Karakuridoji Ultimo Chapter 1

I don't plan to review every individual chapter, but I thought I'd give my thoughts on the first chapter from the recent Shonen Jump.

In case you don't know, this is a collaboration between comic book legend Stan Lee and Hiroyuki Takei (Shaman King). It's something of a big deal, and it's getting one of the quickest releases of any manga ever. It started just 2 or 3 months ago, and now it's already here in the USA!

The one-shot from a few months back took place in the present day, and was simply a big fight between the main character, Ultimo, and Vice. This first real chapter takes us back into the past, not quite to their origin, but to the first time they wake up. Dunstan (Stan Lee's past life?) is an old man traveling with a cart containing two large boxes. He gets stopped by a group of bandits who want to steal whatever he has. They open the boxes and they contain two karakuridoji (they're like mechanical puppets...basically robots) one which is ultimate good (Ultimo) while the other is ultimate evil (Vice). They awaken and fight each other. The end of the chapter jumps forward to the present and we see characters that look a lot like the bandits from the past, and it seems like, for whatever reason, their destinies have been tied with Ultimo since that day in the past. Well, they don't say that exactly, but that's the conclusion we're meant to assume.

This chapter showed some potential, though I'm not quite sold on it just yet. It's definitely better than the one-shot since this actually gives us a plot. And gone are the old school narration text boxes that were in the one-shot. They were nifty as a throwback in that one story, but it would have been grating if it were throughout the entire series. One thing that I really didn't like in this chapter was how they kept repeating the "ultimate good" and "ultimate evil" thing. They laid it on a little thick. It's the only place where I can sense Stan Lee's hand in this. Otherwise, I'm dubious as to how involved he is in this project beyond the core concept. Also, the motivation for their creation was a bit iffy (just to see whether good or evil ulitmately wins). Vice seems like ultimate evil, but Ultimo seems to be more a judge of goodness, rather than ultimate good himself, otherwise he wouldn't have been so quick to threaten Vice's life. I didn't get the sense of him being the kindest person ever.

The most interesting part was the ending in modern times. The idea of the bandits being reincarnated and tied in some sort of fate with Ultimo and Vice is interesting, and that's the aspect I'll probably be looking forward to as the series goes on. It'd be cool if we see them reincarnating several times throughout history and always getting involved in Ultimo and Vice's struggle. There's a lot of potential for a nice twisty plot with that kind of thing, so this could turn out interesting.

Takei's art doesn't seem to have changed all that much since Shaman King. If you've read Shaman King, you pretty much know what to expect of the art style, which is nice, unique, angular style. The action was pretty neat, and I really like their designs when they fight. Vice undergoes a full-body transformation while Ultimo's gauntlets (which have a cool pattern) transform into various weapons. Hopefully there will be several different types of transformations they can do.
The one thing that really bugged me was Ultimo's design. The fact that his face is slightly androgynous doesn't bother me one bit. I've seen enough anime to be more than accustomed to that. It's that shirt(?) he wears. No, it's not a shirt. It's a slutty club top! It's ridiculous. Takei could have chosen so many different things for him to wear on his upper body. Anything. The top could have a back, and that alone would make it slightly more masculine.

So yea, this is definitely more of a prologue since it seems like the real story will take place in the modern setting, but it was interesting enough that I'll keep following it.

Excelsior!!!