Reviews

May 24, 2016
Under Execution, Under Jailbreak is a book with 4 short, independent stories by the author of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (after hearing that, you're already sure you'll be treated to something unique) released during the time Part 5 of JJBA was published (1997-1999).

The first two stories: "Under Execution, Under Jailbreak" and "Dolce and his Master" are two very surrealistic stories (of which I'm a big fan). It leaves you wondering what's real and what isn't. Is the character really experiencing this or are they already dead and are they going through some sort of "afterlife experience".

The third story features everyone's favorite a**hole mangaka: Kishibe Rohan (one of my favorite characters from part 4), as he accidentally poses as the priest at a confessional.
The story that he hears from the person confessing really has a JJBA vibe to it and it really reads as a chapter from that series too. No complaints here, it's a cool short story. And I love seeing characters leading their lives after/outside the original manga they appear in.

The last, and longest, story tells us about a ghost that still roams the earth doing jobs for a mysterious entity. To me a few parts in this story are pretty vague, but basically the ghost longs for a quiet life and doing these jobs let him have peace of mind because it gives him a purpose. Hmmm, a quiet life huh? Might sound familiar to someone who read part 4...
The story shows alot of potential, but in my opinion it is still too short to execute everything to its fullest so it can be quite overwhelming with all the stuff it throws at the reader. And I really think it needs to be an actual series to make it work better. Nonetheless it's very interesting to say the least.

But besides that I really like these short bizarre adventures, and I personally think he should do more of these (I know there is one more book like this, in which all the stories feature Rohan).

Even though the stories are short, the characters are very well portrayed, just like in JJBA, and you get a feeling for what kind of person they are very quickly.

You'll probably enjoy these stories more if you're already a fan of Araki's other works (like me), but ofcourse this can also be read as a standalone book.
But I can understand that, for someone who never read any of Araki's manga before, you might need to get used to his style (both art and storytelling-wise) to really enjoy it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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