AKUSAGA

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA DramaHitoritachi

REVIEWS

• 

  princefado

  60/100
  While Kanno's art shines almost two decades later, Blank Slate is held back by its own ambitiousness

  It's a shame that Blank Slate is so short, because there's a lot going for it here. First of all, Kanno's art has always been gorgeous. Although it's obvious that she was still learning to write action, her character designs are lovely and memorable, and the action scenes are still sufficient enough to keep the story exciting. I particularly love her use of shadows, and her wonderfully expressive eyes.

  That said, good art isn't enough to make a story good. As she states herself in one of the author's notes, the story just got too big, and had to be greatly reduced, and it leaves the story's events feeling quite generic and uninspired. Blank Slate is packed almost to bursting with ambitious concepts like the aftermath of war, brainwashing, revenge, political revolution—and when you look at the length of her more successful works (Otomen clocking in at 18 and Baraou at 17), it's obvious why Blank Slate feels so weak in comparison; none of these concepts are given time to build and breathe.

  Although the first chapter ends up being disconnected from the rest of the story, I think it is much stronger than the full series, and I almost wish we had gotten an episodic series featuring Zen. Zen's personality is pretty straightforward; he's cool, effortlessly seductive, and does whatever he pleases, no matter who gets hurt. In the pilot chapter, Zen's backstory—the main driving force of the 'main story'—is a total mystery, and barely even addressed. But all this makes the pilot story much stronger, because it puts us in the same position as the protagonist, Russo. Just like Russo, the reader is curious about Zen, pulled in by his eroticism and careless violence—and ultimately, both we and Russo are dropped like a plaything, left wanting more, but still satisfied to have been shown a part of his world.

  But Zen's coolness actually works against him in the 2-volume format—he's almost too cool for the story. This is particularly obvious in the final fight, where he breaks free from his brainwashing, and decides to continue to live by his own ideals. If Zen had perhaps been given a few more volumes to soften as a character, even just to face some real fear towards his amnesia and mental state, it would have been immensely satisfying to see him break through—but there's just no emotional pay-off when we've only been given perhaps a handful of moments where Zen feels real weakness.

  I'm biased here, but I think Blank Slate could have worked very well as a BL manga, or at least have leaned more into some of its erotic/romantic themes, as they're easily the most compelling part of the pilot chapter, and something I know Kanno excels at.

  While Blank Slate isn't horribly bad, I can't really say it's all that good either—but I certainly don't regret reading it, and if you're a fan of short stories like I am, I definitely recommend you check out at least the first chapter, and then go read some of Kanno's newer work.

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