Bremen by Haruto Umezawa

Synopsis: Kasuga Romio ran away from home searching for a dream. In his journey he meets and pairs up with Hino Reijii an enthusiastic guitar player with a taste for rock. Together they will meet more band members, more fans, more gangster, bike gangs, rich spoiled kids, disturbed children and themselves. All to become the “Gods Of Rock”.

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I kept my distance from this title, mainly because it is about a rock band, so I thought, if it is about rock, then I won’t be able to listen the blazing guitars, the sublime bass, powerful drums and crisp vocals. Was I ever so wrong to delay this title for such a long time.

Bremen will literally “rock” your world. With its creative comedy that involves Romio being an idiot and getting involved in fights with a transvestite S&M queen. With the cool action scenes that remembered me of GTO and character interaction of the same level, if not above.

The development of the story has an excellent pace to it that makes you read and read even more, with the cliffhanging moments at the end of the first 8 volumes and the promises of even more fun. Promises that are very well kept and live up to them. All of this drawn in a style that made the Gods of Rock look cooler than what they already were.

Although the background of most of the cast is explained, the ending does present a problem. Since it feels rushed you are left with a bad aftertaste, because the main character, Romio, could have been developed through out the entire series, but it is roughly managed in a span of two volumes. I suppose this was done to create some level of anticipation, but it backfired creating some level of annoyance instead.

Bremen is a tidal wave. Refreshing, strong, fast, furious and fun. What else could one ask from a manga? It has good characters, good comedy, good plot, good action and a decent ending. A must, even if you don’t like rock music.