Manga Review: Treasure Hunter Book One: Eternal Youth by Hitoshi Tomizawa
Jubei is a merchant. But he’s a specialized merchant. If there’s a specific hard to find item you need to acquire, hire Jubei, and he will get that item for you, guaranteed. Unlike some other merchants, Jubei isn’t as much known for his ability to drive a hard bargain as he’s known for his agility, cunning and judicious use of magical items like his sentient flying carpet Carpet. He’s the tops in his field, known as the Treasure Hunter.
In the first storyline, “Jelly Bun of Youth”, Jubei’s client, a seemingly young woman, hires him to acquire certain pastries that grant an extra hundred years of life to the person that eats them. The secret ingredient will come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen an “eternal youth” plotline before, but Jubei believes in always coming through for the client, regardless of their moral standing. The story has a surprisingly happy ending.
“The Figurehead of Souls” is the second plotline. The client this time is a skeleton pirate who’s first asked Jubei to acquire the Snake Eye Umbrella. This device renders anyone sheltered by it immunity to water attacks, and is needed to land on Jelly Island, the storage place of the Figurehead of Souls, which makes any ship it’s attached to invincible. Admiral Brad could really use it to offset the fact that skeletons can’t swim.
Jubei and Carpet have to deal with not just the natural hazards surrounding Jelly Island, but the trainee medium Pipilotta who barges in on the mission. Dealing with her is a real hassle, but she also knows more about the island than Jubei, including that it’s used as a holding cell for hundreds of evil spirits. Her warning about the possibility that an evil spirit might try to possess one of them comes a moment late….
The world of Jubei rather obviously takes much of its inspiration from the Arabian Nights, but also Ancient China of the Silk Road, with a few innovations of the creator’s choosing. There’s some interesting creature designs, and the art is okay.
Hitoshi Tomizawa would go on to create Alien Nine, a popular if short-lived series about girls forced to work with alien symbiotes to fight other aliens. I suspect this series was acquired for translation on the strength of that. The art style is less distinctive and the writing feels less mature, even given it’s aimed at a younger audience.
Jubei is supposed to be the charming rogue, but doesn’t have the charismatic personality needed to pull that off, and just comes across as amoral. Carpet is supposedly his friend, but it’s one of those friendships where one partner orders the other around all the time and doesn’t take feedback.
This is worth a look if you really liked Alien Nine and want to see the author’s earlier work, but is pretty average. It’s out of print, so try libraries first.
