A series like "Tokyo Tribes" is not something you read lightly; it involves gangs at war, sick gay crime lords, best friends at each others throats, prostitutes in trouble, and lots, and LOTS, of racial slurs! All of this is rolled into the first volume...and yet, author Santa Inoue can't make any of this roll into something that is actually good to read. In fact, from the very first page, "Tokyo Tribes" is too violent, too depressing, and too crazy to find any affection for. The story is, in a nutshell, about two African-Japanese tribes that struggle for power in the city of Tokyo. The two groups are led by Kei and Mera, once best friends, but because of a (stupidly embarrassing) mis-understanding, they are now bitter rivals, fighting each other tooth and nail for power. Kei is the kind and gentle leader, who will not kill or get into fights unless it is absolutely necessary. Mera however goes out of his way to make Kei and his friends suffer, usually making them suffer by cutting them up with his sword or something bloody like that. Why does Mera carry around a sword? I don't know. Maybe because bald, sword wielding African-Japanese people look cool.

I’m not sure why Mera use’s a sword in this series, but like my friend says, “Who needs logic in a series like "Tokyo Tribes" anyway?” While I can't reveal why Mera and Kei hate each other here (less I give away the only interesting twist in the book), but let’s just say that when you DO find out what started their rivalry, it won't take you long to roll your eye's and laugh at how stupid these people are (especially Mera). Okay, okay, I'll give you a hint: The rivalry started over a misunderstanding that, while definitely tragic, shouldn't have REALLY been a misunderstanding in the first place! Aside from this the rest of the book revolves around street slang, gunnings, bad thing happening to characters we don't care about, and the whole way through there are lots and LOTS of racial slurs! I don't know if all the racial and (very American sounding) phrases are from the author or from Tokyopop's translation, but either way it's very annoying and very ugly, taking the "social acceptance" evolution back a few steps (Editor's Note: Isn’t it kind of ironic that this review is being posted on Martin Luther King's birthday). Hmm...seeing as how I've explained the story already I might as well talk about the artwork that is found within the pages of this book. The artwork in "Tokyo Tribes" is passable, which means the artwork is neither good nor is it bad, it's just enough to get by. The character designs aren't ugly, but they aren't memorable or well defined either. The backgrounds serve their purpose, but otherwise the backgrounds are pretty simple and don't compliment the story very much. The artwork isn't very exciting in any way. Action sequences don't flow as well as they should.

Did I mention the artwork just isn't very exciting? Aside from all these quirks however, there is one glaring problem with the artwork that stands out like a sore thumb, and sadly this problem isn't one that can be easily ignored...in fact, this particular problem can't be ignored at all. The main problem with the artwork isn't the sketches, or the character designs, or the backgrounds, or the lack of excitement, the main problem with the artwork is the fact that there is no color in the book. I know this may seem like a strange complaint to make seeing as how manga is, in general, ALL black & white to begin with, but a series like this suffers from the lack of color! The reason most manga are in black & white is pretty simple; when you have one main guy writing the story, drawing the art, and pretty much making the whole darn thing (with some minor help from some editors to help clean up the rough sketches and fill in a couple of backgrounds), then you can understand why manga artists prefer not to color manga. And then of course the second reason manga isn't in color is because Japanese manga magazines like "Shounen Jump" and "Flower Comics" are printed on cheap, low quality, disposable paper, and color just becomes an extra expense that they would rather not have to deal with. So with the exception of a couple color pages here and there (mainly used to attract people to new series) color is usually never used in manga. However "Tokyo Tribes" is a series that BEGS to be in color! The main reason "Tokyo Tribes" needs to be in color is because there's so much emphasis placed on the color of everyone's skin in this series, that the black & white pages makes the series confusing to read sometimes.

So should we view the censorship of "Tokyo Tribes" as "ruining the authors original vision" or a blessing?

I could let this go if the author did a better job at shading the African-Japanese people better, but unfortunately everyone looks as white as snow in this book, and telling the difference between the races can be headache inducing sometimes. For example, there is one girl early on in the book called Nori (who I guess is supposed to be the love interest for Kei), who at first glance appears to be a normal Japanese girl. A couple chapters later she uses a slag term that is usually said by African-Americans (the slang is definitely American oriented), which of course had me confused as to what race Nori actually was. Another thing I noticed is that most of the people who SEEMED to be African-Japanese uses the 'f' word...a lot! However regular Japanese people don't appear to use the word, which at first made me assume that everyone who said the 'f' word was African-Japanese, but then I literally cursed myself for even THINKING that way! Honestly, I hope it wasn't the author's idea to make having the black people being the only one's using the 'f' word as the only way to separate the races in this series. Because if that's the case then I am angered by the idea because that is a stereotype, and an ugly one at that. So yeah, the author either needs to have better shading in this series, or he needs to actually break the rules and write the series in color, because the way things are currently working just isn't, well...working. Of course, nothing else in this book really works either, and the whole thing is pretty ugly. I mean come on people, do you REALLY want to waste money on a series that involves every ugly crime, every ugly stereotype, every bad relationship, and all the racial slurs you can think of?!

Is this REALLY a series you want to read?! Everything about this series is so pointlessly violent and dark, that there is no fun or enjoyment to be found. What's also bad is that none of the characters are likable (even the supposed "good guys"), which makes me wonder why Tokyopop picked this series up at all. Of course you guys may point out that I have reviewed a little series called "Battle Royale" on this site, and not only is "Battle Royale" FAR more violent and crazy than "Tokyo Tribes" is, but I also gave "Battle Royale" an A (a grade I don't pass out too often). Well that is true. However, while "Battle Royale" may be the most violent and crazy thing you'll ever read, compare the story of that series to this one. In "Battle Royale" the story makes no sense. In "Tokyo Tribes" the story makes even less sense. In "Battle Royale" there are characters you come to care about, and there are characters you come to hate and wish ill will towards them. In "Tokyo Tribes" there are only characters you come to hate and wish ill will torwards. The action sequences in "Battle Royale" are awesome and well drawn in a way that they are just as much fun to read as they are painful to read. The action sequences in "Tokyo Tribes" on the other hand are all trite and boring (and drawn in a way where they just look "ok"). In "Battle Royale" the...well, you get the point. I guess at the moment I'm doing little more then finding a way to make the review of this book longer, however even I must admit that there are really only three words that can describe this series: Piece of crap. If you want to read a good comic book series about African-American's that portray the race in a good light, then take my advice and just skip this and go read Dwayne McDuffies "Static" instead.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -