I Invested in an International Conglomerate & Went from an MMA Champion to Becoming the First-Ever American Yakuza #1 is a comic written by Chris Moses and Anthony Stokes with pencil and inks by Damiano Restivo and colors by John. A former MMA fighter finds himself involved in the affairs of Yakuza. This is a crime comic with plenty of drama that takes place in Japan. The main man for this tale Xavier Watanabe, he was an MMA fighter whose career came to an end when he nearly killed a man. He heads to Den-en-chōfu for his friend and training partner Tenshin’s memorial and is greeted by Kyomi, she is a skilled fighter who assists Masashi. Masashi is Tenshin’s peculiar cousin that Xavier has never heard of. This story begins with Xavier reminiscing on his past friendship with Tenshin as he flies into Den-en-chōfu. After he meets Kyomi she takes him to meet Masashi and they are driven to a sex shop. The violence here is mostly physical with some blood, gore, and gruesome attacks. The pacing is steady with a tone of an action movie. There are many intense moments due to high danger and violence. The dialogue in the beginning is mostly Xavier’s thoughts but afterwards it is almost entirely conversational. There are some thickish text bubble/blocks and only one word-heavy page. This an exciting debut issue with an interesting diverse cast and an intriguing story with plenty of violence and a bit of mystery.

            The art here looks like a modern version of some older styles with a high amount of detail and strong shading. The color range here is realistic and wide with some moment-specific hues. This takes place in or around buildings with almost no natural scenery. Things start in an airport but go to a mall and an adult shop with a few different areas/rooms in these locations visited. The backgrounds tend to be a wall-matching gradient color with optional action-lines a bit more often than showing the surroundings of the scene. The expression level here is around average as there are a number of tough people who try to maintain a stoic look. The emotional range here does consist of anger and happiness with disgust, smirks, and rage. The faces are well-drawn overall but can vary from high to low detail on a panel-by-panel basis; the expression still tends to come across clearly. The violence here is hard-hitting with gruesome attacks and a decent amount of blood and gore. The action scenes feature a good amount of panels and it flows smoothly for the most part.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like dramatic crime stories focused on the Yakuza that star Black and Japanese people with a large amount of violence then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Violence, gore, sexual situations.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“Not until you wash your hands.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xionstudios/american-yakuza/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 20

Violent Pages: 8, for 40% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 1, for 5% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 3

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 4

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 4

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”