Night Light Hounds Chapter One, Night Hounds Review: Gangsters, Vampires and Werewolves.

I am the kind of person who usually reads manga based off recommendations.
If I hear a lot of praise about a series, or the mangaka is connected to another one I follow (like with Centuria), I will check it out.
It is rare for me to just check out a first chapter with no expectations, but when I stumbled across the link to the first chapter of Night Light Hounds, I had nothing else to do so gave it a shot.
Upon finishing the chapter, I knew I just had to review it.
Night Light Hounds is written and illustrated by Haruhisa Nakata, a mangaka with experience in the industry.
He is most known for Levius, which I have not read so cannot speak about its quality.
I can speak about the quality of Night Light Hounds’ first chapter though and, if that is any indication of its future potential, then this is going to be really good manga.
Chapter One, “Night Hounds” begins by presenting the story’s setting of Silent Bay City, a 1920s inspired city ruled by gangs.
We see this immediately, with the first scene following a group of gangsters shaking down a business and attempting to threaten the owner into joining their protection racket.
The artwork immediately stands out, with the city and characters having a realistic style that persists throughout.
The business owner refuses to cave to the lead gangster’s demands, so he calls in the lookout, our main character, Jimmy, instructing him to act like he is going to kill the businessman to get him to cooperate.
This serves as a test for Jimmy, but he fails it, as his hesitation and compassion give the old man enough time to leap up and grab the gun from him, resulting in the gang leader killing the businessman.
While failing in his task, this also gives the reader plenty of reason to care about Jimmy, as we get our first look at how he is not a bad person but is rather forced into this cruel line of work by circumstance.
The gang leader is nowhere near as compassionate, punching Jimmy for his failure and ordering him and another gang member, Viktor, to dispose of the body in a shed.
However, only Viktor is allowed in the shed because he has the mark of the family and Jimmy does not.
Whatever Viktor sees in there clearly gets to him because he is prepared to leave the family immediately after.
He seems to almost warn Jimmy about what he saw inside the shed but stops himself.
Later that night, Jimmy is at the roof of his apartment, where he considers suicide, due to the state of his life, only to be halted by a baseball being repeatedly thrown to him, seemingly from nowhere.
Attempting to find out the identity of the thrower leads to Jimmy accidentally falling off the roof, only to be caught by a little girl with absurd strength.
In a humorous exchange, Jimmy has to throw the ball back onto the roof to get her to drag him back up, since the girl does not seem to understand him.
Over the next few nights, Jimmy meets with the girl on the roof and bonds with her, suspecting that she is an orphan.
It is kind of funny that, although Jimmy clearly comes to care about the girl, he does not focus on her absurd strength too much, and also fails to notice what looks like a muzzle hanging around her neck.
Still, Jimmy does act like a big brother, teasing her about the vampires she claims are at the gang’s headquarters across the city.
He also tells her his backstory, informing her and the reader of how he lost his parents, brother, and then became indebted to the gang.
Is it a bit too convenient for Jimmy to reveal his backstory to a little girl he just met so we can care about his past?
Yes.
But it gets the job done, and Jimmy even says the girl reminds him of his little brother.
Continuing the brotherly connection, he even gives her a name when he learns she does not have one: Lili.
Just when it seems Jimmy is set on looking after Lili, her caregiver arrives, a mysterious man in a suit she calls K.
Jimmy gets angry at the man for leaving Lili alone but he, in turn, calls out Jimmy, saying he looks disappointed knowing Lili is better off than him.
This may be too cruel of an assessment, though, as Jimmy saw Lili as having no one, like him.
He is most likely saddened by the apparent loss of that connection, and obviously insulted when K tries to pay him off with cash.
Jimmy throws away the money and storms off, which Nakata uses to show off more world building, as numerous homeless people begin desperately grabbing the thrown money, showing just how bad off the poor are in Silent Bay City.
The next day, Jimmy is still fuming about the exchange, while also being curious about how a wound on Lili’s hand disappeared.
His distraction accidentally leads him and his fellow gangsters back to the shed where he and Viktor dumped the body.
The gangsters go inside, leaving Jimmy in the car.
When he hears gunshots, he goes inside to investigate and finds the horrifying sight of his coworkers dismembered bodies, and a shadowy figure standing over them.
Fleeing the shed, Jimmy goes to the police.
Probably subconsciously leaping onto Lili’s vampire claim, he tells the police officers that is what he saw, only to switch tracks when he realizes this is not working and turning on the gang.
Unfortunately, the police are bought by the gangs, and they turn him over to the lead gangster, who brings him tied up to the shed, where Viktor has also been killed for trying to leave the family.
Here, Nakata shows off his artistry once more, as the gangster actually reveals himself to be a vampire, showing off his snake-like eyes, long fangs and enlarged tongue.
Revealing that there are other vampires within the family, the gangster goes off on a monologue, knowing Jimmy will tell no one since he is going to kill him anyway.
This proves to be his mistake, as it gives Jimmy enough to time to break free and prove he does have the guts to shoot a gun.
Jimmy nearly makes it out, but the vampire’s healing abilities and supernatural strength get the better of him.
He accepts his death, only for the vampire to stop dead, horrified at something on the roof above him.
Jimmy looks up, and we get the best panel of the chapter, a double spread revealing a shadowy wolf-like creature lurking above.
The wolf easily and brutally kills the vampire, and is then joined by K, who blows up the shed.
The werewolf then drops Lili’s baseball at Jimmy’s feet with “I am Lili” written on it, revealing her identity.
Although it was pretty obvious that Lili was the wolf from the moment it showed up, what with her previously shown super strength, healing ability, muzzle, and knowledge of vampires.
K tells Jimmy that they are the Night Hounds and will meet again.
The chapter then ends on another sprawling panel of the city, with Jimmy narrating, “This is how, in Silent Bay City, a good-for-nothing like me got caught up in a conflict between monsters.”
I am curious to see what K wants with Jimmy.
Perhaps he wants him to join the Night Hounds, given his connection with Lili and proving himself competent by surviving the vampire attack?
This first chapter also foreshadows potential future conflicts in the story, with the vampire working for the unseen underboss named Dorothera, who Viktor claims is going to be the next head.
Since the lead gangster was a vampire, it stands to reason Dorothera is too.
It seems likely Jimmy is going to find himself on the side of the werewolves in this conflict.
Overall, “Night Hounds” is a solid start to this story.
The artwork is great, its main character is likeable, as is his bond with the child werewolf, and it seems like Nakata has set up the future of the story nicely.
This was a great first chapter, and I am already looking forward to seeing where Night Light Hounds goes.

Centuria Chapter One, 100 Slaves Review: An Intriguing Beginning.

With Tatsuki Fujimoto being such a fantastic mangaka, it is no surprise that many people he has worked with have also done great things.
Tatsuya Endo’s Spy X Family and Yuji Kaku’s Hell’s Paradise are both excellent, for example.
So, when I heard that another assistant of Fujimoto’s, Tohru Kuramori was releasing the first chapter of his new manga, I knew I had to check it out.
The work is called Centuria and is off to a promising start with Chapter One, “100 Slaves.”
The chapter begins by introducing our main character, Julian, who is a slave.
We first see him rebelling against his abusive master, while narrating about the plight of slaves like himself, who have never owned anything.
The chapter then flashes forward to a ship in the middle of the ocean, which is transporting 100 slaves.
Some of the crew are worried about passing through a supposedly cursed area, yet their complaints to the captain are interrupted by the discovery of Julian, who stowed away.
The captain wants to kill him, but the 100 hundred slaves aboard are having none of it, with many offering to split their food.
It is through this that it becomes apparent many of the slaves are sick or elderly.
The first to speak up for Julian is a pregnant woman named Mira, who explains to him that since slaves cannot own anything, many of them value compassion.
Julian returns this compassion by polishing a knife Mira’s deceased husband gave her.
While he does this, Julian explains his backstory, stating that his own mother sold him as a child to a blacksmith who abused him.
Julian learned the craft from him but then escaped when it looked like his master was about to kill him, which we saw at the beginning of the chapter.
As the journey progresses, Julian and Mira grow closer.
Julian has never known the love of a mother, since she sold him, and Mira lost her son when she was enslaved.
And so, a mother and son type bond begins to emerge between the two in a short amount of time, which is a credit to Kuramori because of how natural it feels.
It even gets to the point that Mira suggests that they live together if they are ever liberated.
At this point, I said out loud, “Yep, Mira’s totally dead.”
All of the bonding scenes between her and Julian were practically screaming that she was a goner.
It was just a matter of how.
Sure enough, after the ship gets sucked into the area they were trying to avoid, the captain decides it is time to kill all of the slaves.
The reason most of them are sick and elderly is because the captain wanted to buy them at a low price and then stage an accident.
He would then get a big insurance payout on their lives.
This brutal sacrifice takes an unexpected turn, however, when Julian and Mira are offered a sacrifice of their own.
With all of the slaves dying to save them, this summons a supernatural entity, which says a sacrifice of love must now be given to earn her blessing of great power.
Julian offers to sacrifice himself for Mira to save her unborn child but, seeing her dead son in him, Mira refuses to lose another son.
Using the knife Julian polished for her, Mira performs a C-Section on herself, gruesomely saving the life of her daughter, whom she names Diana.
Trusting Julian with Diana’s life, Mira throws them one last, tragic look before jumping into the ocean.
Satisfied with the sacrifice, the entity now asks a heartbroken Julian what he wishes for.
Remembering what the ship captain said about their lives being worthless, Julian states he wishes for proof that Mira’s life wasn’t a waste.
The entity grants this wish, as dark cracks begin to emerge from Julian’s eyes, and he gains the strength of all one hundred sacrificed slaves.
Kuramori shows this strength in a frightening double page spread of the aftermath, where we see Julian has absolutely slaughtered all of the slave masters on the ship, with some of them even having their jaws ripped off.
However, just as Julian turns back to Diana, he is stabbed from behind by the ship captain.
But rather than dying, Julian heals, with the entity revealing that he has also gained the one hundred lives the slaves lost.
So, he now has 99 lives left.
Julian then kills the captain, before escaping the ship with Diana, while the entity destroys it, before telling Julian that because of his sacrifice, “The sea will no longer bear its fangs at you.”
The entity departs, leaving Julian alone to look down at his new sister, crying and laughing as he does so.
The first chapter of Centuria then finishes with Julian narrating that he has never had anything valuable in his life, until now.
This was a perfect book end to the first chapter, which opened with Julian reflecting on their being nothing valuable in his life.
Overall, this was a promising opening for Centuria.
It gave off a Vinland Saga vibe, but one with fantasy elements.
I assume that the story will follow Julian using his powers to take a stand against slavery, all the while looking out for Diana.
Apart from that, I have no idea where the story will go.
We know virtually nothing about the world, except for that it is set in a world with slavery and that supernatural beings exist.
Kuramori really could take the narrative anywhere at this point and, after this first chapter, I am intrigued to see where it goes.

Choujin X, Chapter One Review: A Promising Start.

Writer of Tokyo Ghoul, Sui Ishida, had been slowly hyping up his new manga Choujin X for quite a while.
Teasing us with some panels and revealing character designs, he did a pretty good job of getting us excited for his next project.
As someone who loved Tokyo Ghoul the first time I read it and has only come to love it more as time has gone, I was quite excited for it.
I figured there would be some announcement about when it would be released, but nope, it just dropped out of the blue.
It was a pleasant surprise to go online and come across the news that the first chapter of Choujin X was out.
After reading the chapter, and then re-reading it a few times, I can say that Ishida’s new manga is off to a promising start.
It does a great job of introducing us to the characters, setting, and themes of the story.
The manga is set in a world where super powered individuals known as Choujin exist.
However, given how they are pretty much only referred to negatively throughout the chapter, it is pretty safe to say that most of these Choujin are bad people and there are no heroes among them… yet.
This could change very soon based on who becomes a Choujin and who is hinted to be one in this first chapter.
Speaking of, the story begins with an eerie panel, which was teased by Ishida (seen above), which shows our main character, 16-year-old Tokio Kurohara, standing naked and rising to meet the gaze of a vulture-like creature with the narration, “It’s something of an affliction.”
How this opening imagery will tie into the future of the story, or if its just symbolic foreshadowing, will be interesting to see once we get more chapters.
From here, the chapter cuts to a plane, where a little girl is talking excitedly with an old woman about how she’s going to a fair for her grandfather to enter a produce competition.
It is here that the lighter tone Ishida mentioned he was going for can clearly be seen, as the little girl starts off stating how she would want use the prize money to help on the farm, before comedically going straight into dream land, wanting a mansion, a dog, a handsome husband and nine kids.
However, this is the writer of Tokyo Ghoul we’re talking about, so even if this story is going to be more comedic, there will definitely be dark moments.
This is proven when another passenger awakens and threatens the old woman, who the little girl defends, only for him to set the entire plane alight with flame, incinerating many people, including the old woman, and supposedly the little girl.
That said, I highly doubt this is the end for her.
We have seen the girl in some character concept art released by Ishida, where she is shown wearing the same military looking uniform as Tokio.
It is also later revealed that 200 passengers miraculously survived the plane crash, making me think that the girl either became or always was a Choujin and used her power to save the surviving passengers.
This could lead to her meeting Tokio later if both are captured and put to work by the military or government, although this is just speculation based on the concept art I mentioned.
Anway, following this attack on the plane, we get our first good look at Tokio, as he sees the plane crash from his seat at school.
This causes his teacher, who has comically large breasts and is referred to as Mrs Bazonkas by Tokio, to call him out for not paying attention, leading to some more comedic paneling from Ishida.
He’s going to do quite a good job with the comedy if this opening chapter is any indication.
Now, it is time to talk about how well he manages to set up Tokio as a character in this chapter, which sets him up as someone who doesn’t like to put much effort in and is vulture-like, seen as leeching off his friend Azuma Higashi by others.
Speaking of Azuma, he strikes me as a mixture between Arima and Hide from Tokyo Ghoul, a fantastic fighter who is also a great friend to the main character.
This is seen when Tokio witnesses a woman about to be raped by a group of thugs and calls in Azuma for help rather than getting involved himself.
Following a superhero landing, Azuma easily beats the head thug, breaking both his arms with a devastating kick.
After this save, we get our first look at the setting, a heavily damaged Yamato Prefecture, and given how Azuma says Choujin should do something good with their power instead here, it can be assumed that the damage is related to them.
This is why I think that there aren’t really any good Choujin in this world yet.
It is then that we get the classic Ishida symbolism, as Azuma compares Choujin to roly-poly’s, wondering if they gather under damp places because they like it, when they’re supposed to be used to dry places.
There could be multiple meanings to this, like maybe that Choujin are gathering in and destroying cities because they enjoy it.
I’m just spitballing, though, there could be another meaning to it.
In any case, this symbolic moment not only reminds me of a lot of similar scenes from Tokyo Ghoul but also the country and town mouse allegory from Chainsaw Man..
With the symbolic scene over, the chapter progresses back to the overall plot with the thug whose arms were broken by Azuma being given an injection, which turns him into a Choujin.
We are also introduced to Tokio’s father and sister, who acts like a mother to him, even paying his tuition.
Tokio also says that Azuma being popular makes him feel popular too, furthering the interpretation of a vulture who leeches off others.
This allegory continues with a flashback, where Tokio is literally compared to a vulture by the other children at school, while Azuma is compared to a lion.
Azuma, however, is there to cheer up his friend, telling Tokio how vultures can soar higher than any other bird.
Before this, though, Tokio says that he could have been a lion too and he gets his moment to do so in the following scene, where the Choujin thug ambushes him and Azuma on their way home.
We get some more great paneling from Ishida as he does a great job depicting the fight between the martial artist Azuma and the seemingly Mr Fantastic inspired Choujin.
During this scene, we also seem to get an explanation for why there are supposedly no good Choujin, as the thug goes crazy to the point that he brutally murders his own friends, popping their heads like balloons.
It could be that that becoming a Choujin drives the person insane and it will be interesting to see if Tokio, Azuma, and the girl from the plane (if she is indeed a Choujin) have to deal with this danger in the future.
As the fight continues, Azuma realizes he can’t beat the Choujin, who will almost certainly kill them, so suggests injecting himself to become a Choujin and have a good shot at beating the thug.
However, Tokio will not let him do it alone, becoming a lion in the moment as he offers to inject himself alongside his friend and stick by his side.
The following panels really highlight Ishida’s fantastic art style, as the two friends, lion and vulutre, point the syringes at one another and vow not to have any regrets, while a dandeline is shown blowing in the night wind.
The symbolism for that last point is anyone’s guess but the results of Tokio and Auma injecting themselves are interesting, to say the least, as only Tokio’s body seems to be reacting to becoming a Choujin well.
He transforms into a beastial Choujin, with a head like the skull of a vulture, and sends the Choujin thug off with a punch that sends him flying, before going to help Azuma, who has collapsed to the floor, ending the first chapter.
This conclusion raises questions about why Azuma was not able to successfully transform, like Tokio, and I expect we’ll get the answer, along with the answer of what happened to the little girl, in the following chapters, whenever those release.
Ishida has not set a specific time for when the next chapter will come out and this is due to him wanting to go at his own pace, which is entirely understandable given how overworked he was when he was writing and illustrating Tokyo Ghoul and Re.
Let’s hope he continues to put his health first and pace himself well.
Overall, I found the first chapter of Choujin X to be quite a promising beginning.
It does a great job at introducing us to its characters and the world they live in, along with the symbolism of the roly-polies and the vulture allegories.
I look forward to seeing how Ishida will continue this story at his own pace.