Jan 27, 2016
"Shamo" I knew this manga by name for a pretty long time now
I began to read it without any expectation, just knowing that it was a violent one.
Well, I was disappointed. For me, it's as if I was reading some fighting manga with sex, violence, drug ..... and I laughed hard when I saw people's review about Shamo : deep psychology, deep moral...
Let's talk about the beginning which may contain "deep psychology" : A boy - "Ryo" also nicknamed "Shonen A" after, kills its parent with a knife. Precisely, he brutally murdered them. We don't know why, only few moment in the manga explain
...
that.
Well, I though that he had a good reason but no- he killed them because he was too oppressed. You can imagine a reason : his parent wanted him to do something he didn't want, wanted to erase his personnality,to look good with their son before others, loving him too much, writing with right hand wheareas he is left handed, too much love... nothing is precisely explained.
Come on, Kids should kill teachers because they give a lot homeworks. Kids should kill their parent because they receive spanking...let's party!
After he is send to the Ajigasaki Reformatory for 2 years where youngster are send for theft, killing, rape, violence.... Sort of jail but for minor. Ryo get raped here, beaten ,forced to do oral sex with a man., bitten the man's hot-dog.... He got raped and what after ? For me, he didn't seemed affected weirdly or it was badly shown. I was expecting more but it's not a caracter centric manga after all.
Ryo learn karate to defend himself at first and is unexpectly good at it. It will be the beginning of his love for Karate ((Banryu-kai) and violent fights
And after that, you have street fights, lethal fights .... fight
-----------------------
The issue I have with that is it's not well developped which is bad for a "deep" manga . Ryo kill his parent then almost don't give a shit. He doesn't ask himself "what he have done ?" "why ?" "the consequences" and doesn't feel any remorse. It doesn't affect him much emotionaly.
His sister became a prostitute and junkie thanks to him and is not asking qestions - "Is she alive", "does she hate me ?", "what if i didn't kill my parent", "how she is feeling ? "... no he don't care...
Our little Ryo swear that he would protect her - something he didn't do earlier. He searched for her during one chapter then forgot, only thinking about fighting, raping someone girfriend.... Let's say he dont give a shit about her :)
So that's why I don't see anything deep. The beginning maybe but after that, It's only fights with some redemption moments... to try to make us like this unlikeable caracter
If you love violent, free rape manga but poor story => read
If you like developped caracters => don't read
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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