Zombie Powder.

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Zombie Powder is a bit of a mixed bag. It's really impossible to not compare it to Bleach, since Zombie Powder was the mangaka's previous work (a relatively commercially unsuccessful one, I should probably add). It's probably not altogether fair to make the comparison, but it can't be helped since I already saw Bleach (both the anime and the manga) so I might as well just go ahead honestly with that perspective in mind.

As far as art goes, it's very similar in style to Bleach-- good but not quite great. I would say that the mangaka's style hasn't really changed ... too much.

People who have read/seen Bleach will notice very obvious parallels between Ichigo and Gamma, both of which utilize ridiculously large swords and whose bodies contain some greater, dark being holding tremendous power. Both of these darker sides are at once the protagonist and not, and you see Ichigo/Gamma noticeably suppress them. There are some other character similarities (Inoue and "Wolfgangina" [<--- that really is her name, I'm not kidding] look very similar) but they're not quite as evident.

The characters are fairly well developed, better so than in Bleach, if you only go up to volume 4 (the last volume in Zombie Powder) to be fair. Some of the characters are pretty cool, my favorite of the bunch is probably CT Smith, a charismatic gunslinger who offers some of the best humor in the series. The characters are a bit more balanced than in Bleach (where Ichigo is by far the strongest of the original team that went to Soul Society) and can take care of themselves fairly well without always having to rely on Gamma-- something I appreciate.

In terms of settings, the Bleach and Zombie Powder universes are almost polar opposites. Bleach is a supernatural Japanese universe complete with swords and spirits while Zombie Powder is a sci-fi Western (think cowboy movies w.r.t to the Western part) universe with guns and outlaws. Between the two settings, I honestly prefer the supernatural Japanese one, although I will admit it is rather trite and Zombie Powder's setting is much more original (though it has a possible cousin in the form of Trigun).

As Zombie Powder is an action manga, it would be a tremendous oversight to discuss it without mentioning a bit about the action scenes, which I think are fairly good. They're actually quite similar to Bleach-- clean art, lots of plot twists in which it'll seem one guy is coming out on top but hey, go figure, he actually isn't, a generous helping of humor both during and between action scenes to keep the mood light. Also lots of bizarre "special" attacks and villains, ranging from a crazy circus magician to a titanic fat woman. It's a bit wacky, but if you've read the Bleach manga up to the latest chapters (with the rather bizarre and gruesome Szayel vs Mayuri fight) it's nothing you haven't seen before, anyway.

In conclusion, not a bad manga but I can't help but feel something is missing. Maybe that is due to the fact that this manga never really ended, the mangaka stopped abruptly. Maybe it's because some of the mechanics in the manga are a bit too similar to Bleach. It might also be because of the really cliche premise of the story-- essentially a search for "Rings of the Dead" to construct Zombie Powder to gain immortality. I think in the end, this was a worthwhile read for me, if only for historical purposes. If you like Western settings in manga, or if you really liked Bleach a lot and would like to see a similar series, or hey if you just have some free time, maybe take a quick look at Zombie Powder and see if you like it.

This is my first review, so please bear with me if it's kind of bad.

This Manga could go either way for the reader really, it had quite a bit of potential and could have went further if it had a little more support. It is a shame that it didn't, Zombie powder had an interesting story and plot line, the story of the Rings of the Dead and the Zombie Powder is rarely something seen in Manga making its story more original than most, along with good action scenes excellent fight sequences and some bizarre moves, and plot twists, it's more than enough to keep ... someone interested.

The artwork was good and clean with attention to detail, there was isn't a scene where to much there is to much happening in one image that could be eye distracting for the reader. Good character art, loved the main character Gamma's hair do. The only real downside is that it could be considered somewhat simple.

The characters of the story, are fairly well balanced and developed, each have their strengths and weaknesses, and can take care of themselves during a battle without relying on the main character to help them out all the time, compare it to the Bleach Soul Society arc, Ichigo being the strongest of the group, was depended on the most , this annoys me in Manga's when most of the main cast are dependent on the main character, it lowers the value of the characters till later on in the series (clearly evident in Bleach).

The main character Gamma along with his partner/friend CT Smith provide the major fighting power for the group and action scenes for the story, Gamma providing comical humour usually more present in his actions whereas CT Smith provides more sarcastic, subtle and somewhat mocking humour to balance it out. Gamma being the swordsman uses a wide variety of techniques and battle skill easily over powering the majority of enemies (with some techniques vaguely reminiscent of Ichigo's techniques), CT Smith provides marksmanship with incredible skill seen shooting out the pins of the wheels of a moving train without missing a shot. These two provide the main force and best battle scenes of the story.

The setting for the story is in a somewhat futuristic/sci-fi western universe, with guns, outlaws, bandits,etc, has a slightly more original setting and is similar to the Trigun series setting.

Overall, if your a fan of Bleach, then you should enjoy Zombie Powder (since it was done by the same Mangaka Tite Kubo), or at least give it a look. The story, characters and action scenes are great and it gave me a good laugh. My only problem is that it ended to abruptly and was left with that unfinished feeling, so for that i would give a 7 overall, i would like to have given it a 7.5 but that score isn't there, and if lasted longer and finished off without leaving such an open ending i would have probably given it an 8 or 9.

Still worth a read anyway.

It's obvious that this is an earlier work of Bleach's Tite Kubo. The art isn't quite as polished as her later projects and some of the story elements carried over. The characters are interesting, yet they seem like prototypes for some of her later series.

Pros: Interesting story, great chance to check out the development of a famous artist's/author's progress, unique character designs

Cons: Ending leaves the reader hanging, unsatisfying if you're read Kubo's later works, basic "searching for 'forbidden' things" plot

I've never seen or read Bleach, but from reading this, I don't think I even want to bother. The story is typical shonen fare, which normally doesn't bother me if it has something out of the ordinary. Forbidden powers? Check. Wacky villains? Check. Annoying pipsqueak sidekick? Check. Chick with abnormally huge knockers? Double check. The Rings of the Dead were an interesting concept, but immortality has been done before, and it's really just another fetch quest. The action is okay, but other than that, there's nothing to be had. The humor is either way out of bounds or just plain not funny.

The art is ... just plain awful. The lack of detail is astounding. Some of these characters are missing eyes, which may or may not be a stylistic thing; I leave that to you to decide. It looks sloppy, and whether the character is male or female it doesn't matter because they both look the same. Some of the character designs are decent, but other than that they look like they were ripped from other manga/anime.

The characters are pretty clichéd, and there's back story for about half of them. This is probably because they stopped printing this, so it ends before it even begins. If he'd continued making this, maybe it would have turned out to be something with a decent plot and character development, something worth reading, but as it stands, it’s barely passable. Unless you're a huge fan of Bleach, or a 13 year old kid, I say skip this mediocre piece and go read something good.

Melodux should do more research to find out it was canceled, "The rating for this manga is going to suffer because it's incomplete/If Kubo wasn't planning on finishing the manga, then he should've planned out the story better to fit 4 volumes," this means not by choice. Publishers have all the power and that it doesn't sell(as well as projected) = no money means they cancel it.

I can see why angelsreviews compares it to Trigun i can see that but Trigun devolved from space faring into a desert like western. With a near-pacifistic antagonist. This planet doesn't act like a western desert, but a more ... lawless land and this guy has no qualms killing every "bad guy", that looks at him funny.

~SPOILERS~

I really like this series i literally started this before work and finished it about 50 min ago so 10 hours and 400+ pages +2 shitty extras. I don't like the Multi bajillion bounty as a Trigun/One piece thing it's a shonen thing calm your ass down Collecting things like DBZ for a wish well no these items give only one thing depending on how many you have; ?<12 - death, ?=12 - this magical Zombie Powder which is life. Given to someone dead will bring them back to life, unknown if it restores them to actual life or some zombified version of themself, but given to a living person it makes them immortal. This is an awesome premises. The fights were very good and bosses except first was good the gangsters was a garbage person whom any old "hero" could've killed. The circus boss was lame his lieutenants were extremely good if short.

Characters were introduced perfectly, except their reasons(other than pickpocket kid and girl).The pacing was very good it didn't feel rushed even though i was blazing through it. This is what i'm talking about making you want to read the next chapter and the next with getting tiring and you asking yourself how much more. I do have an issue with it though....where's the rest some many loose threads that need a conclusion it has all that potential but alas we will never get them unless the re-serialize it which is unlikely. Read, Read, and read again it very good like a better version of the beginning of Trigun.

Story: I really liked the idea of the Rings of Death, and that gathering them together can do something for the gatherer{s}. However, I felt like Zombie Powder was Dragon Ball Z meets Trigun. We have the aspect of gathering many of the same item to grant a wish, and the aspects of the main character having a large bounty on his head and the setting of a futuristic western. I feel like Kubo could squeeze a little more originality in there somewhere.

Pace was a thing with me in ZP. It moved at a pretty quick pace, but I'm not sure if it was TOO ... quick of a pace. At some points, I feel like the story was rushed to get to the main objective, that side-plots were suddenly cut off.

The rating for this manga is going to suffer because it's incomplete. The stopping of the serialization left a LOT of lose ends that I was really looking forward to having tied up. Like the mystery behind Gamma's armored arm, and how the surgery turned out. If Kubo wasn't planning on finishing the manga, then he should've planned out the story better to fit 4 volumes.



Art: The art was nice. Very proportional for the main characters. And where people were supposed to look ridiculous, they looked ridiculous. The action scenes weren't unclear, but they weren't a moving picture, either; you could tell what was supposed to be happening. There weren't a lot of background images to admire, and the setting, as I said before, was a futuristic western. Thus, there was only really a flat landscape. But it looked like a beautiful flat landscape.



Characters: Again, the rating is going to suffer because Zombie Powder is incomplete. The characters had nice little spices to them, but I think that the story was too short to get in to some character development. You learned a little bit about Gamma and Elwood. But I would've liked to see more inner monologue from Elwood, some mysteries about Gamma resolved and what the hell was with Smith. All the lose ends and stunted plot lead to weak character development. But they were original characters, so I give them a 9 out of 10.



If you like Tite Kubo's work, then you should give this a look. It's short and sweet, but don't expect too too much out of it, because it's not finished. I think it's something you should read on the side, when you get sick of whatever long series you're reading.

it was an amazing story, with a lot of potential, but it ended way too soon. after achieving what they did, only to end the story when it was getting good, feels like a letdown, and a huge failure on the part of the mangaka. now, i know that sometimes the mangaka has issues, financial or something of that sort, or its not getting many readers, but a story like this, had so much untapped potential, i think it could have drawn more people if it had stayed in circulation

all in all, a great read, you should check it out, worth the time, ANYTIME.

Review 10: Zombie Powder. (get the rings)!!!

By the same man who made Bleach Tite Kubos which was made before his most famous anime and Manga Bleach. as well known artist and author his old books have become way more popular and i admit that this was a new read for me and i've only read three of the books and i already want the rest of the series in Zombie Powder. The style in which the characters are drawn are very similar to the ones in Bleach but i guess you can't blame him if there that popular.

I don't really feel like he's made this ... one to be just like Bleach, there are some simalarities in between the two books but the personalities to the characters and the stories behind them are really different to the ones in Bleach.

The whole point of Zombie Powder is that a man called Akutabi Gamma (otherwise just known as Gamma) is after The Rings Of The Dead which are the only keys to finding the zombie powder that he needs, The rings are said to hold an unknown power that can bring the dead back to life in a matter of seconds and can also give the living eternal life. In this world though it's not the wars or the thugs that are feared, it's not the people that you hear outside at night banging on the doors demanding money.....It's what they call The Powder Hunters, they're obviously the poeple that search for the rings and will give their lives to have them.

Characters

Akutabi Gamma:

Theleader of the team and the most feared man alive, he's spent his life killing people and training himself so he can hunt down and find these rings before his enemies do. He's stubborn and willing in everything he does, he won't ever stop trying to find these rings nomatter what or who gets in his way, anyyone that opposses him will fall to their knees in a bloody mess that will leave them scared for life.

Elwood:

A young boy whos life was ruined a long time ago by the local thugs and robbers who he was forced to work for. He meets and is saved by Akutabi in the first book, they team up and become the best of friends and fighting partners. They're bothe strange yet stubborn in any ways, they both want the Powder but apparently for different reasons...?

These may be the first two characters in the first book but they're the main structure of the team that they make through out the series. I don't want to list any more characters because their personalities will soon give the story line away.

a brilliant read from start to finish.

1:02 Pm 15th October 2012 ~Amy Xxxx

You know, things happen in life. "Development Hell" is a thing, people only live for so long, businesses start up and shut down every day. And that's what happened to Zombie Powder, or so I understand. It never finished it's run because the publication folded, so it only got four collected volumes and a story left unresolved. Without much to go on, how did it do?

Actually, very well. It's a shonen, from the 2000s era shonens, but a bit outlandish in it's world building. Imagine a much darker tale of Goku's search for the Dragon Balls, with a Trigun-esque ... setting and you have the right idea. Just over the top enough to be fun, a flawless art style, I can't help but be curious how an anime would have turned out.

It is a shame that a manga about a wanderer wielding a chainsaw sword didn't get rescued, because the creator, Tite Kubo hasn't picked up the concept again. Instead he focused on his other title that blew up on both sides of the pacific. A little manga called "Bleach".

Short-lived, but worth the read. Find Zombie Powder for your Stack.

I thought Zombie Powder was great.

I adore Tite Kubo's art, which is why I picked it up in the first place. It's just personal preference, but I find it stunning and beautiful in its simplicity.

I read all of it in one sitting and was sorely disappointed when I found out it was a discontinued series.

Even though it doesn't have a proper ending, it's worth the read. It's well paced, it's funny, and the characters are enjoyable.

True, a lot of it is recycled or cliche things that you can see in most shonen work, but that doesn't make ... it any less fun to read. It's just another take on some of the same old things, but it's definitely not boring because of it.

This was one of the first published manga works of Tite Kubo; the creator the phenomenon that is now Bleach.

The story revolves mainly around the characters of Elwood Shepherd and Gamma Akutabi who are trying to collect the 12 Rings of the Dead. When all 12 are collected, supposedly you gain immortality. Not too original of a storyline, but Kubo develops the idea pretty well and the actual story does have a few twists. There's a lot of action and fighting which I typically like, but it could be said that there are too many fighting scenes. So many that the plot seems like ... it hardly exists and that this is just a fight-fight-fight manga.

Sadly, the manga remains unfinished and there are only 4 volumes so there is no closure on what happens and if the protagonists do get the rings. Overall it's a decent read.

Automatically, the first few pages reminded me of Trigun in how the main character is portrayed. He’s somewhat flashy, and acts like an idiot in a world of the western gun. Gamma is really comedic and seems to also be a womanizer himself as seen with Elwood’s sister. So, a womanizing, comedic, and almost bad ass of a guy is looking for something around the desert. He is kind to anyone he meets and wears a flashy coat, standing out like a sore thumb. He has armor that is built directly into his right arm and is a wanted man who doesn’t fight aimlessly because ... of a woman. If that doesn’t explain both Vash and Gamma, then I don’t think anything will. Now, unlike Vash, he isn’t worried about fighting and even carries around a sword that’s more like a chainsaw and he’s mastered a sword style that is extremely hard to learn.

I see Elwood as pretty much Wolfwood in a sense because most of the times he’s talking to Gamma, I can see Wolfwood doing the same for Vash. Still, there are quite a bit odd things that make him his own character. All the characters call him by his middle name it seems since in his BO, his full name is read as John Elwood Shepherd. His drive is only one thing, bringing his sister back to life after feeling very guilty for the events leading up to her death. I somewhat consider him more like our introduction since the story ends with him a bit.

The next character we should talk about is CT Smith who is Gamma’s partner. Why he wears a professional suit in hot dry weather is beyond me but it doesn’t look like he would be very comfortable. He’s pretty smart and seems to look up to Gamma though he somewhat matches him in strength. He also has a really really bad habit of building bombs that never once work right. He has been yelled at by Gamma for that many times.

And last we have Wolfgangina Lalla Getto (Wolfina). Who in their right mind would freaken call there kid Wolfgangina? Anyway, she is paparazzi journalist who has a really strange idea of justice. For example, after taking a picture of a gangboss trying to rape a woman, she doctored it to make it seem that he was a dominatrix.

I had trouble with the name for a rather long time. It really looks like it should be Zombie Power and not Powder, doesn’t it? Even in the description, I had a hard time not writing ‘power hunter’ instead. There is also the fact that the author has for some unknown reason given every single character who is in this manga a full name even if they were only fought for one chapter or has been seen in two or three panels. That’s a bit of dedication right there but I feel it’s unnecessary. Also, this would have been a really good manga if the creator didn’t decide to cut it off so soon. It felt unfinished after the forth episode. In the end, it just needed to keep going and give us more then a preview of what could have been.

The artwork is really out of this world with all the different types of swords and weapons they have. It’s got a really fun steam punk artstyle at times and yet, it isn’t fully steampunk. You can see it in the ‘Jet powered’ swords and even in Gamma’s Chainsaw sword but no one is really decked out in all steampunk.

Before we get started I would like to note something. I have read that TIte Kubo was severly depressed and in trauma when he made this series, he hated his work too, which kinda changed as he got closer to the ending. He also gave statements about paying too much attention to the editor and not his extincts. He was new at this at the time, so he wasn't use to serialization. So that is why it was cancelled, at least I think so. I don't think Jump had anything to do with it, but they might have.


Story: Well, a few good points were made ... to me. It is fairly cliche. A side kick, trying to gather mystical items (especially seven (Dragon ball)), an woman with breasts that are simply too large for nature to create, and stuff like that. Some contribute this to the Shonen manga specifically, I don't know. All I am going to say is that I liked it. I loved the adventure and perhaps that it is like dragon ball in some ways did make it better for me. The story is about an man with a metal arm trying to find the seven rings of the dead to supposedly make himself immortal. Along the way he has to fight a lot of strong people and ends up making a lot of allies. Pretty much sums it up.

Art: Lacking. Tite Kubo is a good artist, but the art here is lacking. Lack of background in battle scenes, missing mouths from characters, and so forth. I don't think it's bad, it's just lacking. I'd give a five.

Enjoyment: Of course this is purely my own opinion, but I rather enjoyed it. I was sad to see it didn't have an ending. I would give enjoyment an eight.

Characters: The characters in the manga are treated fairly well. I gave each one an different voice in my head, they all had very good personalities. I would give this one an seven too.

Overall: For a starter manga, Tite Kubo did a good job. It's hard for me to give it anything than a six though. In my personal opinion I loved it and wanted more, but it has it's flaws. It would be hard for me to justify giving this more than an 6 for recommendation standards.

“I’ve killed thousands of bounty hunters in my time. And each time, for every person I killed, I’ve made new enemies among the people left alive.”

- Gamma, Chapter 2

If choosing to read Zombie Powder then it is important to remember that it was “cancelled” early on in what would have been a supposedly longer run. Kubo has mentioned a couple of reasons as to why this happened and stepping away from this project let him move on to bigger and better things. Due to this, Zombie Powder doesn’t really have a clear cut ending, but it is easy to see how the main plot would ... have progressed.

Zombie Powder, in its short run, contained a couple of interesting ideas that while in their current state aren’t too unique could have been adapted into more interesting ideas. The mix of the Western and Sci-Fi genres work well enough, creating an engaging landscape that has a lot of potential to be explored. While fetch quests can be a little bit tiresome to read due to their often predictable plot, Zombie Powder has a few plot beats that could have been taken in interesting directions had it continued. The mix of action and comedic dialogue also works well enough, not feeling forced and adding to characterisation.

Kubo’s art style is easy to read throughout most of Zombie Powder, however, the reliance on long sweeping lines to represent air movement can sometimes create slightly chaotic panels. This can make the sword-based fights a bit difficult to read. There is also the issue that some of the backgrounds become reliant on horizontal lines to fill the space, especially during character interactions which can make scenes feel very dense.

One of Zombie Powder’s weakest elements would be its characters. This is mostly a symptom of its short run, but it is evident that a couple of characters were the focus while the others were more of an afterthought. Perhaps the most glaring example is the sister of Elwood who is supposed to act as an emotional centre for the character; being the focus of his goal. Despite her being present for a number of pages, we never actually find out her name in the actual story which would seem like an important detail since she is supposed to be important to him. There is also a similarity to another character’s goal as she tries to save her brother, which makes the sibling-bond theme a little bit repetitive. The reliance on character pages to add basic information and depth to some of the background characters can feel like a bit of a hindrance as some of the important elements (such as names) could do with being referenced within the plot rather than acting as an add-on.

There are a couple of stand-out characters who definitely drive the story and have pretty strong design concepts. It is easy to see how they are reflected in Kubo’s later work. The character designs, on the whole, are also strong with antagonists having a mix of skill sets that make for interesting fights. Had the series had a longer run then it probably could have developed into something that stands out more.

It is unfortunate that Kubo was unable to wrap up Zombie Powder as it leaves a couple of intriguing plot threads unravelled and it wasn’t able to conclude in a satisfying way. However, based on what is currently on show, I am glad that he decided to step away and move on to something that he felt happier with.

Well, so. I'm not to mention the fact that this manga is a lot like Bleach (especially the art) since it's made by the same person.

Therefore, this is a manga with a lot of potential. I liked it from the first chapter, that's why is on my fav's list. The saddening thing about Zombie Powder is the fact that is an abandoned story. Unfortunately, Kubo gave up on it. I have fate that maybe one day he'll find the strength and ispiration to continue the series, because it's worth it. Thus I think that the concept of this manga can leat to a series ... with a lot of chapters. But that's up to the author to decide.

Anyway, I am happy that I got to read this manga and see other ideas that the author of my fav anime (Bleach) has.

WARNING: If you're the kind of person that gets immense rage from an unfinished work of art, don't read this. You may give it a lower mark than I did and that would make me sad and angry at the same time. Don't be harsh on it.

Thanks for reading ^-^