Ice Blade

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Jiraishin

地雷震 (Jiraishin)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Police, Seinen, Suspense
Manga: Jiraishin
Authored by	Tsutomu Takahashi
Publisher	Kodansha Tokyopop Carlsen Comics Unknown Edition Star Comics Haksan Publishing Unknown Siam Inter Comics
Serialized in	Afternoon
Original run	1992 – 1999
No. of volumes	19

Ice Blade, known in Japan as Jiraishin (地雷震, literally "earth-lightning-quake"), is a Japanese manga series by Tsutomu Takahashi as his first manga comic. It was published in the early 1990's and was serialized in Kodansha's Afternoon Magazine from 1992-1999.

Although an official manga was released by Tokyopop under the Mixxzine label, it was discontinued after three volumes. There are though, unofficial scanlations available on the internet.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

1 Story details
2 Characters
3 Publication
4 Reviews
5 Manga Cover Art
6 Notes and References
7 External links

[edit] Story details

Most of the episodes in the manga revolves around the life and the adventures of homicide detective Kyoya Iida (or Ky in MixxZine's Ice Blade, which is now part of TOKYOPOP's manga library), a plainclothed police officer stationed at the Shinjuku police station.

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Jiraishin characters

[edit] Publication

Canada/United States

- The English version was published by Mixx, now known as TOKYOPOP, in MixxZine, but the series was discontinued after 3 volumes.

Ice Blade Volume 1: Puppet (1998/12) ISBN 1-892213-03-6
Ice Blade Volume 2: Snow Country (1999/08) ISBN 1-892213-14-1
Ice Blade Volume 3: Inducement (2000/02) ISBN 1-892213-19-2

Germany

- Carlsen Comics published Jiraishin in German.

Hong Kong

- Unknown

Italy

- Edition Star Comics published Jiraishin in Italian.

Japan

- The manga was serialized in Afternoon KC and compiled into 19 volumes (tankōbon) published by Kodansha.

Jiraishin 1 (1993/10) ISBN 4-06-314071-7
Jiraishin 2 (1994/02) ISBN 4-06-314077-6
Jiraishin 3 (1994/08) ISBN 4-06-314087-3
Jiraishin 4 (1994/12) ISBN 4-06-314099-7
Jiraishin 5 (1995/03) ISBN 4-06-314108-X
Jiraishin 6 (1995/07) ISBN 4-06-314115-2
Jiraishin 7 (1996/01) ISBN 4-06-314125-X
Jiraishin 8 (1996/06) ISBN 4-06-314133-0
Jiraishin 9 (1996/12) ISBN 4-06-314143-8
Jiraishin 10 (1997/03) ISBN 4-06-314148-9
Jiraishin 11 (1997/08) ISBN 4-06-314161-6
Jiraishin 12 (1997/12) ISBN 4-06-314168-3
Jiraishin 13 (1998/03) ISBN 4-06-314172-1
Jiraishin 14 (1998/06) ISBN 4-06-314181-0
Jiraishin 15 (1998/09) ISBN 4-06-314188-8
Jiraishin 16 (1998/12) ISBN 4-06-314192-6
Jiraishin 17 (1999/07) ISBN 4-06-314212-4
Jiraishin 18 (2000/01) ISBN 4-06-314227-2
Jiraishin 19 (2000/01) ISBN 4-06-314228-0

Kodansha has also released a high quality collector's edition (bunko) of Jiraishin comprising of a total of 10 volumes.

Jiraishin Bunko 1 (2003/05) ISBN 4-06-360212-5
Jiraishin Bunko 2 (2003/05) ISBN 4-06-360213-3
Jiraishin Bunko 3 (2003/06) ISBN 4-06-360562-0
Jiraishin Bunko 4 (2003/06) ISBN 4-06-360563-9
Jiraishin Bunko 5 (2003/07) ISBN 4-06-360564-7
Jiraishin Bunko 6 (2003/07) ISBN 4-06-360565-5
Jiraishin Bunko 7 (2003/08) ISBN 4-06-360566-3
Jiraishin Bunko 8 (2003/08) ISBN 4-06-360567-1
Jiraishin Bunko 9 (2003/09) ISBN 4-06-360568-X
Jiraishin Bunko 10 (2003/09) ISBN 4-06-360569-8

South Korea

- Jiraishin was translated in Korean by Haksan Publishing

Taiwan

- Unknown

Thailand

- Siam Inter Comics translated and distributed Jiraishin in Thai.

[edit] Reviews

Jiraishin, even though it had a short coming in its English translation, had good reviews done on the manga and had noted some points done in the story. For instance, Manga Reviewer had said that Jiraishin was great for its dark atmosphere and its main hero, Kyoya Iida, portrayed as an anti-hero sort of police detective ^[1]. Cassiel Kelner from Aesthesticism.com had commented that Jiraishin paints the actual nature taking places in cities, showing the dark side of human nature. In addition, Cassiel had said that Jiraishin had portrayed a gloomy ending to the series since there are always no happy endings ^[2]

Angry Manga had critiqued Jiraishin as a story that has Iida act like a tough bastard, using his unjustified skills to justify the means. Its gory and disturbing cases in the series were also highlighted as the means of driving the story forward aside from portraying Kyoya Iida as an anti-hero detective ^[3] This sentiment is also shared by AnimeNfo.com's review as well, though it cautioned readers on reading Jiraishin if they want to read the manga from its lack of focusing on Kyoya himself for the most part ^[4]