Wild Adapter

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"The more human we become...the more animalistic we are." —Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Words of a Dwarf, quoted in chapter two.

A Film Noir manga series from Kazuya Minekura (the creator of Saiyuki), Wild Adapter follows Anti-Hero Kubota Makoto and Tokito Minoru, the amnesic stray cat he picked up as the two play video games, help people, and investigate a mysterious new drug on the streets: Wild Adapter.

The series ran in Chara from 2000 to 2008 and went on hiatus after forty-six chapters due to Creative Differences between the Seinen tone of the series and the shounen-ai demographic of the magazine. It was collected into six tankobon volumes (with five chapters remaining uncollected), published in the U.S. by Tokyopop in 2007-8 and in Singapore in English and Chinese by Chuang Yi. In 2011 the rights to the series were acquired by Ichijinsha, the publishers of Saiyuki.

Tropes used in Wild Adapter include:

• Anachronic Order: The appearance between the first and second volumes of a year's lapse and a Deuteragonist isn't explained until the fifth volume, and the events of the sixth volume occur after those of the succeeding chapters.
• Animal Motifs: "I picked up a stray cat."
  • The effects of W.A. include the growth of hair and claws.
  • The dead strays Kubota finds, and identifies with, in the prologue arc.
  • Sanada likens both Kubota and his successor Osamu to his dog, Ark Royal. Kiba Osamu's family name is a pun on kiba, 'fang'.
  • The cicadas in the cult arc refer to Fortune's Fang's ethos of "casting off humanity"; cicadas are noted for moulting.
  • The page quote
• Art Evolution: Take a look at volume one. Now look at volume six. Now back to one. Now back to six. Drawn over eight years, there is a perceptible shift to more realistic detail and proportion (though not as pronounced as Saiyuki); the early images on the character sheets in later volumes are a ready illustration.
• Body Horror: For "wild adapter" read "metamorphoses users into hirsute, beclawed, hyper-aggressive zombies, then makes their organs explode."

Kasai: This is the sixth body we've found that seems to have transformed into a beast - in attitude and appearance - after taking the drug. But he's the only one that died from a gunshot wound. The rest were exploded into gory little pieces.

• Boys Love Genre: Technically accurate - the series ran in a BL magazine - but Boys Love Tropes are usually averted, when they aren't subverted or parodied.

Kubota: "We're seeking spiritual guidance because we're a gay, sex-addicted couple... who are half-brothers, disowned by our family after the consummation of our forbidden love." How's that? Isn't it perfect? Tokito: Wha - wha - wha - what the hell is that?! No fucking way!

• Depraved Homosexual: Sekiya Jun
• Driving Question: Where does W.A. come from, and what happened to Tokito?
• Expys: Kubota Makoto and Tokito Minoru made their first appearance in Araiso Private High School Student Council Executive Committee, which is otherwise unrelated to Wild Adapter.
  • While Araiso was published first, Minekura created Wild Adapter first, so which versions are the originals and which are the expys is open to debate.
  • Tokito, Kubota, and Kou appear as Wonder Arm, the mysterious guy, and a good scientist in the Shonen manga that Shouta draws in volume five.
• Fantastic Drug: The mysterious "W.A.", whose source and composition are unknown and side-effects are gross.
• Gangsta Style: Is a rather oft-recurring image of Kubota.
• Grey and Gray Morality: On the cynical end of the scale. While the antagonists shoot first, the protagonists are more dangerous, and both sides are motivated by self-interest. Lampshaded in the kidnapping arc, a Perspective Flip with a Mook Horror Show.

Kubota: If we're monsters... maybe you should have let us be.

• Heterosexual Life Partners: Kubota and Tokito.
• Ho Yay: Kubota and Tokito. Despite the series' Seinen sensibility and lack of overt romance, it did run in a BL magazine. Komiya, Sanada, and Sekiya have their moments with Kubota, too.
• The Ishmael: Many chapters and entire arcs are narrated by a temporary Supporting Protagonist. To name a few: Komiya; Saori; Takizawa; Anna; Hasebe; Shouta; Osamu.
• Mahjong: How Kubota was recruited into the yakuza, and how he first bonded with his uncle Kasai.
• Multiple Demographic Appeal: I can't believe it's not Seinen! The U.S. editions were not marketed as BL.
• The Nineties: The series begins in May 1995 and covers roughly three years in six volumes. Volume one ends on January 22, 1996. At 9:05 a.m.
• No Export for You: Due to the Series Hiatus, six chapters were never officially released in English.
• Parental Neglect: Endemic. Kubota was ignored; Komiya is responsible for his mother; Saori's family washes their hands of her; Shouta is a latchkey kid; Yoshirou was abused and disowned.

Kubota: They're around. But that's all they are.

• Quest for Identity: Tokito and Kubota investigate W.A. for what it can tell them about Tokito's Dark and Troubled Past.
• Running Gag: Tokito is a stray cat that Makoto took in.

Tokito: "Will you stop it with the house pet thing?!"

• Series Hiatus: Due to illness and contractual obligations after rumoured creative differences with its magazine.
• Ship Tease: Between Kubota and Tokito, both played straight and for laughs at yaoi tropes.
• Story Arc: Each volume consists of a self-contained arc while advancing the greater series plot.
• Sympathetic POV: On Kubota.
• Yakuza: Kubota leads the Izumo youth group during the prologue arc, and continues to cross paths with the Izumo-kai and their rivals the Tojou-gumi throughout the series.