‘Captain Laserhawk’ Manga Reviewed — A Bold Idea Falters In Execution

Based on the hit animated series of the same name, Captain Laserhawk is an original “Boys’ Love” manga written by Ben Kahn, and drawn by Bayou Kun. The manga takes place between Episodes 4 and 5 of the animated series, which sees Dolph Laserhawk reliving the best and worst moments of his life using VR technology. Readers will discover how Dolph first met his handsome and volatile boyfriend, Alex.

I have to give the Captain Laserhawk team credit for attempting something this bold. Doing a Boys’ Love story within a Western pop culture franchise is largely unheard of. With the anime boom and adult animation revolution in full swing, now is the perfect time to take a chance on such a radical idea.

However, the Captain Laserhawk BL manga is something I may like better in concept than execution. The manga is fine, but nothing special. It reads like a fan comic top-to- bottom, complete with the same vaguely anime-inspired aesthetic. Anime and manga fans are very discerning, so having art that’s superficially manga style is simply not enough to get our attention.

The Captain LaserHawk animated series is essentially an Ubisoft fan-fiction done extremely well. But when you have a fan fiction of a fan fiction, the end result is derivative. That’s not to say that the idea of doing romantic spin-off stories is bad. On the contrary, the Fate/Stay Night franchise is a great example of having different tonality to serve different interests.

While I wouldn’t recommend the Captain Laserhawk BL manga I would highly recommend that more pop culture franchises take such bold risks. We’re in the age of Deadpool: Samurai and Superman vs Meshi.  As long as the quality is consistent and the characters feel authentic, fans are willing to explore stories that strike a different tone or genre.