Gun Blaze West , Vol. 1 [Paperback]

Nobuhiro Watsuki (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gun Blaze West | Publication Date: April 1, 2008

In the Old West only the strong survive. Viu Bannes is a boy on a mission to be the best gunfighter in the West. When Viu meets a vagabond gunslinger named Marcus Homer, his desire to be the best becomes even stronger.  He knows it's his destiny to travel to the legendary land known as Gun Blaze West--where the only toughest gunmen dare set foot!

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up–Closing in on 200 pages, this volume seems much longer. In the first of seven chapters, Viu Banes is an angry nine-year-old determined to hold his own against the bad guys of the Wild West and become a gunslinger. Living with his sister Cissy, the schoolteacher, he meets a wandering gunslinger, a scruffy character who goes by the name Marcus Homer. Despite his huge crush on Cissy, Marcus decides to prepare Viu to travel to a mythical place known as Gun Blaze West. For the 10 days that consume most of the story, they train and are put to the test when a band of outlaws from the State of Arkansas in the West arrive in tiny Winston Town, IL, and start making trouble, starting with stealing Viu's gun belt. Five years after the climactic fight, Viu finally heads west in search of Gun Blaze West. Graphic violence and some strong language make this a better fit for high school readers. Drawn in a traditional manga format, reminiscent of Akira Toriyama's DragonBall Z (Viz Media), Gun Blaze West suffers from a slow pace and an awkward translation, but is a suitable addition for libraries that regularly purchase new manga series titles.–Sarah Krygier, Solano County Library, Fairfield, CA
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About the Author

He won an honorable mention prize in the Shonen Jump. "New Manga Hop Step Award" with the work Podomakku. Later, while he worked as an assistant, he presented works such as Sengoku No Mikazuki (Crescent Moon in the Warring States) and Rurouni-Meiji Kenkaku Romantan (Meiji Swordsman Romance Story). The serialization of Rurouni Kenshin started in 1994 and concluded in 1999. His hobbies are to draw, read, play video games, read American comic books, and make model figures.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: VIZ Media LLC; 1 edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1421518066
• ISBN-13: 978-1421518060
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,740,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Starts out promising, but is a letdown in the end., December 27, 2009

By 

Nicholas Hayes (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gun Blaze West , Vol. 1 (Paperback)

I loved Nobuhiro Watsuki's manga, "Rurouni Kenshin" and I enjoyed "Buso Renkin" as well. So when I saw that he had another series out, I picked it up. Even though I'd read that it hadn't lasted long, I figured that it was probably due to the Old West storyline; which is something that I've never really seen explored in a manga before this one. New territory is always a hard sell, and I set down to see what this "Gun Blaze West" was all about. The first volume and most of the second volume is really good. However, the end of Volume 2 and all of Volume 3 is where this thing goes off of the rails. There were some extremely bad design choices, common sense and style were thrown out the window, and serious anachronisms abound that are never explained to satisfaction. The series feels like Watsuki just put down whatever idea popped into his head without any thought to where and when his story was set.

**SPOILERS**
Outlaws dressed in knight's armor with jetpacks and a guy with a robotic arm. I mean, seriously? This is supposed to be the old west. That stuff doesn't belong in a western, whether it's manga or not. In something like "Trigun", some of these choices would feel right at home, but here they just feel terribly out of place. **END SPOILERS**

Sadly, despite the promising start "Gun Blaze West" is too strange for it's own good, and ends up being a disappointing mess by the end of it. I really would like to see a manga that does the old west justice, but it needs to be intelligent and well planned. Both are aspects that this story is sorely lacking. I can only recommend this one if you're a diehard Watsuki fan, and even then it's hard to tell you to pick it up. Watsuki, is definitely capable of better stories than this, and I hope to see him return to form in te future. As for "Gun Blaze West", skip it pardner!