Manga Review: Karakuri Doji Ultimo

Title: Karakuri Doji Ultimo
Author: Hiroyuki Takei, Stan Lee
Release: Monthly
Status: Ongoing
Genre: Shonen, Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Art: A
Originality: A
Story: A
Characters: A
Humor: B
Action: B

Impression: That’s right, Stan Lee of Marvel comics is working on this. He and the creator of Shaman King are collaborating together to draw a story about robot boys made to embody pure good, Ultimo, and pure evil, Vice, created by an insane Stan Lee look-alike called Dunstan – he even comes with English laughter in the raw format. While I must say that it is an interesting way to represent the struggle between good and evil, the latest chapters tell us that the ultimate battle between good and evil won’t be fought between just two robot boys but groups of them which makes it a whole lot more predictable. It would have been better to limit the cast and keep to a few strong characters rather than a whole slew of mini-bosses and allies. The characters that were already shown were fun to watch and there was a lot to see just by focusing on Ultimo learning about good from his master so adding too many characters will have negative impacts on the story. I really hope they’ll continue to focus more on Ultimo’s progress in understanding good rather than the battles. Incidentally an anime is already being produced at the moment but they have yet to set a release date for the premiere. They'll probably show it alongside with the other Marvel anime set to premiere next year though.