Strain, Vol. 3

Strain [ストレイン] #3

by Buronson, Ryōichi Ikegami

Set in the back streets of Malaysia, Strain follows the lives of Mayo, a ruthless assassin, and Shion, the teenage prostitute he takes under his wing. Together they battle a psychotic Japanese aristocrat obsessed with purifying his "strain" and thugs bent on ruling the Asian underworld.

Genres: Manga, Crime, Graphic Novels, Comics, Thriller, Fiction, Asia

216 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1997

About the author

Okamura Yoshiyuki (岡村善行), also known as Buronson (武論尊) or Sho Fumimura (史村翔 Fumimura Shō), is a Japanese manga writer most known by his famous work Hokuto no Ken. known in English as Fist of the North Star.
He graduated from the Japanese Air Force Training School in 1967 and served as an Air Force radar mechanic. In 1969 he discharged from the Japanese Navy and was soon hired by Hiroshi Motomiya as a manga assistant. He started his manga writing career when he wrote the script of Pink Punch: Miyabi in 1972, drawn by Goro Sakai. In 1975 Buronson wrote his first big hit The Doberman Detective, drawn by Shinji Hiramatsu. The famous Hokuto no Ken made its debute as Buronson's greatest hit in 1983, drawn by Tetsuo Hara. In 1989 his story Ourou was released as a manga serialized in Animal Magazine, drawn by Kentarou Miura, and in 1990 a sequel entitled Ourou Den was released by the same manga artist. Buronson also collaborated with the manga artist Ryoichi Ikegami in many works as Strain (manga) , Human (manga) and the famous Sanctuary (manga). Among his other major works are The Phantom Gang, with art by Kaoru Shintani.

Buronson was mainly influenced by movies such as Bruce Lee's, and Mad Max.

The nickname Buronson is a tribute to the American actor Charles Bronson, whose way of growing the mustache was imitated by Yoshiyuki Okamura too.

Reviews

[Cookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Just like for the series Lord, each iteration gets incrementally better and better.

While his plot is nothing terribly innovative or original, Buronson has a way of making characters that I really appreciate; the whole scene about the puppy and the trap from Vol 2 was exceptional and here the vietnam orphans' plan to go say hi to America... Buronson has a talent for short impactful scenes that manage to give a lot of depth to his characters in a few panels.

I also appreciated the depth given to Angel's character here. I had resigned myself to a pervert villainous homosexual and was thus pleasantly surprised by the character development and turn of events from this volume.

[Alexander Engel-Hodgkinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2/5

Well, this one keeps improving with every volume. It feels a little rushed at times, but these continued revelations and explorations into the main cast of characters has added a lot more depth than I would have expected from this. A lot more political intrigue abounds this time around, too.

Now I gotta wait for Vol. 4 to show up in the mail...