365 Days of Manga, Day 347: Color of Rage

COLOR OF RAGE • Kazuo Koike (story), Seisaku Kano (art) • Dark Horse • 18+
Off the coast of 1783 Japan, two slaves—one black, one Japanese—escape the wreck of an American whaling ship and swim to shore. Breaking their chains, the two friends wander around feudal Japan, trying to make a living in a corrupt and dangerous world. As they travel, King must deal with being the only black man in Japan, and his appearance either scares people or causes them to see him as a curiosity. A buddy story combining a Tokugawa-era setting with 1970s blaxploitation and musings on racial politics, Color of Rage is a second-rate work from the writer of Lone Wolf and Cub. King is a sympathetic but still stereotypical character; his compassion clashes with George’s Japanese stoicism, but it’s anachronistic to see a slave in 1783 spout Civil-Rights-era political jargon and talk about human rights. He’s also depicted as a bit simple-minded, and when his idealism is shattered he gets mad, picks up trees and throws them around like the Incredible Hulk. In the end, though, it’s not the shallowness of the characters that’s the problem, it’s that Koike just doesn’t give them much to do, and the plot never goes anywhere worthy of them even as two-dimensional heroes. The gekiga-style artwork has nicely detailed historical backgrounds, but the character art is fairly stiff.
** (two stars)
Just 18 days left to go of “365 Days of Manga.” Could this possibly be the longest-running manga giveaway… IN HUMAN HISTORY? In any case, I’ve just gotten a whole bunch of new manga to give away to lucky contestants, and today’s winner (number 347!) is Arika E. of Texas. Congratulations, Arika, I’ll be sending you some new manga soon!