Yukito Kishiro is one of the youngest manga artists to ever reach nationwide acclaim in Japan. The Shogakukan publishing company nominated him for the Best New Artist award in 1984 when he was just 17. Kishiro wouldn't see widespread fame, especially outside of his native Japan, until several years later when he released Gunnm, known in the anglophone world as Battle Angel Alita. For Battle Angel Kishiro created a vivid, post-apocalyptic world that transformed middle American into a violent wasteland. Much of the story takes place in Scrapyard, an isolated portion of the desert territory that has fallen to lawlessness and chaos. Battle Angel is an orgy of violence and bizarre existential questions, though not without an artful touch. In 1997, Yukito Kishiro created a small but punchy manga set in the same world as Battle Angel though featuring entirely new characters. This was Haisha, localized as Ashen Victor.

Ashen Victor is Exhibit A in the argument for manga as a viable modern art form. As many enthusiasts of the medium are quick to point out, the material that makes it across the Pacific tends to play to the anime-primed crowds of science fiction fantatics and comic book readers. The aim of books like Ashen Victor is far more thematically rich and artfully executed.

The story of Ashen Victor surrounds Motorball, the sport of choice in Scrapyard that basically boils down to a high-speed race in mechanical suits while maintaining control of a ball that closely resembles a futuristic depth charge. The main character, a cyborg named Snev, inadvertently becomes the star attraction for his tendency to wipe out spectacularly, granting him the title "The King of Crash". Snev's noir-inspired tale involves race fixing, an out of control pharmaceutical industry and a general cheapening of life. But the story goes beyond those tried and true tropes of cynical degradation to explore stirring questions of identity and motivation.

Snev's life is one of loss and violence. In a world that would rather see a baby kicked in the head than endure its crying, scrawny washout Snev's broken body and fundamental loneliness mean next to nothing. As the story draws on, he becomes more literally mechanical, a symbol of his fading sense of self in the overtly dehumanizing sport that has become his entire life. It's only through a combination of surreal mental breaks and surprising moments of triumph that Snev reclaims his humanity not just in spite of his deep-seated self destruction and increasing lack of flesh, but because of it.

Ashen Victor is exceedingly brief and because of that it doesn't really have time to develop certain aspects of its story. Its shortness combined with its original intended audience, the late-teen demographic targeted by all shonen manga, leaves its two female characters out in the cold where detail and motivation are concerned. Both are attractive, blonde prostitutes who take an interest in Snev that renders them more or less just plot devices and often idealized symbols of salvation. Kishiro had a choice when he wrote Ashen Victor. He could have sacrificed pacing or character development. Ultimately, he chose to give up the latter. While I'd never call Ashen Victor required reading for feminist literature, I'd say the curtness of the story suits its sharp, punchy atmosphere.

Yukito Kishiro's artistic talent is without question what elevates his gritty stories above dime store noir. He manages to make excessively violent scenes beautiful and almost never gratuitous thanks to his liberal application of expressionistic contrast and visceral arabesques. There's a spareness to much of the ink work that avoids unnecessary details and instead draws the eye to a few stirring elements of composition, making those intense moments of intricacy that much more compelling.

Ashen Victor doesn't require any foreknowledge of Battle Angel Alita. It is a purely stand-alone piece that serves as an excellent introduction to manga as both art and entertainment. Rather than asking a newcomer to dive into the Gunnm series which spans several hundred pages over multiple volumes, I'd encourage manga neophytes to pick up this slim but striking work of sequential art.