“The Barefoot Actress”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Tsukasa Hojo
Translation: David Evelyn
Lettering: Kai Kyou
What They Say
Readers follow the City Hunter as he takes on underground odd jobs, ranging from serving as the bodyguard of a captivating madame to executing a vengeful assassination of a corrupt politician, navigating through quick-witted thrills and intense dramas.
The City Hunter Ryo Saeba does the dirty work of cleaning up Tokyo’s nightlife with his heart of gold worn on his sleeve.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Known originally as Shiti Hanta (シティーハンター), it’s far more known by its English name of City Hunter. The manga comes from Tsukasa Hojo, which began in 1985 and it wrapped up in Japan with thirty-five volumes to its name in 1991. Full volume reviews just aren’t my jam or in my workflow, so I wanted to work through a series on my own schedule and spend the time to talk about it chapter by chapter. This series has gorgeous new omnibus releases through Abrams ComicArts, which is what we’re reading, and I haven’t read this since Coamix brought it out in the early 2000s through Gutsoon! And the Raijin magazine. I seriously miss that magazine and the titles it brought out. So while I don’t have plans for a lengthy run on this, I wanted to revisit the manga that I’ve had read in two decades, and the anime that I’ve seen over the years, with a few chapter reviews.
With this installment, the series basically doesn’t pay attention to anything else that had been going on recently and just gives Ryo a new assignment. It does have the setup fun at the beginning with him causing a disturbance at a shopping district in order to swipe a movie poster of his favorite actress, Yumiko. That frustrates the hell out of Kaori, but wouldn’t you know it, Ryo ends up with a job by Yumiko’s manager for him to be her bodyguard. Ryo’s negotiating skills are priceless during this since he practically does it for nothing in exchange for a clean giant poster of Yumiko, but also ends up requesting a preview screening before other people of the film that she’s currently shooting. He’s all about getting close time with her, and her current manager sweetens the deal by having him become her manager for a bit as she wouldn’t be on board for a bodyguard.
With a lot of seeming threats on set with the film, and her not wanting to report it to the police as she wants the film to finish, Ryo falls into all of this pretty easily. His arrival at her apartment, however, introduces us to someone who’s seemingly lost in the clouds for the most part, and he doesn’t quite know how to handle that beyond just going with the flow. She’s like this for a while, even as the two just hang out and talk, and then go for a massive meal that she engages in as well. It gets stranger when they’re at the beach, and she strips down to go into the ocean, but it’s when it clicks for Ryo that she’s replicating a scene from her first movie in order to test him on top of all of the other things. It doesn’t delve into what’s really going on here, but it is a lot of fun to watch as Ryo gets to spend time and understand the actress of his dreams.
In Summary:
While I had expected the series to go back to dealing with the Union threat or something with the teenager that Ryo is protecting, who’s living in his building now, I’m glad we get to do another storyline involving just a regular job. Seeing him being all keen on a particular actress is right on line for Ryo, and the way Kaori is just frustrated by him works so well. But the story largely focuses on Ryo dealing with the manager from the job he’s being hired for, and then with Yumiko herself. It’s fun to see him in this world just a little bit, and for the opening piece to be away from the film set pretty much entirely. I’m curious to see more about Yumiko as there’s just an oddness there that I think is going to be really key to how all of this works. Definitely a lot of fun overall.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Abrams ComicArts
Chris Beveridge
http://www.fandompost.com
Chris has been writing about anime, manga, movies and comics for well on twenty years now. He began AnimeOnDVD.com back in 1998 and has covered nearly every anime release that’s come out in the US ever since.
He likes to write a lot, as you can see.
