Organized crime and crime drama are hard gigs to
pull off for the shounen demographic. They're usually more suited in the seinen
genre where their graphic show of violence, swearing, and whatever else little
boys aren't supposed to know yet. So when Kishimoto Masashi, author and artist
of the popular series Naruto, tried to genre-shift one of his early seinen
works for a shounen audience, the result was something that could work for younger audiences but
might disappoint older readers.
That, and maybe trying to squeeze the original
130-page story into just 51 had got something to do with it.
Mario is about the titular main character, an
up-and-coming hitman trying to earn a name for himself in the New York
underworld. Being the bastard son of an Italian mob boss and a female Yakuza,
Mario was not exactly welcomed by the other Italian mobsters due to his mixed
heritage. He also got teamed up with a woman who is much of a killer as he is,
Saori, whom he bonds with because she somewhat resembled his dead mother.
Together, they do all kinds of hits but eventually they get involved in a
hostile takeover in one of the crime families where they eventually have to
target one another.
Now, I'm a big fan of crime drama, most
especially the kind focusing on the guys on the opposite side of the law. So I
was really interested in how Kishimoto would pull this off. But with the stuff I’ve
already seen made by Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorcese - not to mention
Black Lagoon, Golgo 13 and Gangsta - after reading this, I have the right to
say that I've seen better.
Our… “hero”, ladies and gentlemen.
Character-wise, Mario's got spunk, he's got
attitude. I'm not sure if that's enough to make him likeable. He's also a
mama's boy and has a soft spot for the girl who looks like her, so a jerk with
a heart of gold? Still not enough to make him interesting, though. The other
characters weren't much either.
Cute…
The other main character, Saori, has got a sob
story that's enough for some sympathy, a justifiable man-hating personality,
and had slowly defrosted to Mario, but despite all that she still comes off as
flat. Everyone else even less so.
I love how this panel reminds me of a Tarantino
“trunk shot”
Kishimoto once said in an interview that he loved
the atmosphere surrounding guns, and some pages seemed dedicated to showcasing
that kind of tension. Me, I share that sentiment. There’s just something about
it that appeals to me, the kind of suspense you feel in the clash of
personalities and interests in crime dramas, heightened by the presence of guns
and armed men nearby.
Meet your match.
But, I don’t know, somehow this story failed to
invoke that kind of feeling in me. For all I know, all I see are a bunch of
kids brandishing guns every chance they.
We get it, she hates men.
Plot-wise, the story was pretty decent enough. We
got the developing relationship between the two characters and hints of trouble
in the crime family they work for. The pacing started to feel somehow off
midway, with the way the exposition was crammed in with images of the two
trying to get along as if to quickly establish their camaraderie and get the
plot on the way. A good three-fourths of the oneshot seemed like a pretty good
build-up for something...
Then the ending happened.
Given the setting and content of the story, I was
never really expecting a good ending for any of these guys. Just a bittersweet
one at most. What this one-shot gave me was... underwhelming. It would've created more closure if it hadn't felt rushed.
In fact, it felt like a total cop-out.
Simply put, the one-shot lacked impact. The
characters lacked a force of personality, quirk, or even a sense of humor that
could've made me want to invest myself in them more. Probably the only notable
reaction it could invoke from me was the total disbelief at the poor manner of how the story was
resolved.
Maybe if the story hadn't squeezed into half its
original size, it would've been further elaborated and Mario's sacrifice wouldn't have felt out of the blue. But
I’ve never seen the original work so I couldn’t say it would’ve. All I can say
is, 50 pages aren’t enough to just conclude this piece of work like this.
Kudos, by the way, to the bear-themed team of translators from Mangapanda and Mangaburn for giving us the chance to read this.
