Customer Reviews

Arm of Kannon, Vol. 1

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[IMPRESSIONS]

Hold on! There's softcore porn in my manga. It's kinda hard to believe that a horror manga like Arm of Kannon would have something as risque as that, but I'll explain about it later in this review. I had high hopes for Tokyopop's latest release, because the company's other horror graphic novels just couldn't get the genre right ("Priest" and "Pet Shop of Horrors" didn't exactly give me the heebie-jeebies). It's twisted around the edges, but unlike others who give negative remarks on this manga, it isn't half-bad.

Arm of Kannon's premise is a good one. In this day and age, where weapons continues to evolve, only one weapon controls all and can bring chaos to the world by the one who wield it. No, it's not the Ring of Power, Tolkien-geeks, though the Arm of Senju Kannon has its similarities. A secret organization wanted it, a mysterious young man from Isurugi temple wanted to destroy it, and both of them knew that the source of its wherabouts came from a teenager who has a thing for visualizing bleeding women...in the nude (that's maturity, for you). That teenager, Mao, is already having a bad day as it is: he had a wet dream in front of his skimpy older sister Maya, he got beat up at school, then his father came to his life after being AWOL for three years, killing his mother, and turning into a monsterous being that attacked and infected Mao with the evil power. Not only that, he and his sister were kidnapped by the organization to use Mao as a test subject to further their research on why us humans have "lizard genes." Oh, and the organization has the technology to turn humans into lizard people.

This has a wonderful art setting that seem to bring back 80s nostalgia. Otherwise, Arm of Kannon has one of the lousiest character designs I've ever seen. Characters seem basic and sometimes sketchy, and talk about their hairdos. Mao's hair kind of looks like me when I have bedhair, and by the way, Maya, Elvira called, she needs her wig back. The monsters look good, but compare to the ones from "Berserk", they have a lot to be desired.

From the monsters come to one's mind: Arm of Kannon is DEFINITELY not for everyone. Tokyopop really takes its mature rating by the name. Not only is this manga bloody and violent in the most off-the-wall scale, but so is the sexual activities. Panty shots are to be expected, but there's this one scene when Mao is captured and was taken in to the laboratory, he was naked and a female scientist wanted to see if he contains the power of the Arm of Senju Kannon by...let's just say, I didn't see that comming (Oh great, I just did a sex joke in a review). There's a primary flaw behind Arm of Kannon, and that it's too one-sided. I'm mostly seeing the Isurugi warrior fighting one bad guy after another, and so much action scenes beg me more depth in the manga's storyline. Plus the action scenes aren't exciting, either.

Bad art design and tedious scenarios kind of dulls down the exictment that this manga has with its premise, and to the fact that this is more close to the gross-out factor, than the actually fear factor that I expected. Arm of Kannon isn't bad, but this isn't the psychological horror title I'm looking for.

Mao is a teenager. His sister, mother and himself were left by his archeologist father several years ago. But one day as he and his sister are attacked by thugs, they are rescued by a mysterious super-warrior from Isurugi temple. He claims to be their bodyguard.

Then Mao discovers that his father has returned. He is an emaciated shell of his former self. He apparently went looking for a powerful artifact called the Arm of Senju Kannon, which he found and became possessed by. Now he wants to share it with his son. Mao makes some disturbing discoveries and is soon abducted by a secret research facility.

At the facility, they have been working on turning men into monsters using the unused DNA hidden away in everyone, especially the reptile DNA. They are very interested in Mao, the Arm and how it may have effected them.

This first volume is the only one so far without a parental warning and, oddly, has the most explicit scenes in the series so far. Although the series is called "The Arm of Kannon", the artifact is always referred to as the Arm of Senju Kannon. I have read the first several volumes and unlike other reviewers seen no similarity to "Overfiend" although the story of a weapon (sword, gauntlet, knife, etc.) that possesses its user is not new, this book pulls out most of the stops. While not the best horror comic I have read, it earns the title of horror better than most titles currently being written.

It's been 3 years since Mao and Mayo Mikami's father, a respected archeaologist disappeared mysteriously after he found an ancient Buddhist relic named the Arm of Kannon. It holds great power which the government wishes to use to transform ordinary soldiers into demonic death machines. The problem is that the Arm cannot be controlled once its power is unleashed into the world. It seems that everyone is interested in finding Mao and Maya's father, including a mysterious superhero-like swordsman who shows up to save them from a street gang, claiming that he is their bodyguard. Can even he save them from the Arm and the equally evil government?

The Arm of Kannon succeeds on some levels but not on others. If you like the dark sexual horror of Clive Barker mixed with equal parts squish in the dark H.P. Lovecraft you would probably like this. It does have a disquieting atmosphere and is definately recommended for 18 and older because there is some very graphic sexual scenes in it. It's too early to tell whether the series will get better. The swordsman seems to be the most interesting while the brother and sister just seem the stock victims of powers beyond their control. Hopefully Maya will become stronger. Also, the monsters in the manga are almost laughable sometimes reminding one of goofy looking monster antagonists from a Godzilla movie.

When I first viewed the "Arm of Kannon" sitting so innocently upon the shelf of a Border's book store, I'd hoped that the title would have something utterly devious and be irreplaceably mixed up in battles centered around the Boddhisatva Kwannon (known to many as the Asian "Goddess of Mercy"). Being an enormous fan of the anime "Doomed Megalopolis", I was really hoping this would be a similarly serious anime that concerned Kwannon and her all pure benevolence. However, now I know that I was almost treated to an uninteresting and derivative tale concerning an apathetic teenager and his panty flashing sister. It's a good thing I stacked the book after reading the first few pages because, judging from the plot, it simply gets more and more pathetic. Honestly, I was expecting a mature with mature characters and a complex and deep plot. Instead I get sex, violence, off-leading comedy and more sex. It goes farther and farther from Kwannon and purity, when it should be attempting to weave itself closer to there.

When I saw the first page of this, my hopes changed to accodomate the content. I thought that since they had the artistic liscense (with the 18+ rating), they have the potential for forming a really personal and thoughtful plot that would appeal to those primary adolescent male readers who would buy this manga, right? "Doomed Megalopolis" was a 17+ anime and still, that is one of the most powerful anti-violence stories that I have ever viewed. I went along with this speculation for my intial reading experience and eventually produced my first interpretation of the plot:

A young 16 year old boy named Mao is having a erotic dream about his older sister. He wakes up screaming her name and she comes rushing in to calm him down. She decides to lie in bed with him to make him feel better, but consequentally discovers that he had a wet dream. She giggles at him like a normal teenage girl and then leaves, completely oblivious to the fact that he was eroticizing about her. Meanwhile, there is an unnamed swordsman with ridiculous hair going around slicing up demons around Shinjuku's streets in the middle of the night. The next day, Mao and Maya go to their new school but unfortunately stumble into a gang of nasty thugs. However, the swordsman intervenes and sends the thugs fleeing for their lives. He makes several sensual passes at Maya, while making his case about how he's been assigned to be Mao's bodyguard. After feeling up Maya on all possible angles, the swordsman disappears into the street. A monk arrives at that moment and immediately tells Mao that the swordsman who just left was indeed Mao and Maya's father.

At first it seems to be about incest to the extreme and a boy's internal conflict over the innate lust he has for his sister.

This is not what the story's about at all.

Apparently, I was completely wrong and eventually I discover that the real plot does not concern incest, as much as it concerns sex. The father is not the swordsman but rather an old man who turns into a monster after finding the "Arm of Senju Kannon". Mao was not fantasizing about his sister, but was apparently fantasizing about some unknown woman with a bleeding scar in her belly. Oh thanks, Yamaguchi. Your art is so great; every female character looks exactly the same. They might as all well be Mao's sister! Furthermore, the story absolutely has nothing to do with Kwannon or monks at all. The Arm of Kannon is evil in this tale; which makes no sense! How could the arm of a Goddess of Mercy possibly be corrupt!? Kwannon is divine and pure on all accounts, and associating her benevolence with a monstrosity like this arm is not only offensive to Buddhism. From an intellectual standpoint, its just plain stupid! It's like saying the Virgin Mary's veil would turn a person into Darth Vader or something like that. On top of that, there's this oblivious government agency which wants to collect the Arm of Kannon for themselves and exploit it's fantastic power. Secret government agency...now that's an "original" idea. It really doesn't get any better from there. Also, since I didn't understand it the first time; it proves that the story doesn't really hold well together in the first place.

This could have been a story about Kwannon! This could have been a story about the turmoils of male sexuality! This could have been all tied together with Maya becoming a Bodhissatva who morphs into Kwannon, or something like that (which would explain why she's so attractive to her relatives). Instead we get some dumb, derivative junk plot which justs goes to show me that anime is not a very unique form of expression at all.

In addition, the actual dynamic art in this book is pathetically generic and lame. The battle scenes are drawn with very lousy transitions which make the action feel like it's not moving at all. For example, the first battle between the swordsman and the monster feels like it's finished in three panels. A picture of the swordsman, a picture of the monster, and a picture of the dead monster. How exciting. "Hellsing" has much more fantastic and dramatic action with amazing transitions and a very smooth flow! Kohta Hirano should have done this manga; then at least it would have been more exciting.

So the art's not so great. If the story was unique, then I could forgive this manga. However, even that goes to hell too after the first few pages. A story about Kwannon deserves much better than this. I have a suggestion; get rid of the teenagers and throw in the monks. "Doomed Megalopolis" was a fantastic anime about priests and demons, and that had a perfect representation of Kwannon. My mistake was that I came in here expecting another "Doomed Megalopolis" and instead was presented with "Goofy Manga meets Legend of the Overfiend with Angsty Teenager. Watch "Doomed Megalopolis"; it's a much more serious story and honestly represents what Kwannon is supposed to symbolize. Thank you Yamaguchi, but I'll worship Kuan-Yin in my own way.

Arm of Kannon Vol.1 is an enjoyable book with a very good story centered around Mao, a child who was abandoned by his father three years ago to search for an artifact, who is pursued by a group after the relic. Other than that, the first half of the story is relatively dull. The Arm of Kannon infected his father's soul, and so when he returns to his home, and finally meets his father, the story begins its violent swoop. Here's where a portion of the M rating comes in: Mao discovers his mother's body inside of the fridge, her head severed and blood leaking from the machine. Later in the scene, although it is a very small picture, after Mao's father transforms into a beast, he rapes him. When Mao is captured, tests are run on him, and there is a scene which involves the woman scientist taking a sperm sample, and they show it. The battle scenes aren't terribly exciting, but the artwork makes up for it, and it makes you want to continue reading the book. I personally don't think this is as bad a manga as previous reviewers have stated, but it's little more than mediocre.

I picked this up during a vacation to occupy some time. I read the back of the book at the store thinking it might be interesting. Like the title of my review said, it was an odd manga. Its a dark manga if anything but i enjoyed it. The few sexual scenes weren't completely vital the the story, but they really didn't take much away from the manga. One thing I did like about it was the plot/story. Its definitely a story that you won't have read before. If you like darker manga then pick this one up, but if you're a "happy-manga" reader, this isn't going to be one of your top ten.

This is a review of vol 1 and 2. This is one of the worst manga I have ever read for 2 main reasons - the characters are absolute cardboard cutouts, and the plot is totally unoriginal. The fact that the books are very quick to read through and so don't give good value for the dollar, and the art is rather bad didn't help either. I agree with the reviewer that the plot and overall feel of the book reminded me of Legend of the Overfiend, but with a weaker plot, and even less engaging characters if that is possible. When it can be said that a porn movie (because that is basically what Legend of the Overfiend is) has better plot and characters, you know you are in trouble. Also, for those looking for titilation, you won't find too much - there isn't a lot of sex/nudity here - Battle Royale vol 3 for instance has 10 times more sex than these 2 volumes put together.

A young man's father has discovered a mysterious relic of awesome power that can change the destiny of the world. The government wants to possess it, and a mystical Buddhist warrior must destroy it. Wow, what a great premise! Too bad this comic ends up being a dull and disjointed cross between Urotsukidoji and the Guyver. Learn from my mistake and avoid this one...

not only did i waste my money on vol. 1 of the arm of kannon, but for some reason when i was at the book store i bought the first three volumes. bad choice. this manga sucks. first off, the story is kind of interesting, however the author didnt put it together very well, and when the dialouge and drawing is lame, then you're not in for an enjoyable time. the art is quite dark and spastic, but it isnt used tastfully at all. the action scenes are pretty boring, nothing you've never seen and alot of times its pretty hard to tell whats going on. there also is a fair bit of nudity, not used tastfully at all either. by tastfully i dont mean make it prudish, i just mean use it where its needed and dont just throw it in the comic because your story and characters suck. overall a boring book, as are the following volumes.