Wallman

Since this manga doesn't have any reviews yet, I felt motivated to be the first person to write one.

If I had to describe Wallman in one word it would be: "superficial".
It has great art and some amazing fights/action scenes, but the story... Really isn't anything special.

Wallman focuses around a man named Jirou who used to be an amazing assassin, known as Master Kuu, that uses wires to scale walls and kill their targets, also known as a wallman.
At the start of the story he retired from his job and is living together with a mangaka, named Kubota, wasting his days away in an apartment.
Until they take in a female tenant, Nami, who actually turns out to be a wallman herself. One night she messes up and Jirou and Kubota (who all of a sudden turns out to be a wallman too? This was actually very confusing to me) finish the job and eventually decide to become a trio of wallmen.

It starts of with them taking jobs from a Yakuza underling (who's name escaped me), wanting to stop drug trafficking, but around chapter 13 or 14 they abandon this and it focuses on Jirou fighting other Wallmen who want to take his title of Master Kuu, and Jirou wanting to be reunited with a woman named Beatrice (who was supposed to be his lover I think?).

Yeah, the story isn't really that engaging or memorable, and as you might have noticed from my explanation above, kind of a mess and hard to explain fully. It also rushes the story at times. For example a single chapter where they're training in the woods to get stronger, without it having any sort of conclusion and being back in their apartment at the start of the next chapter. Alot of the slower parts (like conversations between characters, or flashbacks) are a real bore to read.

Another aspect of Wallman I didn't like that much is that ecchi is actually one of the genres it belongs to. So you can expect alot of unnecessary upskirts, breasts, sexual innuendos and a very akward and unnecessary sex scene. To give you an idea: in the first chapter you'll have already seen Nami in tons of suggestive poses (with her underwear showing ofcourse). Imo this doesn't fit the manga at all and seems very out of place.

The saving grace of this manga is, as I mentioned before, the art. Which looks stunning especially during close-ups and several action scenes.
The best part of the manga starts at chapter 15, with Jirou fighting all the other Wallmen which are actually quite a colorful bunch of characters which I really liked. But as you might expect, these aren't fleshed out at all, they have one or two distinct characteristics/mannerisms but that's it. But despite that, these are actually the chapters that are the most fun to read.

My recommendation is: If you like the art, give it a try! It definitely isn't a great story, but it's only 22 chapters long, so there's not that much to lose ;) Definitely stick around for chapter 15 and onward!

It is a masterpiece on an artistic level, few works can be brought to its graphic height since Boichi is a true master of the drawing. And it is also a work that perfectly dominates the themes that it intends to reflect to become a sleeve of fast-paced action, overflowing sensuality and an unstoppable rhythm.

It is not a profound work, but it is tremendously entertaining, it has some of the most spectacular scenes that can be seen today and has enough plot to hook, and even leave the door open to a sequel, or a link with other works from the universe of Boich