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What is Busou Renkin?
Note: This introduction was written in 2004. A newer version, taking new developments in account, is available from the Story sub menu.
It's night-time. The gloomy ruin of an abandoned factory. And Kazuki Mutou, middle-school student, clutching his schoolbag to his chest, terrified because of what he just saw: A monster. This cannot be real, he thinks by himself.
He is even more terrified when that huge monster approches an apparantly unsuspecting girl. Dream or not, scary or not, Kazuki intervenes, he jumps forth, pushes the girl aside and - gets stabbed through the heart
With a loud scream, Kazuki awakes. He's glad to discover that he is alive, unhurt, and in his bed in the school's dorm. So everything was just a dream? How good! But the next day brings a few little surprises, like Kazuki's schoolbag having disappeared, or his heart hurting quite a bit all of a sudden, strange text messages on his cell phone mentioning a "new life"... Could this mean that maybe... just maybe...?
But it takes another monster attack to make Kazuki understand that it had indeed not been a dream. He did venture into the factory ruins. And he did see the snake-shaped monster, and the strange girl in an unknown school uniform. Then he did get killed, well, stabbed through the heart. This should have been the death of him, would have been, hadn't it been for this mysterious girl, Tokiko Tsumura.
She has a lot to explain to Kazuki. The monster had been a "homunculus", for example. A sort of bio-mechanic hybrid, which preys on humans, and disguised as a human, lives amongst them. They are creations of alchemy, and alchemy is also used to battle them. To be specific, a metal called "kakugane". This comes in hexagonal plates, and can be transformed into a weapon of the user's choice. Apparantly, the kakugane has other amazing abilities. In fact, what Tokiko did to save Kazuki from dying, was implant a kakugane plate into his chest.
Of course Kazuki can also transform this plate into a weapon, his very own "Busou Renkin", as they are called. His simple nature lets his Busou Renkin manifest as a huge lance. Tokiko, on the other hand, fights with a complicated and scary-looking weapon that she calls "Valkyrie Skirt".
But unlike her, Kazuki really ought to avoid letting his Busou Renkin be taken away from him. Because if he loses his heart-replacement, he will surely die...
A new life!
Tokiko tells Kazuki as much, and also makes it clear to him that she did not save him so he will risk his life in the future, fight the homunculi on his own. All she wanted was give him a second chance, she wanted him to live, to continue living his peaceful, happy life with his friends and his sister. Unconcerned by the secret battle going on between the alchemist warriors and the ghastly homunculi.
But of course, Kazuki cannot do that, now that he knows the truth. He would probably forever have to fear that a new teacher, the postman or a bus driver might be a man-eating homunculus. And can he really leave a small, solitary girl to risk her life all the time, all alone?
Would you take the blue pill, or the red pill?
Kazuki can't go back to how he used to live, and decides to dedicate his new life to the battle against the homunculi. Alongside Tokiko, who will just have to accept Kazuki's decision.
It's a mad world...
So much for the beginning of the story. Of course things will get more complicated for Kazuki and Tokiko, new characters will provide us with twists and surprises, will be loveable or disgusting.... Or stun us.
The story, as can be seen by the description above, comes in the shape of an average shounen adventure series, with a healthy mix of drama, action and gags. But be warned, Busou Renkin's humour might not be for everyone, because it comes in such different shapes. Not just in the form of funny-but-useless minor characters, super-deformed drawings and occasional slapstick scenes. Busou Renkin also features a rather bold kind of humour. Like making the first important opponent to appear be a guy with a butterfly mask wearing a rather gross gymnastics outfit. Busou Renkin can come across as rather freaky, if you look at the right - or wrong?- scenes.
Like naming an important, serious, and rather cool character "Captain Bravo".
Thanks to the daring character design, you never really know what to expect. There are huge, monster-shaped freaks, there are normal, human-shaped people, and there are those that simply dress in a weird way. All in all, it's pretty varied.
Rurouni Kenshin already had them, the freaks, unnaturally tall, or wide, or muscled people, with weird, unrealistic skills. This time, it's all explained by the fantasy genre, by "alchemy": No one ought to complain that a homunculus looks like a monser. It is one.
It's all so Watsuki:
The overall mood of Busou Renkin is positive, more positive probably than Kenshin's mood ever was. But this may just seem that way because Kazuki is a much more happy-go-lucky character than Kenshin was. He's only sixteen and up until the beginning of the manga, had been a normal teenager, without anything like a dark past or a childhood traumas.
Oh, but entirely without childhood traumas, how can it be a Watsuki manga?!
Yes, don't worry, there soon appear characters with genuine childhood traumas. So far, the good old rule also applies here: Flashbacks to a character's childhood deal with traumatizing, often quite terrible, events.
In Busou Renkin, Watsuki is showing his playful, self-ironic side. There are (more or less obvious) jokes about typical manga clichés, and some references to Rurouni Kenshin
Now the drawing style. Ah, the drawing style. After the simplified, less elegant drawing style featured in Gun Blaze West and in the last couple of Rurouni Kenshin chapters, it's good to see Watsuki developing into the right direction again. It isn't right to say that he has returned to the style he had circa around the 16th to 21st volume of Rurouni Kenshin, though this is what Busou Renin bears most ressemblance to.
In fact, there are a couple of new influences in the drawing style used for Busou Renkin. You can tell it's Watsuki, but some things look different, like the eyes and the noses. And it all looks totally gorgeous! I think it looks better than the bigger part of Kenshin! I just adore what became of Watsuki's style!
And as usual, there is no fault, no weakness, in Nobuhiro Watsuki's art. Proportions, backgrounds, clothes, people and items, movement, emotions, everything is always drawn cleanly and correctly. You cannot tell where Watsuki's strengths and weaknesses lie, what gives him trouble drawing; everything looks great. This is what I've come to admire about Watsuki, something you do not find with every manga artist: The constantly high quality of his artwork.
All in all... it's cool!
A fun manga, a beautiful manga, one to fall in love with. Pleasant because it doesn't take itself too seriously, and because it has characters you can really grow to like!
And yet, underappreciated, underrated. BR-fans are under-represented on the internet, instead there are a lot of half-wits who comdemned the series as "nothing compared to Kenshin" right after the first chapter.
Yeah, Busou Renkin is different from Kenshin. Busou Renkin isn't Kenshin. Nobuhiro Watsuki actually went and tried something new, instead of copying himself over and over again, a cheap way to ensure success, like other authors sadly do.
Busou Renkin isn't Kenshin, but what is it?
It's a fun, entertaining series, a varied mix of drama, action and slapstick, full of ideas, full of hidden and obvious jokes. It has characters that are easy to relate to, fun to read about. Combined with a great drawing style, this does sound promising, doesn't it? I can only recommend everyone to give this series a chance. If you like shounen manga, it may well be worth it.
written by Kaeli, November 2004