Hikkatsu! By Yu Yagami

First off I am going to apologize for the lack of/quality of the pictures in this post. It is not a manga you can reliably find scans for. Secondly, I'm really sad that both David Bowie and Alan Rickman both died this month. I know it has nothing to do with manga but they were both favorites of mine. 

Thank you for summing that up, Marvin.

Hikkatsu! By Yu Yagami

art and story (c) Yu Yagami

Genre: Shonen 
Length: 3 Volumes – 12 Chapters


The art is sort of sketchy looking, but in a stylized way instead of an amateurish way. The shapes are angled, including the clothes, and the body shapes are lean. Its a highly recognizable type of art. Personally, I liked it right off the bat, but, it could be off putting to those who highly prefer the more 'pretty' art of shojo manga. The facial expressions are done very well, as are the movements of the bodies and even in the background characters its easy to see motion and personality. The clothes have interesting details to them as well. The backgrounds are very lacking, but that seems to be a part of the stylization to me. I could nitpick a lot about this art, but I'm must not going to because I found it interesting.
           Shota lives in a dystopian future of mankind, where electromagnetic pulses and discharges from the atmosphere
cause electronics to malfunction, sometimes even go berserk and hurt humans. This strange occurrence has caused the collapse of many major parts of society in the ten years since it has begun. Shota has a plan, though, to heal the world with a strike from his fist!
           Yu Yagami is a mangaka of mixed reactions, it seems. I've found love and hate for this, and his other manga, and I fall on the love side. At least with Hikkatsu, since it's the only one I've read. Some don't like the art, but I find the almost haphazard look of it
endearing and unique. I've read that they find the humor falls flat, but since I laughed at it, I can say I honestly don't see how. On that note, it might be easy to put this manga into the 'gag' category but the continuous plot halts me from doing so. Most gag manga (think the beginning of Dragon Ball) don't have any kind of plot, they simply rely on the characters doing random things for laughs but the humor of Hikkatsu comes from Shota's ambition and the people he attracts with it. Including a naive girl who instantly falls in love with him and a shady grifter who sees Shota as a potential pay day. Shota, who starts as a man of few words on a mission, begins to open up and learn about the world and its nice watching him change as the story progresses, another rare occurrence in 'gag' manga. I suppose the revolving characters of the broken down world could be considered gag and the other characters also have their mysteries and wacky personalities, too, in fact there is one particular character who goes out the same way he came in and you are none the wiser as to what his freaking deal is. All the same, they make a good cast for the dystopian world around them, proving that humans never change no matter what happens. The stylized art and the stylized personalities make for an entertaining read that’s just fun all the way through. What else can you expect from a manga that has a girl raised by pigeons as it's secondary character? The ending is a bit of a let down, though, it'll make you smile, its not entirely satisfying and I had to dock it for that, but otherwise its a solid comedy/martial arts manga through and through.


4/5 Its readable, and re-readable.