m going to throw myself out of that window. Your villainous doorman will soften the fall with his body. See you in a couple of chapters! Prepare to die!”
The goddamned great thing about this manga is that it is BOTH:
-A simple, action-packed crime story about a lowly hit-man on a collision course with his multi-millionaire CEO half-brother.
-A complex meditation on “strains” (aka “breeds, races, genetic tendencies”) AND nature vs nurture, and how this all interplays with economics in a context of intense global competition.
(Happy ending (?) Once Shigo realizes his 12-year-old niece isn’t TECHNICALLY his niece, they marry!)*
*Proving Japan has more things in common with Alabama than you would think.
HANSEL CASTRO'S HALLUCINA 