Ice Blade

Ice Blade (地雷震) is manga series written and illustrated by Tsutomu Takahashi, published in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from 1992 to 1999. It was announced by Afternoon's October magazine that a new Jiraishin series would be in the magazine ''good! afternoon and would be known as Jiraishin diablo''.

The story follows Kyoya Ida, a plainclothes police officer, and his colleagues at the Shinjuku Police Department as they investigate and solve crimes in the Greater Tokyo Area. Sometimes, these crimes are solved with some prices to pay.

Plot
Kyoya Ida is a hard-nosed detective from the Shinjuku Police precinct. He is known in the force as an unreasonable type who would use lethal force to solve cases, making him unpopular with the enlisted and high-ranking officers in the National Police Agency. Despite this fact, there are some in the force that admire Ida for his bravery and cleverness in using lethal force to solve criminal cases whenever legal means are met in a dead end.

Characters

 * Kyoya Ida

A very cold homicide detective who prefers to solve cases by using his Glock 17 pistol. He can speak fluent English and German to some degree. In a bleak, gritty representation of Shinjuku, Kyouya does not take any crap from anyone, and he does not waste his time suffering fools. He just deals with the case getting closed and the bad guy getting what he deserves. He will put his job above just about everything else in his life, it seems. He is unpopular amongst his superiors, but he is known for being the best detective around, so they will put up with his somewhat caustic attitude. Ever since his father's death, he became cold and emotionless to most people, except to Eriko, Hachimaki, Yukari and Director Narita.

Kyoya's first partner, shot to death by an armed Chinese juvenile delinquent. His nickname was Hachimaki. He left behind his wife, Yukari, and his son was named after him in memory.
 * Tsuyoshi Yamaki

Head officer of Shinjuku's homicide division. He is the head of the homicide division at Shinjuku Police Station. He has a very gruff and harsh personality, but despite that he really cares about all his men especially Kyouya. Kyouya is his best detective, and he knows it. His superiors want him to get rid of Kyouya, but he will not do so. He yells at Kyouya a lot and threaten him, but he will still tell him to be careful when he is heading out to do something dangerous. It is just his nature to growl rather than to advise. Narita's wife is dead, and he has one grown-up daughter, Atsuko.
 * Director Narita

Kyoya's second partner. Her husband was killed by her stalker after their wedding. Speaks fluent English, Chinese, and Spanish.
 * Eriko Aizawa

Publication
The manga was serialized in Afternoon KC and compiled into 19 volumes (tankōbon) published by Kodansha.


 * Jiraishin 1 (1993/10) ISBN 4-06-314071-7
 * Jiraishin 2 (1994/02) ISBN 4-06-314077-6
 * Jiraishin 3 (1994/08) ISBN 4-06-314087-3
 * Jiraishin 4 (1994/12) ISBN 4-06-314099-7
 * Jiraishin 5 (1995/03) ISBN 4-06-314108-X
 * Jiraishin 6 (1995/07) ISBN 4-06-314115-2
 * Jiraishin 7 (1996/01) ISBN 4-06-314125-X
 * Jiraishin 8 (1996/06) ISBN 4-06-314133-0
 * Jiraishin 9 (1996/12) ISBN 4-06-314143-8
 * Jiraishin 10 (1997/03) ISBN 4-06-314148-9
 * Jiraishin 11 (1997/08) ISBN 4-06-314161-6
 * Jiraishin 12 (1997/12) ISBN 4-06-314168-3
 * Jiraishin 13 (1998/03) ISBN 4-06-314172-1
 * Jiraishin 14 (1998/06) ISBN 4-06-314181-0
 * Jiraishin 15 (1998/09) ISBN 4-06-314188-8
 * Jiraishin 16 (1998/12) ISBN 4-06-314192-6
 * Jiraishin 17 (1999/07) ISBN 4-06-314212-4
 * Jiraishin 18 (2000/01) ISBN 4-06-314227-2
 * Jiraishin 19 (2000/01) ISBN 4-06-314228-0

Kodansha also released a high quality collector's edition (bunkobon) of the manga in 10 volumes.


 * Jiraishin Bunko 1 (2003/05) ISBN 4-06-360212-5
 * Jiraishin Bunko 2 (2003/05) ISBN 4-06-360213-3
 * Jiraishin Bunko 3 (2003/06) ISBN 4-06-360562-0
 * Jiraishin Bunko 4 (2003/06) ISBN 4-06-360563-9
 * Jiraishin Bunko 5 (2003/07) ISBN 4-06-360564-7
 * Jiraishin Bunko 6 (2003/07) ISBN 4-06-360565-5
 * Jiraishin Bunko 7 (2003/08) ISBN 4-06-360566-3
 * Jiraishin Bunko 8 (2003/08) ISBN 4-06-360567-1
 * Jiraishin Bunko 9 (2003/09) ISBN 4-06-360568-X
 * Jiraishin Bunko 10 (2003/09) ISBN 4-06-360569-8

The North American version of the manga, retitled Ice Blade, was serialized in Tokyopop's MixxZine but discontinued after three volumes. The series has also been translated into German, Italian, Korean and Thai.

North American censoring
When Jiraishin was serialized as Ice Blade in MixxZine, there were instances of censorships in some of its panels as it was a new magazine when it was released and did not wish to offend potential distributors.

Reception
Cassiel Kelner of Aesthesticism.com praised the manga as a study on human nature, "reminding [readers] just what people really are capable of". Serdar Yegulalp of Advanced Media Network compares Jiraishin to Miami Vice as the "blood, grit, and sin spatter so thickly that it’s a miracle you don’t get your fingers dirty when you turn the pages".