On June 5, 2001 director & general manager of Enix's publishing division Yoshihiro Hosaka, namely that of its various manga magazines (Shonen Gangan, G Fantasy, Monthly Stencil, etc.) left Enix & founded publisher Mag Garden. Hosaka, alongside Gangan's second editor-in-chief Yoshihiro Iida, felt that Enix had been changing the focus of its manga magazines for the past few years in ways that were not beneficial to their business, & that the company didn't pay any mind to their feelings on the matter. Therefore, Hosaka decided to found his own manga publisher & Iida joined him to act as editor-in-chief... and in turn a bunch of loyal mangaka decided to also ditch Enix & join up with Mag Garden, while a similar scenario happened around the same time which resulted in the founding of Ichijinsha; this has since been colloquially referred to as the "Enix O-Ie Soudou/Enix Family Dispute" in Japan. Understandably, Enix saw this as Mag Garden poaching talent from them, as the departures (to both Mag Garden & Ichijinsha) saw ~80% of Gangan Wing's current roster of mangaka leave at once, while it hurt Monthly Stencil so badly that Enix had to cancel the magazine entirely. In the end, Mag Garden & Enix came to an agreement in March of 2002 that saw Enix promise to not interfere with Mag Garden's business in return for Enix owning 50% of Mag Garden's shares, the ability to appoint two non-executive directors to Mag Garden, receive original planning & production credits on the manga that did initially come from Enix, & receive 10% of the retail price of said manga until Mag Garden got listed on the Japanese stock exchange; the later Square-Enix would eventually sell all of its shares in Mag Garden in 2005.
 |
| Obviously this was color in the tankouban, but ADV Manga greyscaled it. |
While talks regarding the terms of the agreement were happening Mag Garden launched its first manga magazine, Monthly Comic Blade, in February of 2002 & of the 21 manga that appeared in Comic Blade during that year 10 of them were transfers/sequels from Enix's magazines. Of the remaining 11 original serializations from 2002 only two of them would end within just a year or so of serialization. The first, van-ditz by Kazusa Saitou (one of the mangaka who jumped ship from Enix), was in Comic Blade's debut issue but would stop after only four chapters in mid-2002, though technically it was considered put on "hiatus", rather than be an actual cancellation; that being said, van-ditz has never returned from hiatus. Meanwhile, debuting in the December 2002 issue of Comic Blade, Gohou Kensei/Sacred Treasure Guardian Vaizard was the 21st manga to debut in the magazine, the last one in 2002, & was the serialized debut for Michihiro Yoshida, only the second mangaka in Comic Blade's history to have absolutely no prior relationship with Enix, following Wataru Maruyama with Desert Coral in Blade's very first issue; Yoshida had previously won the Comic Blade Manga Award Grand Prize for his one-shot Saila ~Ano Hoshi no Umi ni~. However, just barely over a year later, in the January 2004 issue, Vaizard came to an end after only 14 chapters (across three volumes), becoming the first of Comic Blade's initial year of titles to come to an actual end; in fact, Vaizard never got the cover of Comic Blade to itself, not even for its own debut! Coincidentally, Vaizard ended the same exact issue as Ritz Kobayashi's own debut serialization, Fatalizer (which only lasted five chapters), but where Kobayashi would eventually find success with the mahjong manga Saki in 2006... Yoshida was never heard from or seen again.
Yeah, Vaizard is the one & only (serialized) manga ever made by Michihiro Yoshida, and it's essentially impossible to find any additional info about Yoshida, beyond this one manga & their initial one-shot, as there's a Nihon University professor/researcher whose name uses the same exact kanji, but is pronounced Norihiro Yoshida; hell, even Mag Garden's own online listing for Vaizard misspells Yoshida's name as "Norihiro" in katakana! However, just months after its seeming cancellation in Japan ADV Manga included Vaizard in its absurd March 2004 press release where it announced 37 different manga & manhwa that it planned to release in English, and on November 23, 2004 the first volume of Vaizard would see release in English; obviously, Vaizard was part of a larger package deal that included various Comic Blade manga. Unfortunately, despite its short length, ADV Manga would never release another volume of Vaizard, leaving it to the absolute dredges of obscurity... except for the fact that Volume 1 of Vaizard wound up coming out right as I was starting to buy & read manga in late 2004. As a relative newbie to the medium I came across Vaizard, bought that first volume, found it fun & enjoyable, though bummed when no more of it ever saw release in English, and it's always remained in the back of my mind for the past 20+ years. So, after seeing that first volume at an anime con dealer's room a couple of years ago (alongside a bunch of other "one-&-cancelled" ADV Manga releases), I decided to rebuy it... and then I later managed to buy Volumes 2 & 3 from Japan via Suruga-ya & its constant free shipping campaigns.
Now I own all of Vaizard, allowing me to finally read the entirety of one of my earliest manga ever, so let's see how Michihiro Yoshida's one & only (serialized) manga fares over 20 years after it ended. As Eminem once said, "If you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment; would you capture it or just let it slip?" In this case Michihiro Yoshida played the role of B-Rabbit, and while they seemingly wound up blowing it they at least took grasp of the moment... but does that mean that there's absolutely no merit at all to their one & only manga?
 |
| Everyone is here!!! I mean, it's not a large cast, so that's not tough. |
It's been 200 years since the "Dark Era", when people ransacked & destroyed whatever ancient ruins they came across in the world of Varklide, all in search of the magical weapons & treasures found within them, leaving the world itself in ruin after their wars finally came to an end. Today, Soma Raitest works for the West Sir-Radin Alliance as a Vaizard, someone who's entire job is the protect ancient tombs & the valuable treasures held within them, whether that's strengthening seals that have weakened, recovering treasure that's been stolen by treasure hunters, or accompanying researchers who simply wish to respectfully learn more about the past. Soma's newest job is to protect Asuka, a young woman who's only starting her career as an archaeologist & researcher... though, to be fair, Soma's not exactly the safest Vaizard around, as while he has the Battlize Fist on his right arm to help him out in a pinch, he's also just as likely to cause more destruction to the ruins with it than anyone else. So, after finishing their job, Asuka decides to accompany Soma for the time being. That way, Asuka can continue her research around the world, while also hopefully keeping Soma from destroying more ruins in the process. However, both of them are withholding the full truth from each other, namely that Asuka is actually Asuka L. Coldaire, the daughter of the Alliance's sole private sponsor who's more important than even she knows, while Soma is actually on the hunt for Valfase, leader of the group Armagain that wishes to fully revive their "Original Demon King" Goldigalan... and the man who led the destruction of Soma's hometown & everyone he knew there.
When I first gave Vaizard a go way back when, 20+ years ago, it was mainly because the concept behind it was 100% my kind of thing. Simply put, I LOVE stories about characters that go on adventures involving treasures, powers not meant for humans to wield, & ancient ruins, and Vaizard offers an interesting twist on that formula. This is absolutely something akin to the Indiana Jones film series, only with a shonen action flavor, plus a mixture of science & magic due to this manga taking place in a fictional world via Varklide. If I had simply covered Vaizard via Volume 1 itself in that overview of (some of) the "one-&-cancelled" ADV Manga releases I did recently I would have been overall very positive of this book, as the four chapters within do just enough to get your interest (or, at least, it did & still does for my interest). Chapter 1 is a fun introduction to Soma & Asuka as they deal with an old man who wishes to unleash the monster sealed within a ruin, as he's the descendant of the people who built the ruins in the first place, & use it to conquer some nations. After that, though, the remainder of the book helps set into place the overarching plot by way of a two-part story that culminates in Soma needing to take on an ancient Chimera that's unleashed by a fellow archaeologist who's under mind control, with the real villain shown off as testing Soma's power & skills but not fully revealed. Meanwhile, the final chapter of Volume 1 focuses on introducing more of the supporting cast & revealing Asuka's true identity on the last page, while giving small hints as to the real plot for the rest of the manga. For a first volume it does a great job at establishing things & setting up aspects of the main plot... but can the remaining two volumes that only came out in Japan back it all up?
Before we get to that, though, I think we should go over the actual cast first. Soma Raitest is our main character, and while he's not exactly a "punch first, ask questions if there's anything remaining to ask later" kind of hot-blooded lead he is still weak to any form of "feminine charm", or even just a cute looking girl (like Asuka), and when pushed is generally more destructive than always necessary. This isn't helped via the Battlize Fist (which ADV Manga called the "Divine Fist", seemingly ignoring the furigana & just directly translating the kanji "Shinken"), a gauntlet that seemingly "chose" Soma to be its wearer & allows him to unleash the Grand Force Cannon, a massive blast of magical energy that can only be used once a day, but the power of which is seemingly unmatched. While Soma's nicknamed "The Erotic Destroyer" in Volume 1 he's actually rather chaste in comparison to other manga featuring hornball leads, & he even tries to ditch Asuka after Chapter 1 strictly because he doesn't want her to get into harm when around him; for a cancelled manga, though, the two really do make for a kind of natural feeling couple. Meanwhile, though Asuka L. Coldaire looks a bit like a mousy young woman who constantly needs rescuing (& that does happen a couple of times, to be fair), she's actually highly resourceful & willing to risk her own safety to help out Soma, like escaping capture on her own so that Soma no longer has to hold back, or constructing an artificial de-barrier to help defeat the Chimera. There's also a bit of mystery to Asuka's past in that she was seemingly the sole survivor of a terrorist attack 10 years prior that destroyed an entire city, yet she was found completely unharmed amongst the destruction; naturally, there's more to Asuka's backstory, and that plays a major role in the latter half.
As for supporting cast there's Lugus Giscurdo, Director of the Western Alliance, the man who trained Soma to be a Vaizard, & is regarded as the Alliance's "Tiger of the Gale". There's also Saira (though the katakana is more "Sarah"), Lugus' Eastern Alliance counterpart, though she only makes a literal couple of appearances alongside Lugus in the first two volumes before taking action for the final fights. Then there's Duke Reijiel, a fellow Vaizard who Soma has a rough relationship with, as the two are essentially oil & water & just can't get along; that said, there is at least respect between the two. Duke fights using a partisan that can control lightning, as seen with his long range attack, Voltic Slave; he's also given a very heavy Kansai accent, for speech flavor. He's later shown to be doing work as a Vaizard to help pay for his little sister Kirika's medical care, who's become isolated to a single specialized room after a magical weapon not only destroyed their home town but ruined Kirika's respiratory system, making traditional air poisonous to her. Finally there's Dr. Edison, the "Father of Magical Science" who's a bit quirky with his love of creating contraptions but is also the man who created the entire concept of Vaizards, in & of themselves; he only really appears in Volume 2 & is kind of a lore-explaining MacGuffin, but he does it well.
Then there are the villains who make up Armagain. The leader is Valfase, who admittedly isn't really shown until Volume 3, but at least makes his presence known by being supremely powerful, while his backstory & involvement in said final volume does manage to have some weight behind it by the end. Behind him is Evilias, who's first seen in Volume 1 as the woman who mind controls the guy who unleashes the Chimera, but she truly makes her presence felt in Volume 2, as a good chunk of it deals with her wanting to steal a stone slab called the Bible of Judecca, first via some goons before simply doing it herself. To put it simply, Evilias is a bit of a psycho who's so powerful with magic that she can summon monsters from another plane at will... and this is while wearing a wristband that acts as a suppressor for her power. To be fair, due to Vaizard clearly being cancelled early the villains don't really get a lot of "development", with Evilias being the only one to really get "screen time" across all three volumes, arguably being the real "main" villain of them all. In that regard, at least, Yoshida does a solid job at making Evilias memorably crazy with her penchant for making extremely psychotic, full-teeth smiles to emphasize her taking glee in the havoc she creates.
Moving back to what stayed in Japan for Vaizard, Volume 2 does kind of instantly show that maybe Comic Blade was already looking to can the series after the first four chapters, as the tease of Asuka being the daughter of the Coldaire Family that ended Volume 1 is pretty much instantly revealed the very next chapter. That sees Soma need to rescue Asuka from some kidnappers, which is revealed to actually be more or less a test from Asuka's father to see if Soma is truly the person that can protect his daughter, as he obviously knows the truth about her. After that is the aforementioned stuff with the stone slab, the introduction of Duke, & the first real fight with Evilias. Come the end of Chapter 7, the literal halfway point of the manga, it already has moved away from tomb protecting to the main plot of fighting against Armagain, as though Michihiro Yoshida was told by their editor to start heading into an end game; again, Comic Blade is monthly, so by this point the manga was already half a year old. Still, to Vaizard's credit, it doesn't really feel like it's rushing to the point of being a jumbled mess, as Yoshida still manages to give bits & pieces of the larger story moments that feel natural enough.
This is especially true for Asuka's backstory, as it's shown that she's actually the adopted daughter of the Coldaire Family, having been discovered by the butler as a baby 16 years ago, and that she has constant dreams where she comes across a silhouetted warrior who wears the Battlize Fist, showing that her & Soma meeting up was more destiny than chance. Even by the end of Volume 2, which reveals the truth behind Asuka, explains what makes Vaizards so powerful, gives Soma a slight battle within his own soul, & pretty much sets up the final confrontation between our heroes & Armagain, it still never feels like it's "rushed". It's definitely accelerated into the end game, with stuff like Duke's backstory being simply explained instead of given time to breathe or Dr. Edison being the person who can help explain everything that's needed ASAP, but it still feels about as natural as I think it could be, considering the circumstances.
 |
| Goldigalan certainly knows how to work it, to everyone's amazement. |
Volume 3, then, is 100% all about the final battle between our heroes & Armagain in the destroyed ruins of Shinegrad, a location that I'm sure was originally meant to have much more importance. Soma fights Valfase, Lugus fights Zord the Demon Slayer (a masked warrior who unfortunately is also introduced here, a victim of the early cancellation), Saira fights Evilias, & Duke (alongside other nameless Vaizards) deals with various monsters summoned to battle alongside Asuka. However, that's only a small part of Vaizard's final volume, because unlike many cancelled manga you'd find in a magazine like Shonen Jump, which often have an "And the story continues on..." sort of ending, Vaizard actually has a definitive ending, one that ties up pretty much all loose ends & explains everything that needs to be explained. Therefore, Volume 3 not only has the aforementioned fights but also revelations regarding Valfase's past (& how it relates to Lugus & Saira), giving some detail regarding Zord himself, the full relation between Asuka, Soma, the goddess Distinia, "Battlize's Warrior", & the power Vaizards have access to, some twists & turns regarding Armagain's mission to revive Goldigalan, giving Evilias even more of a presence among the villains for the end game, and (of course) delivering an actual ending to it all by having Soma take on Goldigalan, who's possessing a human vessel; I won't say who, but you can likely take an educated guess.
Reading Volume 3 I can see all of the little elements that Yoshida likely had planned to slowly reveal over time, but now had no choice but to reveal them all in a single, final set of chapters... yet it works. Much like how Volume 2 managed to not feel rushed into a mess by needing to immediately transition from the "Magic Indiana Jones" concept of the first volume into something more focused towards an actual finale, Volume 3 manages to actually juggle everything it includes. Valfase's backstory is simple but makes sense, even giving a sense of tragedy to the guy. The twists & turns regarding Goldigalan, Asuka, & Soma's final battle therein work really well. Evilias' final stand against Soma's friends gives who was literally the only truly showcased villain a proper send off. And, most notably, Vaizard has an ending that's enjoyable & fits everything that had been set up beforehand. I will say, however, that Yoshida seemed to absolutely love the whole "using kanji for something, only to include katakana as furigana" concept, because just about any sort of terminology seen in Vaizard goes with this, instead of simply only relying on katakana (that's reserved solely for character names, more or less). I already mentioned the whole "Shinken/Battlize Fist" thing before, but "Vaizard" itself is furigana for "Gohou Kensei" (i.e. the manga's entire Japanese title is technically redundant), & terms like Grand Force Cannon, Voltic Slave, Shinegrad, Armagain, Distinia, Rising Heart (the primary power source for any Vaizard), and pretty much every single special/magical attack seen in this manga is given this naming treatment. In some way it is arguably a bit too overindulgent, but at the same time I honestly kind of admire the "There's no kill like overkill" aspect of it.
 |
| I probably should include an image from ADV Manga's release of Volume 1, shouldn't I? |
So I've established that Michihiro Yoshida managed to showcase their writing skills more than well enough, considering that they managed to make a cancelled manga still work really well as an overall story... but what about their artwork? Personally, I think it's actually really damn good, and only improves with each volume. Whatever reviews you can find of Volume 1 in English do bring up Yoshida's penchant for ultra-detailed art at points that's used for a type of bizarre clashing humor, but honestly outside of two or three single-page moments across the first two volumes it's never done again, instead focusing more on a style that's definitely more than a bit influenced by late 90s/early 00s aesthetics. Lots of spikey hair abound for just about everyone that has hair, and nearly all of the villains have a penchant for making psychotic grins with full teeth showing at one point or another, which I guess can clash with the generally more comedic/action focus at points but I think work well towards giving the villains a little something extra, personality-wise; if nothing else it shows Yoshida's talent at drawing good & varied faces. Still, Michihiro Yoshida's artwork in Vaizard is overall very well done, with great panel layouts, an easy to follow flow for each page, and a good knack for making powerful attacks truly feel like they should. For manga that I review that don't have an English translation (or at least a complete one, in this case) I always want to point out if it can still deliver its storytelling on a general level purely through the visuals, and Vaizard is absolutely a great showcase of that, as no detail is lost on a visual level, making for something that I could enjoy "reading", even when my knowledge of Japanese can only take me so far, even with furigana.
I am a bit sad that Yoshida seemingly never made another manga after Vaizard's cancellation, as I would love to see how their art continued to improve over time, & maybe update with the times when it came to things like "traditional" character designs & the like. At the same time, though, I think there is a charm to Vaizard being a true time capsule of the era it ran in, but that could admittedly just be a bit of nostalgia talking. Still, I've certainly seen "worse" artwork from a first-time serialization, so Yoshida definitely had talent, and I wonder who they might have trained under as an assistant, as Yoshida apparently did take that path into mangaka-hood.
Finally, since I couldn't really fit it anywhere else, Mag Garden produced a trading card game in early 2003 called Comic Blade Gladiators, though the only way to actually get the cards was to buy issues of Comic Blade itself during that time, which included a random assortment as a bonus, or via mail order forms found within these issues. Because of this the game apparently only had 27 cards in total (really small for a TCG, honestly), but I guess today would appeal to hardcore fans of titles like Elemental Gelade, Jinki: Extend, Mythical Detective Loki Rangarok, & Tactics, among a few other series that were represented in it. That also includes Vaizard, which got a little representation there via two cards, one for Asuka & one for Lugus; yeah, it is odd that Soma got left out.
Make no mistake: Vaizard is 100% a manga that was cancelled early, and while the single volume that ADV Manga managed release in English back in 2004 shows no real signs of that, it becomes almost instantly obvious upon starting Volume 2. There's no doubt that Michihiro Yoshida likely originally intended for Vaizard to be a semi-episodic work at first, one where Soma & Asuka (with the likes of Duke, Lugus, & probably even Seira once in a while) would visit various ancient ruins & relics to both protect the treasures held within & learn more about the "Dark Era" that came before. All the while, the villains that form Armagain would make appearances here & there to create trouble for Soma & Asuka, with all of the backstories regarding the characters & the truth behind stuff like Asuka's origin, Soma's destiny as "Battlize's Warrior", & the importance of Golidgalan being slowly revealed over time, before eventually culminating in the final battles seen in Volume 3. For example, one bit I didn't really bring up was Soma's friend Gene, who was killed alongside Soma's hometown by Valfase & likely would have played a larger role in Soma's backstory, but wound up just being nothing more than a quick reference in Volume 2; still, Gene was included on the back cover image of that volume, so Yoshida obviously had bigger plans. However, for whatever reason, Mag Garden seemingly felt that Vaizard just wasn't cutting the mustard & decided to cancel it, though they must have given Yoshida enough time to plan things out so that they could try to give it a proper ending; again, this was a monthly magazine & the shift in focus happened before the literal halfway point. Regardless, after finishing Vaizard it looks as though Michihiro Yoshida had no more interest in making manga ever again, leaving the industry itself with only this one manga to their name (plus their original award-winning one-shot, which sadly isn't included alongside Vaizard's tankouban release), one that ADV Manga definitely only happened to license for English release because of a massive package deal it made with Mag Garden, as seen by the fact that it got canned after Volume 1.
However, that doesn't mean that there isn't any merit in Vaizard whatsoever. No, instead I think Vaizard is actually kind of astonishing in how it actually manages to work out well in the end. Yes, this is a cancelled manga, and it shows in numerous ways, but this is an example where the mangaka actually managed to not only prevent it from being unfinished, but also do it in a way that doesn't feel wholly rushed or jumbled into a mess. Honestly, I didn't even know about the Saila one-shot until after I had finished reading Vaizard for this review, and in that regard I think I can see why Yoshida won an award for Saila, which is undoubtedly what resulted in them being given the chance at a serialization. This is a mangaka who, when faced with something all newbie mangaka risk having to face, seemingly hunkered down & took the challenge of cancellation head on. They figured out how to reorganize most of their planned plot beats, character revelations, & themes in a way that still allowed the manga to stand tall on its own two feet. I've read my fair share of cancelled manga, for sure, and most of them tend to either take a bit of an easy way out by simply finishing their current plot & ending with a tease that it could possibly return one day (which only happens in extremely rare cases), while others try to make it across a proper finish line but in doing so kind of trip over themselves when it comes to telling a proper story. Vaizard, though, is one of those rare breed that manage to essentially to make actual lemonade out of lemons, delivering a properly complete story while also making sure that the storytelling itself doesn't truly suffer in the process, even if it's obviously not told in quite the way it was originally intended; this is up there with WaqWaq by Ryu Fujisaki as a cancelled manga that finished very well. It's by no means one of the absolute best manga I've ever read, but Vaizard has always remained in my memories for the past 20+ years since I read that first volume in English, and I'm very glad to report that it not only deserved to stay there all this time, but the rest of it is pretty damn good too, especially for something that was cancelled early.
They'll obviously never come across this, but a big "Thank you" to Michihiro Yoshida for making Vaizard. Despite never making another manga after this you've got at least one fan out there in the world that appreciates what you did make.
Manga © Michihiro Yoshida 2003-2004
No comments:
Post a Comment