REPOST: Wild Adapter Volumes 1-3 by Kazuya Minekura

Makoto Kubota wandered through life, not taking things too seriously or looking too deep within himself. His job as the head of the Izumo Group's youth gang kept him occupied with yakuza wars, mahjong and assassinations... Until the day he stumbled upon a strange drug called Wild Adapter that produces bizarre side-effects - including death.

Life is cheap in the back alleys of Yokohama. Makoto has had enough of Sanada and the Izumo organization, leaving it in a rain of blood. It seems a yakuza turf war is brewing, and Tokito is caught in the middle of it. How long can Makoto stay away from a life that keeps calling him?

Kubota and Tokito decide to infiltrate a cult that preaches a return to a more animalistic level of humanity, hoping to pick up information on Wild Adapter and perhaps even Tokito's forgotten past. But there is more to this religion than just meditation and ritual chanting, and once you join up, the only way out may be on a stretcher.

Reaction shot: Wild Adapter, to be honest, is beautiful. Minekura's art style generally makes my heart happy (especially when she draws fightscenes. Mmmmmm. ♥) and this is no exception at all. The story is a little - fragmented, I guess, and parts of it makes me sit and go "Okay, I enjoyed that but what the bloody hell -?! Then again, I get that with most manga I read in scanslation, so I'm gonna guess it's more to do with me and the way I'm reading it than it's anything to do with the manga itself.

(The story IS odd though - I mean, the first volume deals with gangs and drug dealing, the second with a pregnant teenager whose boyfriend had something to do with Wild Adapter, and the third with a cult that drugs its members. The linking threads between stories are there, but they're - tenuous, I suppose.)

My main problem with anything Minekura does is that - through no fault of her own, I suppose - I look at the characters and go "Huh, well they remind me of [xyz] from Saiyuki." (Seriously - Kubota reminds me of Hakkai, and Komiya kinda reminds me of Gojyo. I CAN'T HELP IT.) I don't know why - and besides, the characterisation doesn't feel as sturdy to me as it does in some of her other works. I can't excuse it as "Well, it's been a while since I read it" or "I've not read enough of it" - Bus Gamer was a single volume, and the characters in that felt more developed, more solid, than in Wild Adapter.

Verdict: I did enjoy it, but - it doesn't feel complete after I put it down.