| its a shame the manga didnt have no drama there.. i mean come on.. when i heard its about yakuza i immediatly thought there would be some damn powerful drama there.. like how the main character dies or other around him.. i mean imagine if the police woman chick would be killed by yakuza.. how would Hojo react.. or if Hojo's bodyguard ( the one that helped his son with the money for his sickness) how great impact it would have had.. its a mafia story damn. (check Godfather) it was fucking awesome wan Hojo was shut.. i thought he would die ( it would be good too if he would be dead) they tried to kinda put some drama there at the end with Tokai.. it was nice but nodoby died and it was a happy ending.. well its not like this sux or other.. maybe i was just expecting other stuff.. still a masterpiece is a masterpiece.. best damn story about politics/yakuza... fucking awesome art 10/10 |
| oh and how Hojo was saying stuff like - till now i wasnt serous, now i will get my hands dirty..etc.. i was like hell yeah, lets see some blood Hojo.. lets see some mafia war and what happened? nothing.. also the police dudes were not developed well.. they were introduced perfectly but didnt make shit in the series.. neither that little man (that was kinda scary) neither that angry police-man with his socks ... they did nothing.. the series was more based on the 'political' part rather than mafia one... |
vindemon64 said: Finally got around to reading this manga. And man, what an awesome ride. I was in the edge of my seat the entire time, for the most part. I really only have one disappointment with this manga. While the first half of the story was pure brilliance, I felt the second half of the story (once the relationship between Hojo and Asami was revealed by Isaoka to the public) didn't match the excellence that was presented in the first half. A clear example I would compare that to would be with 20th Century Boys when... Brilliance in the first half of the manga, not up to that level in the second half, but still, really, freaking, amazing. I also found the ending to be quite sudden, but I have no problems with it, as the ending between Hojo and Asami was perfect. An epilogue of sorts would be nice, but it leaves little up to the imagination I guess. Final 9/10. I agree with how you related Sanctuary and 20th Century Boys. Though it was much more evident in 20th Century Boys losing momentum towards the later half of the manga. In Sanctuary it might have lost some of the epicness that the first half presented us with but overall it stood strong. Only have a few gripes with it but can't rate this a 9/10 either. smokes said: oh and how Hojo was saying stuff like - till now i wasnt serous, now i will get my hands dirty..etc.. i was like hell yeah, lets see some blood Hojo.. lets see some mafia war and what happened? nothing.. also the police dudes were not developed well.. they were introduced perfectly but didnt make shit in the series.. neither that little man (that was kinda scary) neither that angry police-man with his socks ... they did nothing.. the series was more based on the 'political' part rather than mafia one... I agree with the police being really underdeveloped. They stood out for like a volume or two and that was it. Didn't really mean much at all. The only downside to this manga is character development. I had this same problem with 20th Century Boys. Disappointing but the story is still overall good. |
VitaXDec 17, 2010 3:33 AM
| It was a truly amazing strategy-based story, my eyes were glued to the screen the entire time. I liked the ending, but there's this one thing i don't understand: why does Isaoka propose Asami for the prime-minister seat? Isn't he a stubborn geezer who wouldn't let go of power? His abrupt surrender had me going wtf! And when he discussed it with the old yakuza, he said he was ready to retire when he saw Asami's eyes...like when, 100 chapters ago? Did he meant to be a pain in the ass just to test if he was ready to govern the nation? I just can't wrap my mind around his resignation... |
hinode said: It was a truly amazing strategy-based story, my eyes were glued to the screen the entire time. I liked the ending, but there's this one thing i don't understand: why does Isaoka propose Asami for the prime-minister seat? Isn't he a stubborn geezer who wouldn't let go of power? His abrupt surrender had me going wtf! And when he discussed it with the old yakuza, he said he was ready to retire when he saw Asami's eyes...like when, 100 chapters ago? Did he meant to be a pain in the ass just to test if he was ready to govern the nation? I just can't wrap my mind around his resignation... He's a cunning bastard but when you strip off these traits, he remains as a true politician at heart. He knows what's wrong with Japan and he recognize Asami's talent and drive to reform the country. In the earlier parts of the manga, the reason Isaoka offers Asami a position as a minister was as a collateral form of 'peace offerings' together with the demand that Asami will wait patiently for 10 years, since it will be more or less 10 years when Isaoka retires. After Asami rejects his proposal, Isaoka resigned that he just 'set back Japan politics by 10 years'. My impression was Isaoka want to go out with a bang by helping Asami to the position of Prime Minister in the end. I guess he pretty much comes to terms that his ideologies and obsession for power are not the solutions to Japan's problems. I fell in love with this manga. Never once a dull moment, it had me at the edge of my seats throughout the story. Testosterone actions, scheming politics, insightful dialogue, inspirational, exciting twists and overwhelming manliness . 10/10 |
live2winMar 17, 2011 5:04 AM
| I felt as though the story was a little too obvious with it's attempts at plot twists at times and the character development for anyone aside from Asami and Hojo wasn't quite as extensive as I like. It's also really obvious that the mangaka has no idea how to write a female character in a positive light. But, despite my complaints, I can't deny how high quality this manga is overall and I thought it was a rather interesting foray into the world of politics. Which is interesting because I went into this expecting more of a crime drama when in actuality it was more of a political tale. But, it was a good political tale. Overall, though, I'll give it an 8/10 because of how bare bones the character development was and the series reliance on plot twists. I also dislike the portrayal of women. |
| "Yes, I have been deprived of emotion. But not completely. Whoever did it, botched the job." - Geralt of Rivia |
| Aghhhhh *cries* noooo it's over!! But in all seriousness, that ending just seems so much sadder in retrospect. I feel like in the post-cold war era that this story covers, there was a certain sense of global optimism that was a big part of the story. I think the world really needs to regain that and go through a lot more major change and I really wish we had some real-life visionaries to make it happen...I don't agree with all the political convictions of the characters in Sanctuary but their idealism is awesome. Anyway haha not meaning to go off on a political tangent! Amazing, amazing story. Yes the portrayal of women was awful but I could enjoy the story without necessarily 'forgiving' that aspect...I just accept it as an inevitable part of the territory with a 90s Japanese yakuza story and enjoy the other aspects. The best part was the lifelong friendship and unwavering will of Asami and Hojo. It was interesting how the older yakuza and the secretary general had a similar backstory, along with those guys in Russia. I wonder if there are real-life examples of this kind of thing haha. I know politicians get money from unsavory backers all the time but this kind of lifelong commitment? I guess it's possible though. One thing I find kind of fun is imagining what they did in the intervening years between their adolescence and where the 'real' story starts. I can just imagine Hojo showing up at Tokyo University to give Asami suitcases of money so he can afford to hang out with the wealthy connected students and make important connections for his political future haha...then Hojo would tell Asami all about his fun day beating up street thugs with Tokai and Asami would laugh along and then go back to his studies :p |
sevenaySep 25, 2012 5:19 AM
smokes said: its a shame the manga didnt have no drama there.. i mean come on.. when i heard its about yakuza i immediatly thought there would be some damn powerful drama there.. like how the main character dies or other around him.. i mean imagine if the police woman chick would be killed by yakuza.. how would Hojo react.. or if Hojo's bodyguard ( the one that helped his son with the money for his sickness) how great impact it would have had.. its a mafia story damn. (check Godfather) Yeah I noticed that, too. The characters were a bit TOO cool at times and I wished more had happened in the story to shake them up a bit. Maybe if they had been portrayed as forming deep relationships with anyone other than each other this would have been easier. When things happened to one of them that upset the other that was really the only time they showed their humanity. |
Beatnik said: The manga was superb all the way to the end. Not a single misstep, it was perfect. Fucking agree, manly tears were shed, I'd never have imagined I would read something better than Monster, this proved me wrong, perfect 10/10 for me. |
| I cried at the ending. This has to be the best manga I have read yet. It was my perfect manga and I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed it. Every aspect was perfect and I could not stop reading it. I would definitely recommend this to anyone. 10/10 perfection. |
MastaJJan 24, 2013 2:03 AM
| "When life gives you lemons, make orange juice, then sit back and watch the world wonder how you did it." |
| words cannot describe all the greatness of this manga. |
| 講廢話,被撞到. |
| The ending still brings me to tears.... such an amazing manga. |
| Very good manga with a great ending. Splendid art, memorable characters and a story that meant something makes this a classic. |
| "Perhaps there is a universal, absolute truth. Perhaps it justifies every question. But that's beyond the reach of these small hands." Mamoru Oshii There is a cult of ignorance (...) nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” Isaac Asimov |
Raitei_Dono said: The entire Asami falling sick felt a bit random.The first half was good but then the mangaka just kept on dragging the story on.I felt the entire Russian mafia entering Japan a bit unnecessary. A solid 6/10 imo it would have been a lot better had it been around 60 chapters. That's what I'm sayin, it didn't need to be that long and I lost interest about half way into the story. 5/10 for me |
 |
| Agreed. First half was fabulous. Second half lost momentum... and the women... but overall I still enjoyed it. It was good, it was a political thrill. There were a few ideas I didn't like, but the idealism was strong and epic. These are action takers, not the people who sit back and think about what is wrong with the world and do nothing. Good read, burned through the chapters easily and quickly. |
| This was probably the best 'stable' manga I ever read... It went realy steadily, not trying to create some awespiring twists, it was entangling in it's own way. The length was just perfect too - a few volumes more and you would start to get bored of the same theme, a few less and it wouldn't be in depth enough. The ending was pretty good - they left it pretty open ended while leaving the feeling of it being complete. It had a few flaws, but they may be a bit too biased on my opinion.. First of all - I am not too much into medicine and chemistry, but I doubt that there could be such effect from chemistry which would leave you fine without any symptoms for tens of years and then suddenly burst and kill you within a few month time... The second part was the voting part of it.. I, as a citizen, don't see how could a simple confession of some thug make such effect on votes in a period of 2 hours... It was over-exaggerated for sure. I mean, even if I was told that my country will die off unless all go and vote, I wouldn't realy care, one can always go to another country if he feels like it. Also I don't realy understand the criticism about women being treated bad(an irony that such criticism is mostly from woman themselves, heh, quite biased..) - I think that element was actually pretty intentional and was done realy well. Don't forget women's suffrage for Japan only opened up after the WW2 and the period we see in manga is not too far from that, old folk of the manga period is from the generation, who may still treat women as an object.. Also don't forget that Japan is a country heavy on traditions, and it was usual for a woman to become a simple housewife in japan.. yes, rarely they held some high positions, but other than that - barely more than a toy for their husband or servant in whorehouse. Who knows, if the WW2 didn't turn out as it did - maybe the women in japan still wouldn't have their suffrage.. It maybe even would be for the best - women are hardly any good for anything related with politics.. There are exclusions, just like everything in this world does, but women are mostly too open minded and their opinion is often based on whim or rumors or other opinion, in short - unreliable. Well, now that got a bit too far from discussing the manga, so I will stop here. A steady trip the manga packed was sure entertaining - offered a brief introduction into the world of politics too, and I think it did well at that. One of the easiest 10/10 I could give, it's rare to see a manga which is so entangling and at the same time does not even try to rely on dramatic moments to entertain you - series just calmly proceeds on their own pace and do it great. |
| Because every manga about organized crime has to be some action hollywood fantasized manga. Grow up you fuckin manchildren. I reread this manga and I can say 100% there is no other manga as unique and passionate as this. |
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