|
Togari: Review and Synopsis |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, it's been a little while, but I'd like to tell you all about a reasonably good manga series I purchased the last volume of a month or two ago. This would be Togari, by Yoshinori Natsume.
The premise is simple enough. Tobei, a serial killer from Japan (circa 1700 AD) must go to the human world and destroy 108 "sins." These take the form of the Toga, weird-looking monsters bonded to particularly evil human beings. [Insert obligatory Animal House reference here.] His weapon is the Togari, a wooden sword powered by malice and evil. Tobei only has 108 days to accomplish his mission, and he's only allowed to harm the monsters. If he hurts another human being, he takes a corresponding amount of damage himself. If he punches someone in the face, he gets hit as well. Also if he commits any sins, such as stealing, his head starts to come off, mirroring his execution 300 years ago.
Despite the similarities to Bleach (fighting manifestations of evil only he can see while using a magic sword.) Togari provided a fair amount of interest early on. Tobei himself is sufficiently immoral to serve as a good anti-hero, while his lack of modern experience provides the majority of the laughs in the series. The countdown-style plot, including the sins and days remaining printed on the back of each volume, kept things suspenseful for the first several issues. Tobei's moral shift becomes a parallel focus for the story. His journey from a killer to a reformed champion of justice is surprisingly compelling, resulting in a much deeper character than one usually encounters in a shonen adventure manga.
Unfortunately, Togari has several glaring flaws that make it, in the end, a less-than satisfying experience.
Midway through the series, we run across Sena, the main villain, a young man who is meant to look like a less-scruffy version of Tobei. The fact that he's identical in appearance and similar in outlook to Light Yagami makes this one of the earlier nails in Togari's coffin. His power revolves around generating Toga for the purpose of, essentially, destroying and then reforming the world. Tobei defeats his quirky miniboss squad, and, in the process, completes his moral journey and becomes a more virtuous individual. After a brief interlude, we come across Sena in an athletic stadium, giving a toga to yet another sinner. Tobei shows up, defeats the mook, and confronts Sena with a standard, uplifting message about goodness winning out in the time to come.
And then the story ends. There is no resolution, and it's heavily implied that Sena is nowhere near exhausting his massive resources or personal power.
I can understand the wish to finish things here. After all, Tobei has come full circle, and, in any other series, there would be maybe one volume left in which the now-good Tobei completes his quest, defeats the villain, says goodbye to the friends he's made, etc, etc... If one considers the story ONLY as the evolution of an evil man into a good one, then whether or not Sena is beaten doesn't really matter. In fact, ending it here makes it a more mature work, with less focus on "MY KUNG FU IS STRONGER!" fight scenes, and DBZ power progression. The irritating part is that what used to be the main plot fades away into hazy nothingness. By the end, we have no idea how many toga Tobei has to fight, how many days he has to do it in, or anything else.
If Tobei's quest had been some trivial thing, important to him and only him, this would be less of an issue. The problem it's explicitly stated in a few key scenes that if humanity doesn't clean up its act in a big way, the powers that be are going to instigate a Rock Fall, after which Everybody Dies. It's also implied that Sena is directly responsible for a recent spike in evil behavior, making it even more important that he be brought to justice. Supposedly, with his new-found goodness, Tobei defeats Sena, finishes his quest, and saves the world. That eventuality isn't made believable enough to make us buy into it on an intrinsic level. Just because they've found Private Ryan doesn't mean that he'll make it back home.
Adding insult to injury, the author decided to include a fake preview of "Togari: Perfect Edition," followed by a message amounting to "JK! ROTFLMAO!" This is meant as a joke, but comes off as deliberate harassment.
So, to summarize:
Togari is an entertaining, exciting series that ultimately fails to resolve most of its internal conflicts, fatally undermining its overall quality.
And yet, despite all of my complaints about the end of the story, while it's still going on, it's a diverting read. So, if you have nothing else to do, read Togari, bearing in mind what I've already said.
 greenoracle · Mon Feb 15, 2010 @ 10:14pm · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
