Along with Go Nagai, Tetsuya Saruwatari, and Tohru Fujisawa, there is another manga-ka that I regard as one of my favorites. That man is Tatsuya Egawa. Egawa is responsible for Golden Boy, the story of Kintaro Oe, a 25-year-old Tokyo University dropout who travels across Japan performing different part-time jobs like working in a software company to running a ramen stand. He does this in an effort to learn as much as he can about the world and society. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be talking about Golden Boy. Instead I'm talking about one of Egawa’s other works, Deadman.
Deadman opens up simple enough. It’s the beginning of the new school year at Reiho Academy and the entire freshmen class is just as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as they can be. Well, all but one--Ryuichi Kurosawa, a tall, dark young man with a mysterious nature around him. It’s revealed right away that Kurosawa has returned to Japan after spending most of his life in London. It takes no time for him to become the center of attention, as everyone crowds around him asking him all sorts of different questions.
We quickly learn that Kurosawa is a bit on the eccentric side. In addition to his nonexistent appetite, he states that his favorite pastime is “observing humans." If that didn't make him weird enough, you find out midway through the first volume that he’s a vampire that can make women grow vaginas wherever he bites them, which happens to his first victim, Reiko Morishima. She also apparently loses all manner of shame as well, since she has no problem with indulging in neck masturbation during history class. Meanwhile, Kurosawa has a dispute with the teacher over the accuracy of her recent history lecture since she wasn't there when the events actually took place.
After one of Reiko’s man-hating friends notices a change in her overall demeanor, she immediately implores the assistance of the local hoodlum to kick Kurosawa’s ass after deducing that he’s the cause of her “girlfriend’s” change (If you couldn’t guess, Reiko’s friend is a closet lesbian). This plan backfires since stabbing Kurosawa with a knife is rather ineffective. When our female mastermind realizes it’s impossible to thwart our hero, she strips and offers him her body in exchange for forgiveness. As this is happening, who should show up but, Kurosawa’s homeroom teacher!
I really wish I could have enjoyed this manga more than I did since Tetsuya Egawa is the man. The problem is that this manga moves at a snail’s pace. We go through about five chapters of excruciatingly obvious foreshadowing before it’s finally confirmed that Kurosawa’s a vampire. It’s a very text heavy story, similar to later chapters of Golden Boy. Most chapters involve Kurosawa’s classmates discussing eating habits, hobbies, and test scores. There’s also the side story of Kurosawa’s homeroom teacher and the myriad of male colleagues trying to work their way into her pantsu. I’m one volume in and I can’t really see where this story is going. Maybe it’ll pick up with volume two, but for now, this is a sad excuse for the doctrine of infinite wisdom that is Golden Boy.
