Zero In by Sora Inoue

Y'know, when you like to watch or read all different types of genres, especially in things geared towards men, or to both men and women, you get used to sex being thrown in randomly. Books especially, I'm no prude, but not every book needs a sex scene to get people to read it. Maybe its more like movies make it easy to tell when such things are coming because they are rated, but books aren't besides 'child' 'teen' and 'adult.' Same goes for manga, not all 'shonen' titles are full of busty girls showing cleavage or having up-skirt shots, but, you never know which ones do until you sit down and read them. I'll warn you, it is one of those manga. But, for a 'hot chicks with guns' manga, it could be a helluva lot worse, that's for sure, and I am actually surprised that in the end I do recommend it. (Well, Blogger just erased twenty minutes of fiddly editing on this post, but it's late, so, sorry if the layout is a little wonky)




Zero In by Sora Inoue

Art and story (c) Sora Inoue

Genre: Action Shonen, Ecchi
Length: 12 Volumes – 75 Chapters



           The art is very professional, I don't think there is one thing I can find to complain about as far as the art goes, even at the beginning. There were a few times the backgrounds were a bit empty, but this was usually during action scenes so it obvious why they were left that way. The eyes are expressive, and there is a wide variety of character designs in both main, side, and background characters. The hair is interesting to look at, not only are the haircuts themselves complicated, but the hair itself has good action during all the different scenes (a character all its own, perhaps?). The detail of this manga, actually, is amazing. The clothes for example, are always layered and full of details, even the school uniforms are different and fretted with things that make them unique from other manga and the assorted characters in the story. The clothes are also well fitted to the bodies, as well to the characters who are wearing them, they have a modern feel which plays into the slightly futuristic plot. The physiques are also in a wide spectrum, with girls more on the chunkier side, I assume this is to make their ample bosoms look more natural, and if that is the case I appreciate it. There isn't much I dislike more than giant pillow boobs on thin frames. The guns are well rendered and the action isn't hard to follow, making the shoot outs a dream to read (and there is a metric ton of them). If I had to really dig for a complaint, sometimes the dialog bubbles were easy to read out of order.
           Kou Shiraishi knows he is a complete wimp who is always getting into trouble, and in a society rife with gun crime trouble isn't hard to find. To combat the crime rate, though, a private police force has been formed, while it cannot discharge weapons without direct permission from the police they are a fast response team capable in hand to hand as well as gun fights. When Kou predictably gets in trouble and the private police are called in, he finds himself face to face with the girl idol of his school, Mikuru Nazume, a secret officer of the private police and very capable at handling the capture of violent criminals. Kou may be weak physically, but he's always wanted to join the police force, in fact he decides to to follow Mikuru's example and become strong, too.
           The art is excellent, the story is excellent, the action is heart pumping, and the comedy hits the mark, a top notch manga in just about every category. This isn't really my type of manga, too much fan service, but I still highly enjoyed reading Zero In. Because, amid the gratuitous boob, butt, and panty shots, a real story is nestled. The characters are basically all likable, though with the amount thrown at you its not surprising a few rubbed me the wrong way (lookin' at you Shikie, I still dislike you), and, even more unbelievable, the action is good and the story is good. The slow romance gets a little annoying sometimes, but it adds a little interest into the relationship that you know is going to happen sometime. Suddenly, in the middle of a fight, you'll find yourself laughing, too, because the characters are so well crafted. It really is a perfect mash up of action and school comedy manga. The highlight of this manga is the several chapter spanning action fights. Usually revolving around some personal tragedy or attack on one of the main character's loved ones, they are intense shoot outs with good always triumphing. Just as it should be. Its those in-between chapters you have to worry about, that’s when the real stuff goes down, but the tragedy doesn't drone on. It wasn't perfect, of course. Kou's sister, a side character who is introduced right at the beginning, is one of the problems I have with Zero In, see, she's cute and busty like you'd expect, but making her a purveyor of sexy body shots every time she shows up feels sort of gross since the main character is her brother. I realize that she's but one of the different types of girls in the manga so that the reader is sure to have an abundance of choices to pick their favorite from, but seriously, is weird how she poses around while her bother is right there. Mikuru is also a cliché in anime/manga, a cheerful and a bit clumsy character who is actually a huge bad ass; think Trigun's Vash, Trinity Blood's Abel, Rurouni Kenshin's Kenshin, the list goes on... and on. I personally don't think it detracted from the story, but I am a fan of the trope. My translation was a little here and there sometimes, though I never mark that against the original manga. All in all though, I'm still highly surprised at how much I liked Zero In when every title page is a girl showing/in her panties. I mean, its obviously not marketed towards me, but it is basically every other page with the pin-up shots. I'd like to down grade it for that, but for the action sequences alone it gets full marks.

Will this get me more page views, I wonder?

5/5 Not my style, but, all the same, really well done on all fronts.

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