Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Shin Megami Tensei Kahn… But Were Afraid to Ask

This week, our intrepid reviewers Erin F. and Ken Haley team up to bring you the inside scoop on one of Tokyopop’s newest seinen releases, Shin Megami Tensei Kahn. Erin spoke with the Editor-in-Chief Rob Tokar about where Kahn fits into Tokyopop’s marketing strategy, while Ken weighed in on the book’s merits. Read on for details!

PopCultureShock: Does Tokyopop have plans to publish Shin Megami Tensei: If… as well as Shin Megami Tensei: Kahn since they are both by the same artist? Since the two manga series are from different Japanese publishers has someone else licensed Shin Megami Tensei: If… ?

Rob Tokar: We could be interested in publishing If depending on the sales of Kahn. Though there are many series and creators we personally love, our decisions must always be based on what our audience will buy.

PCS: That last question stems from the recent publication of Zig Zag and Venus in Love. Even though they are both Hakusensha titles by the same author, I noticed CMX published Venus in Love while Tokyopop published Zig Zag, and both came out last November. Was that collaboration or friendly competition?

RT: We’re both big fans of this creator’s work, but there was no collaboration in deciding who would publish what. Typically, we are in competition for licenses. When it turned out that we each had the licenses to one of the titles, we swapped ads with each other because, ultimately, both companies will benefit from letting fans of one series know about the other.

PCS: Why publish Shin Megami Tensei: Kahn now? Is it because of the new Persona: Trinity Soul anime series?

RT: Our release calendar was set before we knew about the anime. Hopefully, the anime will help sales, but it was not a factor in our schedule when we made it.

PCS: Additionally, Shin Megami Tensei: Kahn has a lot of mature content. Does Tokyopop have plans to publish more mature titles in the future?

RT: Battle Royale (a mature title) was one of our most popular series and we publish over 50 other titles that are also rated M, including Life, Bloodsucker, and Battle Vixens. Manga Sutra (Futari H) is about to appear on store shelves. When we’re deciding what to license, we’re less concerned with the rating of a book than we are with the book’s story and art. If we think the content is good, we’ll publish it and rate it accordingly.

–Interview conducted by Erin F.

Shin Megami Tensei Kahn, Vol. 1

By Kazuaki Yanagisawa
Tokyopop, 192 pp.
Rating: Mature (18 +)

Six months ago, a mysterious Demon Summoning computer program was activated. As a result the Karukozaka High School and all its students and teachers were sucked into the underworld. With the help of a demon girl named Pixies, two students, Nobu and Yumi, survived and were able to return to earth. Now government factions with vastly different goals are seeking out the survivors and Nobu finds himself hunted from every direction as he sets out to reunite with Yumi and protect her from the forces that are gathering around them.

Shin Megami Tensei Kahn is apparently the third or fourth manga series based on an old SNES game, but Kazuaki does a great job at giving you everything you need to know in this single volume. There are events in the past that are touched upon and mentioned, but you never really get the feeling that you’re missing something key to understanding the story at hand; the brief flashbacks and occasional bits of expository dialogue tell you all you need to know. Considering the lineage of this book, that’s quite impressive. Not once did I feel lost of confused during it. And just in case you did find something confusing, there are several pages of notes in the back of the book explaining events, characters, and organizations.

The book’s art is a little hit or miss. For the most part it looks good, but every now and then there’s an odd bit of skewed perspective that makes it look like someone’s head is mounted on their left shoulder. The gore is graphically depicted, yet the big entrails spilling shot didn’t hit as hard as I’d thought it would. Still, there’s a rather disturbing sequence later on involving girl-on-girl action and weird worms that was pretty nasty and honorific. The depictions of the demons aren’t very inspired, either; Pixie looks exactly like a human except for some pointy ears, while the other demons tend to look a bit skeletal (then again, they seem to be foot soldier type characters). There’s also a vague sense of age about the art as well. The series was originally published in 1996, so I suppose it’s too be expected. I don’t think it’s aged poorly though.

I have to admit, Shin Megami Tensei Kahn was a lot better than I anticipated. I can’t say I was completely in love with it, but both the story and the art were enjoyable enough to have me curious about where the story is going. It’s a decent start for a horror series, and one that doesn’t look like it will shy away from gore, sexual situations and mixes of the two for some disturbing imagery.

–Reviewed by Ken Haley