Togari, Vol. 1

An evil (I have my own thoughts on that but,) boy made to suffer 300 years for his crimes is given a second chance in the terms of a wooden stick. Tobei needs to use togari, the sin eating stick, to collect 108 sins in modern-day Tokyo for his own sentence to be pardoned, and free to roam the world once again. Sounds easy right? This volume was hard for me to put down. With each page I just wanted to know more about Tobei, his former life, how this stick works, why are corporeal sins given a cool name like Toga, and why for 300 years didn't Tobei have clothes in the underworld. Some things I've found out, like why the name Toga and how the stick works, but the rest can only come in time and reading, that is something I am definitely going to enjoy. The world is fascinating to me, and the art has a vintage feel to it. The art is intricately detailed with dark bold lines, yet soft and sketchy at the same time, a beautiful combination. And I love the cover, it almost looks like it was painted on canvas. I definitely recommend this to fans of older series that appreciate the older artwork, but anyone who has a taste for action and rough and tumble characters will definitely like this, and can't wait to know more, like I do.

I've only read volume 1 of Togari. I will continue to read the whole series which is 8 volumes long. I will revise my review later. I won't waste space describing what the story is about since that's already said in the reviews. For now, the first volume so far reminds me of the Variante series. If you like Variante, you will like this. They both are the same type of horror and killing with some gory in it. The artwork is pretty good, clear and easy to look at. I like the storyline as well. It gets me interested to see what happens next... I like it so far that I will read the other volumes. Update: November 6, 2008. Finished all 8 volumes of Togari. It is very good, well written & drawn. The ending was a bit abrupt, not what I expected but nevertheless good. It's a good series to read, a page turner!