In the wavy waters of American manga, Seven Seas started out doing graphic novels in the right-to-left format. Meaning, that their books are being printed in the same fashion as regular translated Japanese manga. Whether this was trying to cash in on the hype of manga, or an attempt to confuse potential buyers into thinking its an actual manga remains to be seen.
Blade For Barter is done as an all-ages action/comedy. In it, Ryusuke Washington is a freelance samurai(or ronin). He lives in the city of New Edo, which takes place in an alternate reality where modern day mixes with feudal Japan. Always looking for new work, Ryusuke hears about a job opening of an inhouse samurai for a big time corporation. After going through Super Mario-type efforts to make the interview, he looses his oppurtunity when he refuses to join the shifty Samurai Union.
Afterwards, he gets a new pet dog named Hachiko who he saved from being run over previously. However, his new neighbor and business rival, the sexy(?)ninja girl Macadameia, causes immeadiate friction for Ryusuke’s pet. Then, some local restaraunt owners hire both of them to find some bandits who’ve beem eating and running with their meals. They only way to stop them is for Ryusuke and Macadamia to pretend to join the ranks of the bill-avoiding thieves.
The art style by illustrator Hai!(yes, that’s his name)is very similar to those from the One Piece manga series. The story usually paces out like it too, with fast action and quick dialogue. Writer Jason DeAngelis originally started out as a translator for manga like Berserk. Together, they pull off a reasonably interesting graphic novel.
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