forgot how much I enjoyed making edits. I'm pretty happy with the start but honest the ending gave me trouble and I'm not feeling it. I would love tips and criticisms!!
Do people even post videos here ? I barely see any lol
Power Fantasies come in lots of different forms. Sometimes they’re about becoming a world leader who can enact lasting change. Sometimes they’re being a big beefy hero with the ability to punch out hitler. Sometimes they’re attaching Boudica Spikes to your wheelchair and taking people out at the ankles for refusing to move out of the way. And when it comes to disabled-on-abled violence, Tank Chair provides one hell of a power fantasy! In a time where people are still claiming that wheelchairs don’t belong in fantasy, Tank Chair gives us a blood thirsty alternative where a wheelchair takes an already deadly assassin and gives them a high speed tank with extra knives.
Written and drawn by Manabu Yashiro, the series follows two siblings– Nagi and Shizuka Taira – as they make their way through a post-apocalyptic Japan. Nagi is an assassin who, after taking a bullet to the head protecting Shizuka, became comatose and unable to move from the waist down. However, he has a unique ability where he will come back to consciousness anytime he senses a deep desire to kill him. And thus begins Shizuka’s mission to find someone with such an intense desire to murder her beloved older brother, that he comes back around permanently.
As a mobility aid user, I was initially drawn to the series for rather obvious reasons. Cripple Punk has been around since 2014 but has rarely gotten any mainstream notice. Cripple Punk is the radical idea that disabled people are people, not just inspiration porn to get the ableds to go to the gym. No, “If Alice Tai can have her leg amputated and then win a gold medal 8 months later, what’s stopping you from doing it?” but rather “Holy FUCK how hard core is Alice Tai?! She got her leg removed and then swam 100m in 1 minute 13 seconds?!” Cripple Punk allows for disabled people to be loud, angry and visable. It allows us to misbehave and throw up the middle finger at those who try to fuck with our basic rights. It's been a long time coming that we’ve had a manga that helped embody this, and Tank Chair is off to a great start in reflecting this much needed aesthetic and attitude.
I was a little anxious when starting the series that it would fall into dangerous “vegetable” stereotypes where Nagi’s lack of consciousness is only played as a joke about taking away his agency and personality. However I was delighted to find that Nagi is still shown to have agency and choice in his situation. He does have some issues with a few of his sister’s choices of mission, but doesn’t appear to be too bothered and it comes across more as sibling banter than anything else. In fact, one of the best parts of the series so far is the relationship between the two siblings! It’s a surprisingly realistic one, where you do feel the genuine love they have for each other – even with some of the more fucked up dynamics at play. For example, how Shizuka is able to awaken Nagi by charging at him with a dagger and genuine pure intent to stab him in the neck. But hey, it’s a nice take on the Cain Instinct by taking the term back to its abrahamic fratricidal origins, rather than the usual cop out of just having siblings thwack each other with wrapping paper tubes.
Another concern I had was around the idea of them seeking a cure for Nagi. However the series makes it incredibly clear that the only thing the siblings are seeking is for Nagi to regain full consciousness, something definitely worth seeking! I was particularly happy to see Nagi explicitly say that he has found benefits in becoming a chair user! He sees it as a way of bettering his bond with those around him, and also who wouldn’t enjoy charging about in a personal murder tank?
In terms of design, I’d rather the chair take more inspiration from active sport chairs. Whilst I love that his sister has designed him multiple ones for different tasks and missions, his regular chair feels a little too passive in design despite all the awesome spikes. I do give credit for Nagi’s chair resembling actual wheelchairs, but it's formed around a very basic budget model. The square design and leg clamps might give it that Diesel Punk vibe, but I think the series should continue to embrace the Cripple Punk aesthetic more. In this case therefore, I think it would have been better for it to draw inspiration from the most Cripple Punk Sport in the word: Murder Ball. Also known as Wheelchair Rugby. Chairs for Murder Ball are built more like race karts, with solid steel structures and bumpers. Wheelchair Rugby is probably the most Cripple Punk Sport out there, given that it actively challenges the weak and helpless disabled person stereotype, but is also one of the few full contact mixed gender sports! It also proves to anyone who might think that Nagi’s antics are unrealistic that no – wheelchair users are fully capable of incredible stunts and outrageous blood lust.
I do have other concerns for the series. So far both disabled characters introduced – Nagi, and Touko Kurosaka – have been used as an instrument for murder. Even if they did choose to be Assasins, there’s still something inherently uncomfortable about how both characters are deliberately sent into action on their siblings orders. Touko in particular is a concern for me, given that she is way more presented as a tool of her brother’s than Nagi is. However, the bonus content at the end of volume one does give me a bit more hope that she will have her story expanded upon and given personality beyond “giant high school girl who can smash people with her fists”. I hope that the current toxic undertones of the Kurosakas’ relationship is just to emphasise the surprisingly loving and balanced relationship between the Taira Siblings.
On a final note, I’d like to give a shout out to Evan Hayden’s lettering. In my opinion they did an excellent job of matching the style throughout, allowing for a proper 1:1 experience whilst still maintaining Kodansha’s style guide of subtitling rather than completely touching them up. I particularly liked how on page 59, the subtitle was drawn in a way that combined the existing smoke trail to become the “I” of “Kill”.
I’m not usually a fan of excessive violence in manga. I’m not opposed to it, it’s just not for me. I gave Chainsaw Man 3 Volumes and decided that I preferred Fujumoto’s more person-focussed manga like Look Back. Yet I think the personal wish fulfilment of Tank Chair makes it so appealing to me! Whilst I would absolutely recommend it to fans of Chainsaw Man and Dorohedoro, I believe that fans of Run On Your New Legs and Real will also enjoy this athletic narrative of platonic relationships and adapting disabled life. I very much look forward to seeing where this series goes in the future, and hope that we get more Action Packed Cripple Punk series in the future!
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