Sanctuary

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Des alternatives: English: Sanctuary
Japanese: サンクチュアリ
Auteur: Ikegami, Ryoichi
Taper: Manga
Volumes: 12
Chapitres: 108
Statut: Finished
Publier: 1990-03-07 to 1995-03-07
Sérialisation: Big Comic Superior

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4.1
(15 Votes)
46.67%
26.67%
20.00%
6.67%
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Des alternatives: English: Sanctuary
Japanese: サンクチュアリ
Auteur: Ikegami, Ryoichi
Taper: Manga
Volumes: 12
Chapitres: 108
Statut: Finished
Publier: 1990-03-07 to 1995-03-07
Sérialisation: Big Comic Superior
But
4.1
15 Votes
46.67%
26.67%
20.00%
6.67%
0.00%
0 En train de lire
0 Veux lire
0 Lis
Sommaire
Akira Houjou and Chiaki Asami are childhood friends who have experienced hell and lived to tell about it. They arrive in Japan to attend school, and soon witness the corruption and apathy of the country's population. Enraged, Akira and Asami vow to create a new Japan; a sanctuary with a new form of politics, devoid of corruption, where people are empowered to participate in the politics and future of their country. To accomplish this, Houjou and Asami aim to conquer Japan through two dramatically different routes: the Japanese Diet and the Yakuza. Decided by a game of rock-paper-scissors, Houjou ventures to seize control of the underworld while Asami pursues the position of Prime Minister.

Sanctuary is a dark, political thriller that tells the story of these two friends as they attempt to change Japan from the inside out and create their sanctuary.

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Sanctuary 's review
par
lilkraken3
Mar 26, 2021
I'm not particularly sure where to start with this review as I feel like there's no real good place I can start but I guess I'll go with this:

Sanctuary is one the most 90's Yakuza/Political dramas I've ever seen, and is much in the vein of films like Branded to Kill or Tokyo Drifter. The reality of Sanctuary is punctuated with edge of your seat tense moments and crazy table cloth pulling moments, at least in their presentation. If you're not into incredibly the kind of manly/macho kinds of media that take themselves a little too seriously this manga is not for you. Granted at only 108 chapters long if that's the kind of shit you're into you'll have a great time with this.

Issues:

Now despite me having a fantastic time with this manga, there's some problems. First and foremost the women in this manga are only there to facilitate sex scenes with the main characters. Yes most of the time you see a character having sex it's with a prostitute so I find that to be excusable in that regard, but the female leads 9/10 times in the manga are fawning over Hojo and Asami to a ridiculous extent. "B-but they're in love with them!" No shit, they say that in every other sentence. It really throws you out of it when the only reasons the women in the manga act is because they're so head over heals for our two MCs that it becomes their entire personality; which is a shame because the relationship between Ishihara and Hojo could've been far more interesting than "I'll risk it all just to be with him!", and at least Bisset had some level of interest when it came to the end of the manga.

I also want to mention the side characters very briefly. They are either mildly interesting or relatively weak and sit on the backboards not really doing anything. Most of them are set up to really important and have a major impact but very quickly get relegated to either the grave or the main characters posse. This applies to everyone but Tokai. Tokai is great albeit a bit repetitive, but him being this mix of comic relief/serious Yakuza really works well in his favor. He's also responsible for like, 70% of all the sex scenes some of which are a bit... risque.

Aside from that I don't have very many qualms with the manga itself.

Pros:

I have to address how phenomenal the art is in this manga. It's a blend of style and realism that Ikegaki-san nailed perfectly. Characters displayed raw emotion without ever looking goofy, the fight scenes were always gripping, the character designs were too suave for their own good. each character had a memorable design and style that felt uniquely them even if it was formal suit and tie.

The story is solid, the antagonist Isaoka in the aboveground and the numerous roadblocks in uniting the underground were always interesting enough to keep me reading; along with the well placed twists and turns that I was taken on.



Before going into the ending itself, I do recommend this manga with the knowledge that it's a bit of a mixed bag and leans far more heavily into your opinions on Yakuza political dramas that really suspend the limits of reality. It was a good read and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this manga.


Spoilers for the ending ahead









The ending itself was also quite good in my opinion. While it heavily alludes to Asamis death I feel like it's left just open enough that there's the possibility that Asami lives but only as an inference that the reader themselves can make. I don't feel like it was too rushed and ended when it needed to.
Sanctuary 's review
par
Aceplayer2374
Mar 26, 2021
Sanctuary is a manga about two Japanese young men who grew up in tumultuous Cambodia, due to their parents being doctors. When they return to their home country they vow to forge a sanctuary, an ideal nation, in Japan. One of them becomes a yakuza boss and the other a politician. Together they will shake the world. Sound good? It did to me, but I was ultimately disappointed.

The two main characters are indistinguishable from each other in terms of personality. They are strong (and manly) charismatic geniuses who are perfect in every single way. One of them takes over a political party with a single short speech that was basically just him saying "fuck yeah, Japan.” He never really states too many policies, and we don't know what he really stands for, he just yells about change and the future. The other character is a yakuza that deals manliness rather than narcotics. A hitman sent to kill the yakuza guy was so influenced by his manliness that he did a complete 180 and he turned on his bosses. Dude's that good.

The themes are heavy handed and usually do not go beyond "old people suck" and "old people are not manly." This idea popped up more times than I can count. I'm not exaggerating, this is the biggest theme of the manga. I have no idea why this mangaka hates the elderly so much, but he could at least be subtle about it. He doesn't have to be like "hey grandpa, fuck you!!!" while waving his middle finger in the face of the over-60 population. Perhaps subtlety isn't manly enough.

One plot point is that the yakuza start getting a high school education and they want to make their syndicate a legitimate corporation. This alone should kill any kind of realism the manga tries to conjure up, with the art or otherwise. Most of the plot points made no sense, really. Politics is never that simple. It's never that easy for someone to rise to power. A complete reworking of the government never happens that quickly. A main antagonist of the series actually gets the chance to rise to power, but turns it down, which was a complete contradiction of everything we knew about his character before that. I have no idea how this change in his character took place and it’s not proper development. In the end, the manga wasn't resolved by intelligence or passion, it was resolved with an old guy deciding that young people were better suited for the job. Sheesh, I get that the young vs old thing is huge in Japanese culture and, by extension, politics, but it was just far too overdone.


The action, although sparse, was also unrealistic. At one point in the manga a man is fatally shot, but manages to get up, find a crowd of people, find a camera, and have a short monologue about who he is, who shot him, and how he's changed as a person due to the yakuza guy's manliness. Why didn't the guy who shot him finish him off? Why would he let the guy he shot hobble away? Who knows. He had a perfect opportunity, but it's never explained. I felt like this killed most of my enjoyment of the manga, because I've had enough of political thrillers and crime dramas that are completely unrealistic. The writing for this manga is often on par with the show Law and Order and that's one of the worst insults I can give.


The non-gun related violence (most of it) almost always consisted of somebody breaking a bottle over somebody else’s head. These people were always completely fine, which is incredibly unrealistic, but the dozens of bottle breaking incidents also make me wonder whether this mangaka has any creativity at all. Is there any other way to beat people? This manga isn’t about action, but if there has to be action scenes, they could at least make them a bit less boring and a bit more realistic.


Organized crime was glorified to a ridiculous degree. The manga hammered in the greatness of true yakuza over and over again, and when these true yakuza rape women it isn't really anything to split hairs over. The two main characters don’t have to bother with that though, as all women want them anyways.


Women are all objects in the world of sanctuary. Nothing more. They all just serve as fucktoys for the supremely masculine cast of characters. They all just need a nice dicking. Political opponents? Dicking. Police officer? Dicking. Employee? Dicking. There are only two recurring female characters, and they both abandon the duties entailed by their respective careers, just to get one of the main characters' dicks. I know, I couldn't believe it either. Did I mention how manly this manga is?


Sanctuary is extraordinarily superficial. The good guys are handsome (and manly) and the bad guys are ugly (and unmanly.) To me, this only accents the black and white morality, lessening the quality of the manga. I thought it would be interesting that the main characters are Japanese who grew up in Cambodia, but all of the Cambodians are portrayed as disgusting and funny looking. Sometimes they barely even looked human, and they were all portrayed as savages. There is a huge nationalistic sentiment to this manga in general, and it does its best to shit on everything that isn’t Japanese.


All of the characters' expressions are wooden and contrived (as the characters themselves are,) and they are recycled throughout the manga as the characters spout the cheesiest bullshit I've ever heard in my life. I swear to god the yakuza guy did that little upturn smile thing hundreds of times. Everyone had a couple of stock expressions and that was pretty much it.


This manga had many superficial aspects that tried desperately to conceal it, but at the core of Sanctuary is the wish-fulfillment found at the core of most harem manga. It's a much different take on wish-fulfillment, and I give it some credit for that, but it is poor writing nonetheless. I was also offended by the depiction of women and the depiction of Cambodians. Manga may not be the place to demand political correctness, but flat characters are a byproduct of these depictions and it really interferes with enjoyment of the manga anyway.


I enjoyed some aspects of this manga, but even when I did, it was mindless entertainment. Nothing with black and white morality can be a good political thriller or a good crime drama. I gave it a 3, rather than a 2 because it had potential, but it was ultimately a major disappointment. I wish I could say it was mediocre, but that would be too high of praise. I would say you should steer clear of it. If you hate it then there's no point, and if you like it then, congratulations, it's tricked you into becoming a misogynist. No good can come of it either way. Considering this, my score is a generous one.

Story: 2/10
Art: 3/10
Character: 1/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Bonus: 5/10
Overall: 16/50 or 32%
Sanctuary 's review
par
Ani_Love6
Mar 26, 2021
Sanctuary is not reality, but it provides a medium to digest in a readable way what would realistically take a lifetime. It is a passionate and deep story about how two young men went about accomplishing their vision of bringing life back to Japan, grinding through the piles of corruption that had stagnated the nation. The other favorable reviews have talked a lot about what the manga does well so I'll refrain from that and address some faulty criticisms.

I'd like to address the criticism that the women in the story are just "fuck toys". Most of the women are, but that's because they're prostitutes, it's quite literally their job. If not that, then it's because the women were attracted to the man. Then there are the cases of rape by a gangster (ex. Tokai). These are barbaric primitive men who are portrayed as such, Tokai even calls himself stupid. The story does not glorify these actions, it's there as a part of the story as it would be in real life with these criminal organizations.

In a story predominantly about 20th century Yakuza and the Diet it wouldn't be surprising not to have female leaders, especially since the story is mostly focused on the Yakuza. But the author does include at least two substantial female characters, a big shot politician from America Ms. Bisett and Deputy Chief Kyoko Ishihara. To call them objects would just demonstrate bias or a lack of brain cells. These were characters who weren't afraid to confront their enemies and speak their minds. Ms. Bisett does not abandon her duties as some may accuse the women in the manga of doing. When Asami needed her support the most she did nothing and stayed true to her role as "The Trade Minister of USA". Kyoko, on the other hand, does progress to fall deeper in love with Hojo and changes her attitude on arresting him, if she hadn't critics would still be unhappy that she didn't change and was a flat character.

The story is not about how old people suck. It just happens that the one's stagnating and corruption the government are old, because guess what they kept their seats for all these years by thriving in this corruption. The story is about the potential and momentum that the youth have for propelling productive change in their nation. It is against the stagnation of government by selfish politicians who care more about keeping their seats until they die of old age than doing something for the country. This is straightly apparent from the start where the politicians just use each other to gain support and climb higher for status, not for some vision for their country.

Even in the manga there are old people who are helping with pushing Japan into the new age. In general, old people are more conservative and the young are more ambitious, but that is not always the case. Hell just look at Trump and Bernie. If your take away is that young people are good and old people bad then you've read this manga with a single digit IQ. This manga is about uprooting the old systems that no longer work for it's people. In the end, it's why Norimoto Isaoka didn't take back his position and undo all the progress everyone made. Because he realized his vision for Japan was archaic and narrow compared to the "sanctuary" everyone had created.

As for criticism on how quickly things progressed. How could you rise that quickly, so unrealistic? I can see your point. But it is explained in part in the manga and towards the end there's an added reason why they must speed up their plans. You may not have seen in detail how Hojo got to where he started at the beginning of the manga but you have glimpses into his past, as well as Asami's. The important part is their journey from there to the "sanctuary" and that's what's depicted in the manga. If it is not as exhaustive or detailed as you'd like, you have to keep in mind there is only so much time to produce a chapter. It would not only be time-consuming but useless to include the mundane realities. If he were to really cover reality he would need far more time and expertise, all unnecessary for the purpose of this manga. Which was to give you a snippet of the "sanctuary". An inspiration, not a how to.





If you're thinking about reading this manga, do it. Enjoy yourself and take your time understanding each page you're reading. It'll make the ending much more impactful for you.


Btw Ms. Bisett is introduced in Vol 5 Chp 16.
Sanctuary 's review
par
CPsyche3_4
Mar 26, 2021
|| Manga Recommendation ||
(Above 18+ ..underage peeps stay away, Not that you would)

Manga - Sanctuary( Sankuchuari )
Authors - Ikegami, Ryoichi (Art), Buronson (Story)
Genres - Action, Drama, Police, Seinen, Thriller

Sanctuary is a seinen manga involving Crimes, Syndicates, Yakuza, Politicians, Domination, Parties, sex, rape, Corruption, Wars, etc. Sanctuary can be called Manga version of Godfather or Mafia or Scarface. The story progresses focusing more on Yakuza side and then on Politics side. Since i am still reading and at chap 24 yet was able to take place in my top ten with just 20 chaps. The story is progressing with a flow without any fluctuations nor it wavers me for a second.

Synopsis - Akira Hojo and Chiaki Asami are childhood friends who have experienced hell and lived to tell about it. They arrive in Japan to attend school, and soon witness the corruption and apathy of the country's population. Enraged, Akira and Asami vow to create a new Japan; a sanctuary with a new form of politics, devoid of corruption, where people are empowered to participate in the politics and future of their country. To accomplish this, Hojo and Asami aim to conquer Japan through two dramatically different routes: the Japanese Diet and the Yazuka. Decided by a game of rock-paper-scissors, Hojo ventures to seize control of the underworld while Asami pursues the position of Prime Minister.

Sanctuary is a dark, political thriller that tells the story of these two friends as they attempt to change Japan from the inside out and create their sanctuary.

Story - 8.5/10 The Plot contains Political and Yakuza crime, both polar opposites into one. The two friends trying to take over Japan in both side which contains enourmous power, thus being able to seize japan. Its a very unique and rare type of seinen manga. There are quite Plot twists that somehow you wouldn't expect, thus its unpredictability is a plus point. The Dark story involving seizing power doesn't come for free, thus there is lot of struggle and losses involved. It has showcased and well showed the surroundings and atmosphere of both Underworld and polical word.

Art - 7.5/10 The art is very maturish and realistic as you can see. The art has very dark and Gloomy background that accommodates the plot of the manga. The Characters are well-drawn and each has unique facial, though sometimes it was hard to differentiate but you will get used to it.

Characters - 8/10 The characters in the story are very unique and each has different personality that suits the character designs.
Akira Hojo - An ambitious young man working his way up through the ranks of the Yakuza. His goal: to radically reform Japan from the bottom up.
Chiaki Asami - A freshman politician determined to oust the elder statesmen currently in power.
Kyoko Ishihara - The new female deputy chief police inspector that looks into Hojo's criminal activities.
Reiji Tashiro - Right Hand man of Hojo and Loyal to him.
Tokai - Violent yakuza of the Sagara group. Admirer and sometimes pesterer of fellow yakuza Akira Hojo.Likes to have sex with random women in toilets. Mostly non-consensual.
Norimoto Isaoka - Corrupt Liberal Democratic Party (L.D.P.) secretary general who hates Asami.

Overall - 8/10 Thus i say this manga is truly for seinen manga lovers and who likes dark stories.

[ Infos taken from http://myanimelist.net/manga/1461/Sanctuary/]
Sanctuary 's review
par
aish_y14
Mar 26, 2021
Written by Sho Fumimura (aka Buronson) and drawn by Ryoichi Ikegami, Sanctuary is an engrossing epic that validates manga as a medium, it defines it; transcends it. In short it deserves the title of masterpiece.

Hojo and Asami seek to change Japan, to rock it to its very core. They share a dark past, and both have vowed to stick to the path they chose together, to keep rising up the ranks of society in order to make the changes needed to create a new Japan. One lives the life of a yakuza; the other the life of politics. What this manga follows is the path of these two extraordinary men as they machinate and manoeuvre their way up to the top of their respective fields, and it’s magnificent.

The story reads like a Takashi Miike or Takeshi Kitano film put on page. It’s a political thriller, a yakuza crime flick; it’s ambitious in every way. Its a rare breed, a mature manga. Mature for its depiction of adults making realistic choices amid difficult situations. Mature is relatable characteristics and personalities in a familiar-looking world. Mature doesn’t mean swords slicing limbs, it doesn’t mean aliens raping humans; it doesn’t mean super powers destroying puppies. Mature is dealing with topics and themes in a realistic manner, it means restraint, subtlety. Yes there is violence and nudity in this manga, but they are the result of adults with real motives, real conflicts; real human reactions to actions. Every single character in this story has a real consistent personality and reason for why they do the things they do.

The story twists and turns unpredictably as the two characters navigate their way through their respective worlds, continually coming across roadblocks and blindsides, whether it’s in the form of political scheming or yakuza thugs with attitude. Hojo and Asami continually have to figure out inspired solutions to ever-increasingly difficult problems, and their separate journeys are regularly mirrored with each other, and sometimes interweaved dramatically. Fumimura's saga is so full of depth its mind boggling. With dozens and dozens of storylines and hundreds of characters all plotting against each other, Sanctuary is addictive and compelling stuff that stays in your mind long after you've finished the last satisfying chapter.

The political issues at stake and focused on in this manga can also be of great interest to non-Japanese readers. Americans, for example, know all too well that unless you're a democrat or republican you have no chance at gaining power of the White House. More recently in the 21st century we've seen crusty old Japanese Prime Ministers resign one after another. The two main characters of Sanctuary seek to usurp the current system of Japan; that of politics being controlled by old men who oversee a system that will never allow anyone under 40 to gain any real power, and to even clean up the yakuza gangs constantly at war with each other, and their ambition is as great as everything else within these 105 chapters.

The quality of writing is at the level of novelist James Clavell in terms of handling a great number of characters and conflicts. The quality of the art is like a defiant middle finger at the state of mainstream manga plagued by cutesy crap and unending Super Deformed faces ruining every chapter. Women in this manga are actually drawn like women. Every set-up has a pay-off. Every chapter ends with you wanting more.

Sanctuary is a sanctuary from mainstream manga. If you want to be entertained from a work that never speaks down to you and demands you keep up with its pace while dealing with topics and themes that are relevant; then find this manga, read it, and spread the word. Turns out there’s a sanctuary out there for all of us.
Sanctuary 's review
par
_thunder13
Mar 26, 2021
Sanctuary tells the story of two men who escaped the killing fields of Cambodia as children into Japan to try build a safe haven for themselves. Except wait, they’re not actual Cambodian children. They’re handsome young Japanese children trapped in Cambodia because their parents were doctors. Don’t want to be like those smelly Cambodians with their funny coloured skin and wonky teeth. Asami, the glasses-wearing handsome young fellow, gets into politics to try build them their ‘Sanctuary’, while Hojo, the spectacle-less but still incredibly handsome young fellow, joins the yakuza to help Asami from behind. But not actually from behind because that would be gay and we’re too busy making love to hot babes to be gay.

So begins the tale of glorification of organised crime and laughably immature approach to politics. The yakuza is where men with honour fight for their turf. They don’t get involved with drugs or protection money. We just catch out people who are being unfaithful to their wives. And then we fuck their wives. Because we are so irresistible what with all this power and fancy suits we have. Meanwhile getting elected to a political office is easy. All you need to do is yell really loudly about how Japan needs CHANGE and the people inside are WRONG and we’re young and handsome and never mind that we literally have no policies whatsoever, we’re DIFFERENT and that will get us elected…actually maybe that’s not so far from the truth.

All right fine, I’ll drop the spitting sarcasm for a second. Sanctuary is sort of a cross between Legend of the Galactic Heroes, James Bond and The Godfather. The main appeal of the manga comes from the mind games and twists as Asami and Hojo try to claw their way to the top of their respective fields. The political battle is mostly about getting the right people on your side, uncovering scandals and proving your mettle when it really counts. The yakuza story is largely the same except with more killing. Getting people on your side, forming alliances and making speeches and shows of force to get the right people to follow you. Sanctuary is at its most fun when it embraces its more over-the-top characters and dramatic facial expressions. My favourite is the mind games between Asami and the big boss politician dude Isaoka, because there’s so much hand-wringing over every action and each twist is greeted by someone bursting into a room yelling “OMG OMG OMG DID U C WUT ASAMI/ISAOKA DID!?!?”.

The artstyle goes for a very photo-realistic approach with an incredible attention to detail on shading. Don’t let this trick you into thinking this makes the artwork great though. Because the manga is all politics, each chapter is usually just pages and pages of talking heads, with the occasional shot of someone opening a door or wielding a gun dramatically, or maybe some hot lady sucking one of the yakuza’s dicks because that happens an awful lot. After a while you start to notice that the facial expressions the characters pull don’t change a whole lot. Hojo in particular has this one pose of his head facing slightly downwards with a upturned corner of his mouth and a ‘come hither’ look on his face that I swear must be his exact same pose with exact same smile and exact same ‘come hither’ look in roughly 20% of his scenes. The art style does actually suit the story, with its masculine features enhanced and bedroom eyes, but it doesn’t have a whole lot of variety.

And then there’s the treatment of women. Whenever you see a woman, it’s because they’re prostitutes, or a sexy lady one of the main characters have picked up, or models the politicians are having sex with, or ladies the yakuza are raping. There are a grand total of 2 named female characters. One is the police officer who is supposed to be tracking Hojo but unfortunately Hojo is just so totemo sexushii desu~ that she abandons her job for him. The other is a female politician from America who’s over to tell Japan to drop their high import tax on American cars. Asami and his politician buddies are discussing how to deal with her, and one of them suggests giving her a good dicking and that solve everything because that’s how you deal with all women. And then THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT ASAMI DOES! He woos the American politician, has sex with her, and then she drops her demands and leaves the country because the sex was just that good.

The treatment of women is so baffling that it starts to create plot holes. If the police are really trying to get these yakuza on some charge, why don’t any of the women they rape press charges? Asami is trying to get the younger population to pay attention to politics, citing that they’re not connected because the diet is only full of old men. He’s gets half of the problem solved by being a young man, but what about the ‘men’ part of ‘old men’? Women consist of half of the voting public and yet nobody considers that maybe having a young woman running would get the younger female generation to pay attention? It’s here that I realised what the trick was: Sanctuary does not consider women as people. Once you realise that, everything falls into place. Girls to fuck are just part of the glorified yakuza lifestyle, along with good food, nice suits and fast cars. Women are simply not part of the political equation, and if they are you just need to give them a right hard shag amirite guys!

I read all of Sanctuary so I guess I did enjoy it on some level. The political mind games and plot twists were very entertaining in their own right, particularly because the story kept the pace fairly quick. Plus the politics got a bit better as the story went on. The policies became less ridiculous and more plausible, and when something ridiculous was suggested it was treated with the right amount of shock in-story. But it is a male power fantasy through and through. It’s the most sexist thing I have ever read, getting the otherwise completely dormant feminist side of me to go “ah come on now, this is just silly”. It also manages to cover plenty of other offensive bases like racism and glorification of violence. All those other wish-fulfilment harem, magical girlfriend, maid, super power, giant robot, chuunibyou fantasies shrivel in the wake of the amount of wish-fulfilment Sanctuary provides.
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