Have you heard of or read Junk: Record of the Last Hero? It was a Manga series written and drawn by Kia Asamiya and originally published in Japan in 2004 by the Akita Shoten's magazine Champion Red. In 2006 It was brought to the United States in 2006 by Dr Master Publishing Inc. (more about them further on).
JUNK is a story which focuses on high school pupil Hiro Yuuki, a who has become a shut in after being bullied at school and barely leaving his room. Hiro's only connections to the outside world are his parents, his love interest Ryoko, oh...and the Internet!
While online, Hiro stumbles across JUNK and, although there is no explanation as to just what JUNK is exactly, Hiro signs up anyway. Yeah, it's that kind of thing that land you taking on secret missions into space -but I'm not allowed to talk about that).
Anyway, JUNK turns out to be a project that attempts to increase human potential and Junk stands for Juriatic Union of Neo-Kinetics. JUNK users become empowered by a suit that appears on them when activated -almost a bit like "Guyver" the japanese Manga series by Yoshiki Takaya. The JUNK series takes a lot of inspiration from Superhero Tokusatsu shows like Super Sentai (Power Rangers), Ultraman, and Kamen Rider (or Masked Rider) but Kia Asamiya puts a rather darker twist on it.
If you think of what Frank Miller did to Batman in The Dark Knight Returns, so Asamiya did with this series but to the stereotypical Japanese Superhero Tokusatsu genre. In case you are wondering what this is exactly I can tell you (lucky there's the internet!):
"Tokusatsu is a Japanese term referring to "special photography" or "special effects," encompassing a genre of filmmaking that combines live-action with special effects, often featuring epic battles, giant monsters, and memorable characters. It's a technique used in various types of media like science fiction, fantasy, horror, and war, but is also sometimes considered a genre itself. "
There, now you know so we are even on that!
What Asamiya asked in this series was if a person with these powers existed in our world, how would the world react? Yeah, okay, not exactly an original concept but it is how it is written and drawn and presented -the 1980s Squadron Supreme 12 issue series from Marvel looked at this and, decades later, DC borrowed the idea with the Justice Lords in the Justice League animated series and later introduction into their comics). Also, the Watchmen series. See? You get a lot of info on CBO and whoever just whispered "most of it is trash" -I see you! But up until JUNK it was never used, as far as I can find out (Manhua is my main field) with Japanese super heroes, yes, there are a few!
The amount of damage to buildings, etc. is incredible but this is typical of the Japanese TV shows. I was watching an Ultra Man episode the other day and rather than grab his opponent and move away from a built up city area the character was just blasting and crushing away -one of the onlookers did chastise him later by pointing out the amount of damage his battle had caused.
JUNK can be described as "dark". If you read a series such as Mamoru Uchiyama (Script, Drawing, Inker), and Toshifumi Yoshida (Script) Ultraman Classic Battle of the Ultra Brothers the story is basically villains who are supposed to be dead kill Ultra Men and there are fights but it is basic good, clean super hero stuff -and I am not complaining as I quite enjoyed it. But in JUNK there is sex, violence and drugs and this was very obvious when I got some of the books while I was heavily promoting Dr Master Publications inc. (no, they never paid me and went out of business in 2009).
There was also, although I never originally realised it (I can be a little dim at times), some over -arching political satire but that does not mean it is boring. There is sarcasm and some whacky-ness and my first reaction when I got the books was "Oh, crap more Japanese Manga", however, the two volumes I got were excellent and had me hooked and so, with tears rolling down my eyes, I purchased the other volumes to read the full story and for me to go to the effort it took and cost it had to be good.
The plot (summarised) is about the JUNK, a system which acts as a super-suit, and the people to whom the junk suits are assigned and at first there were only two units (one white unit and one darker, black unit ) in the world and, you guessed it, both were in Japan! It was revealed, however, that a third JUNK type (red) also existed . Black, White and Red JUNKs were all prototypes used by JUNK Systems to further develop the Blue JUNK which would be the production model.
According to Asamiya the eye style, "Is a mono-eye style.... but there's actually two eyes." The suits require an eight-hour charge up period and that gives only one hour of performance and although the suits are given free of charge users must complete a report and send it to the manufacturer, which had not yet been named. I mean -what could go wrong? What?
Hiro gets the Black unit. The other unit goes to an unknown female user, it is later revealed that the White JUNK actually goes to Manami's Stand in/bodyguard, Lisa. the story follows Hiro's gradual maturing and changes in his life through the adventures he has and how he copes with the responsibilities and burdens it brings.
I do not want to give any spoilers in case anyone does go out and look for the series but there is a final battle with a squad of Blue JUNKs and naturally there are twists and turns. I know what you are thinking (except you in the red T-shirt: that is disgusting!) -"How does he activate the JUNK suit when he needs it?"
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