Kannade Manga – Chapter 01

Hyo Hyo Hyo

In the past, a boy’s mum is about to leave him, but before she goes she tells him that he’ll be okay because “God” is with him. Presently, Hayama Akito is handcuffed and surrounded by a gang of thirty police officers. The chief mocks him and mentions the 2,000,000,000 Yen Rembrandt that Akito is trying to steal. He warns him that tonight the art theif legend who is feared as “God Hand” will finally be caught by his own hands. However, Akito doesn’t seem to be worried at all and he easily slips off the handcuffs and throws it at the chief’s head. He climbs out through a high window along with the Rembrandt. As he dances his way back home, he is spotted by a figure hiding in the shadows. Akito returns home and his grandma immediately clings on to him. He throws her off but she comes back and kicks him directly in the stomach. She complains that she had been through a lot of pain just greeting him with all the love she could muster. As it turns out, the painting Akito stole is a pastiche designed by his mother. His grandma asks to see her signature, so at the bottom corner Akito rubs off a space and the words “to Akito” appears. Although Akito only steals paintings which his mother imitated, someone dirties them by putting old colours on them and sealing the signature. Kamo-baa, the grandma, asks if she can sell this painting in order to pay off some of her debt. Naturally, Akito refuses and stores the artwork away in a safe place just in case she tries to take it later on. While Kamo-baa is left alone, she realizes that Akito has “the blood” running through his veins as well. In the storeroom where all the other paintings he stole are kept, Akito touches the surface of the Rembrandt and has a flashback of his past. In the recap, his mother is touching the painting and tells him that if she does this, it brings good luck to her. So the younger version of Akito also does that to his work before painting on it. At the moment, Akito wonders why his mother abandoned him six years ago. He notes that it’s pointless thinking about things like this because his mum had a weak constitution anyway, so living must’ve been hard. Suddenly, three thugs appear and just as Akito tries to escape, one of them shoots him. In spite of that, Akito still attempts to flee but he’s stopped when he sees that Kamo-baa is being held hostage by another of the thugs who reveals himself shortly afterwards. They inform Akito that Kamo-baa had previously given them trouble, but when they approached her, she ran off. So in order to prevent Kamo-baa from getting hurt, Akito has to calmly go with the thugs. One of the men are left behind to take care of Kamo-baa.

Akito is put inside a room filled with real artwork that had been stolen. The leader, Sakakibara, introduces himself and tells Akito that he wants him to paint the ultimate counterfeit – a pastiche. Akito refuses because he knows he isn’t good at painting, but Sakakibara explains to him that three years ago, Harue, who is Akito’s mother, was painting counterfeits for them the whole time. Akito denies it because he believes that his mother wasn’t like that. Sakakibara agrees and tells him that even at times when he put a gun at her head, she still continued to refuse painting copies for him. However, she only started following his orders when he suggested that he kill her son. Straight away, Akito realizes that his mother had only left him because she was protecting him. Sakakibara continues by telling Akito that his fortune is now fading because three years ago his mother died, since her chronic disease became worse. He and his men bring Akito into a room where it is filled with all the equipments Akito’s mother used to paint counterfeits. Sakakibara threatens him to start painting, but Akito tells him again that he’s no good at it. Sakakibara tells him that he doesn’t need skill because he has Kannade. Akito still doesn’t understand and the mafia leader instructs Akito to just put in his mind and touch the canvas. By doing this, he can read the creator’s mind and trap Monet’s residual thoughts from the original work with his ability. Instantly, Akito remembers the charm his mother always carried out before painting. So he tries it again, but nothing comes to him. One of the thugs points a gun at Akito’s head and warns him to be serious. Akito gets really scared and suddenly, the man falls back and screams that his eyes had been shot. Akito gets up to run away, and he looks at one of his hands and sees a strange tattoo on it. He tries to wipe it off, but nothing happens. Out of nowhere, Kamo-baa appears and informs Akito that his ability is to create illusions with the Kannade. Akito is too concerned about how she managed to come here, and she tells him that a nice gentlemen had told her (it’s actually the man who was left behind to take care of her, and now he’s tied to ropes). While the two are running, Kamo-baa explains that there are a lot of personalities for the power of Kannade, and that his special one creates illusions by touching the victim. His mother’s was “reading the residual thoughts” so by touching any object, she could become its owner.

Once they arrive at a safe place back home, Akito thinks that if he never existed, his mother wouldn’t have done all of this and that she wouldn’t have to suffer. Kamo-baa gives Akito the painting that she stole back from the art room and he touches it. Suddenly, his mother’s hand goes on top of his and she apologizes for leaving him behind. Her voices also tells him that she was really happy with Akito by her side. Kamo-baa also tells Akito that his mother could transmit her thoughts onto others, but finds out that he already knows. Suddenly, Sakakibara and his men appear on one side, while on the other side the police are there. Akito asks what’s going on and Kamo-baa tells him that she had called the police just in case. He hands her his mother’s painting and jumps into the shallow lake. All the men go in to seize him at once, but Akito places his hand into the water and hot girls appear. This is an illusion which is transmitted through the water and shows it to everyone. The police officers are completely drooling but Sakakibara is still on the bridge, but alone. Akito sneaks up behind the mafia and tells him that his Kannade is “illusion”, thus he will show Sakakibara a special illusion just for him. With that being said, Akito simply punches the man unconscious because Kannade isn’t worth it, after all it’s God’s Hand. Kamo-baa comes and praises him while giving him an earring which used to be his mother’s. His mother had told Kamo-baa to give this to Akito once he awakened. He hears his mother’s voice again and she tells him that they couldn’t change the fate of Kannade, so she will help by leading the way. She tells him to look for the girl drawn by Degas and that she’ll leave her residual thoughts in there. It will be the signpost of his fate. After a while, Akito and Kamo-baa decide to rescue Degas with God’s Hand and the police force who are still trapped in an illusion filled with hot girls are reported insane.

Thoughts: This chapter was really funny and good to read. It was interesting, but I don’t think it’s worth blogging just yet. There’s not much to say about it, but the pictures are alright and the whole thing about Kannada and God’s Hand is nice. It’s cool how Akito only steal paintings from his mother, and she only paints counterfeits. The ability is awesome but reminds me too much of some other manga/anime. It’s sorta typical how the parent left the kid because of protecting reasons, but even so, this chapter was excellent.