Red Hot Chili Samurai

Manga Review (Volumes 1-2)
I'm glad I read both of these volumes.

Red Hot Chili Samurai is a comedy adventure manga about teenage samurai. The hero, Kokaku, is the only son of the local lord, who sends him on various errands to catch crooks. Kokaku relies on several allies: a ninja, a sly girl, and a quiet samurai friend who wears glasses.

The author quickly establishes a rhythm: Kokaku's father sends him out to investigate some criminal activity. The boy gets in too deep, then his friends appear. We get a full-page spread of Kokaku uttering his catchphrase (which is literally "I'm the hero,") and we watch the bad guys react in horror, then leap into the fray anyway. We then get 1-2 pages of the good guys swinging their swords while blood sprays everywhere, the bad guy surrenders, and another page or two establishes that all is well.

The artist's bold, ink-heavy artwork perfectly supports the manga's kinetic, almost manic style. Samurai look stylish, kimonos flow beautifully, and the artist slides into a simpler, more comedic style just enough to get a joke across. He never devolves into chibi, which would contrast too sharply with the manga's normal tone.

I did occasionally find it difficult to differentiate characters' faces; the artist tends to draw every face in the same pretty-boy style. Fortunately, there are enough differentiations within the main cast: spiky hair, glasses, long hair, bangs, etc. to keep them distinct. It's the characters that only show up for one chapter that tend to blur together.

Interestingly, several of the investigations reveal particularly Edo-era morals. After infiltrating a brothel that's drugging its girls, the heroes finally have "enough to go on" when they discover that the girls' parents haven't been adequately paid for their daughters. After that adventure, our 16-year-old protagonist exclaims huffily (in front of his family) "I"m never going to the brothels again!"

Fortunately, the second volume adds some depth to Kokaku. After grudgingly following his father's orders for the first volume, in the second he faces the fact that he is the heir to his father's responsibilities, and will one day have to administer his lands. This is a heavy burden for a 16-year-old, and to the author's credit, Kokaku struggles with this and finds an answer without resolving it neatly.