Kagetora: Volume 1

The manga "KageTora" is a fun, shounen, romantic comedy series featuring the teenaged male ninja Kagetora and the teenaged girl from a powerful family whom he's supposed to train, Yuki. The story is pretty typical shounen stuff. Yuki is the anti Akane from "Ranma 1/2" in that she is good at school and cooking, but stinks at martial arts and sports. Kagetora is a nice guy who's got those awesome mythical ninja skills but finds he is falling for his charge, despite the constant warnings from his monkey Sousuke. Sousuke is a fun character, but not a scene stealer. This first volume gives us little beyond the introductions of the characters and the groundwork being laid for their attraction to each other. Sub-character Aki-chan, who may be a "yankee," is the first new girl to be added to the series, though her interests are with Yuki (think Uo-chan from "Fruits Basket"). So she's a thug, but one with some martial arts skills. And finally, we are introduced to one of Kagetora's older brothers. Del Rey is the best of the American publishers when it comes to English adaptions of manga. This is because they have a policy of including all Japanese honorifics to help "keep it real," as well as have translator notes to explain certain things. However, with this volume, the translator or one of the two English adaptors (why are two needed anyway?) give us what I call a "bipolar" adaption. I suspect it is one of the adaptors. So, while the Japanese honorifics are used, there are several uses of "Mrs." and a use of "Miss" which I am 99.9% certain aren't in the original Japanese. A couple of "sensei" moments were translated as well (even though Del Rey has right up front what "sensei" means). This is made even more bizarre because this title makes use (and properly so) of other Japanese terms, including the title/honorifics "hime." So someone was in for the "fan-friendly" approach and someone else was in for the domestication approach. I know that we lost some Japanese honorifics based on the end-credit translations. I suspect this is because someone was afraid we wouldn't understand. Bah! To make matters worse, even though the title/honorific "hime" is explained in the notes, there are two instances where it is still used wrong. When used as an honorific, it should be "Yuki-hime" and it is used this way most of the time. However, the two instances I mention have it "Hime Yuki," which again feels like a domestication attempt, only conceeding that from the start, "hime" is used mostly as a stand-alone title. I find that pretty poor work on Del Rey's part. Bottom line: Despite the issues I mention above, the title is mindless shounen fun for those who like romantic comedy series. Having read three volumes to this point, it isn't anything special or great, but a good light read before bed or in the doctor's office waiting room.

When Kagetora Kazama, a young ninja from the hidden village of Hoorai is summoned by the head of the Toudou family, he believes it is to fulfill his clan's traditional role to secretly protect the head of the Toudous. He's taken a bit aback when Saya Toudou, the current head, tells him he's there to teach her daughter Yuki martial arts. Even though Yuki is next in line to be master of her family, she has a big problem. That problem is that she is a ditzy klutz! This girl has problems with WALKING, much less becoming master of multiple deadly arts. Even though she's in high school she probably has trouble spelling her own name, so you can see why her mother is a bit worried about her taking over. Kagetora even enrolls in her school so he can watch over her in secret but imagine his shock when Yuki announces to the whole school that he's a ninja! And then there's Yuki's childhood friend, Kiritani, who has some lesbianish feelings for Yuki and can't stand the thought of Kagetora's presence, and almost has a heart attack when she finds out he is living with Yuki. It's a good thing she doesn't have to worry about anything funny going on.....or does she? Kagetora finds that his feelings towards Yuki are increasingly taking a romantic turn which is against the guardian/lord tradition. As I read Kage Tora I was constantly reminded of the manga/anime Full Metal Panic, which had pretty much the same plot devices as this, except in that series you had guns and soldiers instead of swords and ninjas. You still have the same nonchalant acceptance of Kagetora as a ninja as Sosuke's packing a gun at school. Kagetora too, crashes into situations at school, thinking that Yuki's life is threatened, destroying school property and hurting people before realizing there is no threat. While this manga is derivative of other similar stories, it really trips up with the character of Yuki. She's so weak and dumb that she's almost a non-character. If I wanted a book about a girl that has trouble even tying her own shoes without falling over, I would read Yotsuba. A girl like Yuki would have been hit by a car by now. Someone this stupid couldn't survive in the real world and would have fallen victim to the laws of natural selection. This first volume was entertaining, charming, and funny, but also cliched and shallow. If Yuki doesn't become stronger and never evolves, I don't think the series will keep my attention. I would suggest the manga Full Metal Panic over this series.