Bus Gamer 1999-2001 The Pilot Edition Book

Bus Gamer 1999-2001: The Pilot Edition by Kazuya Minekura collects all the Bus Gamer that's already been published and has a note at the end that she'd like to get back to these guys someday but it probably won't be soon. But what's here is cool and worth it, with the ending making you interested in seeing more while not being cliffhangery enough to make you "Argh!" In Bus Gamer teams compete in a game with $3 million each as the final prize for the last, winner three-person team. Shadowy business organizations set the rules. As time goes on the stakes get higher and the game is more dangerous, but our three protagonists in Team AAA are in too deep and need the money too much to quit. (They each have reasons for needing that much money but you won't find out here.) Besides, they're not sure they'd be allowed to escape alive.

Team AAA was put together out of strangers, so part of the volume is them getting slowly comfortable with each other. Nobuto resembles Saiyuki's Gojyo (especially in the black & white drawings)--though we can't see his eyes through his hair--and tomcats around like Gojyo but doesn't have the same warmth. Nobuto has a kind of snarky, torturing big brother thing going on with the exuberant and naive Kazuo, who's the source of much of the humor here. Kazuo also serves as the audience surrogate, since he's the guy who is phased by having a gun turned on him, unlike the rest of his team. Toki is the mysterious, mostly stonefaced badass, though he sure dresses kinky, not that I'm complaining, and a bit weirdly at times. Minekura does like to deliver on the eye candy. But the cowboy hats...!

The stats on him mention that needlework is one of Toki's hobbies. *snicker*

One character on an opposing team looks a lot like Banri, which distracted me.

But I recommend Bus Gamer 1999-2001: The Pilot Edition. It's dark and funny and involving. If Minekura gets back to Team AAA someday, I'll follow it.