Customer Reviews

Rose Hip Zero, Vol. 1

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Kyoji Kido used to be the "Ace" in the Gaiji Division, a Special Forces Police unit that dealt with foreign criminals, but now he's a normal grunt in the Juvenile Division. He's been in that position ever since tracking down a Japanese merc terrorist squad called ALICE to England where they killed Kido's sister. He's tried to get as far away from the case as he could, entering the Juvenile Division to get away from blood and violence. Don't get me wrong, Kido is no pacifist. This chain-smoking smartmouth is modeled after Dirty Harry and likes to shoot first and ask questions later. His old boss has asked him to get back on the ALICE case because 30 high-ranking Police officers have been systematically killed by the terrorists and there's no end in sight. He sees Kido as the best chance to stop the killers. But he won't be working alone. He's going to be partnered with a 14-year-old girl named Kasumi Asakura,whose mysterious fighting abilities and expertise with a Desert Eagle pistol make her more dangerous to ALICE than anyone in the police special forces! Who is this girl and where did she learn her gun skills and how to pull off superhuman fighting moves?

This story reminded me a lot of the ADV series Anne Freaks and the character designs reminded me a little too much of GTO, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it and judged it on its own merits. The art is beautiful, sexy, and menacing when it needs to be. The characters are a bit cliched but by the end of the volume, Fujisawa begins to add some detail to their personalities. I have high hopes for Rose Hip Zero but it's a long wait till the next volume. It's cool to have two very strong leads. Buy this!

If you like this book, you should check out the Anne Freaks and Full Metal Panic manga.

As a Tohru Fujisawa fan I was delighted to hear he had a new series coming out. Well turns out he is a one hit wonder with GTO. This series is just plain garbage. You can tell he was really trying to make it cool, but one dimensional characters don't create interest. Drawing guns for gun's sake doesn't hold this series up either. I couldn't care less about the characters because there is nothing to care about. All flash, no substance, total garbage.

STORY: RHZ is a great action shooter manga based on a game. The story leads you in Tokyo, where the high police representatives are being targeted by a terrorist organization called Alice. All that is known about this terrorist organisation is that the members have rose tattoos and their leader is called Zero. The secret weapon of the antiterorist organization are it's ex member Kido, and the 14 year old girl -his new partner.

The first volume is more focused on the background stories of its characters, and the current sittuation (cops being killed) so there isn't much action going on. We get some action in the second volume as well more things get revealed about the bad guys. The action begins and it lasts during the whole 3d volume, and than it skips two years and things start to resolve in the following two volumes.

ART: As for the art, it's really great, the action scenes are awesome and done in matrix style (and you can really feel this). It has great picturing (don't know the exact english word) and drawings, also great shadowing. It's really enjoyable.

If you are fan of action manga this is a must have.