Rating : 8/10
For those of you unfamiliar with Umezawa Haruto's work, Hareluya II boy is the rehash a of a oneshot he made earlier. The oneshot chronicles the adventures of Hibino Hareluya, our protagonist and son of God. Hibino is sent by his father God to earth, (who’s an even more powerful badass than him) because of his lazy playboyish ways. While the first Hareluya had a strong emphasis on Hibino being Jesus reincarnated, Hareluya II boy changes its focus. Instead of being the obvious son of God they prefer the less suspicious tale of Hibino Hareluya son of church minister. Except for a few subtle jokes and references here and there the stories of Hareluya and Hareluya II boy are not connected and therefore one does need to read the previous title in order to fully enjoy the story of Hareluya II boy. The story begins one day when we the readers are introduced to Okamoto. Okamoto is your typical stereotypical pathetic japanese manga guy, hardworking, weak (might I add that he also has a nice hard hat that strikes a megaman resemblance). Okamoto is working illegally at a construction site and on his walk home due to his extremely short and pathetically looking stature he is mugged by several gang members. Instead of doing the right thing and just giving the hoodlums the money (which I add he doesn’t he even have much of) he obstinately refuses. Hibino having encountered Okamato earlier jumps in impressively and proceeds to beat the shit out all of the delinquents. Unfortunately, the delinquents come back to try and out number him but it doesn’t matter Hibino is a legitimate badass asshole, a badhole (lame term coined by Daimyo) and beats them twice as bad as the first time. Notice I spent so much time just talking about the first chapter, chapter 0 (blame the japanese), well this is because all the proceeding arcs pretty much follow the same format. Hibino sees jackasses, jackasses see Hibino’s fist, jackasses retaliate either by increasing numbers or under a powerful boss, Hibino pummels jackasses once again. Ah don’t be disappointed, the story may seem quite typically shounen on the surface but it’s the delivery that really brings this one home.
Characters 8/10
What’s most interesting about Hareluya are its characters. Hibino hareluya is one narcissistic bastard that almost always begins his sentences referring to himself as Oresama (Great me, for those of us who aren’t weaboo minded…yet); which in my opinion is just damn awesome. Hibino is especially awesome because he magically pulls items from his back such as bats, pans and even hot pots (whatever a delinquent needs) usually to everyone’s surprise. As far as the other characters go there’s Okamoto who as I mentioned earlier is working at a construction site. This is because he’s saving his money to go paint in France. (wee wee wee) There’s his girlfriend Yamana who likes Okamoto for pretty much the same reason old ladies collect stray cats. And finally my personal favorite out of the Hibino support squad, Ichijou. Ichijou, is a musician part of a group called the Fire Guns. He has this really cool move that he uses ala henshin to transform into this really cool spikey haired guitarist. Out of all of Hibino’s support squad his is the only opinion worth considering, seeing as he actually fights and in middle school was revered as a delinquent. Everyone else’s opinion should be taken with a grain of salt and should be compared to the noise a bitch (pardon my language) makes when it barks. As far as the enemies and other supportive characters go there’s Momiya the former banchou of Hibino’s school(until he was beat down to the ground) and therefore the one who shall forever be named as the comic relief character. There’s also Bob-jiisan who used to be renowned as a famous painter in France, that is until he mysteriously disappeared and abandoned everything he owned after his wife’s death. He serves the purpose of developing Okamoto’s character. For our enemies we get characters such as Kanzaki, delinquent and stoner who is also an ex-friend of Ichijou. What’s interesting about his character is that, this is the first shounen series I have seen dealing with such a serious topic such as drugs. At numerous times Kanzaki injects several drugs into himself, he even goes so far as forcing Ichijou to sell his drugs during one of his rock concerts.
Enjoyment 9/10
This series was highly enjoyable. The fights, the adrenaline rush, even the sobby speeches by as Okamoto. The only way I would improve this would be by creating a love interest between Yamana and Hibino, if only to see Okamoto’s reaction and powerlessness. But then again this a man’s manga and real men don’t fall in love. love falls on them. While not all characters are as physically strong and dominating as Hibino each of them are strong in their own unique way. And therefore it is quite enjoyable to see them progress through the story as they teach you typical cliche shounen lessons as to what true friendship and loyalty is.
Overall 9/10
