Customer Reviews

Color of Rage

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Color of Rage has a nice cover and compelling premise. African man meets Japanese renegade and they go traipsing off together in search of their destiny. The stories reveal little backstory, and not much future either. The stories are pretty intriguing but never fully develop their potential. The lack of real character development leaves these rebel samurais a little hollow and hinders interest. While there's lots of action, this reads like the dime westerns of the fifties and readers today may crave a more spicy sojourn than a PG 13 tale. If there had been a stronger plot instead of just the wandering short story format, this might have worked better. Pick up an old Conan comic for more impact, or watch a samurai film for the true flavour of Japanese adventure...

If you like Lone Wolf & Cub or Path of the Assassin, you should like this series. It's a one-volume story.

Without going into the specifics of the story, the artwork is sketchy but drawn well, just like Lone Wolf & Cub although the words aren't as small as Lone Wolf and Cub which was a plus.

What's unusual about this manga is that it has a black man in the story living & fighting along with a Japanese man. The Japanese man teaches the black man how to live in Japan and about their culture as they go through towns to survive.

I thought it was real interesting and a great read. Bit different than most Samurai mangas I've read.

I rated it 4 stars because I thought it was a great series to read, although not the best manga I've read. In my opinion the best Samurai mangas are: Vagabond, Blade Of the Immortal, Lone Wolf & Cub and so forth. This series rates behind them, still a great read!

while it has a great idea this is easily among the worst books I've read.

the art is decent but not manga-like, it's much more western in style. the characters are shallow and undeveloped along with the many short stories that take place as they aimlessly wander from place to place with seemingly no purpose other than to enforce bad cliche justice.

the art is hard to follow from panel to panel and the story seems as though it's been written by a fourth grader.

Considering that I thought that "Lone Wolf and Cub" was a story of epic brilliance, this effort does not hold up.

The stories just did not resonate like those in "Lone Wolf and Cub" or "Samurai Executioner", which were written by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojimam. "Color of Rage" was by Kazuo Koike and Seisaku Kano, so it appears that Goseki Kojimam is a key collaborator.

Some of the reasons that the stories don't resonate with me:
* Narrative is not terribly cohesive. The stories are a little tough to follow and don't flow smoothly.
* Artwork, especially the fight scenes, is not as good as I've come to expect from earlier works
* Aside from the premise, a colored man in Japan, when such a thing would have been unheard of, nothing new was really added in terms of plot or story telling devices. There was ton of innovation in "Lone Wolf and Cub"

I also agree with an earlier reviewer who said that the cover is a tease and has nothing to do with the story. This is completely true.

Honestly, I would not spend the money or time on this book, especially if you have not read the aforementioned titles, which are truly excellent. And, if you have already read Koike-san's more famous works, don't tarnish your memory of those classic tales with these stories, which are mediocre at best.

For fans of Kazuo Koike, he of Lone Wolf and Cub fame, you will be disappointed by this truly shallow story about two slaves wandering throughout feudal Japan. Given the premise that one of the slaves is a negro, the possibilities are quite promising. However, all the tales fall flat and there are silly cliched statements about all men being equal etc. The cover has absolutely nothing to do with the comic. It is merely there to tempt you into buying this drivel.