Manshuu Ahen Squad
Manchuria Opium Squad

Edit

What would you like to edit?

SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links  

Manshuu Ahen Squad is a story set in the historically largely unrecognized puppet state of Manchukuo. It is a story set in the periods of tense war between China and Japan.
To preface my review, I would like to start by saying that I am Chinese, and I had been to Nanjing's massacre museum during my exchange trip there.
I shouldn't have to prove it, but here are some photos I took there https://imgur.com/a/k95bhHA (there are spots where you're not supposed to take pictures out of respect, but these are the ones I took.)
The first reviewer called this Japanese propaganda and a Nanking denier, but I for ... one did not feel so.

Manshuu Ahen Squad creates a gripping story showing it's readers the cruelty of war, authority manipulation, and it is certainly not made for the faint of heart. However, the main focus of the story is not about politics (although it may evolve into such as our MC builds up political power) but the survival of a young man and his family.
Higata Isamu is looking to make some money for his sick mother and discovers a way to create opium by chance and intends to sell the drug. The problem is that the Japanese Kwantung Army and the Chinese Green Gang are already selling opium and are already at each other's throat. You could say that they wouldn't be glad to find out someone's trying to break into their market.
Despite only a few chapters available, the manga has showcased its incredible storytelling through art style and writing.

I would say give it a try as it's still a new manga. I could totally see it becoming a dark horse seinen or going downhill into a mess. The choice is yours.

As much as I enjoy a good historical drama, this just isn't it. While certainly the setting, art design, and context seem to be right, the story does not pull through with the same degree of believability.

The reason being is that despite having aspirations of being a serious historical drama - with its detail into the opium black market trade of the time and attempts for a serious dramatisation of the characters' plights, Manchurian Opium Squad pulls too many tropes from more pulpy genres (the main dude at the moment seems to be building some kind of weird opium-led harem) and thus it has ... a good, healthy amount of silliness thrown in with its weird misunderstood love relationships, opium as magical drug-device, overly sadistic antagonists, occasional strange conflicts (one of them is about cultural misunderstanding, but the way it was portrayed and built up was so silly that it was so hard to take it seriously). As a result, the work settles for a pseudo serious Inglorious Basterds-esque tone that neither fully embraces the Tarantino-esque fun in its pulpy writing nor takes its story seriously enough to be a full-on serious historical drama.

Still, as long as one does not expect a serious historical drama and takes it for what it is, a pulpy, fun manga that occasionally dips its toes into dramatic territory (perhaps to its detriment), this is a very enjoyable manga. The art is great with tons of detail in the environment, and the historical designs in the manga are drawn to a believable extent (who knows if it is historically accurate though) and the narrative broadly explores its historical setting thoroughly - to not let things remain stagnant and stale. In chapter 19, things seem to be going in such an absurd direction that it would appear the manga is going to start embracing its silly approach much more - though perhaps that was its intent to begin with? (perhaps that is why it has such an absurd title of Manchurian Opium Squad.)

Excellent start of manga.

From what I realized it will be a dense story about the protagonist building his opium empire (Walter white of the mangas Lmao).

The protagonist seems to be a "good person" type so we will probably also see a journey of him becoming anti-hero throughout the plot.

As far as I could tell from the world of this work, it will be a story that will involve Marfia (Yakuza) and the government in the issue of opium.

The Art is very beautiful. It remains to be seen how it will turn out in the busiest parts of the plot. Perhaps this is the beginning ... of a classic from the seinen , but only time will tell.

My only fear is that there is likely have rape. which I don't particularly like, but I imagine it must be inevitable in this type of world.
Great start for this "Breaking japan" Lmao

This will contain spoilers so read at your own risk.

This is my first official review of anything on this website! Kind of odd I haven't done one yet. But today, this changes as I stumbled upon a manga with such an interesting premise, I could not hold off on catching up to the latest chapter.

And the manga is Manshuu Ahen Squad. A better title would be Breaking Bad: The Manga.

This is effectively about drugs. The protagonist, Isamu, is a soldier working to make money to save his dying mother. Since his line of work does not pay that well, he looks for other ways ... of making money. He stumbles upon a poppy field, which he uses to make opium, a popular drug in the region.

However, now he enters into a drug war. And if he wants to get out of this alive, he must work with a woman named Li Hua, the daughter of a high ranking Chinese gang member.

What I like about this manga in its 25 chapters that have been translated is the way it captures how dangerous such a line of work is. Granted, I know nothing about selling drugs other than documentaries on Pablo Escobar and El Chapo, but I know the line of work has to be something out of a horror movie. I feel like this manga captures that essence correctly. There's violence, elaborate plans to not get captured, innocent people getting sucked into the drug trade, etc. It's a mess, but a mess that makes sense and is pretty captivating.

Isamu as a protagonist is pretty dull, but I can see his character growing into that of a Walter White or even better. He's the stereotypical "good guy" for the moment but when his back is put to the wall, he can turn into the anti-hero a story like this needs. His reason for being involved in this trade is admirable as well, as after failing to save his mother, he now turns to making sure he doesn't have to go through this again with his two younger siblings.

He gets completely outshined by the leading heroine in this manga, Li Hua. She is the cunning badass needed to make this manga appealing, as without her I do not think I would be enjoying it as much as I am.

You have other characters such as Rin and Bataar but for the moment they are not all that interesting. It's still early so of course that is subject to change.

The art for this manga is absolutely amazing. The scenes where the effects of opium take over are absolutely terrifying and euphoric in a way, and the after effects of it look like something straight out of a horror movie.

There's some gore in it, which is natural for a manga as serious as this. The story is also fast paced, and also helps because a story like this needs to be fast.

All in all, the manga is off to a great start in my opinion. However, in the coming months I can see this falling off the deep end and becoming another trashy edgy seinen, because flaws can definitely come into fruition. On the other hand, I can see this becoming an overlooked gem. I hope I am correct, but only time can tell.

So i found out about this manga through the great Sydsnaps latest video about how she said it is like Breaking Bad and I have to agree. The main character, Isamu, goes into the army (physically and mentally abused to the max) to earn money in order to save his poor mother from the plague and wants ensure his younger siblings get settled into life. Then himself and the siblings discover a poppy field that involves with making the drug opium. He tries to sell this drug he made to the Chinese mafia and there he meets the badass hitmen chick who’s daddy runs a ... Chinese mafia organisation, Li Hua. Both team up along with many other unique sidekicks along the way.

Now I would say this does have the usual tropes like any shounen manga has but my god, the art, story and characters were just spot on. Now this is still ongoing with only 20 chapters I can find online but guys you need to read this still. It’s interesting to see a bit of Japanese and Chinese culture mixed in there to give us newbies a taste of both cultures. To add if you wanna find out more a little bit of Chinese history, this manga has this too!

PS this is gory also so take heed!