Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards Volume 1 Review

Kodansha’s latest English debut from their popular Weekly Shounen Magazine publication is Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards, a series that has already concluded in Japan but has proven popular enough to inspire a live-action movie. Certainly, while it was actively running weekly, there was plenty of buzz surrounding it, so is this a case of better late than never? Let’s take a closer look.

The story follows delinquent high schooler Arakuni Ibuki, who has been tasked with protecting his childhood friend Honeko Akabane. Unbeknownst to Honeko, she’s the secret daughter of the yakuza boss Masahito Jingu, who put her up for adoption to protect her. Unfortunately, her identity was revealed due to a fight over who will eventually succeed Masahito as the boss, and now she’s been targeted by assassins!

Having been raised by two attorney parents, Honeko has lived her life as peacefully and as far from the underworld as possible. No matter what happens, Masahito wants her to go on living her life without learning of her yakuza origins, so he’s turned to Arakuni for help. Since they’re childhood friends attending the same school and in the same class, Masahito believes that Arakuni is in the perfect position to act as her secret bodyguard.

And our plucky protagonist isn’t the only one protecting Honeko. It turns out that everyone in their class is secretly protecting her, but unlike Arakuni, they’ve been nurtured from childhood to act as a protective squad. Because of that, they’re not exactly thrilled by his addition to the team and may prove just as dangerous as the many assassins coming for Honeko…

The blurb on the back of this first book describes the series as “thrilling adventures spark romance in this stylish new school action comedy!”, which certainly conveys that a lot is going on here. The series is almost half rom-com, half thriller as Arakuni strives to protect Honeko, prevent her from finding out she’s being guarded and finds himself the object of her affections (he, too, has been crushing on her since childhood).

You would think with all these things combined, mangaka Masamitsu Nigatsu would struggle to deliver somewhere and with it being their debut series, I wouldn’t blame them. However, Nigatsu has managed to combine every aspect of the plot well. The action kept me engaged with the story, while the comedic moments offered a short reprieve and a chance for character development. There’s such a large cast of characters that we barely scratch the surface when it comes to getting to know them all. But they all have such distinct personalities that, for a first volume that doesn’t pose a problem; instead I found myself looking forward to getting to know them as the story goes on.

The artwork is impressive too, featuring numerous well-paced fights that are easy to follow. The large cast demands a lot of variation in designs, which Nigatsu achieves by ensuring that no two characters look overly similar. There’s a lot of attention to detail when it comes to the backgrounds as well, which can sometimes make pages feel overly busy, but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a problem. It will be interesting to see if the art changes over time, as I imagine this style would be quite intensive to keep up for a weekly release schedule.

Still, regardless of what the future holds, this first volume is simply a great deal of fun to read. There are a lot of elements that will be familiar to shonen fans, but I feel the combination Nigatsu has gone for here puts a fairly original spin on the whole thing. I would not be surprised if this got an anime adaptation soon, as it certainly feels like it would transition well to animation.

Honeko Akaben’s Bodyguards Volume 1 comes to the West and has been translated by Kayli Sullivan, with lettering by Belynda Ungurath (Carla Gil Coba for the digital edition, which I think refers to K Manga rather than the eBook). Just like Nigatsu has a lot of characters to juggle, so does Sullivan when it comes to translation, and they handle this well by ensuring everyone has very distinct voices, which leads to a release that reads well. This one also comes with colour pages at the beginning, which are always a nice treat!

The series is complete in Japan with 12 volumes, which seems like a good length for the premise. Here in English, Kodansha have already released Volumes 2 and 3, with the next release being #4 in July. Like many series from this publisher, it’s on a bi-monthly release schedule, so they’re getting through it quite quickly.

Overall, Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards is an interesting series that starts with a highly entertaining first instalment. A lot is going on here, and that may lead to the mangaka’s downfall at some point as they juggle it all, but so far, so good. I’m certainly eager to see more of this one.

• Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards © Masamitsu Nigatsu/KODANSHA LTD.

A free preview can be read on the Kodansha website.

Our review copy from Kodansha was supplied by Diamond Book Distributors UK.