365 Days of Manga, Day 113: Guilstein

GUILSTEIN (Jûseiki Guilstein, “Beast Star Record Guilstein”) (獣星記ギルステイン) • Naoyuki Sakai (story), Hisao Tamaki (art) • Uclick Mobile (2006-ongoing) • Shogakukan (Shônen Sunday GX, 2001-2002) • 4 volumes • Shônen Science Fiction Tokusatsu Action • Unrated/13+ (mild language, graphic violence, brief partial nudity)
The first manga translated solely in cellphone format (although it was originally printed in a regular manga magazine in Japan), Guilstein is the tie-in for the untranslated Guilstein anime movie. In the near future, 15-year-olds have begun transforming into vicious muscular monsters, apparently due to a mysterious virus. Iori, a teenager troubled by dreams of a strange girl, catches the virus but is able to control his transformations, “battling the monster inside his soul” and fighting other teenagers who have turned into killing machines. Who is his mysterious dream girl? And will the ruthless scientist Dr. Helena be able to use Iori to find a cure and stop the American military’s sinister plan? Tamaki has an energetic cartoony style (similar to Akihiro Ito), dramatic action scenes, and bug-like, spiky monsters which look like American action figures. (The monsters were designed by Yasushi Nirasawa.) The opening chapters are the most intriguing, with a (probably consciously) Evangelion-ish flavor of apocalyptic adolescent angst, but the later chapters become formulaic, turning into a series of superhero-esque scenarios and clashes between Iori and his clichéd arch-rival. Throughout it all, Tamaki’s art is good, but his dynamic storytelling is hamstrung by the cellphone formatting; comics for print, apart from newspaper-style strips, don’t transfer to cellphone without losing a lot of their flow and ease of reading. The English edition is censored for nudity.

Today’s winner is Gene V. of Missouri. Congratulations, Gene!