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%