Kanpai!: Volume 1

by Maki Murakami

Yamada Shintaro is a monster guardian - well, a trainee. His job is to protect the monster community from any human harm or from any exorcists trying to kill them. Since he is a trainee, he must vanquish 300 exorcists to be awarded with a temporary license as a monster guardian.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1595323171
• ISBN13: 9781595323170
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: TokyoPop
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 13 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 12

Customer Reviews

I'M A MONSTER, NOT A MAN!

I have to say that Kanpai! is the weirdest manga I've ever found myself enjoying. Yamada Shitarou is a new student at Taino Middle School and he seems a little peculiar when he's introduced to the class. He fits the description of a boy that was seen leaving a murder scene with a wooden stick the night before. What makes the comparison even more striking is that Yamada is covered in blood and carrying a stick! When the class brings this up, their teacher takes out a large kitchen knife and proceeds to slices through the head of a student, down through his throat, and through his arm pit! All in a demonstration that they are overreacting to the sight of blood! I told you it was weird. But don't get me wrong, this is a comedy! Soon after that incident, Yamada falls in love with Nao, the queen of snobs, or more precisely, he falls in love with the nape of her neck. Taino is no ordinary school. It looks to be crawling with all kinds of supernatural activity. Yamada is a "monster guardian", or at least he's trying to earn his temporary license by protecting monsters from "exorcists" like his classmate Sakurai (who by the way wants to kill Yamada). And who's that creepy stalking ghost hanging around Nao? A possible rival for her nape? As you can tell from the plot, Kanpai is a little wacky. It takes over-the-top to a new level. While things get a little gory, it's all in good fun and borders on the absurd. It makes you wonder where Yamada developed his nape fetish. It's kinda hard to sympathize with his job, since the monsters seem to feed on humans. They go with the lame excuse that noone has ever told them it was wrong! Looks like a funny and interesting series.

Reminds me slightly of Gravi, so I'm happy

This is the latest series by Maki Murakami, the author of the ever fabulous Gravitation. For those of you who read Gravi, do you remember back in the early volumes she used to have clippets of her other manga in the back? If you do, look back to vol. 4, because this is the story from the back. Redone just a little bit, though. Murakami's drawing style evolved during Gravitation, and this is with her recent drawing style, not her old drawing style like was in the back of the book. The story has been re-written a bit, but I think for the better. In the original version, Shintaro jumps into the whole vampire thing way too quickly, leaving a rushed feeling. Murakami has learned the art of patience, but only just. The chaos from Gravitation carries over into this new series. The entire middle of the book is so chaotic, I would recomend rereading it after you finish so you can figure out what happened. If you liked Yuki or K-san from Gravi, you'll love Ken Ken, who looks like a mixture between Yuki and K. On to the story, though. Shintaro has just come to Japan from South America. He's a monster gaurdian. Monsters are almost wiped out because people keep killing them (they can't help being scary looking!). Shintaro is armed with a talking rabbit, Ponta-san, and a squared off timber. It's his job to save the monsters from the exercists, so he can get his liscense. The popular and beautiful Nao is frightened by Shintaro's appearance (he appears at school covered in blood), and has him arrested. Shintaro, however, has become rather attatched to Nao, or the nape of her neck, anyway. The monsters he saves have a tendency to transfer into the same class as Shintaro, creating more chaos. But are all their powers combined enough to stop an exercist in 7th grade? One panda talisman from this creepy little girl, and upper level monsters are immediatley killed, and Shintaro is still in training! Good thing his ridiculously good looking father is around to help. ^_^ Anyway, not as good as Gravi, but really good nonetheless.