“Tom, a young high school student, has a crush on his classmate Harmony. When he learns about her passion for chess, Tom quickly decides to sign up for the school's chess club. But he doesn't even know the rules! To impress Harmony, he is left with no choice: he must learn quickly and train seriously. Soon Tom discovers the existence of Garry Kasparov, the greatest player in the history of chess. He stumbles upon a virtual reality machine that promises to help him analyze the most legendary matches of the master! In an unexpected twist of event, Tom soon is granted access to the highest echelons of the chess…” (Ablaze)
Hey everyone look! It is Garry Kasparov, the teen sensation here to make chess cool again with his new project, a manga called “BLITZ” that the kids are bound to love.
Joking aside, the manga series that is overseen by the respected figure in the world of chess presents an interesting amalgam of culture mash-up that oddly works in the book's favor, making it an exciting take that straddles the line between shonen action and sports drama. This can be, seemingly, attributed to the diverse creative team of Cedric Biscay & Harumo Sanazaki, with Kasparov also overlooking the project mixing perspectives on the sport and storytelling from both East and West.
Perhaps the strongest example of differing styles working together comes from the setup of Tom given ‘powers' from a shopkeeper who deals in antiquities. Oddly, this mysterious figure has a top-of-the-line VR system whose only purpose is to teach chess yet still manages to malfunction and inject a world of knowledge straight into Tom's brain–a MacGuffin of Western comic logic if there ever was one. Conversely, the book maintains the spirit of a serious drama by building up challenges that force players to grow in both their understanding of the game as well as themselves and what the sport means to them.
Teetering between serious drama and absurdity, arguably, makes for a varied narrative that does not manage to exemplify the best of either approach, yet “BLITZ” is redeemable in how it balances both excitement and drama in equal measure. Add in the fact that the project is a passion project overseen by one of the greats that also explores the technicalities of the sport and it makes for a deeply engaging read. Volume one concludes with the announcement of a major worldwide tournament, and the way the inaugural release is presented injects excitement to see how events proceed.
The visual direction of the book is serviceable, though it does have moments of flair when it equates the game of chess to a battle on an epic scale. The characters have an abundance of personality, which is always key in a manga that sets itself up as a series of challenges and it does an adequate job of exploring the sport itself and making it visually easy to follow.
The release from Abalze is printed in a slightly larger format, which does make it not fit the same on the shelf among the more standard format manga. However, it is an interesting format that does allow creativity with the page layout by playing with empty space to make certain pages stand out and leave an impact. Personally, I appreciate the layout of Ablaze manga trying to stand out slightly from the competition in format and if their library of books continues to grow I would happily line a row on my shelf with their manga titles.
“BLITZ” is the perfect mix of entertainment and chess knowledge/lore that is wonderfully presented in this inaugural release. It may not necessarily make chess ‘cool again' but it is damn near the closest thing to interjecting modern flair into the sport under a joint effort of a talented team. Ultimately, “BLITZ” is worth checking out for, not only fans of chess, but those who enjoy sports manga focused on internal dialogue to push the story as well as those who like light shonen elements.
