By Yasushi Suzuki (DrMaster Publications)
ISBN13: 978-1-59796-070-0
Yasushi Suzuki is a world-renowned commercial artist and game-designer. Purgatory Kabuki is his first venture into graphic narrative. This first volume (of three) drops the reader right into the eerie action with no preamble.
In the underworld a mysterious samurai wanders, seeking battle. Despite the maxim that a samurai’s greatest honour is to die in battle, Imanoturugi is desperate to leave this place of mist and conflict. He roams the land of the dead fighting warriors and demons whenever he finds them. When they are defeated he takes their swords. He has been told that if he wins one thousand swords he will be able to leave this misty fastness…
Moody, action-packed and visually enticing, this very traditional tale owes as much to the fantastic scenario Suzuki has created as the folk lore it is derived from. This Hell is a bleak cold place of swirling grey menace. The Great Gojou Bridge is a tremendous iron structure that stretches from one end of the underworld to the other, and beneath it warriors fight and die. Across this wasteland Rashomon, a huge flesh-eating gate and a home to seven demons randomly travels. The gate is constantly moving because it is pulled by a savage pack of Chimeras…
Painfully short on plot and dialogue (which might actually be to its advantage) this is a pictorial delight that promises much. Hopefully when all the mysteries are revealed and the quest concludes the story will live up to the promise of the art.
This book is printed in the ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.
© DGN Production Inc./ Yasushi Suzuki 2006. All Rights Reserved.