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Anyway, shameless panhandling aside, I hope you're sitting down...because I LIKED this one. A LOT. I liked it a lot more than many of the Western comics I've been buying lately. Now, if you need a moment to compose yourself after that amazing revelation, then sit back and I'll explain.
Bambi is a Tarantinoesque (a bit of a cliche these days, but really, that's the best way I can think of to describe it) rollercoaster ride of a story in which our bounty hunter heroine, she of the titular pink gun, takes on a job for a mysterious group known as the "Old Men"- to rescue a child from an enormously bloated evil Elvis-style vampire rock star named Gabba King and return him safely. King is not pleased when he discovers the kid is missing, and puts a five million Yen price on her head. Of course, that sets a legion of other mercs on her tail, and much of the book is made up of Bambi's bloody encounters with a variety of thugs ranging from the usual Yakuza types, to a really novel character: a meek male schoolteacher, who, in order to maintain his calm exterior and be a good instructor to his kids, works out his violent urges as a bounty hunter- and he's a scarily efficient one, at that, with his weapon of choice, weighted bolo-style razor wires. His encounter with Bambi in the middle of the book is a memorable and exciting one because he's the first real threat to our girl, who's easily capable of dealing with your average goon. We don't really get a lot of backstory on Bambi; how she came to be such an accomplished badass and so on- maybe that will come in later volumes. She's given a number of quirks that serve as sort of a personality surrogate- she's absolutely adamant on only eating organically grown food, for example, and she has an extreme attraction to a weird kid's show which she will watch faithfully no matter what. Despite her unpleasant edge, she's still a fun and likeable character.
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Honestly, about the only complaint I can make is that she keeps saying "Me Bambi..." a lot, and it is supposed to sound cute, I guess, but after a while it gets a little annoying. Maybe that's the point, who knows. And, as always with any manga, I wonder about the translation veracity. I freely recognize that just like Pulp Fiction and the like, many will be repulsed by the constant gore and carnage in her fights, not to mention the occasional nudity (no sex, though)...so if you're tempted to get this by all means keep that in mind. It's definitely for adults only. But me, I like that QT type stuff, and Bambi resonated deep in my black, black soul. Even though my preview was in black and white, you can color me impressed and bet your ass I'll be keeping an eye out for future volumes. A
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