Fukumoto Nobuyuki’s work has a strange appeal. It is so bizarre, yet buried within the self-deprecating eccentricity is a boundless love and understanding for humanity in all its ugliest forms. He gets people. His writing is wild and somewhat unrefined, but his capacity for creating relatable, engaging characters is impressive, to say the least. And so it is with Legend of the Strongest Man Kurosawa, where in spite of a few pitfalls, great characterization blends with powerful, sweeping statements about society and life to create an unorthodox, volatile, yet ultimately touching story.

Kurosawa is a construction worker and alcoholic in his 40s, living alone in his small, beat-up apartment. Lonely, depressed, unshaved, and wanting desperately for more in life, he repeatedly tries to scheme and plot his way into friendships, lovers, and achievements – most of which end in hilariously disastrous failure. One of the strengths of this manga is its ability to mix its depressing subject matter with dark humor. Fukumoto constantly puts Kurosawa into awkward situations made even more humiliating by Kurosawa’s ridiculous and naïve plans to curry favor with his coworkers or other strangers. The humor is balanced very well with the heavier messages that arise from these scenes. I will say that this style occasionally annoyed me in the middle of the manga, however. The drawback of Fukumoto’s style is that some of the characters can come off as purposeless caricatures, and this line is frequently crossed when the plot is at its most weakest and most unfocused.

This is the manga’s biggest problem; it meanders from one event to the next with only the characters holding it all together. In some ways this is a mixed blessing; while it allows for greater thematic focus (especially towards the end of the manga), as I said earlier it can get tiresome trudging through some of the middle chapters, where some of the happenings make very little sense from a logical standpoint. For example, the entirety of volume 4 is incredibly contrived and out-of-place given the trauma he should have been suffering from events in the prior volumes. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with plotless, character-driven stories (indeed most of my favorite anime and manga are character-driven), but in this case the story itself doesn’t have a flow, because the events aren’t well-connected and the journey sometimes feels pointless. Honestly, several of the middle volumes could just be taken out entirely and the story wouldn't suffer that much. There is a loooooot of padding and randomness that almost turns the manga from a poignant, existentialist, character-driven story into a dull slice of life with old guys instead of prepubescent moe chicks.

Still, to Fukumoto’s credit, he lampshades all of this in the manga’s thematic development. (One line in particular from of the later chapters comes to mind, when Kurosawa literally says “My life doesn’t have a plot”.) This is where the manga shines – its themes of depression, alienation, failure, and redemption create a backdrop against which the impact of the story’s seemingly random and chaotic structure is minimized. His hopelessness, his melancholy, his frustration at life, and his existential anxiety mirror what many of us have felt at some point in our lives, regardless of age. And it’s towards the end where the manga hits its stride thematically, as Kurosawa’s journey draws to a close and culminates in an incredibly poignant finale.

As a result of this thematic emphasis, Kurosawa’s characterization and development in this manga borders on exceptional. While the side characters are a bit lacking – many serve as plot devices or dimensionless foils – Kurosawa himself is unforgettable; making a likeable protagonist out of a loser and a deadbeat is no easy task, but Fukumoto is able to do just that. Each step of Kurosawa’s journey reveals another dimension to his character: the various fights and skirmishes that he involves himself in, along with his slowly increasing social circle and standing at work, highlight the growth of his courage and assertiveness as a character, in addition to developing his sense of morality. The most substantial change, though, is in the way his outlook on life evolves from one of depression-borne nihilism, as his experiences slowly but surely start to give his life meaning and purpose. As the manga winds down to its heartbreaking conclusion, Kurosawa begins to realize that perhaps even a lost cause like himself can derive value and significance from life simply by being human and living.

The side characters do suffer, though. Virtually all of them are left woefully underdeveloped and don't really do much outside of guiding the story in a specific direction. Nakane is probably one of the few supporting characters that does get some development, but it's still lacking.

The artwork is definitely a point of contention, but personally I think it’s quite good, although as I mentioned earlier, it comes with its risks. Fukumoto loves to portray people in their most repulsive state; ridiculously rectangular jawlines, slanted and angry eyebrows, missing teeth, massive lips, and my favorite – the TEARS, the constant stream of tears and snot and sweat running down their faces in even remotely stressful situations, populate this work. It’s very similar to Kaiji in that regard. It’s funny, but it’s also remarkable in the sense that it conveys Fukumoto’s characterization with vivid authenticity. The downside to such a style is that – again, as I said before – there is a danger of caricaturizing characters and divorcing the reader from a sense of realism, something that happens semi-frequently during the middle of the manga. The panel layout is fairly neat and backgrounds are detailed – although Fukumoto loves to draw speed lines to emphasize climactic moments, but it’s not a big deal.

While I had my issues with some parts of the manga, the finished product was more than satisfactory. With an intriguing premise, a bizarre narrative style, an indelible protagonist, great thematic delivery, and an evocative ending, the Legend of the Strongest Man Kurosawa is definitely worth a read.