Saturday, March 28, 2009

Samurai Deeper Kyo Volume 1 by Akimine Kamijyo

Yuya Shiina is a beautiful female bounty hunter out for the ultimate bounty: the one on "Demon-Eyes Kyo", which is a bounty of 1 million Ryo. But the man she's pegged as being Kyo, an itinerant medicine peddler named Kyoshiro, is completely friendly and harmless. Shiina soon realizes that Kyoshiro is just too ridiculous to imagine being "Demon Eyes Kyo", so she lets him go.

He accompanies her to the next town, where they are attacked by men. But while Shiina defends them both, Kyo seems to be scared of wielding a weapon, and when attacked, begs his attackers to stop, telling them that he doesn't want "Him" to come back. Shiina is perplexed, but soon finds that the people attacking her were villgers who are under threat from the Bantouji Brothers, a set of bandits who have been attacking the people in the village. They have threatened the village with destruction, unless the village turns over all of its money.

Two of the brothers are the leaders of the band, one very small and fast, called Touji Like Wind, and his huge, strong younger brother, Banji Like Hammer. Shiina is certain she can take them with her gun, which is very rare in Japan. But when the Brothers return, they easily defeat her and start in on Kyoshiro. He begs them to stop because "He" is coming, but they laugh at him and try to kill him. Suddenly, though, Kyoshiro changes and his black eyes flare red. He becomes Demon-Eyes Kyo and easily takes out all the Bantouji brothers, as well as Touji and Banji. But when he turns his killing sight on Shiina, she knows she is outclassed. But can she convince Demon-Eyes Kyo not to kill her as well?

He reveals that he knows what goes on, and knows she is out to kill him for the bounty on his head. But her unwillingness to submit easily to being killed amuses him, and he decides to keep her alive... for now. As time passes, the killer personality returns to its cage, and the peaceful, harmless Kyoshiro returns, and apologizes to her profusely.

She has no chance of besting Demon-Eyes Kyo, even with her gun. But she promised the killer inside that she needs to find the man with the scar on his back. If she doesn't leave him alone and keep seeking the other man, Demon-Eyes Kyo will kill her. As Kyoshiro insists on travelling with her, she decides to seek the man out. But when a female killer sets her sights on Demon-Eyes Kyo and Kyoshiro, will the two of them survive her deadly plot?

I actually did like this series, which had enough action and fighting so that I wasn't obsessing over fanservice. And even then, there isn't much fanservice, or if there is, it isn't quite so blatant. The idea of a killer with two faces, trapped in one body, is interesting. Kyoshiro seems to know that Kyo is in him, but can he do anything about it?

Shiina is quite tough, but of course, she tends to be outclassed by the criminals she is going up against, fighting-wise at least. But she, so far, hasn't been stupid for the sake of the story, so she hasn't turned into the 'strong woman meets a man and then can't do anything right'.

I like this series, and I will look out for more of it in the future. I already want to know what's going to happen. I recommend this book.

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