Shinjuku

By: Mink, Yoshitaka Amano - illustrator

Narrated by: Cindy Kay

Writer and director Christopher "mink" Morrison (Dust) crafts an unforgettable tale of destiny, danger, and hard-boiled sorcery!

In the year 2020, bounty hunter Daniel Legend finds himself tracking a quarry of a different kind: his long-lost sister. Armed only with his wits, his gun, and a mysterious postcard, Daniel makes his way to the heart of the seedy Shinjuku district of Tokyo, where a clash between two underworlds - the criminal and the infernal - threatens the very fabric of reality.

©2010 Mink (P)2022 Tantor

An ‘A’ for atmosphere… eventually

I feel like starting at chapter 10, halfway through this novella, would make a tighter short story and, frankly, I’m not sure you’d miss anything in terms of the plot.

The first two hours are a slow build from half a dozen locations around the world. Only in the final hour do we get some cryptic dialogue about other dimensions and small reveals about a big-picture battle against a demon invasion of earth. There’s comic book level violence, zero sex, and a running theme about Poppies that didn’t quite connect.

If this were a prequel for a book, it succeeded in investing me enough that I’d move on. As a self contained novella, however, the world building and plot mapping didn’t have enough meat on the bone for me to truly understand. Still, this would make a cool Love, Death + Robots episode.