Ikebukuro West Gate Park 1 & 2

Written by Ira Ishida

Art by Sena Aritou

Translation by Duane Johnson

Published by Digital Manga Publishing

        Like any form of media, manga has broken itself down into a myriad of sub-genres, each with its own set of rules and conventions. But where film has segmented itself into groups such as comedy, horror, and science fiction, and music into things like rock, rap, and True Kvlt Norwegian Black Metal, manga has chosen to cluster around weird and nonsensical classificationss, like giant-monsters-and-school girls, and comedies-centering-around restaurants. I’m not sure if pornographic-teen-detective story is a genre in and of itself, but if Ikebukuro West Gate Park is any indication, it should be.

        If IWGP were a film, it would be last year’s underrated Brick. Well, Brick if it were directed by Ed Powers and a bottle of Viagra. In the first volume, Makoto, a street kid with a good heart, falls in love with a schoolgirl hooker a month before her death, and then tries to solve her murder, accompanied by a series of comic relief clichés and a gang of homosexual street toughs. By the second volume, he’s busting a drug ring and taking on the Yakuza, turning into a sort of Encyclopedia Brown who stumbled into a bad Quentin Tarantino script. The dialogue and plot points are somewhat childish, which is strange, because there’s a fair bit more anal sex than I’m used to in children’s programming, unless I really haven’t been paying attention to Tinky Winky from Teletubbies. The mixture of teen-speak, fluffy comedy, and explicit sexuality is a little unnerving at first, but the mystery is engaging enough, and I’m not one to complain if every few pages someone in high school peels off their underwear.

        IWGP is based on a TV series that was based on a novel that was based on a Chinese food recipe that was based on a strange pattern of cumulous clouds seen one afternoon after a rain storm, or something like that. Written by Ira Ishida, the strange mix of hard-boiled adult action and teen movie conventions is strangely effective, though at times Ishida moves the pace along too quickly to let the atmosphere really develop. The various mysteries wrap themselves up without out too much twisting and turning, so there’s a little bit of a let down at the conclusion of every story, but there’s enough going on to almost make up for that particular disappointment. The art, by Sena Aritou, is clean and simple, sometimes reducing itself to very basic line art that conveys an almost minimalist aesthetic. It’s in these moments that the manga really comes alive, but in contrast to some of the more traditional lay-outs present here, the juxtaposition can be a little jarring. Nevertheless, the story moves, and it’s usually moving towards a panty-shot of a teenage girl, so some of IWGP’s faults may be intended to be forgotten when the blood rushes away from the brain. Which, I suppose, makes it a success in its particular genre.