Kurogane by Haruto Ikezawa

Happy New Year! I, for reasons I cannot explain, waited until the last minute to do this post, well, I guess I can explain, I'm an idiot. Still, lets ring in the new year and out the old with responsible cheer! See you next year y'all!



Kurogane by Haruto Ikezawa

Art and story (c) Haruto Ikezawa

Genre: Sports Shonen
Length: 8 Volumes – 70 Chapters


            I have some mixed feelings about the art of Kurogane, on one hand it doesn't really have anything to objectionable about it but yet, I found myself nitpicking it. From a technical stand point it is well drawn. The faces are expressive and all the characters are unique and interesting. The clothes, at times were a little baggier than they needed to be or oddly fitting but nothing outstanding. This being an action manga, the backgrounds are a bit lacking but that’s to be expected. Still, it has a solid style and the movements are easy to read. All the same, I found the art to be not very appealing. For one, the most generic character happens to be the main one, and as the character designs got more wild as the manga progressed, he just seemed more and more plain. It could be seen as he is the 'regular guy' type of character but still, it didn't endear me to him. Then there are all those more outrageous characters. As this manga is about the sport of Kendo, where the participants all wear full armor and face masks, all you can see during a match is the face and what hair is showing there. So, most characters have hair styles and moles and eyebrows that are dynamic enough to be recognizable with only the face showing. That’s all well and good, except most of those hairstyles and faces look down right strange at times. Sometimes those modern types of hair where all the chunky points make an interesting shape (think newer Yu-Gi-Oh, for example) just look downright goofy, and that was a problem in Kurogane. I found lots of characters off putting just due to that, and it was impossible to tell if they were male or female, also. It was distracting.
           Hiroto Kurogane has always been weak at anything to do with physical action, sports are an

impossibility for him. Despite that fact, Hiroto has such excellent eyes he has to wear glasses to distort it just so he doesn't strain them, only causing him to despair further because he can see what needs to be done on any type of sport but can't force his weak body to do it. Then one night as he walks home, a beautiful sakura tree suddenly appears and he is challenged by a ghost from 150 years ago. When he dodges her attack, she claims him as the heir to her sword technique, a type of Kendo. Joining the Kendo team to appease her, will Hiroto see that his weakness can be overcome or will he only fail once more?
           I've already shared my mixed response to this manga, and it does continue on past the art, unfortunately. This was a pleasant read, but it reminded me too much of a sports manga. I realize that sounds really stupid, but let me explain, when you read a sports manga and all it is is a sports manga, things get a little tiresome. Kurogane is a sports manga like that. There needs to be some character development beyond what they do in their tournaments and training, or else it becomes a terrible grind with out any sense of time passing. Kurogane does that. Eyesheild 21 has to be my favorite sports manga, it has the most out there

characters and character designs but still gives you time to learn about them in at an easy going pace. Kurogane is a bit like Samurai Usagi where they explained characters before you ever had a chance to know them and so you have no kind of connection with them at that point, but then Samurai Usagi had lots of other things going for it. The plot of the whole manga is to be stronger, and you do get to see that but it bounces here and there in between the actual matches to the point that knowing exact time is impossible.Don't take all this nitpicking as total hate, though. Like I said in the first paragraph, this manga is not bad in any sense. The action is easy to see, as much as possible in the one-strike types of bout, and the imagery is very good at conveying intimidation and determination. Kendo, while having lots of technical terms, is pretty easy to understand as most of the terminology has to do with positions and hit names than what it actually takes to win. Still, that also means there isn't really a lot of difference between all the fights either. Personally, I found it a little boring at times. I guess the bottom line is, this manga is good but it wasn't anything more than that. Kendo is a sport steeped in tradition and Kurogane doesn't ignite any interest in looking at Kendo any further than this, and that's a bit of a shame.



2/5 Doesn't really catch the eye.