Ice Blade

Jirashin Manga Cover, Volume #1.

File:Ice Blade Volume 1 Cover.jpg

Ice Blade Manga Cover, Volume #1.

Ice Blade, known in Japan as Jiraishin (地雷震, literally "earth-lightning-quake"), is a Japanese manga series by Tsutomu Takahashi. It was published in the late 1990's and was serialized in Kodansha's Afternoon Magazine from 1992-1999.

Story Details

Most of the episodes in the manga revolves around the life and the adventures of homicide detective Kyoya Iida (or Ky in Mixxzine's Ice Blade, which is now part of Tokyopop's manga library), a plainclothed police officer stationed at the Shinjuku police station.

Characters

The name in the Japanese version goes first. Their English versions (if there are) will be posted as well.

Shinjuku Police Officers

• Eriko Aizawa (相沢江理子 Aizawa Eriko)

- Kyoya's second partner. Her boyfriend and supposed husband was shot to death by Eriko's stalker after the wedding. Speaks fluent English, Chinese and Spanish aside from her native Japanese.

• Kyōya Iida (飯田 響也 Iida Kyōya) / Ky

- A Dirty Harry-like detective, who prefers to solve cases by using his Glock 17 pistol. Can speak fluent English. Had horrible memories of his late cop father, who killed himself over the guilt of shooting an innocent bystander by mistake during a police operation.

• Tsuyoshi Yamaki (八巻 剛志 Yamaki Tsuyoshi) / Mack

- Kyoya's first partner, later shot to death by an armed Chinese juvenile delinquent. His nickname was Hachimaki. He left behind his wife, Yukari, and his son was named after him in memory.

• Director Narita (成田 Narita) / Nader

- Kyoya's superior officer at the Shinjuku Police Precient and head of the station's homicide division. He was pals with Kyoya's late father. Was later shot and killed near the end of the series.

• Oda

- A detective in the homicide division. Was responsible for arresting two foreigners in the local park, but was wounded in the hospital when one of them struck his head with a flower pot.

Other Police Officers

• Shingo Nakashima

- A uniformed policeman and partner of Kimura, he was one of the conspirators who teamed up with Detective Kirishima in planting evidence against Yoshiaki Saito. In revenge, he was stabbed to him by Saito, but not before he scarred his face and took his revolver.

• Kimura

- Partner of Shingo, he also teamed up with Kirishima in planting evidence against Yoshiaki Saito. Ovewhelmed with excessive guilt, he chooses to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of his apartment building.

• Kirishima

- A police detective, he was the mastermind of framing Yoshiaki Saito after he punched his ex-wife, Kaori, in a drunken state. He later had sex with Kaori after gunning down Yoshiaki, but not before he was shot in the head with Nakashima's stolen police revolver.

Civilians

• Dr. Nakahara

- Doctor who treated Kyoya's hypnotism spell after being exposed to a subliminal video at a local hospital.

• Atsuko Narita

- Daughter of Director Narita. Like her father, she too was shot and killed near the end of the manga. She was a teacher at a local cramming school.

• Kaori Saito

- Former wife of Yoshiaki Saito, had divorced him after he was arrested by Kirishima, Kimura and Shingo Nakashima. Yoshiaki had targeted her after stabbing Nakashima and Kimura jumped to his own death, followed by the killing of Kirishima. She called her husband as "The Typhoon" after she isolated herself in an apartment building in the Daikan Mountains. Was "cared for" by Kirishima even if he had sex with her. She smiled to Kyoya after he had killed Yoshiaki before he could pull the revolver's trigger.

• Yukari Yamaki

- Wife of Hachimaki. She became a widow after he was killed in the line of duty. Took Kyoya's suggestion to name her only son after Hachimaki.

• Dr. Mitsuo Yoshida

- A dentist with his own clinic, he was subject to a lawsuit from the Saitos for the accidental death of their daughter, Kaori. As part of Yoshiaki Saito's revenge plan, he had stormed his clinic and gunned him down with the stolen police revolver from Shingo Nakashima's carcass.

Criminals/Suspects

• Kichi Sanada

- An obsessed painter, killed a local jogger after he descreated his "work", consisting of two foreign nationals making out in the park.

• Yoshiaki Saito

- A former salaryman, he became enraged after Doctor Yoshida accidentally killed his daughter, Kaori, due to her allergic reaction against anesthetic during a rountine tooth extraction at his dental clinic. Later stabbed Shingo Nakashima to death in order to enact his revenge and steal his sidearm. He used Nakashima's revolver to gun down Doctor Yoshida and Kirishima. Kyoya later shot him before he could gun down his ex-wife.

• Azusa Shono/Angel Shonn

- A former teenager driven to suicide over her father's problems. Was arrested for the murder of Yamamoto, an executive in the Hanada Industrial Enterprises. Driven by her hatred to Kyoya and to the police for her arrest, she starved herself to death in a local prison. Her brother avenged her by kidnapping Yukari in retaliation. Kyoya had asked her to infiltrate Hanada Enterprises in order to get evidence regarding gun smuggling by the corporation in Japan.

• Hisashi Shono/Bruno Shonn

- Azusa/Angel's violent brother, driven for revenge to kill Kyoya after his sister died of starvation. Kidnapped Yukari and tried to shoot her, but was later shot by Kyoya in the neck.

• Hisashi Shono/Bruno Shonn

- Azusa's/Angel's violent brother, driven for revenge to kill Kyoya after his sister died of starvation. Kidnapped Yukari and tried to shoot her, but was later shot by Kyoya in the neck. Was angry at his father for taking advantage of Azusa's/Angel's life insurance money in order to remove his debt.

• Kono

- A local yakuza gang leader. Gave Hisashi a Soviet-made Tokarev pistol before he turned the weapon against him, shooting him and his henchmen to death.

Publication

The manga was serialized in Afternoon KC and compiled into 19 volumes (tankōbon) published by Kodansha.

• Jiraishin 1 (1993/10) ISBN 4063140717
• Jiraishin 2 (1994/02) ISBN 4063140776
• Jiraishin 3 (1994/08) ISBN 4063140873
• Jiraishin 4 (1994/12) ISBN 4063140997
• Jiraishin 5 (1995/03) ISBN 406314108X
• Jiraishin 6 (1995/07) ISBN 4063141152
• Jiraishin 7 (1996/01) ISBN 406314125X
• Jiraishin 8 (1996/06) ISBN 4063141330
• Jiraishin 9 (1996/12) ISBN 4063141438
• Jiraishin 10 (1997/03) ISBN 4063141489
• Jiraishin 11 (1997/08) ISBN 4063141616
• Jiraishin 12 (1997/12) ISBN 4063141683
• Jiraishin 13 (1998/03) ISBN 4063141721
• Jiraishin 14 (1998/06) ISBN 4063141810
• Jiraishin 15 (1998/09) ISBN 4063141888
• Jiraishin 16 (1998/12) ISBN 4063141926
• Jiraishin 17 (1999/07) ISBN 4063142124
• Jiraishin 18 (2000/01) ISBN 4063142272
• Jiraishin 19 (2000/01) ISBN 4063142280

Kodansha has also released a high quality collector's edition (bunko) of Jiraishin comprising of a total of 10 volumes.

• Jiraishin Bunko 1 (2003/05) ISBN 4063602125
• Jiraishin Bunko 2 (2003/05) ISBN 4063602133
• Jiraishin Bunko 3 (2003/06) ISBN 4063605620
• Jiraishin Bunko 4 (2003/06) ISBN 4063605639
• Jiraishin Bunko 5 (2003/07) ISBN 4063605647
• Jiraishin Bunko 6 (2003/07) ISBN 4063605655
• Jiraishin Bunko 7 (2003/08) ISBN 4063605663
• Jiraishin Bunko 8 (2003/08) ISBN 4063605671
• Jiraishin Bunko 9 (2003/09) ISBN 406360568X
• Jiraishin Bunko 10 (2003/09) ISBN 4063605698

The English version was published by Mixx, now known as TOKYOPOP, in MixxZine, but the series was discontinued after 3 volumes.

• Ice Blade Volume 1: Puppet (1998/12) ISBN 1892213036
• Ice Blade Volume 2: Snow Country (1999/08) ISBN 1892213141
• Ice Blade Volume 3: Inducement (2000/02) ISBN 1892213192

External links

• Official Ice Blade page (TOKYOPOP)
• Fan site for Jiraishin
• Site with text translations of Jiraishin