Ice Blade

Ice Blade (地雷震, Jiraishin, lit. Earth-Lightning-Quake or Land mine-Shiver) is manga series written and illustrated by Tsutomu Takahashi, published in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine from 1992 to 1999.[1] In 2008, it was announced by Monthly Afternoon's October issue that a new Jiraishin series would be in the magazine good! Afternoon and would be known as Jiraishin Diablo,[2] which was serialized in said magazine from 2010 to 2011.

Ice Blade
Japanese cover of Jiraishin volume 1. The cover features Kyoya Ida.
地雷震
(Jiraishin)
Manga
Written byTsutomu Takahashi
Published byKodansha
English publisher
Tokyopop (dropped)
MagazineMonthly Afternoon
English magazine
DemographicSeinen
Original run1992 – 1999
Volumes19
Manga
Jiraishin Diablo
Written byTsutomu Takahashi
Published byKodansha
Magazinegood! Afternoon
DemographicSeinen
Original run2010 – 2011
Volumes3

The story follows Kyoya Ida, a plainclothes police officer, and his colleagues at the Shinjuku Police Department as they investigate and solve crimes in the Greater Tokyo Area. Sometimes, these crimes are solved with some prices to pay. Later on in Diablo, it portrays Ida and his interactions with various people after his absence from the force due to an eye disease while getting wind of mysterious deaths of villagers living in the fictional Amakura Island in Japan's Ishikawa Prefecture in the year 2008 while assisting a police detective in initially trying to figure out who or what was responsible for their deaths after it was reported back in 2007.

Plot
See also: List of Jiraishin characters

Jiraishin: Ice Blade

Kyoya Ida is a hard-nosed detective from the Shinjuku Police precinct, known to use lethal force to solve cases whenever they need to be solved. He works in a bleak, gritty representation of Shinjuku alongside his partner Tsuyoshi Yamaki in hunting down suspects and arresting them before he was killed in the line of duty. Ida was later assigned to another partner named Eriko Aizawa, the two working together to solve cases pertaining to the city's interests.

Jirashin Diablo

In the year 2008, Ida was beginning to suffer from the effects of Keratoconus after leaving the police force. He later gets wind of mysterious deaths of an unknown plague that killed the villagers in Ishikawa Prefecture's Amakura Island when he meets up with Taichi Kogure, a detective of the Ishikawa Police precinct and a now grown up Aya Koike, who is a known information handler in the underworld.

Publication
See also: List of Jiraishin chapters

The manga was serialized in Monthly Afternoon[3] and compiled into 19 volumes published by Kodansha, which started from October 23, 1993[4] to January 21, 2000[5] with the first three volumes sold for 509 Yen before the rest were sold for 530 Yen. Reprints came with 10 volumes in bunkoban from May 9, 2003[6] to September 12, 2003 for 798 Yen[7] with another reprint in aizoban from February 23, 2009[8] to November 20, 2009 for 1,000 Yen.[9] The North American version of the manga, retitled Ice Blade, was serialized in Tokyopop's MixxZine,[10][11] but it was discontinued after three volumes.[12] When Jiraishin was serialized as Ice Blade in MixxZine, there were instances of censorships in some of its panels as it was a new magazine when it was released and did not wish to offend potential distributors.[13] For France and French-speaking countries/territories, Génération Comics was the publisher[14] before it was taken over by Panini Comics.[15] For Italy, Stars Comics published all 19 volumes.[16] In Germany and German-speaking countries and territories, Carlsen Comics was the publisher.[17] In South Korea, Samyang Comics published Jiraishin in its entirety.[18] In Taiwan, it was published by Tong Li Comics under the Youth Comic series label.[19]

Jiraishin Diablo was serialized in good! Afternoon magazine[20] and compiled in three volumes.[21][22][23]

Reception

Cassiel Kelner of Aesthesticism.com praised the manga as a study on human nature, "reminding [readers] just what people really are capable of".[24] Serdar Yegulalp of Advanced Media Network compares Jiraishin to 'Miami Vice as the "blood, grit, and sin spatter so thickly that it’s a miracle you don’t get your fingers dirty when you turn the pages".[25]

It won an award in the General Category under the 23rd Kodansha Manga Awards in 1999.[26]

References
  1. "Look! It Moves! by Adi Tantimedh #14 – When The Angel Of Death Carries A Badge". Bleeding Cool. 2009-08-31. Retrieved 2010-01-15.
  2. "Takahashi's Ice Blade Manga to Relaunch in Japan". Anime News Network. 2008-08-25. Retrieved 2010-01-15.
  3. 地雷震（１） (in Japanese). Kodansha Comics. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  4. 地雷震（１） (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  5. 地雷震（１９） (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  6. 地雷震（１） - 漫画文庫 (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  7. 地雷震（１０） - 漫画文庫 (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  8. 新装版 地雷震（１） (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  9. 新装版 地雷震（１０） (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  10. Roderick "Agitator" Lee. "mixxzine". EX. Archived from the original on 2010-02-04. Retrieved 2010-01-15.
  11. Adam "OMEGA" Arnold. "Full Circle: The Unofficial History of MixxZine". Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  12. "TOKYOPOP Inc. Out of Print Titles". Tokyopop. Archived from the original on 2006-01-26. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  13. "About Jiraishin". Retrieved 2010-01-15.
  14. "JIRAISHIN" (in French). 2004-10-14. Archived from the original on 2009-03-19. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  15. "Jiraishin" (in French). Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  16. "Jiraishin" (in Italian). Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  17. "Jiraishin" (in German). Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  18. "地雷震-JIRAISHIN (지뢰진-소장본)" (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2011-08-10. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  19. 地雷震 1 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  20. 地雷震 ディアブロ (in Japanese). Kodansha Comics. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  21. 地雷震 ディアブロ（1） (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  22. 地雷震 ディアブロ（2） (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
  23. 地雷震 ディアブロ（3） (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved 2013-03-25.
  24. Kelner, Cassiel. "Jiraishin review". Aestheticism.
  25. Yegulalp, Serdar. "What You're Missing, April 2008: Jiraishin". Advanced Media Network.
  26. "Kodansha Manga Award". Archived from the original on 2008-01-23. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
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