Plot/Story

How do you deal with pain? What does pain mean to you? Well Ichi and Kakihara give you that answer when both of them, one a cowardly sadist with inhuman martial arts skills and the other a masochist yakuza , happen to meet in Shinjuku, land of desires, and now the brutal playground for their flesh cutting, gut piercing, free-for-all show.

Characters

Ichi : A politician’s son with amazing martial arts skills who was bullied during childhood and has lost all contact with reality, and now, having the mentality of a 10 year old, rips everything and everyone to shreds when reminded of his junior high days.

Kakihara: Ichi’s antagonist and the craziest **** out there. Only manages to feel alive when in extreme ( and I mean extreme) pain or when inflicting it to someone else.

Jijii: this is character that appears to us at first as a small fry outcast trying to earn some cash but, as the story progresses he is revealed to be the puppeteer in this reunion between the above mentioned hell spawn and also a man with mysterious motives and an intriguing background.

There are also a few minor characters that stand out from the crowd, mainly jijii and Kakihara’s henchmen. All in all, most of the characters are well developed and we get to know them personally, especially Ichi and Kakihara, whose relationship, born from pain, is thoroughly explored and depicted.

Drawing Style

The author has a very clean drawing style and even though he uses lines for shadowing and movement the page never look messy and even between all that amazingly well drawn gore you can recognize bit and pieces of human flesh. I’d drool some more over the awesome gore but I don’t want to scare anyone (else).

Enjoyment

Even though this is not a manga for the faint of heart, it still glues one’s nose to the pages/screen from dawn till dusk. I advise you to read this manga slowly so as to enjoy the beautiful drawing and an amazing storytelling that takes to the deepest abysses of the human mind and back (or not). For those that make it through the first volume you’ll only regret to have just nine volumes left to read.

Overall

One of those that are up there among the great. It combines great storytelling with an intriguing plot and characters and the more than orgasmic art. A 5 if there is one. It is very rare to find a manga out there that is this complete.[/font]