A brutal yakuza love story takes centre stage in Nezumi’s First Love from rising newcomer Riku Oseto. Nezumi was raised by the yakuza to be a killer. It’s all she’s ever known. Love is something she’s never experienced or even contemplated… until she meets an ordinary, hapless young man named Ao in an arcade during a hit. Suddenly thrust into the simple bliss of shared dinners, video games, and bashful intimacy, Nezumi is happy for the first time in her life. But her masters were never going to allow the dream to last forever. Now Nezumi has to make a terrible choice to save Ao’s life-and her own.
Oseto has got off to a promising start in his relatively young career. Having won the prestigious Tetsuya Chiba Newcomer Prize at the age of 16 and received several subsequent award nominations for Nezumi’s First Love including the 10th Next Manga Awards and 49th Kodansha Manga awards, he has already proven himself as a talent to watch. Nezumi’s First Love proves to be a great showcase of these talents.
This the kind of manga which disarms readers with romantic comedy alongside cute characters and then shocks them with dark storytelling and gangland violence. Nezumi is one of the more complex manga characters of recent memory. Raised to be a perfect killer, she nevertheless finds herself struggling with the consequences of the profession she has been indoctrinated into. Being exposed to what she could have in a regular life when she meets Ao throws her world into chaos as she finds herself torn between her profession and the normal loving life she could have with Ao. Oseto is not afraid to use the juxtaposition between light and darkness to put readers on the edge.
This is further explored in the art department. The cover of the opening volume makes a bold statement alone with the typically cute manga girl sporting a bloody knife and this continues into the manga itself. Osetu does not hold anything back when it comes to depicting violent assassinations and the seedier parts of the Yakuza. But at the same time, he proves to be a deft hand at depicting cute slice-of-life and romance which flows in a disturbingly natural way from the darker parts of the series.
Nezumi’s First Love is a strong throwback to dark manga of the early 2000s like Elfen Lied and Gunslinger Girl. Between the sweet romance and dark gangland action, Oseto has created an intriguing series that will shock readers and leave them wanting more.
Nezumi’s First Love 1 is out 28 October from Vertical (9781647294717, p/b, £12.99)
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