Tokyo Crazy Paradise
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| Tokyo Crazy Paradise | |
|---|---|
| 東京クレイジーパラダイス | |
| Genre | Shōjo |
| Manga | |
| Authored by | Yoshiki Nakamura |
| Publisher |  Hakusensha Editions Star Comics |
| Serialized in | Hana to Yume |
| Original run | 1996 – 2002 |
| No. of volumes | 19 |
Tokyo Crazy Paradise (東京クレイジーパラダイス?) is a shōjo manga series by mangaka Yoshiki Nakamura. It takes place in Tokyo, Japan, in the year 2020, revolving around the lives of fourteen year-old Tsukasa Kozuki as she acts as bodyguard for her classmate, Ryuji Shirogami, who is the third generation boss of the yakuza group, Kuryugumi. Though primarily centering around the romance between Tsukasa and Ryuji, it has a strong amount of action and comedy.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Tsukasa's parents are killed investigating the murder of Ryuji's father, the leader of the Kuryugumi yakuza group. The deaths leave both Tsukasa and Ryuji orphans, with Ryuji succeeding the group as their third generation boss, the Sandaime. After catching the murderer, Tsukasa becomes indebted to Ryuji when her brothers eat a veritable fortune on his tab; he uses the opportunity to tie her into being his bodyguard until the debt is paid off. Intrigued by her, Ryuji increases her debt at every opportunity (including force-feeding her and causing her to break things), insuring that she will always be tied to him by the debt and thus by his side.
The story mainly centers around the developing romance between Tsukasa and Ryuji, which has a vast array of difficulties. Tsukasa, at her mother's request, grew up as a boy (she attends an all-boy's school with Ryuji), and coupled with the fact that she has always dreamed of being a police officer, conflicts with Ryuji's position as the boss of the largest syndicate in the Kanto area of Japan. At the same time, Kuryugumi, as an extremely powerful yakuza group, has many conflicts and gang wars with other groups, making up the rest of the story's conflict.
Tokyo 2020 is, to a certain extent, a futuristic society, complete with flying skateboards, laser guns, and a variety of technologically advanced devices. There are also far fewer women than men, with a subsequently higher amount of violence against women. It is also an example of moral decay; the series opens with a girl being attacked, in broad daylight, and people apathetically passing by, stating that she should take care of herself. Tsukasa is the one who saves the girl instead. It is why Tsukasa terms it a "crazy" place, saying that people can change quickly in this strange environment.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Tsukasa Kozuki
Tsukasa is the only daughter of two police officers; upon their deaths in investigating the death of the Kuryugumi boss, she becomes involved with the next boss of Kuryugyumi, Ryuji, her classmate for the past eight years. She was raised as a boy due to the fact that her mother saw too many women at crime scenes, and wanted to shield her from the excessive sexual mistreatment of women in this era. As the child of two cops, she despises corruption and cruelty, and wants to be a cop herself one day.
She has an extremely happy and bright personality; she is an optimist and thinks that the world is a crazy place, but thinks that she can do her part to make it better. She was trained to fight by her parents, and subsequently, at the start of the story, she is already an excellent fighter and is rarely defeated in a fight. (She fights with a long whip-like chain that ends in a handle that can alternately be extended into a blade.) Incidentally, she also hates the yakuza, citing them at fault for many of the wrongs of the world.
Incidentally, though Tsukasa dresses up as a boy for most of the story (she has a chest protector that flattens out her breasts), Tsukasa is actually a very attractive female. She is tall and has an excellent figure, so when in female clothes and wigs (which she calls it "cross-dressing", since she thinks of herself as a man), looks much more mature and is often the subject of catcalling and other sexual overtures. Despite this, she is very naïve about other people's romantic interest in her and her own growing love for Ryuji.
Tsukasa and Ryuji have attended school together since kindergarten, in all-boys academies. When she was eleven years old, Tsukasa slipped on a river bank and fell in; due to being raised as a boy, she never attended swimming class and thus nearly drowns. It is Ryuji, who was watching her from the bridge, that jumps in and saves her, giving her CPR and subsequently, discovers that she's female. Ryuji is thus aware of Tsukasa's true gender from the beginning of the story.
Tsukasa has three brothers: her fraternal twin, Toshiyuki, her younger brother Shohei (13), and her older brother, Takuma (16). After their parents' deaths, Takuma drops out of school and works as a casino gambler, while Shohei and Toshiyuki work at a gay bar (all of these professions being illegal due to their age).
Tsukasa is the adopted daughter of the Kozukis; she was in actuality the daughter of Wakasa Ayabe and the man she was seisai to, the yakuza leader of Hougougumi, which fell apart with their deaths. Wakasa gave her daughter to her friends, the Kozukis, shortly after Tsukasa's birth (Tsukasa does not remember her at all), knowing that she was going to die. Tsukasa does not find out until near the end of the story, and has difficulty reconciling her heritage until Ryuji aids her in acceptance.
[edit] Ryuji Shirogami
As the Sandaime - third generation leader - of the Kuryugumi group, he has been raised with the constant goal of succeeding. He rarely shows his emotions on his face, and in fact, as long as Tsukasa can remember, has been an excessively gloomy and sober child. Though not obsessive about exacting justice in the way Tsukasa is, he has his own moral code and holds himself to high standards of behavior, if not society's.
Though Tsukasa is his bodyguard, she once wonders if he really needs one, as Ryuji is skilled at karate, kendo, judo, aikido, and shooting. He is additionally always well-armed (he once fights someone with a knife embedded in his watch) and an excellent fighter, though Tsukasa generally fights the most central battles in the story.
His mother died giving birth to him, and his raising was given over to Toshiyuki Kamojima, a lower-ranked yakuza whose pregnant girlfriend had recently been murdered. His own father loved him, but felt that distance was necessary in raising the next-generation leader, and kept generally away from Ryuji in his formative years, leaving Kamojima as his father-figure.
Ryuji is intelligent, cynical, and manipulative; he is in some respects very Machiavellian, but is truly loyal and does what he can to be kind to the people he cares about, though that is a very short list. Alternately, he is not at all hampered by Tsukasa's naïveté, as he is fully aware of his attraction to Tsukasa from the beginning. That said, he can truly relax around Tsukasa; she is one of the very few to see him sleeping, and his bodyguard comments to Tsukasa that around her, Ryuji actually looks his age (just fourteen). He enjoys tormenting and teasing her - ostensibly because she is an unusual creature - but loves her very much.
Despite his relationship with Tsukasa, however, Ryuji is engaged to Asago Sumon, the daughter of one of his lower bosses, who has essentially been raised for the role of being his wife. Ryuji cares for Asago, but Asago does not discover until much, much later, that it is the way a brother cares for his sister, while Asago is genuinely in love with Ryuji. His engagement to her is to prevent clan conflict (since the clans under Kuryugumi all accept Asago as an appropriate candidate) and also for her sake, as he desires to make her happy. However, he cannot stop himself from pursuing Tsukasa, causing great tension among the love triangle.
[edit] External links
- Tokyo Crazy Paradise (manga) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
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