Madness Volume 1 [Paperback]

Kairi Shimotsuki (Author, Artist)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2009

In 3000 AD, mankind is in chaos after a series of natural disasters. And it's up to the Catholic priest Izaya and his mass-murderer companion Kyou to save the day...

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Tokyopop (December 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1427816697
• ISBN-13: 978-1427816696
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #958,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mix of sci-fi seinen / action manga and yaoi (m/m romance) - 4.5 stars, December 13, 2009

By 

Brooklyner (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Madness Volume 1 (Paperback)

I personally liked Madness Volume 1. The art resembles me a bit of Hirotaka Kisaragi ("Innocent Bird", "Brother X Brother"), though not as refined. Still pleasing to an eye, IMO, and as a disclosure: the uke IS girly. The seme is a slender yet masculine and sexy "bishie", with the looks that are likely to appeal to many yaoi fans. The content has some of the craziness of "Wild Adapter" (well, actually crazier, no wonder its title is "Madness"...), though definitely not as deep or thought-provoking. Yet, we have more yaoi content here: sex scenes, however, instead of frontal nudity we see a barely visible "cone"..."use your imagination", so to speak. But there's gore, bloodshed, a lot of fights, killings, swords, and action. The settings are sci-fi, the world is full of violence, craziness, abundant sex slavery / prostitution. So, the content is likely to be disturbing to quite a few yaoi readers, who are used to tender romance and all that sweet stuff. This volume has over 250 pages, unusually thick for a manga volume, which of course translates into more content. It appears that the upcoming Madness Volume 2 [June 2010, as per Amazon] will be the concluding one.
As a disclosure to the readers who may know this manga-ka from her non-yaoi works: this is yaoi, i.e., it centers on the homosexual romance between two main male characters ("uke"/bottom and "seme"/top), and most of the sex scenes in this volume are of corresponding nature.

MILD SPOILERS:

The seme is a mad killer, and the uke is a priest, and he can help the seme change into someone better. There's a strong (and fairly "positive" if there's such thing in the world of Madness) female character, who's a killer herself. Some might dislike the author's choice of over-sexed depiction of that character (racy clothing and over-sized boobs), or wonder at a "typical" depiction of that lady's "redemption" by prostituting herself (aren't there better ways for "redemption"? but that lady really likes sex it seems, so maybe her choice does make "sense" to her...).

**end of spoilers***

What I disliked about the book is the localization, or quality of its US edition. The translation is quite good / OK, but the quality of images / transferring them from the original is pretty bad. And of course, no color pages. This manga-ka has a really "dense" artwork style, with a lot of stuff happening on each page, but because the transfer made it all so blurry, at times it's just impossible to figure out what's going on. Still, I don't regret the purchase, as I liked the artwork and unusual (for yaoi) action-packed violent story. I only wish the publishers be more considerate of their fans with the upcoming volume 2.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bloodthirsty Sci-Fi melodrama with an obnoxious lack of boy-on-boy, December 27, 2009

By 

J. R. Brown (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Madness Volume 1 (Paperback)

The price on this one is higher because it's slightly oversized, 270 pages instead of the usual 200. Strong on (moderately gory) violence but thin on plot, this sprawling would-be epic follows a cute, naive priest (Izaya) who is more-or-less kidnapped by the hot murderous criminal (Kyo) his father took prisoner some time in the indefinite past (or rather the far future, since the story is set in 3000 AD). Kyo is periodically amnesiac, and switches between his relatively sane prisoner persona (who wants to screw Izaya) and his mass-murderer persona (who wants to screw Izaya and slaughter everyone else). Izaya has the special ability of being a "suppress", meaning he can calm Kyo down from his otherwise-unstoppable bloodthirsty rages, usually by switching him into "molest Izaya" mode instead.

The story, such as it is, is motivated by Kyo's plan to make big bux by offing the other members of his infamous former gang of serial killers, the Madness, all of whom have large bounties on their respective heads, including Kyo (necessitating some remarkably transparent subterfuge). Along the way, they pick up two other ex-members, the cheerfully insane Oboro (who has a major, possibly incestuous, thing for Kyo) and the huge-breasted Miyabi (who promptly develops a thing for Izaya). Izaya is much distressed by the fact that Miyabi was Kyo's former suppress, which Izaya assumes to mean (based on how Kyo treats him) that she was also Kyo's lover. With all the jealousy, lustful longing and sexual tease floating around, it's kind of disappointing that the only actual sex scene is hetero and deliberately disgusting (Miyabi and a grossly fat brothel-owner), although Kyo's frequent attempts to get down and dirty with the duly freaked-out Izaya do result in some suitably 18+ foreplay.

Lots of blood gets spilled here; several other violent types attack our little group, and get messily dismembered for their trouble. The tone of the book is nonetheless fairly light, with shonen-manga-style wisecracking abounding and a sprinkling of slapstick comedy. Towards the end of the book, a rival gang of badnasties emerges, who also have plans to take out the ex-Madness (and seem to be doing much better at it then our heroes), and who are after Kyo in particular; a mild cliffhanger ending results (look forward to Volume 2 in June).

Shimotsuki's art is busy and heavily screentoned but mostly effective, with lots of improbable weaponry and excessively cool clothes. Her boys and girls are suitably pretty, her villains suitably scary, and the frequent combat scenes are dramatic and only mildly confusing. The translation is a tad clunky in spots, but the major failing of BLU's edition is the incomplete retouch; there are several places where text or sound effects have been all-too-obviously whited out, leaving ragged holes in the art. It's not bad enough to be a serious issue, but it is distracting in spots. If you are in the mood for a long but lightweight read with lots of bloodshed and can tolerate an annoying lack of boy-on-boy, give this one a shot.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wild but pleasing sci-fi Yaoi. 4.5 stars, March 9, 2010

By 

R.Parklane (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Madness Volume 1 (Paperback)

The previous 2 reviewers have given terrific comments on Madness. I thoroughly enjoy the mad and fast paced story line with all its fightings and violence. I like the wild characters plus one naive priest too. The pairing of the violent Kyo (seme) and the sweet Izaya (uke) is typical but this is why we love Yaoi. Let's hope their romance gets more developed in Vol 2.
Certainly Blu quality has much to be desired as the artwork is sometimes somewhat marred by substandard printing. But no complaint as we should be so glad they at least keeps churning BL/Yaoi titles.
My only concern is hopefully Miyabi, the female role, does not upstage the guys in Book 2. Nothing against Miyabi who is as mad and interesting, but this is Yaoi and I like my guys to take center stage. Looking forward to Vol 2.