Freesia (manga)

Plot

In alternate history Japan is engaged in protracted war and massive economic recession. Due to massive military spending, many prisons are shut and a Vengeance Act is created instead to allow those who have been hurt by convicted criminals to get revenge. Various Vengeance Proxy Enforcer firms are created to supply the massive demand for these.

Main characters

Hiroshi Kanō

Hiroshi Kanō (叶ヒロシ, Kanō Hiroshi) is a mentally unstable ex-military assassin currently working as a Vengeance Proxy at a Proxy firm in alternate history Japan. He lives with his catatonic mother and girlfriend in a small apartment. Due to his training in the military, he possesses some kind of active camouflage that not only enables him to fade away at a moment's notice, leaving his coworkers confused, but allows bullets to pass through without injuring him. It is later revealed that he is able to alter people's senses to a certain extent, making him appear to be where he is not. At the beginning of the story he only seems to be slightly bizarre, but as the story goes on, it becomes more evident that he's well on his way to having a mental breakdown, such as beginning to copy what people say on television in his conversations. Other such events involve Kanō constantly hearing a telephone ringing, or a clock ticking and seeing and talking to people who are dead.

Masaki Mizoguchi

Masaki Mizoguchi (溝口正樹, Mizoguchi Masaki) is a proxy working at the same firm as Kanō, although he has been there much longer than his coworkers. He is constantly trying to hunt his coworkers, most notably Kanō, who weirds him out due to his bizarre abilities. Mizogushi ideology is that there are two kinds of people, lions and zebras. To him it is important that he hunts the zebras that represent everybody who is not him, and he joins the Proxy firm for this reason. He is married and abuses his wife regularly, leading to her losing touch with reality.

Ichirō Yamada

Ichirō Yamada (山田一郎, Yamada Ichirō) is one of the proxies hired by the proxy firm along with Kanō. It took him three tries to pass the exam required to become an enforcer, done by memorizing the entire book, whereas everybody else got a list with answers on it from various scouts. Initially optimistic, he grows jaded when he realizes the truth behind the enforcements.

Higuchi

Higuchi (ヒグチ) is a proxy scout for the firm. She knows much more about Kanō than he does, and they are linked through an event that happened years before the beginning of the manga. She is also in charge of securing contracts and gathers the paperwork needed to satisfy the association. Higuchi claims to be able to predict Kanō's every decision.

Manga

The Freesia manga series was written and illustrated by Jiro Matsumoto, and originally serialized by Shogakukan in the Japanese magazine Monthly Ikki from 2003 to October 2009 issue (published on August 26, 2009) of the same magazine. The manga spanned 12 tankōbon, with the first being released on July 30, 2003 and the last one on November 30, 2009. It has been translasted into Italian by RW Edizioni and into Spanish by Editorial Ivrea.

Film

A live-action film based on the manga was released on February 3, 2007. It was directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, written by Takashi Ujita, and starred Tetsuji Tamayama as Hiroshi.

Reception

Freesia is Matsumoto's internationally best known work and although not translated into English it has been popular on the scanlation circuit.

Ryan Payton of 1UP.com described it as having "awesome art, intense stakeouts and firefights, and lots of psychoanalysis." Gavin J. Blair wrote for The Hollywood Reporter that it has elements that would attract a Hollywood adaptation and compared it to Purge.

The film adaptation received a four out five rating from The Japan Times's Mark Schilling.