Seriously, what are we about to get into?
Summary of Stealth Symphony Chapter 1
- Jig, the main protagonist of Stealth Symphony, arrives at the city of Jinbocho to find the exorcist that can remove the curse placed on him years ago. Unable to go in a certain area because the police can’t (or won’t) help, Jig heads to the V&V Total Security Protection Agency. There he meets Alice, who’ll do administrative work and search for info, and Troma, the chief who fancies himself as an invisible man, and tasked to protect him.
- The two head towards a building to find the exorcist, only to meet Jakking Kawaharada, a hit man at an assassin’s guild. He informs them said exorcist doesn’t exist, and that everything Jig had believed at that point — his curse, the one who saved him, etc — was a lie. This causes Jig to melt down and lose control of his power. Troma manages to save him from his despair.
Don’t worry, I’ll be sorry I’m blogging you too
My Take
- Just a small note: I admit I was supposed to check out and start blogging All You Need is Kill, the work that’s currently drawn by Takeshi Obata. You can clearly tell I forgot. So to make up for it, I’ll be blogging Ryohgo Narita and Youichi Amano’s Stealth Symphony for as long as it remains good. And so far, it’s good.
Whoa buddy, that’s not how a shounen hero’s supposed to work, you’re going about this all wrong
- The first thing that stuck out to me was Jig’s curse. Jig’s the stereotypical shounen protagonist who has iron wings (conveniently called a curse) that save him from taking any damage. What came to mind when I saw a rock get thrown back at that kid (poor kid by the way, that’s gonna leave 10 marks) was Naruto’s Gaara and his sand ability that prevents him from taking damage. Ever wanted to see more of it in action? Jig’s got you covered! But because of that ability, he’s been shunned from his town and unable to be with his family. The fact that a weapon that doesn’t harm people yet can still get someone shunned anyways speaks to the belief that you only see the outside, and not the inside.
- This leads to the second thing: how much is Narita going to hammer the “It doesn’t matter how you look on the outside, it’s the inside that counts” theme? I know you’ve heard of the phrase a lot in life, and we should expect to hear it a lot in this manga. BUT: there are times where self-restraint is necessary. With Troma being an invisible man (dragon), there will be plenty of opportunities to showcase that theme. For what purpose, we can only speculate for now. That doesn’t mean it should overpower the story.
- The last thing that I got out of it is Troma suggesting that any goal is worthwhile. That…to me seems misguided. For someone who doesn’t have any goal to say that even if Jig had a dream to destroy the world, it would be noble? I guess this would be more in line with ethics, but that doesn’t seem like the smartest thing to say. It also implies that Troma doesn’t have an emotional bone in his body, so maybe he’s more robot than man-dragon. If this series lasts long enough, expect Jig to change Troma’s attitude on that.
- Aside from those three things, I’m curious about where this will go, or more like, how would I want this to go? This is Part 1 of the arc so the intentions of Stealth Symphony should be clear in Chapter 2. Would I want this story to go into a route where Jig begins to chase after the director and ask him why he lied to him? Would I want Jig and Troma to take on missions, meet monsters of all shapes and sizes, and find more rare heirlooms? Would I want Alice to do more than write reports or criticize Troma for some reason? Well, it’s still too early to say, but there are options here.
I think the word I’m looking for is “Doki-Doki”
- It is worth keeping in mind though, SJ explained the title of the series. Does that mean there’s going to be two worlds that appear in this series? Or is it implying the world that Jig–a human–sees, and Troma–an invisible character–sees? Whatever the case, it required information on, so it’ll be worth keeping in mind.
- One more side thought to keep in mind: how will the dynamic between Narita and Amano work? Narita, who we of course know is famous for Durarara!! and Baccano!, will be writing his first manga series that isn’t based off a light novel. Amano has mostly worked solo, with the two volume series Examurai the only time he has worked with other people. With none of his works coming over to the states, maybe it’s not something to worry about too much. The fact that he’s worked on short series (Akaboshi is his longest work, at a mere three volumes) may be of some concern though. Maybe.
