ZOMBIEPOWDER by Tite Kubo Reviewed 12 April 2022 ZOMBIEPOWDER Volume 1 Cover. From VIZ ZOMBIEPOWDER at least as it currently exists seems to have served its purpose. A playpen for Kubo as he works on the precursor to his critically acclaimed Bleach a comic that is probably best described as his take on the concepts featured in Yasuhiro Nightows Trigun. https://anilist.co/manga/30704/TrigunMaximum/ Putting it mildly this comic is not that good. Not quite terrible but it cant really be said to be at the the level of your average shonen. And this is for a variety of reasons as we shall explore. But before that its really worth mentioning that this is a very short comic. Its 30 chapters long and has been collected into 4 volumes. This is fairly typical for an authors first serial especially at a company as huge as Shonen Jump. But as will be seen the length of this comic lays a huge part in its downfall. Story For starters the story. It is practically nonexistent. Why? Because the entirety of this series is nothing more of an introduction into Gamma Akutabi and those surrounding him. Theres nothing wrong with a series being nothing more than an introduction especially if its this short although those tend to function more as prequels or as a basis for characters in the authors future work. What is a crime thoughis how uninteresting it all is. So the premise of the story and the objective of our hero as established in the first chapter is to obtain the elixir of life or Zombie Powder. And to accomplish this he must recover ten Rings of the Dead. While this is a substandard premise the failure of Kubo to properly build on this is what really drives the nail in the coffin. As the story progresses we are confronted with nothing but cliched scenarios each scenario being the introduction of a character. This lack of a story is the main problem plaguing this comic. Its 30 chapters long but because its all still an introduction theres nothing to keep me sticking around. Fighting gangs and searching for rings is cool and all but theres just no excitement in it. At this stage its all so lifeless all so robotic. The characters rarely diverge from the archetypes theyre based on and everything said and done is all so predictable. This is a less than amateurish attempt at a story. Art The art is actually not too bad. Its difficult to ignore the unique sense of style instilled in the character design but the overall bit is just not magnetic. This comic is really at its best during the battles when theres minimal dialogue. The action shots are far from pinup status but are surprisingly decent. The low level of detail in the backgrounds and the lack of memorable shots though do not add to the minimal success that these moments bring. As previously mentioned the character design is also somewhat decent. The look of the characters pretty much the most interesting thing about the series and what with the series length there arent a lot of moments for Kubo to simply let us appreciate this. This is also a huge part of what makes the battles a little decent to look at. People will mostly come to this series because it is a comic by TIte Kubo author of Bleach. And that by itself is a testament to the quality of this comic. While the concept is terribly uninteresting what really hurts it is its insistence on being so bland and unoriginal in its narrative choices. A terrifyingly unappealing choice. PS I should note that the reason for the short length of the series is its unfortunate cancellation at the time of which Im fully aware. And be that as it may I still feel it relevant to bring up the length in my review.