It's a really good manga full of action, but the ending leaves a bad after taste it kinda fits with the weird story though. Anyhow its a great read you shouldn't miss it if action is your thing.

The story was engaging in the beginning.
It was original (to a point) and active as well as intriguing.

But then it became broken
I still don't quite understand why men seem to enjoy their power emphasis over women? This story, like all, falls short. The strong female from the first encounter, in the second only manages to meekly run away and from there on, she fails as a character, as a female and turns into the plot. Nothing more.

Disappointing from volume 2 onwards, and exceptionally from volume 3 onwards, to massively confusing with its last chapter. The whole plot was crammed into 4 chapters, where the author wanted too much in too little space. They threw everything in there all at once, and then crammed a weird last chapter, that left the reader assuming

About plot in spoiler tags now: **FULL SPOILERS AHEAD DON'T READ IF DON'T WANNA**
There is a lot of this which is so typically over used in both Hollywood, and Japanese manga. The heroine turns into a slobbery mess. The strong female lead was lost within the first 2 volumes and never regained herself against the strong elite alpha-male. The alpha-male oozes out so much alpha-pheromones that practically everyone he meets falls in love with him (or at least obsesses about him) and he with his alpha-heroism doesn't disappoint, he saves the day...constantly...from unspeakable conditions. Which when you put the "female" beside him, makes it even worse.

By the end of it, the story became so jacked up, so the old guy (Ji long or whutever), and Sakaki senoir had history, where by Sakaki's lover/friend/what was she? (Marie/or better know through all of volume 4 as "Mama") was the old boss guy (Ji long) prostitute and head honcho, and that he had her killed (for fear of her feminine wiles) by ordering some monkey acrobatics guy (who killed her in a nice fashion and attempted to kill Kilico). Ji Long (old bastard that EVERYONE wants to kill BUT JUST CAN'T) had impregnated the Marie girl, and here came Sakaki junior Kilico who is the child to both (and inheritor therein??). But oh noes, he never liked having children, and tells Kilico when she meets him that she was a waste and in fact he thought leaving her with Sakaki would 'break' her but now he sees she's got her mums blood (EeeeeEEeeeEEeehhh??) and all this with the fact that moments earlier he suddenly got the urge (after giving her to a bunch of military guys to fark) to sexy up Marie's Sister (Kilico's long lost aunt)(Whut was her name?), and says "WOOO I'MA MAKE SUM BABBES NOW FOR INHERETANCU~!" - BTW did anyone notice his strong obsession with Marie? He like had a shrine dedicated to her (on the bed =.= ) but this guy had been a true believer of her, which begs a question, why he kill her?

Its also this Ji Long guy, who stages the kill on his previous "sons", makes Akira into a full throttle gangster, uses Sakaki (after everything?) and even sells his own son (whom he's been farking like crazy). And after all this time of his depravity, all of these really powerful people just COULDN'T KILL HIM. I mean, even Sakaki (God of Death) gets easily done in, playing daddy-woes to his bawwby Kilico.

Don't get me started on Sakaki senior. He had some serious male pms throughout the story, first it was "Nah don't kill him, deary" then it was "Avoid him! Avoid him like the plague!!" then "Go do the job with him, fail and I'll kill ya, jks, jks" and lastly " Just farking kill the bastard!". The only thing I actually accepted was that he was a doting father (which clashed with how he originally treated her and his personality).

The last issue is, other than Akira (who nobody ever SAYS he is badass, its in his blood to be super badass, I don't know what drugs he takes, but he is high calibre 24/7) everyone else, turns out to be rather sub-par. For all their wonderous abilities, and oooh they could easily take so-and-so group, be afraid, be very afraid, the Sakaki family was a three man show, and it was a failing tactic. One guy. One guy could take all three of them down.

And then, the black guy. Wow, it really degraded into "Protect Ojou-sama" for the last volume 3-4. I liked the guy. He was the most colourful character (in more ways than one) and the most well defined. He actually felt realistic. The sad part? He gets brutally left behind. It was "Go on Ojou-sama, I'll stake my life for-"

My overall take. This get a 7. Why? Because its old (1998). Perhaps if I read it back then (I was too young to have been reading such things though), it might have actually been 'good' rather than average. So scaling the score up to correspond to the generation difference.

This manga keeps your expectations high but it never fulfills them. It's filled with situations that defies your good sense, it abuses of your patience and recompenses you with one of the most absurd and frustrating endings I ever saw. The only thing good about it is being only four volumes long.

... Last updated on July 11th, 2010, 6:20am

Very good if you're looking for great action, violence, and gore, but something with very little else.

Talk about a love/hate relationship, eh?

Weird ending, and one I hate. The characters are also very weird an not at all realistic.

Strange and dynamic artwork, rather plain story and characters you'd find in any yakuza film. I read through all of it, but maybe it's just too "flat" for my likes. Not enough depth, nor psychological development. At 4 volumes it's not much of a commitment, so you can check it out either way. But like other people have stated, the ending doesn't do it any favors, au contraire. (and I like open endings)

Remember all those cool 80s to 90s Hong Kong noir chick flicks?

Well, someone tried to pull off a manga of such a calibre, only that he failed. The fight scenes were predictable and disappointing, and there was none of that tension between the characters or the pathos of fatality such women were condemned to face. In such noir movies, we all know the women are fated to follow a certain path of action and yet, the story was intriguing and had surprising twists which enhanced the story and fleshed out the characters.

In Kilico, the psychological intrigue is gone, the characters are flat and worst of all: this is a manga where the characters drive the plot. The woman is a noir character, therefore, the story will follow a certain path because she is a noir character. And not, the woman chooses a certain decision because she has been raised by a certain philosophy, therefore, the different characters clash and interact, leading to a surprising yet intriguing set of events.

... Last updated on June 22nd, 2007, 9:13pm