Demo Disc Vol. 14: Diminutive Delinquents

Without a doubt, one of the most curious genres in the history of manga is that of the delinquent variety. Known as "yankii" in Japan ever since the Post-War Era, delinquent culture has always maintained an allure to Japanese manga readers, which has resulted in icons of the genre, like the Crows x Worst franchise or Rokudenashi Blues, to titles that have utilized the culture to add a unique spin on a subject or simply poke fun at it, like Nyankees (where cats are portrayed as yankii); at the same time, though, this is mainly a manga genre, as yankii anime is extremely rare. This isn't simply a male-oriented culture either, as women are just as known to have their own delinquent culture, with the most well known being "sukeban", the female equivalent to a "bancho", or male delinquent boss. According to the book Beyond Polite Japanese: A Dictionary of Japanese Slang and Colloquialisms, the word sukeban was originally a bit of an insider term until 1972, when it entered the general vernacular, which makes the subject of this volume of Demo Disc all the more interesting, because it may have been one of the very first manga to use the word sukeban in its title. You see, at essentially the same exact time (there were probably only one or two weeks between their debuts), Go Nagai started the manga Oira Sukeban/Delinquent in Drag in Weekly Shonen Sunday, which was about a boy delinquent having to dress as a girl to infiltrate an all-girls school, while over at Weekly Shonen Jump a newbie mangaka made his debut in the industry with his own (sort of) take on sukeban culture.

The works of Masami Kurumada is a subject that is nowhere near foreign to this blog; hell, I've already written four prior articles regarding the man's various works this year alone. Still, for all that he's generally known for being about hot-blooded, passionate boys who grow to become "true men" by way of combat, it is interesting that his debut manga was NOT exactly like his later works. First appearing in Weekly Shonen Jump in mid-1974, though apparently the debut chapter actually got re-run due to the existing oil crisis at the time (a.k.a. the "first oil shock"), Sukeban Arashi/Delinquent Storm originally ran irregularly for six chapters until early 1975. Ten weeks later, the manga returned as a regular part of Jump's weekly schedule, but would end up canceled by the end of the year. It wouldn't be until late 1977, due to Kurumada's success with Ring ni Kakero, that Sukeban Arashi would actually be compiled into a proper tankouban release, but this two-volume edition only covered the later weekly run, plus a 1976 one-shot titled Mikeneko Rock. It wouldn't be until 1983, during the run of Fuma no Kojiro, that the original six chapters would get collected, though instead of being considered a Volume 0 or 3, they were instead treated as a bonus to the main attraction of one-shots Mabudachi Jingi & Shiro-Obi Taisho, with the former story also being the name of the book; I actually reviewed both of those one-shots years ago. Then, in 2013, a scanlation effort started up for Sukeban Arashi, which started with the original irregular run & then moved into the weekly run, but died out shortly into Volume 2; only 19 chapters were fan translated into English. Because of that, I can't properly judge the entire series, nor can I ever cover Mikeneko Rock, but I've always wanted to cover this manga, so let's see what a 20-year-old Masami Kurumada was up to in the mid-70s, before he truly made a name for himself.

Rei Kojinyama is a notorious tomboy who goes to Himejo High School, as she always has a pair of nunchaku on hand & is constantly ready to get into a fight. Unfortunately for her, though, Rei also wants to try to become a kinder, gentler woman to honor the memory of her mother, who passed away recently & always preferred that Rei was more ladylike. Things don't become any easier, however, when a new student named Shizuka Ayakoji transfers over from a prestigious school in Tokyo. Being complete opposites, Rei & Shizuka immediately start to clash, and it all comes to a head when Shizuka tries to replace the Soccer Club with a new "Roller Club", with Rei finding an ally in Morita, the Captain of the Soccer Club.

Allegedly, Sukeban Arashi was inspired by the 1929 hit film Chikemuri Kojinyama/Blood Spray at Mt. Kojin, directed by Kichiro Tsuji, but considering that it's such an old film that has no real information about it to find today, I can't verify if any of that is true, though there are some other historical film references to be found in the manga. Anyway, the original six-chapter run that happened irregularly is more or less episodic fare, dealing with things like bullies, fake love letters, & being embarrassed by your parents in public. This initial run does introduce some of the recurring cast, though, like Rei, her father & little sister Mika, & her friend/rival Tokusaburo "Toku" Okochi (who is apparently named after legendary jidaigeki actor Denjiro Okochi), a giant who has a heart of gold deep down. The comedy is very much the focus here, with Rei generally being the butt of the joke more often than not, & usually because of her own faults. She's generally considered "ugly" by her classmates due to her rough exterior, is heavily prone to emotional outbursts (both violent & compassionate), she's not really all that bright & can be fooled rather easily, & she's shown to be intensely willing to give even her biggest bullies another chance to be friends, no matter what they had tried doing to her last time. Also, while Rei is usually the one to throw fisticuffs, she also takes her share of licks, most often from Toku & even her own father. These moments of violence tend to be more comical than anything, though there is one shocking moment where Rei downright stabs a male delinquent's hand to a table with knife. Still, the general execution in the irregular run is pretty much just silliness, with a touch of roughshod slapstick to help illustrate the life lessons being taught.

When the series moves into the weekly run, we see the introduction of Shizuka, and pretty much immediately the story turns into Shizuka coming up with different plans to mess with Rei, seemingly for other reason other than the fact that she's super rich & Rei is dirt poor; a later chapter indicates jealously over Rei having a loving family, but not much else. These aren't simple "mean girl" tricks, either, but rather can be pretty demonizing. For example, an early one has Shizuka take advantage of Toku's mother being ill, so she bribes every doctor in town to refuse even seeing Toku about how to make her mother better, and then she bribes Toku to beat Rei so that she's "half-dead"; Shizuka literally puts a guy's mother's health at risk just to mess with Rei. In another instance, Rei winds up playing the role of Mercutio in her class' rendition of Romero & Juliet, after Shizuka brings up the idea, but the entire reason for her taking the role is so that she gets stabbed in the gut by an actual sword that she snuck in among the props! While the chapters themselves start off more or less as episodic as before, there's now at least some overarching plot with Shizuka, though oddly enough her servant Osamu Todou is more direct in messing with Rei, even having his own cadre of female delinquents ready to fight at his command. By the end of Volume 1 of the weekly run, though, the plot finally becomes more focused with the Soccer Club vs. Roller Club match, which is effectively soccer mixed with roller derby (which sounds amazing), with Morita being introduced as a new recurring character & a potential love interest (or, at least, he is in Rei's mind). Amusingly enough, Shizuka's Roller Club feels like a prototype of Black Shaft's makeshift Team USA from Ring ni Kakero, as none of them look like high school students, but rather look like young adults who are there to readily injure, if not downright kill, Rei & anyone who helps her.

Still, even with it being primarily a comedy, that's not to say that Kurumada's more dramatic style isn't seen here, because there are moments that can downright shock, compared to the more playful style generally seen. For example, when Rei & Toku have Todou trapped in a car after the previously-mentioned bribing attempt, Toku literally punches so hard that his fist goes through the car door, hits Todou, & sends him out through the door on the other side. Then, in the following chapter, Shizuka has Rei trapped at a party in an attempt to embarrass her when a little puppy that Mika was taking care accidentally trespasses. Shizuka has her dog outright maim the pup, and when Rei fights back the dog is sicced on Rei... Who is left no other choice than to stab a broken leg from a chair she used earlier through the dog's upper jaw, and then launches the dying & bleeding dog back at Shizuka! Without a doubt, Kurumada wanted to make his silly comedy still have moments that lent itself a feeling of sudden, dramatic impact, and moments like these do illustrate that well. At the same time, though, they also come off as too much of a wild shift in tone, which in turn kind of weakens their potential effect on the reader. It works better once the story shifts over to the Club war, but by then the manga's odd mix of slapstick comedy & dramatic violence has kind of ingrained itself into your mind as being awkward. Likewise, the manga does improve because it starts to have a more focused plot & characterization, but by then it's a bit too late; it's very easy to see why this got canceled.

In terms of Masami Kurumada's artwork in this series, it has some elements of what he'd be known as, and you can still tell that it was him that drew it, but it definitely is him in his early days. His Hiroshi Motomiya influence is very much felt, though in some of the more dramatic panels you can see elements of what would become his own trademark style. For example, when characters open their mouths wide in a scream, they have the same vertical speed lines that Motomiya would utilize, rather than the gradient style that Kurumada would eventually switch over to. In regards to his characters, they definitely have the elements of Kurumada's character designs, but only in their most simplistic forms; Morita, in particular, looks familiar, but much less pronounced. That being said, Rei has an excellent range of faces to carry her emotions with, and Kurumada definitely designed her in a way so that the insults about her looks aren't unfounded, but not in a way that denigrates any potential readers, especially since Rei is almost always proud of the way she looks. For example, there are shots where she does look to be ever-so-slightly pudgy, or at least not slender, but not in a way that makes her look any less of a person; it could also just be a side-effect of Kurumada's early drawing style, though, i.e. more rounded character designs. I'd be very curious to see how Kurumada would draw Rei nowadays, honestly, because that would be the prefect way to showcase how his style has evolved & been refined over the past 44 years. There's no doubt that Kurumada had talent as an artist back when he debuted, but he was still sticking to imitating his icons at this point, instead of developing his own unique style, which he wouldn't really create until the original run for Ring ni Kakero.

However, one of Kurumada's most notable artistic aspects is his use of the Osamu Tezuka Star System, where characters get reused & re-imagined as if they were actors taking on new roles, and obviously some of Kurumada's "stars" got their debuts here. Rei would return in Ring ni Kakero as Kiku Takane (older sister to main character Ryuji Takane), Morita would become Ryuji's rival Jun Kenzaki in RnK, Shizuka would get "recast" as Himeko Hojo in Fuma no Kojiro, Toku has a similar look to that of Bear Geki from Saint Seiya, & even Todou would be slimmed down & remade into Tatsumi (Saori Kido's butler) in the same series. Obviously, not all of his most recognized "actors" debuted here, as there is no prototype Ryuji (who would become Kurumada's standard for lead characters), nor is there any sign of FnK's Kirikaze (who would gain more popularity when reformed into Andromeda Shun in Seiya), but it is neat to see where some got their original appearances from.

Some creators make their debut knowing exactly what they want to do, and in turn start off strong with a truly memorable title, if not a downright classic. Others, though, start off rough & require them to get their feet wet first & experience some sort of failure, & Masami Kurumada is definitely a man who fits into the latter category. It's not that Sukeban Arashi is necessarily bad, per se, but it's very much a manga that suffers most from a concept that doesn't feel fully realized, and only starts to get better right before it got canceled. The original irregular run really feels oddly disjointed, even though it has a recurring cast, while the weekly run still has an awkward feeling of hitting the "soft reset" button too many times. For example, Rei is shown often to go from hating Shizuka to wanting to be her friend on the drop of a dime way too often, which I guess matches Rei's simple-minded nature but is repeated often enough to feel more like a crutch to tell the story of the chapter than anything substantial. Kurumada himself does acknowledge that he probably didn't really deliver on what he had wanted to, though, so I feel like I can't be too harsh on this manga, & I doubt the remaining chapters would really change much of anything.

Is Sukeban Arashi really worth reading, even for a hardcore Masami Kurumada fine like myself? Not really, though it certainly has its moments, but it was interesting to finally take an incomplete look at the man's earliest days; sadly, I may never know how the Roller Soccer game actually plays out. He mentions in the afterword for the Mabudachi Jingi book that he felt that mangaka had a bad habit of not dreaming big enough & not maintaining the boundless hope that they had in their youth, and that he'd never do the same. In that regard, I can see what he was trying to do with a title like Sukeban Arashi, and it's cool that he tried making his start with a female lead, but I can also see that Kurumada just didn't quite know how to properly execute it, and as a result failed in his own dreams.

At the very least, Masami Kurumada rebounded extremely well.

Manga © Masami Kurumada 1974-1975