IWGP: Vol #4
By Jonathan Mills
July 30, 2006 - 22:34
Digital Manga Publishing
Writer(s): Ira Ishida & Sena Aritou
Penciller(s): Ira Ishida & Sena Aritou
Cover Artist(s): Ira Ishida & Sena Aritou
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Book Description
In the hunt for the elusive "Princess" every weird bit of evidence is a potential problem-solver... weather it's a starry acrylic fingernail or a suprise video from a mysterious former classmate! Fujio and Makoto are ready to put an end to their latest quest, but a series of cryptic text messages may be the final, and most important, pieces of the puzzle. Will the mean streets cough up the rest of the crucial clues? Will that giant turtle and lizard leave them alone?!
Sexy, sinister, fast paced... there's no other neighborhood quite like IWGP. Street thugs rule the concrete jungle with iron fists, and gorgeous girls linger in the darkest alleys. Name your pleasure, or your problem, and they might help you save the day! Just be sure to watch your back. IWGP may look like a tempting playground, but it's no place to make friends.
Story and Content
This was my first experience with IWGP, and while it's not a very good idea to start a series on it's last volume, I still had a lot of fun with it.
The manga itself is 200 pages, but only the first 129 complete the series, the remaining pages are divided among 3 short stories by Sena Aritou.
Obviously, having just picked this series up with this volume, i'm going to end up having a different take on it then someone who has followed the series from volume one. Taking place in a modern setting the series picks up with Fujio and Makoto, our leads, trying to track down "Princess", After receiving some text messages on his phone, Makoto tracks down Guriko, a girl he went to school with, this lead's to them finding clue's and discovering what happened to Princess, Much like how a police drama would play out. The character's themselves are very likable and the interplay between Fujio and Makoto is a fun thing to watch unfold.
The 3 short stories by Sena Aritou are a fun read, they include."I Can See Tomorrow", "Heisei Shangri-la" and "Love is S & M". Their mostly of the Mature comedy genre and can be summed up easily with "Boobies & Zombies". Suffice to say that they fill out the rest of this volume quite nicely.
Art
The art for this series is a big plus, done in a more realistic style with proportionate body to head ratio and realistic backgrounds. It isn't all serious though, you'll also be seeing some crazy face's pop up quite often, which can lead to some laugh out loud moments. DMP also produced some excellent packaging, which should look great on your book shelf.
Conclusion
I was alittle apprehensive about starting IWGP as I haven't had a lot of experience reading Drama up to this point, but i'm sure glad I did. Having excellent writing, art and atmosphere is the right combination for a good drama, and this volume has them all.
Art: 9/10
Story: 9/10
Overall Rating: 9/10
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IWGP: Vol #4