Heiwa no Kuni no Shimazaki e (Dear Shimazaki in the Peaceful Land)
Summary:
As a child, Shimazaki Shingo was kidnapped by an international terrorist organization and raised as their combat agent. After 30 years, he finally made it back to his peaceful hometown in Japan. Will Shimazaki be able to live a peaceful life in this new world? From the large-scale newcomer Goten Hamada and the artist Takeshi Seshita, the creator of “Harn – Grass, Iron and Sheep -” and “Invincible”, an action story of a man who lives between everyday life and the battlefield!
If you've read the old classic “The Fable”, this story is going to be familiar with you. A highly skilled retired killer / soldier is put in a normal everyday live where he has to adjust to the cultural difference in his harsh environment to the peaceful everyday Japan. But, as it did with The Fable, it's harsh directly adjusting with a new environment. To their credits, both Shimazaki Shingo and Akira Sato do try their best to adjust, but troubles seem to keep coming to them, as we see them uses their trained abilities to get out of situations. But the difference ends there.
While the fable is (arguably) a more lighthearted story of “What if this very cool assassin dude looks like an ordinary person”, Shimazaki's story is a bit bleaker. He's not some child trained assassin born and raised to be the ultimate killer, he's much more human than Akira in The Fable. We can see him have emotions of discomfort, embarrassment, and even traumatic memories of his past. This manga focuses more on the realistic aspect of what a person would be going through if we were to be kidnapped and being forced against their will to be a killer.
Shimazaki is shy, he's often nervous about things, he worries if he's doing a good job adjusting to normal life. We see him talk his feelings out about this to the other people in their life. He uses his abilities to help the people around him, he's kind like that. But as we slowly being exposed to the extents of his abilities, we are also being shown his human and empathetic side. It creates this dilemma of us wanting him to show his cool abilities, but it's also clear that's he's enjoying his new peaceful life. This dilemma is even more clear that it's intentional by the author as we see at the end of each chapter the words “Shimazaki Shingo returns to the battlefield xxx days from now”. With each chapter that shows the humane and kind man is trying his best to return to normal life, we see the inevitability of him returning back to the battlefield that he wanted to get away from.
Of course, it's not all dark and gritty story, this isn't the DC cinematic universe movie. It's still a fun read, with comedy as the overall tone of the story, but with a dark story lurking beneath it. Overall, I say it's good enough to be followed.