Manga Review: Ran & The Gray World Volume 1

In Just another attempt to make my wallet commit suicide, I picked up this volume that I had never heard of. Turns out, it is a new release by VIZ, written and illustrated by Aki Irei. This is the major work of mangaka to be translated in English for us western normies who can’t read Japan, and so I did give it a go. And oh boy, do I have some things to say!

Ran & the Greyscale Earth is a fantasy manga, which follows Ran, the titular character with shoe fetish. It is a story which includes sorceresses, Animorphisms, and run of the mill douchebags. And if you think this is all the summary I am going to provide you, you are correct. Let me be real and say that this read had something to offer for everyone, but it was not a pleasant experience. At least, not the first volume.

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So, lets go on this journey where I shatter your young hearts by verbally ripping apart your favorite (or potentially favorite) manga.

ZE POZITIBEZ

Ran and the Gray world Vol. 1 was an overly expressive read with a very small cast. It introduces us to Ran as she is hysterically searching for her shoes that her brother hid. Turns out she can grow up to a teenager’s body while retaining the same screeching 10-year old’s personality. This makes her appearance go from very innocent to very mature. And that, my friends, is a very good move on the mangaka’s part. Let me tell you why.

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Mangaka made sure that we knew this girl in tight shorts and tank top, smiling in your face, is 10 years old. Now, that fact makes a lot harder for a reader like me to imagine Ran into any kind of explicit situations. This evolution secures her position as an overgrown child, and I am not cool with that. Maybe its just me, because I can’t relate to all loli aspect of anime world, but it made me very curious for what was to come.

Moving on to the character designs, they all have a sense of warmth the first time you see them. When Ran runs away from home, the older brother takes responsibility to bring her back home. The paranoia that accompanies it is felt through his father. The joy of a mother who has a job overseas, coming home and treating everyone with a cake, was a nice visual experience. However, subtle actions like walking naked, and being a pompous douche also comes off easily through Outarou, but I’ll come back to him.

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Now, this may seem stupid, but the cover of the book is very visually pleasing. VIZ did an amazing job in designing the cover a little thicker than the regular manga covers you find. Complimenting the size of the book, a little bigger and imposing book feels refreshing when you held it in your hands. It was really impressive to see these kinds of aesthetics immigrate to manga.

ZE NEGATIBES

Okay… you know the drill. Just like any other volume one, this one had its shares of problems. Let’s get into them one by one.

The biggest grudge I had against this manga, is that the story is cluttered. It has way more pointers to check on an imaginary check list, than being focused. A correct way to describe its genre would be a ‘Fantasy Slice of Life’. Mind you, I only have Vol 1 at focus here. And that has one major job to set the guideline for the future. From this volume alone, all I know is Ran is a potential magical girl in a tank top and frilly hair who has to reach her overworking mother, while avoiding sexual abuse from a rich pompous ass. I mean, I did see Outarou coming on Ran from the first moment we set eyes on his bare bottom, but explicitly showing a full-blown confession out of him that he’d like to “do stuff” with her is, to tread lightly, a little creepy. In his defence, he doesn’t know her true age, but she is still a teenager, while he looks like discount Christian Grey.

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Anything which has sexual undertones, involving an underage individual, rubs me the wrong way, and I would willingly throw it in flames if I am told to expect more of this in the future. It’s the same grudge I had against ‘Ne Ne Ne’, and more or less its always a female who is deemed underage. I mean, is it really hard for this sugar daddy to ask her age, or you know, indulge in sexual acts with females his own age?

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That was one aspect of storytelling, lets go back to the family of Houdinis. One of them is major sorceress, who protects a foreign land where everyone has a boner for her son. The guildmaster, her husband, has no problems that his wife comes and goes whenever her likes. I mean, this is selflessness on the Shiro Emiya level! Her son is literally a dog, who wields fur over his shoulders like he’ll be marching on a GUCCI ramp, and Ran, the quirky child of the house who has no regards for her family, firmly establishing that throwing her out of the house would probably result in some good.

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This manga starring Female reverse Benjamin Button, Taylor Lautner, Maleficent & douche Hugh Hefner, is to say the least, pointless. Or! It has so many story lines that it just doesn’t know where to focus first!

Passing that hurdle, we come back to the characters itself. Ran in herself, has stereotypical fantasy teenager tropes. I have a problem when she sheds 40% of that and gains stupidity when she puts on her glass slippers. I mean, hitchhiking with boys who are thirstier than Instagram commenters, while she sleeps in the middle of them, is more or less a big question mark on her family morals. Like, is it encouraged to go on these retarded rampages, or she is not taught that asking rides from strangers is a bad thing? The same chapter includes the morphing truth of her brother, Jin. He rocks a coat made of wolfskin and transforms into a bushy wolf. But to me, that was one of the laziest aspects of storytelling.

Look, you want to introduce a new character, as well as a new quirk of an existing character. For this story that moves at a snail’s pace, you can do it in the same CHAPTER! Introduce Outarou, and make Jin look for her in his canine form. It would have been more interactive, and I would not have to nitpick the worthlessness of one of your chapters. Jin doesn’t even shoot lazers out of his eyes, he is just a standard human being who can turn into a fox, don’t waste your effort and ink on that!

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Lastly, I have a bone to pick with ‘She left for a pack of smokes but never came back’ mother. She has literally abandoned her family. She popped two children out of her and left them with her husband. Like, WHAT? I will be surprised if she isn’t paying child support. She is yet another strong female character with a dwindling moral high ground, or she has something more to preserve than her family. If you want to do this trope right, just look at Black Lagoon and get inspired. Prediction: She is not going to be a subversion of herself, and therefore will remain an unlikeable character with nice dress. Because forgetting address to your own home, WHICH YOU VISITED COUPLE OF DAYS AGO, doesn’t make me laugh. It makes me concerned.

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FINALLY: FANTASY GENRE IS A VERY INTERESTING PICK, AND I TRULY BELIEVE THAT THIS MANGA WILL THRIVE. BUT YOU HAVE TO IMPROVE ON IT DAWG. FANTASY MANGA HAS TO BIRTH A CURIOUSITY IN YOU, SO THAT READER REMAINS INDULGED. BUT THIS, THIS MADE ME TIRED. IT TRIED TO BE SO UNIQUE, THAT IT REFUSED TO FOLLOW A SINGLE NARRATIVE, DIMINISHING MY INTEREST GREATLY IN ANY FOLLOW-UP IT RECIEVES. IT FAILS ON WORLD BUILDING, BECAUSE THE EXISTENCE OF MAGIC IS ESTABLISHED FROM THE GET GO. BUT WHAT NOW?! GIVE IT A FIRM DIRECTION TO GO IT! ATLEAST GIVE US A MISSION STATEMENT. IT FEELS LIKE AN EXPREIMENT, AND IN NO WAY SATISFIES MY HUNGER FOR A GOOD FANTASY. IN SHORT, IT’S A VISUALLY STUNNING, AESTHETICALLY PLEASING DUD!

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SUGGESTIONS: DON’T BUY [AT LEAST, NOT ON ITS OWN. BUY COUPLE OF VOLUMES TO MAINTAIN FOLLOW-UP AND COHESIVE STORYTELLING.]

ART: 8/10

STORY: 5/10

INTEREST: 50-50

WAIFU: FATHER URUMA BEST GRILL.