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I know it ended like 3 years ago, but I got to thinking recently about how Nisekoi was a hot mess of a manga, and a blitheringly stupid anime adaptation. (as is par for the course with Shaft) Under normal circumstances it’d be easy to ignore. But I followed Komi Naoshi up until Nisekoi debuted and I feel like people don’t know about his previous work, or how he sold his soul for a hit JUMP serial.

If anyone knew Naoshi for anything before Nisekoi, it’d probably be his short-lived 2008 serial Double Arts. It ran a little over a year, amassed 3 collected volumes, and then got the axe, and was afforded a brief epilogue chapter to tie things off. Double Arts was a beautiful, genius little miracle of a battle series. Eminently charming and whimsical, with a delightfully unique conceit, while still adhering to the familiar formulas of a shounen battle series. Tell me if this rings a bell...

Protagonist living his normal life is visited by girl with special powers, has a brush with death, and is conscripted to fight a class of enemies while going on an adventure to a far off place, ostensibly to save the world. (I know I’m working in broad strokes here but I’m hoping that sounds like Yu Yu Haskusho, Bleach, Busou Renkin, Psyren, and a couple others...) Hero boy has a best friend and sorta rival, a mentor fighter, a comical but super competent support character, and of course a shady cabal of super powered villains... But even though these bullet points feels pretty familiar, there are some fun twists that Double Arts takes in getting between them... So, let’s take this from the top!

In a vaguely 1900s fantasy world a disease called “Troi” plagues mankind. The disease spreads by skin contact, it is absolutely lethal, and there is no cure. The one defense against the deadly epidemic is a Sisterhood of gifted young women, each born with a unique tolerance for the disease. By making contact with victims of the disease, they can take the disease’s burden onto themselves, but they are not immune and as such are each marred by tragically short life spans.

While following the pious and selfless life of one prodigious Sister, Elraine, she finds herself on death’s door --her natural resistance to Troi finally at its limit-- when she crosses paths with the bizarre miracle child Kili. Kili possesses a rare and bizarre power that lets him share his strength with anyone he comes into contact with, like a polar opposite of Troi: with a partner he and another person can each gain the strength of 2 people (a total of 4 people’s strength), and if he daisy chains the effect the power can grow exponentially! By a miracle chance this power allows Sister Elraine to return from the brink of death, but if she ever breaks skin-to-skin contact with Kili, the Troi will kill her.

So, the adorable romcom adventure begins with Kili and Elraine off to the Sisterhood headquarters, far across the continent, where they hope to find in Kili, the secret to ridding the world of Troi once and for all. But along the way they have to face down assassins sent by a mysterious villainous organization that seems to want to see Troi spread. To combat these attempts on their lives, the two enlist the help of a legendary fighter, but to their surprise he’s a little reluctant to teach them to fight. What he does teach them, however, is how to dance! And in a goofy Mr.Miyagi kind of way it turns out that due to their peculiar circumstances, learning to partner dance is the foundation of the unique fighting style they will need to develop to make fighting while holding hands possible; and this new kind of martial arts they’re inventing is christened, Double Arts.

And then right around there the manga got canceled due to poor ratings...

But if that sounds CUTE as all get out, thats because it ABSOLUTELY was. Because it wasnt just a charming little gimmick, Naoshi really is a thoughtful and very emotionally in-touch writer (not that Nisekoi was ever any indicator), which is honestly a little strange for a shounen author. It was what made him such a breath of fresh air among his contemporaries in the magazine. To top it off, his art style was actually eminently modest with its female characters, and while Nisekoi obviously runs counter to that idea, all of his one-shots display with utmost clarity that Double Arts was no fluke; emotional and character driven adventure stories were just his thing. I'm not gonna run thru all his one shots in this post (maybe ill male a few other posts to cover them some other time) but theyre all in the tags if you want to look them up, and i highly suggest you do!