Bambi and Her Pink Gun Vol. 1 Review

Author: Atsushi Kaneko
Publisher: Digital Manga Publishing (DMP)

“The word is out on the streets: a reward of five million dollars to the opportunist that wastes the courier calling herself Bambi and returns her living cargo. Chainsaw swinging psychos, gold-toothed Elvises, Derringer-packing grannies and all the other scum in these badlands could care less whether Bambi is kidnapping this toddler she christened "Pampi" or if she's snatching him back from his captors. With a pink gun in one hand, and a leashed Pampi in the other, can antihero Bambi's huge ego and formidable gun skills hold off an army?”

Plot & Characterisation
Okay, I’ll try and summarise what floated through my head as I read this first volume of Bambi and Her Pink Gun: A Quentin Tarantino film in the form of an indie comic staring Tank Girl with a pink gun instead of a tank. And if you hate each of those things independently of one another I’d still suggest you look at Bambi as it managed to develop a very unique and distinct personality, independent from its obvious influences. Once you go beyond the insane and explicit violence (yeah, the parental advisory tag on the front isn’t just there for added creditability) there’s actually more to this book than you might initially give it credit for. Sure, it is first-and-foremost an action comic with a whole shed load of violence that doesn’t hold back, and Bambi will come across as a bit of a typical self-serving anti-hero, but it flows so effortlessly well with a lot of cynical but intelligent humour it makes it very easy to like and enjoy.

The plot doesn’t do much to move beyond what you might’ve seen in your favourite Tarantino movie, but the fact that it pulls it off with such panache and style will endear it to you . . . assuming you already have a disposition in your comics to wanton violence and cool Japanese chicks with pink hair. And by god is this comic violent - violence that is rendered with graphic realism but also somehow fantastical and Big. You should be warned that this obviously isn’t a book for children and makes no light of the idea that it may be read by them (seriously, parental advisory? I wouldn’t want my mum know I was reading this at 20-years-old!). It’s shrink-wrapped on the shelves and for good reason. The story is adult, the violence is adult and the humour is adult. And by ‘adult’ I mean completely void of innocence or suggestion. You’ll be desensitised to it after a couple of chapters, as is the way with this kind of entertainment, but it still has a massive impact every time a trigger is pulled.

Character-wise Bambi is your typical anti-hero[ine] (although probably more simplistic than most anti-heroes) with a wee bit of a difference in the form of ‘Pampi’, the little boy she kidnaps for the mysterious ‘Old Men’ and is the indirect cause of most of Bambi’s problems throughout the book. Pampi is permanently attached to Bambi with one of those kiddy leases and doesn’t do much except eat junk food and look a bit dim; and once the ultra-violence starts kicking off this dynamic becomes one the most entertaining aspects of the book, giving the almost caveman-like Bambi some humanity and accessibility. Make no mistake; characterisation in this book is pretty shallow. You aren’t going to find much depth or pathos in these people and it makes no attempts to be deep or meaningful. Of course this could change over the coming volumes, but so far Atsushi Kaneko maintains the ‘wild ride’ feel of the comic without bogging it down with too much back-story or expedition, and generally this is a positive rather than a negative.

Artwork
With an artistic style that could be seen as a Japanese Daniel Clowes if he decided to create Tank Girl instead of David Boring, Atsushi Kaneko brings something truly unique to manga by infusing a very indie, very Fantagraphics sensibility with all the vibrancy and expressiveness of Japanese comics. The line-work has a pink hue, similar to how Clowes’ Ghost World had a teal hue rather than the standard black, and this goes along way of creating an ‘indie’ feel in the artwork. The characters actually look like their nationality (mostly Japanese) with a more realistic slant than in most manga. Design-wise everything is as stylish and hip as you might presume from the cover, but never affectedly so and with mucho creativeness. Sequentially speaking I’m actually quite amazed at how effortlessly dynamic Kaneko is with his anatomy and backgrounds. Everything merges into the same slightly shaky style that really gives the violence and action an added mind-bending quality. The layouts are detailed and complex, almost verging on convoluted, but yet retaining a distinct clarity on closer inspection. I’d be lying if I said the cover wasn’t what initially attracted me to the book, and the interior work lives up to it by simply being damn impressive and damn cool.

Presentation
DMP get top marks by releasing a very attractive and well-produced package. The slip-cover goes a long way in creating that prestigious effect that justifies the $12.99 price tag and translation-wise DMP maintain their high standard. Everything is ‘authentic’ (or native, as DMP call it on the back cover - a much more appropriate way of phrasing it I think) with sound affects and signs translated in textboxes beside them. The pink hue I mentioned in the artwork section gives the book another distinctive quality and is well presented. On a whole an exceptionally high quality is maintained throughout.

Conclusion
The first volume of Bambi and Her Pink Gun is successful in every pursuit it attempts. There’s no denying this is a bit of a ‘trendy’ or ‘hip’ manga with a strong indie vibe to it, but it makes no effort to justify this and is simply is cool in the beatnik sense of the word. Considering the amount of explicit violence I found it very easy to read with the artwork being fluid and as technically accomplished as anything you'll get off the shelves. The story doesn’t delve too deeply into the human condition, rather putting a bullet in its head than psychoanalyse it, but there’s much to be said about Kaneko’s ability to tell an exciting and fast-paced story. If you fancy something different, quirky, and don’t mind lots of violence and mature themes, I would definitely recommend Bambi and Her Pink Gun. It’s too much bloody (oh the pun) fun to ignore.