Genre Action/Adventure
Age Rating 18+
Price $12.95

Publisher's summary of volume from the back cover:

Ten years ago, they took him. He doesn't know who. For ten years he has been confined in a private prison. He doesn't know why. For ten years his only contact with the outside world has been a television set and the voices of his jailers. In time, he lost himself. He changed . . . transformed himself into something else . . . something hard . . . something lethal. Suddenly one day, his incarceration ends, again without explanation. He is sedated, stuffed inside a trunk, and dumped in a park. When he awakes, he is free to reclaim what's left of his life . . . and what's left is revenge.

Old Boy starts out with an interesting premise--a man is trapped in a room for several years with nothing but a television and is finally released. It certainly has that conspiracy atmosphere and several tropes of the genre are used in this manga.

The art is quite sophisticated. The backgrounds and setting almost look photo-realistic while the characters are drawn with such detail that everyone has a unique face and expression. Facial expression is important in this manga as the text elicits various emotions from the reader.

Our protagonist is an interesting mix. Obviously, he's no superman and he gets his ass handed to him a couple of times, showing that he's quite vulnerable (and how he ended up in the room in the first place). On the other hand, there's a determination and resourcefulness to him that makes him an interesting to read.

As far as story goes, Old Boy sucks you in as your curiosity is piqued and answers lead only to more questions. There's enough drama and revelation to keep you hooked and scenes alternate between our protagonist and his enigmatic nemesis. If I have any complaint about the first volume of this manga, it's the presence of the love interest of our hero as she appears too conveniently and at this point her reactions are pretty much so one-sided that it stretches credulity.

Overall Old Boy starts out with a bang and has me hooked. Whether it succeeds in establishing a worthwhile payoff remains to be seen but this is certainly an old title that one should keep an eye on. Fans of mysteries and conspiracies will want to check out this manga.

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