Eyes of a Predator

Back to the promised regular anime fandom…or more specifically manga.  I recently bought a handful of manga about a week ago now, and I think I’m going to try and write reviews for all the first volumes at least.  There may come a time when I decided to re-read one I’ve been keeping up with and reviewing it volume by volume, but I wouldn’t look for that to happen any time soon.

The volume I’ll be reviewing today is Beast Master volume 1 by Kyousuke Motomi published by Viz Media in their Shojo Beat imprint in November 2009.  The original manga’s copyright is 2007.

The main character, Yuiko Kubozuka really loves animals.  Unfortunately animals don’t love her back because she tends to smother them with too much love, like the Abominable Snowman in old Warner Brothers cartoons.  She sees a wild looking boy who jumps out of a tree holding the cat she’d just scared up the tree, and then voila! he transfers into her class at school the next day.  Of course, rumors fly.  He has very scary looking eyes, which keeps everybody at a distance.  Except for Yuiko who only wants to thank Leo for rescuing the cat the day before.  She sees him on the roof, surrounded by birds, and jealous, rushes forward and scares the birds away.  When she’s asked by Leo if she’s afraid of him, she answers “No,” and is rewarded by his smile.  Turns out Leo is simply innocent and friendly; he just tends to normally have a scary expression (much like Sawako in Kimi ni Todoke).  For me, that was surprise number one.  The guy in this romance is friendly but shy.  Of course, that can’t be all there is to him.  After making friends with Yuiko, Leo’s cornered by a gang whose leader wishes to fight him.  They end up scaring Leo up a tree who confesses that he’s never been in a fight, except when a panther tried to maul him and just recently.  He also reveals that when he sees blood, he gets scared and doesn’t remember what happens afterward, he just comes to and finds his antagonist dead or severely damaged.  Chagrined, the gang leaves him alone, the leader even vowing to help Leo whenever he needs it.

Leo is lured back up to the roof to face the other people he fought with, and they proceed to beat him.  Yuiko is there also, and tells them to run, but it’s too late.  Leo’s in berserk mode and proceeds to beat the living daylights out of everyone around him.  Yuiko stops him by tackling him from behind and holding on until she’s sure he’s himself again.  Thus starts the tale of the hapless animal lover who takes a wild boy under her wing.

Leo is shown to live with a guardian, Toki, who’s a former mercenary.  His past and parents are a subject of mystery, except for the fact that he’s apparently grown up in the wild in places like an uninhabited island and the savannah of Africa.  The rest of the volume is more of Yuiko and Leo at school, and more of Leo losing control and Yuiko wondering why it’s so easy for her to calm him down.

I was surprised that Leo turns out to be friendly and innocent rather than just scary.  The fish-out-of-water wild boy is nothing new, but so far the author hasn’t used any of the situations and jokes you’d expect with that particular trope. Yuiko seems like a fairly typical shojo heroine: outgoing, friendly, overly optimistic and impulsive.  What’s particularly refreshing about Yuiko in this first volume is that her lack of fear of Leo goes all the way to Leo in berserk form.  She doesn’t hesitate, she simply grabs him and tells him it’s okay.  She even wonders why she’s not afraid then.  The gang leader is also surprising, giving up on fighting Leo after finding out he was scared and even protecting him.  The cast of characters is pretty small, and the plot seems pretty typical over the first four chapters anyway.

I really enjoyed the art, especially in some of the action scenes.  There’s great movement and energy that comes out of Motomi’s illustrations here.  My favorite scene from this volume is in the first chapter, where Yuiko tackles Leo from behind, wrapping her arms around his head and her legs around his waist in order to keep him from continuing his rampage.  There’s a good amount of detail in all the characters and their clothing, and the artist does well with both the more realistic portrayals of faces and bodies, and the more deformed and humorous expressions.

My verdict?  I’m hooked.  I’m probably going to be keeping up with the the releases of this series in the States.  The only low point might be the plot, but I require a second volume at least, before I make any judgements on that.

You might like this manga if you like Kimi ni Todoke.  Leo’s general situation (looks scary, is actually friendly) is much the same as Sawako’s.

The manga in this review was provided by the author.