Even readers not familiar with manga or anime will immediately notice the retro artwork in Mikiya Mochizuki’s Wild 7—and for good reason. This multi-volume series of collected reprints has material dating back to 1969 (although there’s no word of it on the front or back covers). Instead, it is presented as a modern graphic novel; only a peek at the copyright date reveals its origins, at least in the first book. Released during the biker craze of the late 60s—most likely after the chopper classic “Easy Rider” had hit theaters—Wild 7 is a fast-paced adventure which has the Japanese government hiring a gang of hoodlums, led by Hiba, to defend themselves from any threats to their power. The dated storytelling will remind many anime fans of Speed Racer and other vintage Japanese cartoons
The theme of “Wild 7″ is one that never gets old in manga and anime. A team of skilled outlaws striking out against criminals when the government is powerless to stop rampant crime has been done many times. However, a team of motorcyclists with sidecar missiles, bikes that can go in reverse, teamed up with a director working secretly from inside the bureaucracy, now that is Manga! The “Wild 7″ team is a diverse collection of ruffians, including a hip young delinquent leader (guaranteed to pull in the older teen guy crowd of the era), a hippy anti-occupation militant, a baseball player who was nabbed for breach of contract (?), a former yakuza boss, a knife throwing ex-circus performer, a former chef and drug manufacturer, and rounding out the team is an explosives expert charged with weapons manufacturing. Their boss, Kusanami, is a maverick, fed up with a system that allows criminals to go free too easily, and so he enlists the team to do whatever it takes to take down mobsters and other criminals who blatantly flaunt the fact they are above the law. Whether they are taking out bank robbers, mob bosses with skyscraper fortresses or biker gangs dressed s knights (complete with jousting lance sidecars!) the Wild 7 team does so with more than enough explosions and bloodshed. It makes me wonder what teens who grew up on Wild 7 must have thought if they say the antithesis to this violent drama, the similar, but squeaky clean “A-Team.”
The series was unique (besides for the violence) in which each of the 7 members had a different motorcycle, each specially fitted. Team leader Hiba rides a Honda CB 750, “Hippy” Tom rides a multi-wheeled Harley FL, Oyabun rides a Suzuki Hustler 250, Chasu rides a Suzuki GT 380, Sekai Rides a Harley, Otto rides a Norton Cafe Racer and Ryogoku rides a Kawasaki 500 SS Mach3 equipped with a rocket launcher sidecar.
The art in Wild 7 is probably one of the reasons that the book is a hard sell in today’s manga market of slick new anime styled characters. Mikiya Mochizuki’s style is firmly rooted the 60s and 70s manga aesthetic of fast paced, often rubber looking characters who bend and twist depending on how extreme the action is in each panel. Even vehicles are somewhat malleable in Mochizuki’s world, a trait often seen in other books by such legendary manga-ka as Tezuka and Monkey Punch. The panels in “Wild 7″ tend to be a bit busy, but there is almost always action on every page. Mochizuki’s action sequences are the driving force behind the manga, and there are some great pieces in the first volume alone! On their motorcycles or off, the Wild 7 team is a force to be reckoned with, and page after page delivers criminal busting, smash-em up action.
Text inspired from : Atomic Avenue & Japan Hero
