Otoko Zaka (The Shonen Jump+ Run): 未完 No More

Previously on the Otoko Zaka Review:

"Masami Kurumada has so far taken his second chance at making Otoko Zaka, and given it the love & care he always planned for...After roughly 24 years, Masami Kurumada has finally returned home..."

'He's coming home, he's coming home; tell the world he's coming home.

Let the rain wash away all the pain of cancelling.

He knows Shonen Jump awaits, & he's forgiven their mistakes.

He's coming home, he's coming home; tell the world he's coming...home.'

On "November 16, 1992" (or thereabouts) the final weekly chapter of Silent Knight Sho was serialized in the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump, & with it marked the end of Masami Kurumada's 18-year run with the magazine. Aside from an irregular run in Super Jump for Akane-Iro no Kaze through 1993 & 1994, Kurumada wouldn't publish another new manga with Shueisha until 2000 with Ring ni Kakero 2, also through Super Jump. While he still allowed Shueisha to re-publish his old works throughout all this it seemed as though Kurumada was done with Shonen Jump & its "Jump Comics" label... until 2014. As part of his 40th Anniversary celebration Masami Kurumada decide to revive Otoko Zaka, the 1984 manga he intended to be his magnum opus but wound up seeing cancellation in 1985 after 30 weekly chapters, infamously using the kanji "未完/mikan", or "Incomplete", on the final page to emphasize his dissatisfaction at the time. While this revival would be serialized in the digital pages of Weekly PlayNews, the new physical tankouban for Otoko Zaka would still be published under the "Jump Comics" label, to maintain continuity with the initial three volumes that collected the original Shonen Jump run; similar treatment had previously been given to Bastard!!, Ninku, & JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.

However, the revival of Otoko Zaka would only be serialized through Weekly PlayNews from 2014 to 2016 across three chunks, which made up Volumes 4 to 6. That's because shortly after Otoko Zaka's return Shueisha debuted a new digital manga platform, and eventually it was seemingly decided that since Otoko Zaka debuted in "Shonen Jump" then it should end in "Shonen Jump".

Yeah, it's weird to make the literal final page the opening image...
But for a manga with history like this, it's only fitting.

Launched on September 22, 2014, Shonen Jump+ was created to replace Jump LIVE, a short-lived digital manga platform from Shueisha, and not only offered a digital version of each new issue of Weekly Shonen Jump for a fee but would also be the home of various manga serializations that were exclusive to Jump+, ones that would be allowed more relaxed restrictions than over at the magazine itself, similar to titles that run in Jump's monthly magazine counterpart, Jump Square. This is where titles like Spy x Family, Astra Lost in Space, Summer Time Rendering, Kaiju No. 8, Kindergarten Wars, Fire Punch, & the current run of Chainsaw Man all come from, and in 2023 Shueisha promised to simulpublish almost every new manga that debuts in Shonen Jump+ in English via its Manga Plus app; the only exceptions are manga based on licensed IP & ones labeled "Indies". Eventually it was decided that the revival of Otoko Zaka would get moved over to Shonen Jump+, and on July 14, 2017 the first chapter of what would later become Volume 7 of Otoko Zaka was published digitally on Jump+, marking the first time in roughly 25 years that a "new" Masami Kurumada manga was being serialized in "Shonen Jump"; however, all future volumes would continue to use the "Jump Comics" brand, instead of the "Jump Comics+" brand Jump+-exclusives use. After all this time, it felt as though Masami Kurumada had truly returned "home".

Masami Kurumada would publish Otoko Zaka via Shonen Jump+ across six chunks (in 2017, 2018, twice in 2020, & twice in 2023), and on November 11, 2023 the true final chapter of Otoko Zaka, fittingly titled Farewell, Jingi, was published on Jump+, bringing a definitive end to a manga Kurumada had first started back in July of 1984. It took Kurumada nearly 40 years, but the story of Jingi Kikukawa had finally come to an end, totaling 72 chapters (90, if you go off the original run's weekly chapter count) across 11 volumes, 60 of which came from the revival's eight new volumes of content between 2014 & 2023. I first reviewed Otoko Zaka back in 2015, where I covered "The Original Run", & then returned to it in 2018, where I covered "The Weekly PlayNews Run", so now it's finally time that I do like Kurumada & finish what I started. As part of this blog's year-long celebration of Masami Kurumada's 50th Anniversary in manga, let's go over Volumes 7 to 11 of Otoko Zaka, i.e. "The Shonen Jump+ Run".

It took nearly 40 years, but Jingi & Sho finally got to see each other again!

Jingi Kikukawa & his Jingi Corps continue their mission to unite the remaining youth gangs throughout Japan, in preparation for the Junior World Connection's plan to claim Japan as JWC territory. All that remains are the last two "Heroes of the West", Ryoko Domoto of Shikoku & Daisaku Nangou of Kyushu, but even if Jingi can manage to recruit those two & their forces to his side there's still one major hurdle remaining: The stronghold of Western Japan's Don, & Jingi's ultimate rival, Sho Takeshima. With Sho still in New York City under the watch of the JWC's Dons, Jingi has to somehow convince the Takeshima Corps to side with their boss' rival (especially after they've tried to stop Jingi a couple of times previously), and if Jingi can't do that then it will certainly be "The Sekigahara of the Showa Era" between the West & the East, the results of which would leave Japan open & ready for the JWC to take claim of in no time. If only we could imagine all the people livin' life in peace for today, and sharing all the world...

Just like as with the Weekly PlayNews Run, the chunks of Otoko Zaka that were serialized in Shonen Jump+ were essentially made to act as (mostly) self-contained story arcs that take up an entire volume, and each one has its own chapter/arc name. Volume 7, the Maidens of the Whale Sea Chapter, sees Toukichi Kuroda, Wolf of Akagi, new ally Julie of Hama (see: Volume 5), & finally Jingi himself enter Tosa to locate the legendary "O-Ryo" herself & her "Geikai Otome Juku/School for Maidens of the Whale Sea" (think Sakigake!! Otoko Juku, but with women who are all tough)... only for each of them to wind up being defeated by Ryoko (or her giant dog, Izo), trapped in a Otome Juku jail, & told that they will all be fed to the sharks. Things then get more complicated when a young whale washes ashore, and it's the child of the giant whale that killed Ryoko's father. Volume 8, the Tenka Taihei Chapter, has our four then go to Kagoshima to meet with Daisaku Nangou, a literal giant of a sumotori who's actually immensely polite & peaceful, but is also so overwhelmingly powerful that Jingi's only option to convince Daisaku to join him is to best him in a sumo match; even then, the end result isn't quite as straightforward as you'd think. Also, the volume's title has a double meaning, as "Tenka Taihei" can both mean "World Peace", which winds up being an overall theme of the manga during this revival, as well as describe someone who's carefree, relaxed, or peaceful, like Daisaku tends to be; "World Peace" vs. "At Peace with the World", essentially.

Volumes 9 & 10 are the only ones that actually connect together to form one giant story arc. The Takeshima Stronghold Chapter sees Jingi get airlifted straight to the Takeshima home base in Kyoto by order of Sho's sister Miyabi (first seen in Volume 1), while Wolf & Julie need to deal with two of Sho's "Three Commanders": Sei Minazuki & Naoto Shindai, both of which were first seen back in the original Jump run. Meanwhile, the Stronghold Deathmatch Chapter sees Toukichi taking on Onimaru Ayakouji, the third & final Commander, while trying to whisk Jingi to a doctor, as he's become ill due to the nonstop journey he's been on since heading over to Hagi in Volume 6. Meanwhile, Ranmaru makes his move to the Takeshima Stronghold to converse with the Takeshima Corps' strategist, Suuden Daitokuin, while Kibou slowly makes the final stops in his catch-up journey to meet Jingi, plus Sho and the JWC are seen again for the first time since way back in Volume 3. Finally, Volume 11, which was comprised of two five-chapter runs instead of the usual single, six-to-eight chapter run, contains the Showa Sekigahara, Jingi's Nine Brothers Chapter, detailing the long-awaited "Sekigahara of the Showa Era" at the base of Mt. Fuji, the JWC finally making their move, as well as the climactic final battle between Jingi & Sho to determine who truly is the "General" of Japan's youth gangs &, in turn, can one day lead Japan itself into a new age of peace & prosperity.

There's just a fun joy in seeing Julie get all giddy in
captaining his personal boat, the Casablanca.

In terms of the content seen in this run, there's actually a stronger focus by Kurumada on having Otoko Zaka become a more lighthearted & sometimes comedic series, at least in Volumes 7 & 8. Toukichi & Wolf both go to Tosa on their own accord, and when they come across each other at the port they call each other out for their respective unabashed urge to simply see for themselves what Ryoko looks like, as aside from being a legit badass she's also nicknamed "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World". After they get captured Julie makes his appearance, convinced that the only person who can deal with someone like her is "The Most Beautiful Man in the World"; you can guess how that works out for Julie. While all of this is going on, Jingi finds himself lost trying to go from Hagi to Tosa, only to save a giant turtle from some ruffians... followed by said turtle offering to carry Jingi across the water to lead him to Tosa, coincidentally arriving right in front of Ryoko herself on the beach. It's been shown in the previous runs that Jingi has an instant connection to animals & can befriend them upon first meetings, seen especially in Volume 4, and this scene continues to showcase that aspect of Jingi. It also shows, once again, how much Kurumada has changed over the decades, as while there were comedic moments in the first three volumes back in the 80s (like Jingi wanting to each his lunch before fighting Toukichi on the small boat they're on), he was very much focused more on the "manly" aspect of the story at that point, while now he's willing to just let his characters be more loose & comical, if possible, and this especially is true for the supporting cast, as they only got to do so much back in the 80s.

This was also seen in the second trio of volumes that ran in Weekly PlayNews, but it's in this Otoko Zaka revival that we get to see Toukichi be portrayed more as the well-intentioned but sometimes easily fooled compatriot, though when it comes to fighting he can more than stand tall against entire squads of foes. Meanwhile, Wolf is very jovial & jokey, especially when it comes to Toukichi, but at the same time can use this as a way to fool foes into lowering their guard because he's still a deadeye, even if it's just with a slingshot. While Ranmaru Azusa tends to stay at the Jingi Corps' Orin Temple home base over in Kujukuri (which looks to be based on Moryaku-ji Temple in nearby Mutsuzawa, Chiba), he's also shown hosting little children there when not strategizing everyone's next move, teaching the kids lessons & holding arts & crafts seminars. It's also cool to see Julie become more directly involved after Volume 5, as he gets to showcase both his earnest dedication to helping Jingi out, but also flaws of his own, like his self-assured cool factor, though it does comes in handy at points, too. There's also Kibou, the genius first seen late in the original run in the 80s who's since been following in Jingi's footsteps & meeting up with the regional Dons he's been recruiting, slowly realizing how perfect a person Jingi is when it comes to achieving his goal of seeing Japan becoming more capable of standing up for itself. Kibou isn't a fighter by any means, but he showcases his friendly demeanor & smarts in cool ways, like explaining to Kyosuke Takasugi that the wild & enormous Hagi ware Jingi made & left behind for him (see: Volume 6) actually acts as the "Universe" that Kyosuke's "Cosmo" Hagi ware can fit neatly within, emphasizing the unity that Jingi wishes to have between all of Japan's gangs.

In "The Original Run's" review I showed the image of the JWC Dons,
so it's only fair that for the final review I show an image of Jingi's crew.

This also extends to the rest of "Jingi's Nine Brothers" (Toukichi, Wolf, Ranmaru, Ken Kamui, Julie, Kyosuke, Ryoko, Daisaku, & finally Kibou), named as such by Ranmaru due to him seeing Jingi as "The Man Who's Like the Sun", with his allies being representative of the (then at the time) nine planets that orbit our Sun; sorry about getting kicked out of the club in 2006, Pluto. For this final run we see Ryoko being caught off her guard when properly meeting Jingi, as his resistance to fighting when not necessary, followed by his urging to keep her from finally getting vengeance on the whale that killer her father (after all, would she want the child whale they saved to wind up just like her & without its parents?), causes her to mellow out somewhat. Daisaku is an especially interesting character as he's seemingly an indestructible force of a giant, but rather than claim the spot of Don of Kyushu through force has more or less done so through benevolence because of his kind & polite nature, even apologizing to Toukichi when he hurts his own hand striking Daisaku's tough skin. His backstory also showcases that Daisaku's non-violent demeanor is actually the result of him learning to be responsible with the sheer power he does have on hand; if he really wanted to, he could easily decimate anyone in his path, but chooses not to. Just as with Volumes 4 to 6, Volumes 7 & 8 tell very good stories in & of themselves, though you still have to wonder if this format was exactly what Masami Kurumada had originally planned back in the 80s, or if he had to make adjustments for this revival, since he knew he'd be serializing it in chunks; Volume 8 is even a little bit longer than a standard volume (~220 pages vs. ~200 pages), to accommodate this.

However, the tone of the manga notably (& understandably) changes with Volumes 9 & 10. While there is still some comedy be found, like Jingi casually falling asleep while in literal enemy territory (& Minazuki is all too eager to shoot an arrow through his skull), there is definitely a stronger emphasis on the severity of the situation at hand. When Miyabi & Jingi first start talking Jingi gladly drinks three cups of her tea, in admitted homage to how Mitsunari Ishida once welcomed Hideyoshi Toyotomi back during the Sengoku Era; Toyotomi, in turn, would eventually be the man who unified Japan, same as what Jingi is trying to do. We also finally get some backstory for Wolf, namely in how Minazuki was the man who took out Wolf's left eye a year prior when the Takeshima Corps tried to recruit Wolf & his forces to their side; honestly, Wolf really gets to shine in Volume 9. Naturally, the Wolf vs. Minazuki, Julie vs. Shindai, & Toukichi vs. Ayakouji fights are all rather serious in tone & do return to more of the style seen back in Otoko Zaka's early run, though with stronger elements of mind games (for Wolf), matching a foe in pure skill (for Julie), & showing steadfast dedication in protecting Jingi (for Toukichi), while Ranmaru vs. Suuden is a psychological battle of conflicting ideologies & philosophy... all while spears are raining down around them in the room they're in; I mean, this IS a Kurumada manga, after all. I will fully admit that most of the philosophical questions between Ranmaru & Suuden sadly flew past me & my limited knowledge of written Japanese (especially since this is still printed as a seinen manga now, so furigana is limited in its usage), but I was able to get the basic gist of the kind of things they were asking each other. They ask each other about teachings like the Four Noble Truths & Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism, the idea of war, why Jingi or Sho are right for Japan's future, & the highlight is a two-page spread where the two ask a ton of rapid-fire questions like "What is a human?", "What is humanity?", "What is a single person's life?", "What is Heaven?", "What is Earth?", etc. These are obviously not meant to be literally-thought questions, but rather what each thinks about these concepts from a philosophical perspective, though I do enjoy the last question & answer pair from this two-page spread: "What is a woman?" "A mystery!".

As for the final volume, I'll refrain from going into detail for that. However, despite a couple of moments feeling maybe just a little too convenient, like Kibou's moment of greatness & how he achieves it, it's still a very good final volume, emphasizing the kind of story it had turned into after all this time and implementing some clever & even funny means of doing so. Simply put, you can't go into Volume 11 of Otoko Zaka expecting what you'd normally expect from a Masami Kurumada manga, at least not fully; there's fighting to be seen, sure, but not 100% like you'd think. The ending is also a bit of a sudden one, but it fits the general style Kurumada has when it comes to his finales, as the man has never really been one to deliver traditional epilogues; even Fuma no Kojirou's epilogue didn't actually happen until 37 years after the manga originally ended. All I'm saying is don't expect some multi-chapter epilogue after the battles are all over with, like what My Hero Academia received for its finale recently.

In the end, & especially seen through these final five volumes of the manga, Masami Kurumada shows what Otoko Zaka truly is about, thematically. Despite starting off as a strong homage to Hiroshi Motomiya's breakout work Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho, the manga that literally made Kurumada want to become a mangaka, Otoko Zaka winds up becoming a staunchly anti-war manga, with Jingi fighting less & less as the series goes on. To illustrate this, Jingi was always ready for a fight in the Original Run back in the 80s, even willingly throwing himself off a cliff just to prove how serious he was to train under Kenka Oni, who finally gets his backstory revealed at the end of the series. The last remnant of that version of Jingi was in the start of the Weekly PlayNews Run, when he fought Kamui in Volume 4 because that's really all he knew; he felt that only fighting could prove his point. However, after seeing a powerful giant like Kamui prefer to deal with "small fights" peacefully Jingi takes that lesson to heart, with the only real fights he engages in before Volume 11 being the one he has with Kyosuke in Volume 6 & the sumo challenge with Daisaku in Volume 8. Even then, the sumo challenge was simply to see if Jingi could force the "immovable mountain" over the edge of the dohyo at his own game, while Kyosuke is simply a hard-headed guy who just prefers to fight, but almost never in malice; his fight with Jingi was purely mutual. In fact, when Jingi sees Miyabi a second time in Volume 10 while recovering he even admits that he has no real intention of leading Japan's gangs anymore, because he's now seen that Japan truly does have "kouha/tough guys" who can do that job just fine, if not even better than him; by that point he simply wants to protect Japan from the JWC. Jingi has grown from a guy who originally prided himself on having never lost a fight in his entire life in Chapter 1 to becoming a guy who's learned that fighting should only be something that's done when you're truly left with no other choice, and that true strength comes from being able to resolve things peacefully, because then everyone can benefit.

Even when Kurumada inserts his own feelings about how subservient he thinks Japan has become since World War II, I can still tell that it's meant in the sense that he feels that the country he lives in & loves should be able to stand up for itself more. Not in a militaristic way, of course, but simply in a way that says "I feel my country is taken advantage of by the rest of the world, & we citizens have become so used to it over the decades, but deep down we're actually quite strong & it's up to the younger generation to finally break the pattern". Sure, the manga still ends with Jingi & Sho having one last fight on the Kujukuri shoreline on New Year's Eve, but by that point it's really no longer to determine who should be the "Don" of all of Japan, but rather it's simply the only way those two feel like they can argue their ideological differences; they even chuckle a couple of times early on, because there's no real malice. Much like with B't X & Ring ni Kakero 2, Kurumada also wanted to quote a piece of work in the final volume of Otoko Zaka to help emphasize the overall theme of the manga, and in this case he originally went with the 1971 song "Imagine" by John Lennon & Yoko Ono, having the Chicago Corps' La Toya (last seen early in Volume 3) play it in America as Jingi & Sho have their final fight in Japan; Kurumada even named the penultimate chapter of the manga after the song. Sure, it's a little cheesy in that regard (but, admittedly, so was seeing "Amazing Grace" in RnK2), but it matches the overall tone & theme of the manga by that point because in the end humans do share the same home/country/planet/etc., and the things that separate us do tend to be ones of our own creation, whether that be borders, religion, or (like the JWC) egotistical pride & arrogance over others.

Unfortunately, unlike the Bible or "Amazing Grace", "Imagine" isn't in the public domain in any way, the song's only 53 years old after all, so Kurumada actually wound up needing to remove the quoting of the lyrics & change the chapter's title, so the original version of that chapter was only available on Jump+ for around a week or two. He wound up replacing it with "Because", which talks about how it's up to "youngsters" to change the world for the better & looks to be a Kurumada original. This even resulted in Volume 11's tankouban release getting delayed from January to April of 2024; whoops! Luckily, the original "Imagine"-quoting pages still exist online for all to see... and, of course, I had to include them for this review.

Earlier this year I did an entire deep dive into B't X's narrative & structure, going so far as to say that it "might be Masami Kurumada's strongest overall narrative", but I've mentioned in the prior Otoko Zaka reviews that it's easy to see that this series was truly something that Kurumada had planned out in advance from the very beginning... so does it beat out B't X, in that regard? To be honest, that's a tricky thing to answer, because both are excellent examples of Kurumada truly planning things out & executing on them without much divergence, at least in terms of the general story being told. Without a doubt, Otoko Zaka is up there with B't X in being one of Kurumada's strongest overall narratives, and I can absolutely see if someone would put this one over B't X's. However, for me personally, I think I'll still put B't X's overall narrative over Otoko Zaka's, even if only slightly, and that really comes down to two things: The initial cancellation in 1985 & the 29 years that happened before its revival in 2014. As I've illustrated numerous times before, Otoko Zaka's modern-day revival very much feels like a different type of story than what Kurumada was making back in the 80s. While I'm sure the overall structure of the revival has remained the same from what Kurumada originally planned decades ago, i.e. Jingi making his way across Japan to recruit the remaining gang leaders to his side to take on the incoming JWC invasion, there's always that feeling in the back of my mind of "Is this the direction Kurumada was always going to go in?", namely when it comes to the anti-war theme & especially the idea of Jingi becoming less & less focused on actually fighting. After all, when I reviewed the Original Run back in 2015 I called Jingi "possibly the most steadfast follower of Kurumada's usual style of 'fight until you can fight no more', almost to the point of absurdity", and there was no real indication that there was anything wrong with that mentality in Kurumada's manga, especially since Saint Seiya afterwards would only continue with that same mentality, in most ways. In the time between Otoko Zaka's infamous "未完" in early 1985 & the start of the revival in mid-2014, though, Kurumada had notably changed in the themes of his manga, at least with the long-running manga he was able to tell in full before reviving Otoko Zaka.

While Saint Seiya mainly reinforced a lot of his style at that time, even the start of the Hades Chapter saw the Bronze Saints' stubborn & reckless dedication to fighting for Athena, at the constant risk of their own lives, get questioned & reprimanded. B't X then saw Kurumada play with readers' expectations, initially telling a similar kind of story before turning things around by emphasizing the tragedy & selfishness of self-sacrificial behavior through fighting, with fights in the second half generally being handled in more "non-traditional" ways; there was also an anti-war theme in B't X, but executed differently. Then there was Ring ni Kakero 2, which outright had Kurumada destroy the rose-tinted nostalgic veneer of the cast of the original RnK, showing them all as physically and/or psychologically broken from their fights, if not simply outright dead, and that the next generation should forgive & learn from the mistakes of the past, i.e. "Don't fight on to the point where you destroy yourself in the process". I have to imagine that when Kurumada finally decided to return to Otoko Zaka he felt that, while he'd still stay true to the overall outline of the plot he had planned out decades before, he would change the overall message & execution of the manga itself, because he himself had changed. If that's truly what happened then I commend Kurumada for doing so, but it also will forever leave in my mind the thought of "But how would have the rest of Otoko Zaka been like, had it been able to continue on in the 80s?". In comparison, B't X looks to be the story Kurumada always had in mind for it, and he never missed a single issue of Monthly Shonen Ace while serializing it (63 chapters=5.25 years, which would match the October 1994 to December 1999 span it ran), so it was able to remain "consistent" all throughout.

As for the artwork, it's obviously done in Kurumada's modern style but that's kind of a moot point to bring up, because I've always felt that Kurumada has brought his absolute best A-game whenever it comes to Otoko Zaka. His art for the series back in the 80s was some of his strongest & most consistent back then, it remained good during the initial part of the revival in Weekly PlayNews, and it's remained great for this final run in Shonen Jump+. This has always been the manga that Kurumada wanted to make more than anything in the world, so it's only natural that he'd continually give his all, and the end result is an excellently drawn manga, with very few caveats or "easy way outs", if you will. Kurumada's usage of the Tezuka Star System is also interesting in that most new characters introduced during this final run don't have exact matches to prior characters he's drawn in other manga, or at least they've been modified just enough so that they're unique in some way. When I see a character like Ryoko, Daisaku, or Suuden here I don't instantly think of a prior character, but rather I see them as their own unique takes, which is great to see. Also, even without there being any sort of wild superblow or outrageous special move (truly, Frazier's Midnight Special in the 80s remains a bizarre outlier) Kurumada still utilizes his panache for full-page visual accentuation to great effect, whether it's Daisaku being compared to a mountain or even the page above, showing all of Jingi's allies figuratively making their run up the legendary "Man's Hill" that Jingi did in the original "未完" non-ending in Volume 3.

Simply put, Otoko Zaka has always been one of Masami Kurumada's best-drawn manga, and that fact has remained true to the very end.

Quickly cancelled manga so rarely are given a second chance, and that's especially true for one where the revival results in the manga now being nearly four times the length it originally was. However, as Masami Kurumada himself stated in the afterword of the bunkoban edition released in 2000 (which is included at the end of Volume 11, alongside a brand new afterword), Otoko Zaka was always a special exception. Despite being cancelled so early into its original serialization back in the mid-80s it would continually get tankouban reprints by Shueisha, with my copies of Volumes 1 to 3 (bought alongside Volume 4 a decade ago) being from the 18th, 14th, & 12th print runs respectively; short-lived manga don't tend to get anywhere near that much time in the presses. There was definitely something about Otoko Zaka that kept people buying it & wanting to read it, which made Kurumada's decision to revive it in 2014 one that made sense beyond the basic "He's at the point in his career where he can make whatever manga he wants". Even when I covered the Original Run back in 2015 I praised it for being "one of Kurumada's strongest works when it comes to story", and for being "absolutely positive of what it wants to be from the very first page". Re-reading everything that came before this final run has shown me that, truly, Masami Kurumada had planned out what Otoko Zaka was meant to be from the beginning, even if some of the tone & execution may have changed over the decades to match how Kurumada himself has changed with the times.

Otoko Zaka is easily the most unique of Masami Kurumada's long-running manga, as there's truly nothing else quite like it in his catalog; even B't X & Ring ni Kakero 2 still made sure that "fights" were a front & center aspect of their storytelling. It starts off as the purest distillation of his iconic style from the 70s & 80s, before changing completely into a story that asks for peace & unity, with Jingi Kikukawa's journey of maturity coming off a bit like Masami Kurumada's own journey, in retrospect. Both started off as pure delinquents who seemingly only knew how to fight to resolve their issues, but as time went on & they encountered other people, & the codes they each live their lives from, they both realized that, while fighting is sometimes still necessary at points, it's not the only or ideal way of resolving conflict. Near the end of the final fight Sho remarks at some of the stuff Jingi is saying, befuddled at how the guy that hated the mere idea of losing more than anything else in the world was now seemingly accepting the idea that he may actually lose out to Sho in this fight. However, by this point the reader has fully seen Jingi's evolution, seen how he learned from his "Nine Brothers", and that while Jingi doesn't fully agree with all of Sho's ideals about how Japan should be able to act on its own & not simply come off like a pawn to other nations (like the US), he knows that Sho is someone who can also learn those same lessons he did & find a way to do so without resorting to what the JWC wanted: Imposing their will over those it deemed "weak" through force.

When it comes to where I'd place Otoko Zaka in my personal ranking of Masami Kurumada's works, I still put the original Ring ni Kakero at the top, as there's just too much personal emotion I have for that manga, but right now I guess I'll have to add Otoko Zaka to that eternal & revolving struggle that Saint Seiya & B't X are constantly in for second place. Yeah, that admittedly sounds like a bit of a cop out, but it truly comes down to each one having a special place, in my mind. For Saint Seiya it's the sheer bombast & pure dedication to always being taken "up to eleven"; the storytelling itself can be weak, but it's made up for with its earnestness. For B't X it's the clever deconstruction & up-ending of what you'd normally expect, combined with the excellent overall narrative; also, there is the nostalgia of it being my first Kurumada series. Finally, for Otoko Zaka it's for showcasing the overall evolution & maturity of Kurumada himself, while also being one of Kurumada's strongest overall plots; eventually I'll have to organize them into proper second, third, & fourth place spots, though. I absolutely wish that an English manga publisher would be willing to give Otoko Zaka a chance (even if only digitally), despite all of the poorly-selling history that Masami Kurumada's (mostly Seiya-related) works have had over here, because it really is just that damn good & I think could even help change the way people tend to think of Kurumada, overall. Is it truly nothing more than a pipe dream? Sure, but...

"You may say I'm a dreamer,

But I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us,

And the world will live as one"

Manga © Masami Kurumada 2017-2023