The year is 1992 and Japan is growing at an alarming rate. Foreigners looking for better business opportunities are rapidly pouring in. And as the population grows so too do the number of crimes. Drugs prostitution assault the whole shebang. The police are up to their necks in these heinous acts and tackling them in a timely manner is impossible. Not while theyre still hemmed in by protocol and laws that is. So who better to put away the baddies than a cop who operates like the rules are mere friendly suggestions? https://files.catbox.moe/o5pq2j.jpg Dont let the fact that he looks like a front man for an 80s goth band fool you. This is Shinjukus greatest weapon against the evil littering its streets. His brand of cowboy justice is quite different from what the other officers have in mind. He has a very specific way of catching criminals: He tricks them into incriminating themselves by talking them into confessing or riling them up enough that they try to kill him. And thats exactly what makes him so effective at weeding out evil. He doesnt just catch criminals he pulls the darkness out of their hearts and exposes them for what they really are. Its almost as if he can instinctively sense when someone is rotten inside. Once he has his sights set on someone hell never let them go until he catches them redhanded. Kyoya Iida is initially introduced as a man who loves nothing and no one not even himself. A cold calculating murderer who has no boundaries to what hes willing to do in order to corner his prey. Therefore a less observant reader might say that Iida has no sympathy for the criminals he chases and no concept of the value of human life. However reading further in will reveal that hes far more complicated than that. The reason Iida is so effective is how much he understands the minds of murderers and the importance of stopping them in their tracks. He knows the mentality behind why people kill the cowardice and the hate and the fear and that someone who has done it once is willing to do it again. He understands better than anyone that if he slows down and does it by the books more people will suffer. The fact that he knows exactly what goes through their heads means he shows them no mercy because of it. And most importantly he knows how thin the line is between justice and murder and he walks it with frightening confidence. The most striking thing about Iida is how hard his motivations are to pin down. Is he an ally of justice or a wily devil using justice as an excuse to indulge in his love of killing? This ambiguity is held very firmly and delibrately throughout the manga. https://files.catbox.moe/h7e3m4.jpg https://files.catbox.moe/3uscy1.jpg This makes him one of the most fascinating protagonists Ive ever encountered. I hung onto every word he said every movement he made. And even after reading the series twice what he thinks and feels remain a mystery to me. Everybody makes mistakes One strong point of Jiraishin is how the author uses the limitations of his artistic ability to his own advantage. Tsutomu Takahashis artstyle is not very emotive so the art communicates the emotional state of the characters through creative imagery. Scenes of violence are portrayed with bold slashes of ink against the paper turning them into sinister waking nightmares. https://files.catbox.moe/rt0ylh.jpg He uses two page spreads illustrated with a wispy dreamlike surrealism to portray a characters state of mind as he ponders over his bizarre cases and the dysfunctional people they involve. With each use of these two pagers time seems to stop with them. The author makes sure that you look at them and understand them perfectly before he lets you go any further. This does interrupt the flow of the story somewhat. However the abruptness plays up a strangely effective horror factor that I wouldnt have expected from a cheesy detective thriller. Despite being quite shaky at first Jiraishin truly excels in the art department once it catches its footing. As a matter of fact there are several areas where Jiraishin excels in ways that I didnt expect. For instance its deceptively insightful on heavy issues. It deals with the nature of animalistic violence in a supposedly civilized society how its sensationalized by the media which encourages it to spread. In a society where information is spread by mass production evil can be disturbingly memetic. For example in one specific arc rather than kill anyone himself the murderer of the week conspires to manipulate people into doing it for him. It also deals with the difficulty of dealing with the families of criminals and victims. They sometimes take their grief out on the police or seek revenge on the perpetrator. A lot of officers Iida included choose not to marry because theyve seen how hard it is for those left behind. When you have a dangerous job like that might as well make sure to minimize the damage caused by your absence. The difficulty of fighting crime while abiding by strict rules and regulations is explored as well. These restrictions and their effect on efficiency are precisely how Iida gets away with his blatant rule flouting. The big wigs cant prosecute him because hes the only one that can get results in a timely manner. Even with an unstoppable force like Iida its pretty clear all through Jiraishin that the Shinjuku police force are fighting a losing battle. Put one crook away and ten more will take his place. When peoples lives are in the balance hesitation could cost more than anyone could pay. Out of all the stories in Jiraishin Focus was one of my favorites and its also the most thematically interesting as it sheds some illumination on the narrative as a whole. In a country where war and death are just normal everyday occurrences its not particularly shocking. A supposedly civilized orderly society like Japan is where truly atrocious things take place. People dont kill each other on the streets of Shinjuku out of necessity or desperation they do it out of hatred and perverse excitement. Thats just as if not more sickening. Disgusting as it is its also fascinating in a strange way. The things that people are capable of doing to each other when pushed just a little are more bizarre and frightening than any horror story. And thats precisely what Jiraishin is all about. https://files.catbox.moe/lnwnk2.jpg The biggest flaw of Jiraishin is the wild swings in quality of the writing between each file. This manga is one of Tsutomu Takahashis first and is very amateurish in the beginning as a result. It begins to improve in both writing and artwork very early on so its not as bad as it could have been. However the inconsistency still remains. For every Mother of Crime theres a Dont Cry to match it. Dont Cry was appalling. Quite a few of the stories are deeply silly on a fundamental level. You ever seen one of those cop shows where it seems like the main character is involved in every case all at once and can seemingly show up anywhere at will? Its like that. Even with that in mind the inconsistency is weirdly fun in its own right. Whether its intense and badass or stupid as hell its always wildly entertaining. Oh and uh one more thing...... https://files.catbox.moe/ddcqbe.gif Actually nevermind I didnt have anything else to say. Have a good day stay classy.