I'm a real sucker for some 80's classics, specially for Shonen Jump's golden era titles. Always been curious about this title, which lasted 20 volumes, a really impressive and rare achievement for that era. Hell, it was serialized along with some of the great pantheons from that era, like Kinnikuman, Captain Tsubasa, Dr. Slump, Hokuto no Ken, etc. Despite that, Black Angels always has been an obscure title outside Japan, not even having his way for a game/anime adaptation on its country. Well, except for a live-action b-movie trilogy released in 2011, 30 years later since its original publishing in 1981. Why is it such a restrained manga? So, after it finally having an official and complete english digital release by the now defunct Manga Reborn, I could kill my curiosity... and now I have an idea for why it's so obscure.
First, I must say that it has some great start. Black Angels is really a product from its time. It's such a dark, grimy and violent manga about a modern assassin that kills all kinds of scumbags that the law simply can't touch... using his signature weapon: a BICYCLE SPOKE! So kickass, huh? The main character, Yoji Yukito, is a drifter that travels the whole country making a living by temporary jobs like a waiter, a clerk, a janitor, etc, and coincidentally always come across by some terrible cases involving yakuza, loan-sharks and random assholes destroying other people's lives and getting away unpunished... so it's up to Yukito to pass his own judgement on these good-for-nothing pricks. You'll probably be dumbfounded by how cruel this manga is. It follows the "Go Nagai's screw the human rights" school, so all cases have some really shocking drama and innocent people having a terrible/violent fate, and not even women and children are spared. Damn, the manga even depicts such heavy themes, like drugs, misogyny, familicide, blackmail, prostitution and even rape! For a boys magazine! And the violence, oh boy, the violence... innocent people and villains, all of them have some really disturbing and gory deaths! You'll go nuts by all the assassins' signature moves! Man, the 80's was really some crazy time, heh!
So, back to the story...
it may be formulaic, but as story progresses, we have some background about Yukito's past and the Black Angels, new badasses characters are introduced and joins their group, we got an assassins organization that is pulling the strings around a lot of cases, reaching even the police and government... and that's where the manga becomes an insane battle shounen, deviating from a realistic hardboiled action to an over the top conflict between the Black Angels and this organization. Despite that, it's a really cool and fun read up to... the middle of the series, where everything starts to fall apart. Then, shortly after, there's a plot twist that... the only thing you'll think, from this point forward, is what the friggin' hell the author was thinking, and will simply beg to reach the end or even drop it. Seriously.
It's so sad and frustating to see such a great and striking bloody ride turning into complete nonsensical bullshit. The manga goes so batshit that you can't simply believe. It's so unacceptable and unforgiving. You can clearly see the author's gone mad. Maybe the editors also messed up and are responsible, I dunno. I don't have a problem with tone change, there are cases like Dragon Ball and Kinnikuman that were comedy-focused series and then turned to good over the top fighting. But that supernatural bullshit? Recycled characters? All that illogical deus ex machina resolutions? And don't make me comment about that ending. What a true lesson on how to completely destroy your own work, Mr. Shinji Hiramatsu. It's truly a heaven to hell journey. I had a blast up to the 10th volume, I'll never forget that. But after that point? Simply can't recommend at all, man.
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