Aya Kanno’s Blank Slate is the sort of thing that turns up in manga from time to time — a grim story peopled by some frightening characters, all wrapped in gorgeous drawing. I will say, however, that I didn’t expect to find something like this from Shojo Beat, an imprint focusing on teenage girls.
Zen is a cold-blooded killer. He’s number one on the government’s “Most Wanted” list, and no one seems to be able to get near him. The first chapter is about a bounty hunter, Russo, who thinks he can get close to Zen and score the coup of taking out the most wanted man around. It seems to be working — and then Russo discovers just how cold-blooded Zen is.
The main story line begins when Zen becomes involved in the kidnapping of Rian, daughter of the general who rules Amata, once independent, now subjugated by Galaya and ruled by a military governor. Zen remembers nothing of his first twenty years — he woke up near death, with an almost uncontrollable urge to destroy everything. Hakka, a renegade Galayan doctor who treats poor Amatans and wanted criminals, whom Zen meets when fleeing with Rian and the Amatan freedom fighters who kidnapped her, turns out to have a deeper connection to Zen than anyone suspects. That connection, and Zen’s past, compose the underlying story.
It’s the character of Zen that turns what might otherwise be a fairly standard action/adventure story into a study in darkness. There are no shreds of humanity left in Zen — he’ll take whatever he wants from whoever has it, and do what he has to do. Hakka, on the other hand, can’t make himself kill anyone.
The core idea is free will. Zen refuses to be controlled by anyone for any reason, which makes him a hero of a sort and leads to a fascinating and somewhat surprising climax. Strangely, it’s Hakka who becomes a real tragic hero of Euripidean dimension: he’s a man driven by one overriding motivation that ultimately destroys him. The ending to this series is the necessary one, mandated by the logic of the story — don’t look for a fairy-tale happy ending here.
The graphic treatment is pure shoujo. The men are all very, very pretty, while Rian is notable for her masses of hair. Kanno’s drawing is expressive, using fragmentary images and close-ups to build emotional depth and immediacy. The visual narrative is fairly straightforward, although Kanno does break into loose and intuitive sequences, especially in action scenes.
Blank Slate is a study in nihilism, but unlike Kazuya Minekura in Wild Adapter, Kanno doesn’t make the same use of irony — it’s a device, not a core element. Rather, she portrays her characters through a romantic vision that somehow lifts them into the realm of true dramatic tragedy.
(VIZ Media, 2008)
