Manga Review | Man With Many Faces
I will admit that I started reading this series I thought to myself, I wonder what this is about”. I based my initiation on the visuals of the characters on the cover, and after reading the first volume as of this review I have no regrets about that decision.
The manga follows Akira Ijyuin a third grade kid who is living a double life as the infamous thief 20 faces, a master of disguise and stealth, Akira is the 2nd generation of 20 faces! as it is quoted that his father was the one as well. 20 faces tends to steal unusual objects at the whim of his devious crime-lords his mothers. basically his mother’s sends their son to steal whatever they feel like and, he has to get it just to please them. They send notices out to the places that he is going to steal from,who then alerting that police, and somehow he always seem to get away with the heist using some kind of epic escape routine, like jet packs or crafty make shift balloons. He can’t let anyone know that he is 20 faces especially his neighbor Ryusuke who is a high school student who seem to have an unclear ability to boss the police offices around in his hunt to bring 20 faces to justice. One can even say from reading that Ryusuke is extremely obsessed with capturing him, not knowing that it is Akira he has been hunting all this time. Ryusuke seems to be his main antagonist during volume one of the manga. There is also Akechi-sensei (no surname given) who always seems to be with Ryusuke every time he is on the hunt for 20 faces, and always tend to distract Ryusuke giving Akira time to escape. (its quoted in the manga that Akechi-sensei is Akira’s uncle) so knowing that 20 faces was his brother and that Akira is the new 20 faces you could see why he tend to distract Ryusuke so often .
During one of his escapades Akira encounters and develops a relationship with Utako Ogama, the youngest daughter of the Ogama family. At first it starts out with Akira becoming her love interest to get over the hurt of her first love her teacher, who turning her down for being too young. Their relationship starts to grow along with the trials that they will have to face as a couple with Akira as the 20 faces continues to get more difficult tasks from his mothers despite them being very wealthy continues to ask him to steal for them.
Final verdict
This manga is a interesting read for persons into fantasy, comedy, romance, shoujo type manga. I highly suggest picking up this one. I think it is something that will keep getting better as it progresses.
Man of many Faces: Link