I originally heard about “The Rapeman” several years back when an online friend of mine mentioned it in the same line as Berserk somehow, when talking about great manga, possibly semi-jokingly, almost definitely fully jokingly. Either way something with that name sounded almost too awesome to be true: like a superhero who…..rapes! And somehow it isn’t too good to be true because it is real. No, this isn’t heaven, but it might as well be Hell on Earth. I quickly looked up more info on this eternal classic. As it turns out, “The Rapeman” is quite ancient of a manga, originally released in 1985 and serializing for 7 whole years! On top of that it apparently had an OVA adaptation in 1994 by Pink Pineapple and even a series of 5 feature length live action films adapted from this. I am not kidding. Japan is a terrifying and wonderful place as always, it seems. I originally read the first volume, then left it as I got bored, but for the sake of this review I had to re-read it. It’s just as painfully mediocre at best as the first time reading it.
Just as it sounds, Rapeman is like a superhero that rapes…….well he’s more like a hitman. Each chapter follows a different target. From the first chapter we see two parents hire him to give their daughter a “firm lesson” and to get some alone time for themselves. This is when you learn that each character is made to be as absolutely awful as possible. This happens every chapter. Of course in a story, where people hire someone to rape someone else, you would expect characters to be awful, but I was expecting to see at least some “rape and revenge” type stuff like Last House on the Left or I Spit on Your Grave, but alas, we are rarely given a sensical explanation to why someone is doing this. In the second chapter you have this girl who wants another girl to be raped because……she herself likes the idea of that happening to her? It doesn’t make too much sense. In the third one, he’s trying to teach a lesbian the lesson that men are better at “loving” women, even though…….she isn’t even a lesbian and has a husband? The manga doesn’t even try to make any sense out of that.
The idea behind this manga is to be a dark comedy. Now, I am completely on board with dark comedy, but I can’t tell you which parts they were even trying to be comedic in. It’s not funny, it doesn’t seem to be trying to be funny at all, and it isn’t even all that shocking at all. The only reason for this to exist is for you to laugh at the fact that it does and the idea behind it….and the fact that is was weirdly successful. Not because of massive popularity or sales, but because it somehow published 13 volumes and 90 chapters over the course of 7 years and had a hentai OVA and 5 feature length live action adaptations! Could you imagine dedicating a large part of 7 years of your life drawing….that?
“I understand that is must have been a harrowing experience for you, but wouldn’t calling this person a “pro” be going too far? What’s your basis for this?”
“I am a pro as well—a professional pianist!”
……
“If a lady were to be met with such a fate, being handled so roughly by someone like that, anyone would be misled!”
“Professionals…..a pro is…a pro is on a completely different level than that scum!”
Just some of the hilarious lines from chapter 16. As you can see the dialogue is absolutely horrible. I know it was probably bad to begin with, but the people translating this must have had a blast making it as dumb as possible. One thing that’s very funny about it is the amount of times characters shout “the fuck?” out of nowhere, in inappropriate-for-it settings.
Overall, this is funny on an ironic level for a bit, but after two or three chapters it isn’t even that anymore. It’s just boring.
