An Introductory Guide to Geobreeders, or "What the Heck is Going On?"
Akihiro Iou, as I've said before and will say again, is one of the best manga artists on the planet in terms of action stories, and Geobreeders is one of the most underappreciated manga on the market. One reason for this under-appreciation is that Geobreeders came out monthly, and it would take 1 year to accumulate enough pages to make up a collected volume. So, it's taken 16 years for the first 16 books to come out. Readers lose interest and drift away to things with a more frequent release schedule, like Bleach and One Piece. Another issue is that Itou creates great big sweeping plotlines that are hard to follow and not explained in one place in lots of detail, so it's easy to get lost along the way (or, he may not explain anything until volume 12 or 13, and you spend several years adrift trying to make sense of it all). This intro is intended to make Geobreeders a little easier to follow, but it will contain some spoilers.
Alert! Spoiler! Alert! Spoiler! Alert!
Were-cats
AKA: Bake-neko. Were-cats apparently are actual cats that were discarded by their owners for one reason or another, or had started out as strays. Through sheer strength of will, often when near death, they learn to transform into a human shape. At this point they take on the nature of software data. Their "human form" is more of a hollow shell made up of data, which is what allows them to survive being shot. They can be killed, if their data is disrupted enough, or if another were-cat makes a slicing strike to the "neck" region, which case their corpses revert to cat form.
As data, were-cats can learn new skills by absorbing other software, such as being able to transmit over cellphone lines, or developing immunity to software virus attacks.
Generally, were-cats don't have names. However, they may take on nicknames given to them by other were-cats, or from humans that they've gotten close to.
The original leader of the were-cats is "Kuro-Neko" (Black Cat), who first surfaced in the 1950's as a rumored "ghost spy" (so-called for his ability to disappear without a trace) during the early stages of the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. Kuro Neko's real aims are unknown, although it seems that he has been gathering a group of young female were-cats as a counter-intelligence network. These females may be the same ones that had been raised on the Kagura Offices Island base. However, Kuro Neko tends to work behind the scenes, slowly and carefully. A rival group of were-cats, the anti-KN group, developed in protest of KN's plodding approach, and have been attacking human technology sites as a matter of securing their survival in a more overt war against the humans. Anti-KN is much more revolutionary in form and is intent on wiping out any were-cats that aren't part of their faction (neutral or otherwise).
Kagura Company
Initially, Kagura was founded by Hiroyuki Kagura in Japan and was kind of a regular security company. They were approached by a member of the Japanese secret service, codenamed "Mori", to assist in the capture of Kuro Neko. Eventually, the company was overrun by secret service agents, and Kagura himself left to partner up with Kuro Neko, setting up a second office on a remote Japanese island. In the end, "Mori" and staff invaded the island, killing Kagura and disrupting Kuro Neko's data network. Following this battle in the 1970's, Kagura was killed, his wife was left on the island to care for a group of young female were-cats, and his two daughters, Yuma and Rika, left to become the next generation of anti-were-cat fighters.
Hiroyuki once explained the dicotomy between Mori and himself saying that Mori wanted to protect society, and Kagura wanted to protect specific individuals that he cared about - i.e., his friends and family. Mori wouldn't hesitate killing someone close to him in order to maintain the country's status quo.
One of the early members of Kagura Co. was Chieko Kikushima. She started as a secretary, and eventually fell in love with Hiroyuki, although it's never mentioned if they'd gotten married. The two of them only had the two daughters. After the battle at the island, Chieko stayed there under an agreement with Kuro Neko to tend to a group of female were-cats. Something else that's not explained is what happened to Yuma and Rika following that battle, but the assumption is that they went with Mori to help create Department 2, the Hounds Black Ops force.
There seems to be a tradition for all but one member of Kagura to be killed off before the company is restructured and restarted. What we see in volumes 1-16 is incarnation #4. (#1 was the original created by Hiroyuki, and #2 was Mori's variant. #3 will be explained in the next section.)
The Kagura Containment Software System has a foggy past and an unclear purpose. Yuka mentions in passing at one point that it was initially created by her father. For the most part, Hound and Kagura Co. use similar systems, although Hound's is backed by government funding and is a lot more sophisticated. Towards the end of the series, the Kagura Co. version turns out to be a virtual world that acts as a holding prison for were-cats that get too violent in the real world.
Yuma Kikushima
Within the Geobreeders books, Yuma is always shown to be the leader of Department 2, with a string of "Irie's" doing her footwork for her (the current Irie is #3; "Irie" being a fake name). She's elegant, lives in a small house in the woods, likes reading horror novels, and is absolutely ruthless. She's the one that develops the strategy for the later Kagura Company incarnations, and she's actually an employee in version #3, along with Luger Ryuu, and her sister, Rika. If someone does manage to escape alive, Yuma imposes conditions on them afterwards (such as Ryuu not being allowed to contact Maki when Maki joins Kagura Co. #4.)
Yuma's purpose for Kagura Co. is never really quite clear. While it seems to have been intended to hold the were-cats in check at one point, the later focus was just on eliminating all were-cats. When the company strays from Yuma's designs, she wipes it out and starts over.
Rika Kikushima
Fairly early on in the series, we get a glimpse of a crazed woman holding a crossbow and shooting at the leader of Kagura Co. #3. This is Rika, Yuma's sister. According to one account, when Yuma "dissolved" Kagura #3, Rika had gone a little overboard and had to be given over to the police in a fake arrest. Unfortunately, while Rika had been working with Irie at the time, Irie doublecrossed her, presumably under Yuma's orders, and she was given to were-cats disguised as cops. The story goes that Rika was taken to the Kagura Island, executed and buried. It's more likely that she was instead given a new name (Yuka) and permission to lead Kagura #4. At the end of volume 16, Yuma tells Yuka that she's busy deciding how to create Kagura Co. #5. Yuka asks if there will be a place for her in the new company, and Yuma answers "yes, but only if you forget about all of your current co-workers". Yuka agrees to the condition.
Hound
Hound was created specifically as a secret anti-were-cat armored force, as part of the Ministry of Labor, Health and Welfare. The ground forces side are similar to the present-day JGSDF, and are armed with were-cat containment PCs, counter-electronic weapons, and laser guns that fire software viruses against the were-cats. It's led by Captain Hirokuni Yashima, and one of the group leaders is Squad Leader Kaoru Yoda. There's no explanation for who originally established Hound, but it may have been "Mori" or one of his people. Department 2, the Black Ops group, is clearly run by Yuma Kikushima, and staffed by a bunch of drones typified by her subordinate, Shozou Irie the 3rd. In essence, Hound protects "the public good", and is prevented by charter from getting involved in some action unless it's obvious that werecats are present. In the more questionable cases, Irie will contract Kagura Co. to assist in operations for capturing specific were-cat targets.
Shin-Nihon and Zinguzi
Both Shin-Nihon Avionics (New Japan Avionics) and Zinguzi Heavy Industries are featured as battlegrounds between both factions of the were-cats (Kuro Neko and anti-Kuro Neko), Hound and Kagura Co. The reason for this is that Shin-Nihon develops software to use against the were-cats, and Zinguzi produces anti-were-cat weapons, such as the Barracuda and the infrared laser rifles. The were-cats had succeeded in placing spies within both companies, both for stealing the software for their own use, and for commandeering the weapons when possible. At one point, Irie gets into a war of wits with one of his managers (Tsuchida), and ends up blowing up some of the Shin-Nihon factory buildings in revenge. However, 3 years later (in the sequel), Shin-Nihon is back up and functioning properly again.
Kagura Co. #5
Geobreeders is divided up into 3 parts, although I'm not sure where part 1 ended and part 2 began. It is clear that part 2 ended with volume 16, and all but Yuka and Taba being wiped out. Taba is last seen running from Hound and the police. Akihiro Itou attempted to start up the sequel in the first half of 2009, but he fell ill shortly after and stopped working entirely. His current condition is unknown. In any case, there were three chapters of part 3 published in Young King Ours that I know of, that pick up with Taba working as a salaryman 3 years later for a company that warehouses and distributes parts for both Shin-Nihon Avionics and Zinguzi Heavy Industries.
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