“Dark Side Blues”, written by Hideyuki Kikuchi, drawn by Yuho Ashibe

338 pages, ADV Manga, ISBN-13: 978-1413900026

Dark Side Blues is a manga omnibus volume containing both published volumes written by Hideyuki Kikuchi (he of Vampire Hunter D fame) and drawn by Yuho Ashibe (he of Bride of Deimos fame). In the near future almost the entire world lies in the iron grip of a huge conglomerate, the Persona Century Corporation. One day, a mysterious man appears in Shinjuku, a dangerous and lawless place just teeming with rebels and terrorists and, incidentally, one of the few places not dominated by Persona Century (so does that mean that the Persona Century Corporation isn’t all bad? Hmmmmm…). The stranger’s name is Dark Side, and with the help of a small band of rebels he will attempt to break Persona’s stranglehold on the world. Alright, then. Overall I found the story to be rather disappointing, while the art was really good; while no other chapters have followed these two, the story reads like the middle of a much longer tale. We start with a terrorist who has just attacked world superpower Persona Century Corporation being punished and end with a woman joining the same terrorist organization set on overthrowing the stranglehold PCC has on the world.

The problem is that there are a lot of ill-defined powers at work here: the family that runs the Persona Century Corporation consists of a woman who enjoys torture, a brother who wears a mysterious mask that covers his entire face, a brother who escaped from some sort of prison in Africa and a kind-hearted sister who is never shown.  The savior of Shinjuku is the mysterious Dark Side, a dapper Deimos-looking fellow who appears and disappears mysteriously when the weak are struggling against The Man.  Persona Century Corporation chases a stray terrorist into Shinjuku, and the story follows him as he is sheltered by the local gang Messiah and we go through various battles and whatnot. The ill-defined powers come into play in a variety of ways.  The leader of Messiah, Mai, seems to possess supernatural speed, at the very least, but has an attachment to plants, so that might come into play as well.  Her assistant/partner is preternaturally gifted with electronics.  The nature of Dark Side’s powers is never revealed, and we never really see how he uses them.  The same with the older Persona brother, who fights Dark Side at one point.  The brother with the mask also appears to have some sort of supernatural aid on his side.  And yet, the rest of the story is firmly grounded in reality and the magic feels unnecessary and out of place, and really complicates the story (and I say that while holding the opinion that Dark Side is the best part, even though he adds nothing and is confusing).  The story itself is not all that interesting or well-developed, and as I said, seems to cut off right in the middle of the tale.