Human Club 5

So, as I mentioned, this series mostly takes place in Hong Kong (several stories take place in Japan and New York City, too, but more often than not, it’s Hong Kong).  Hong Kong is actually kind of a unique setting.  This series in particular takes place in Kowloon City, where the main character was born and raised.  I assumed that Kowloon City was just a large city in Hong Kong, but when this volume went into detail, I decided to read more about it and came up with Kowloon Walled City.  That’s the absolute coolest place to set anything, ever.

Anyway.  I figured the story that’s been running for the past couple volumes would wrap up with Shinobu killing Li and everything would go back to normal.  Killing Li is not in the cards, because apparently he is much more than a dirty old man.  So much more, in fact, that the head of the Chinese Underground in New York City, the legitimate businessman Li, and Ron all put all their resources together to keep Shinobu and Li apart so that they don’t kill each other.  They wind up together anyway.

I was afraid the story would loop back on itself.  It very nearly did, but luckily there was a different path taken when one of the events repeated itself.

Shinobu’s background is explored a little bit, mostly about the mystery of how he and his mother found themselves in the Kowloon Walled City.  The secret dies with the madam of the area, but apparently both Shinobu and his mother were abducted randomly from Japan.  I… think I know where this is going, and I’ll be very happy if what I think is going to happen does.

There’s an awesome scene where Li throws an elaborate farewell party for Ji-Shou, Shinobu’s friend that died in an explosion a few volumes back.  Ji-Shou was a famous actor, so the event is actually a public function at a theatre, and Ji-Shou’s replacement actor is meant to debut during the event.  Instead of the intended actor, Shinobu takes the stage.  Ji-Shou was apparently famous for doing traditional female roles (“onna-kata,” I guess?), so there’s a little scene where Shinobu dances around on stage dressed as a woman, basically astonishing everyone present.  One of the things that I like most about the series is that Shinobu used his physical beauty on both men and women to get what he wants, which is usually something bad.  That hasn’t been so much a factor in this long story, so I was happy to see this scene in here.

It’s not the best series in the world, but it’s so unlike anything else I read that I always feel like reading more to see where it goes.  I am looking forward to the end of this story so we can get back to Shinobu getting the upper hand.