Almost twenty years after its release in the series Point Break from Star Comicsthe publishing house has decided to give a new look to the legendary manga cult Sho Fumimura (aka Buronson) And Ryōichi Ikegami. The pairing of these two great authors has in fact given light between 1990 and 1995 a Sanctuarya realistic and extremely dramatic painting of the Japanese underworld of those years. A plot full of action, betrayal, shadows and lights of a corrupt and rotten environmentwhere the Yakuza and the politicians work together so as not to step on their toes too much, two worlds apparently very distant from each other but which they share methods, values and modus operandi.
Sanctuary it’s a political thriller with a very strong emotional impact. A narrative with broad breaths, weighted and measured, but capable of shedding the spotlight and criticism on the Japanese society of that time. The themes such as friendship and loyalty, the desire to overturn the system, to clean it of corruption using the same methods that the system uses to maintain power, are very important. Hojoour protagonist, will in fact be willing to go to anything, literally everything, to achieve his goals.
- Original title: Sanctuary (サ ン ク チ ュ ア リ)
- English title: Sanctuary
- Japanese release: October 30, 1990
- Italian release: July 20, 2022
- Number of volumes: 12
- Publishing house: Star Comics
- Genre: Political thriller-action
- Drawings: Ryōichi Ikegami
- History: Sho Fumimura (Buronson)
- Format: paperback with dust jacket
- Number of pages: 456
We reviewed Sanctuary via press volume provided to us by Star Comics.
Everything will change
The story tells of Hojo And Asami, two young people with great aspirations. Under their clean faces, kind natures and their tendency to be natural leaders, they hide unique strength and violence, extremely useful weapons when a silent revolution is to be carried out. They they dream of shaking the corrupt foundations of a country now in the hands of an old generationclinging to her armchairs and thinking only and exclusively of maintaining her own status.
They therefore decide to set off following two apparently parallel paths but which in reality share values and aspirations; two paths that will allow them to climb the top of the state and put control over the institutions. While therefore Asami decides to climb the top of politics clashing with a conservative generation, Hojo, in secret, prepares the ground for him by climbing the heights of the Yakuza instead. We will therefore be witnesses of the rise of two novice characters, full of strength and resourcefulness, who in a short time manage to turn the tables in their favor. All this thanks also to the help of Tokaia ruthless and violent Yakuza who is not afraid to put his life on the line every day to participate in the ambition of the two.
In a Tokyo of the 90s, the two protagonists will move with confidence and with a ruthlessness that can only belong to those who have the ardent desire to bring the world to its knees. Meanwhile, the Commissioner Ishihara will begin to investigate their incredible rise but will soon be stopped by Hojo’s immense charisma, his ideals and his project of revolutionize the whole of Japan.
A realistic painting of the Japanese underworld
What we are presented with is a realistic depiction of the Japanese Yakuza environment. The panorama of the underworld is one with politics, intrinsically linked to institutions who govern the country, and all in the shadow of moral rigor. In the undergrowth, perversions, power games and brutal violence are consummated in order to keep stable very subtle balances of power. We are presented with an environment of cold wars, veiled threats and games of deceit hidden behind the clean faces, beautiful clothes and values of a strongly conservative tradition.
The idea of a Yakuza operating in the same way as politicians, a Yakuza also clean, represented by young and innocent faces like that of Hojo, shows an extremely disturbing reality in which corruption is rampant and power becomes a pretext for being able to do whatever one wants. Within this rotten and disturbing landscape, it is therefore possible to become attached to Hojo and Asami who, although part of this violent system, they try to get hold of it and then overturn it from the inside.
In the exact same way the police find themselves forced to play dirty, to face dishonesty face to face by playing on the very subtle balances that exist in that world. In fact, it is not uncommon for the police to communicate and make under-the-table deals with the worst scum to stem a potentially destructive evil. The lesser evil seems to be the motto of all the actors involved, the compromise and the air of surrender to the rotten the psychological undertone that makes this story compelling and unique.
The aesthetics of a gangster movie
The drawing of Ryōichi Ikegami represents a classic of Japanese comic culture. An academic, precise design an exact and complete style: the delicacy of the faces, of the expressions, the plastic cinematographic poses, the textures of the fabrics, the urban landscapes of a turn of the century Tokyo, the luxury cars. A style capable of faithfully replicating the photographic aesthetics of American gangster movies from the 70s-80s.
Inspired by the great masters like Takao Saito, Shigeru Mizuki And Hiroshi Hirata, a great passion emerges for portraits and this attention to anatomical beauty, to the cleanliness of the faces, the elegance of the clothes emerges. A drawing style from which the class and solemnity of the characters emergealways impeccable, never dirty or unkempt, aesthetically very beautiful and often with westernized features.
The paneling itself is very simple and elementary, there are no particular experiments of the cage, the dialogue scenes with a pressing rhythm and full of tension alternate with wide-ranging pages on the metropolis of Tokyo, making the moments of transition very impactful. The moral heaviness is reflected by contrasting itself with the majesty of the city, the same is the beauty of the urban landscapes, the aesthetics and the unbridled luxury in which the actors in the game wallow.
The Star Comics edition
The edition Star Comics looks very good. A paperback with jacket of 456 pages. Despite being a nice brick, the edition is flexible and light and doesn’t clutter up a lot of space. The paper is thick and smooth, the layout alternates very thick white edges with large vignettes that come out from the edge of the page.
Asami and Hojo are two friends whose youth was deeply marked by the horrors of the Cambodian civil war. Back home, they decide to change Japan by any means: the “new Japan”, freed from the corruption and foolish myopia of the old ruling class, will be their “Sanctuary”. To achieve this, they decide that one of them will turn to politics, while the other will support him in the shadows by climbing the heights of the yakuza. It will be fate to decide which fate will be up to each of them.
Buy Sanctuary following this link at the special price of € 14.25 (instead of € 15). Release scheduled for July 20, 2022. Support Akiba Gamers by purchasing on Amazon through this box!
The only note a sore hair are the not very resistant pagesit takes very little to make them detach from the back, we do not know if it could be a problem with the volume we received or a general problem of all copies. Good value for money, in the norm counting today’s prices and counting that we are talking about a classic of the Japanese manga of the 90s. A real piece of history.
Who do we recommend Sanctuary to?
We recommend this new edition of Sanctuary for those who love political and criminal intrigues. To those who usually get carried away by the great ideals, by those anti-heroes willing to do anything to make their dream come true. The compelling story of two great friends with great aspirations who climb the heights of society to uncover the rottenness that lies beneath.
- Ikegami’s academic and precise design
- A compelling story
- Edition a little too “fragile”
- Very formal and precise style that could bore a reader today
Sanctuary
A corrupt world free from corruption
Who said that righteous and righteous men are needed to defeat corruption? Why not pay back the corruption itself with the same currency? Why not overturn the system from within itself? A political thriller full of twists, the rise of two very young flames in the political and mafia landscape of a turn-of-the-century Japan. The daring of the younger generations against the firmness of tradition, of the most extreme conservatism. Sanctuary it is a metaphor of human history, where the old institutions continually oppose the passage of time, the change of values and standards, while the new ones fight with clenched teeth driven by an implacable ardor.
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