Sherlock - Pink Iro no Kenkyuu - Jay

An adaptation of the BBC re-imagining of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, Sherlock, which aired in 2010 (season 1) and 2012 (season 2), with season 3 currently in the works.

In this series:

V.1 – Pink Iro no Kenkyuu

(from Baka-Updates Manga)

John Watson has been recently invalided home from the war in Afghanistan – where he was a doctor and a soldier – and now lives in a tiny bedsit in London. He’s got a limp, a hand tremor, and a therapist and he is bored. One day he runs across an old friend who introduces him to the most interesting man John has ever met: the world’s only consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock is strange, brilliant, and probably a bit mad; but he’s got two things to offer John right off the bat: a new flat and excitement.

Sherlock correctly deduces John’s military career and injuries just by looking at him; then invites him to come look at his flat on Baker Street. John arrives on Baker Street to check out the flat and ends up getting completely involved in Sherlock’s latest case. He spends the night visiting a crime scene, getting ‘kidnapped’ by Sherlock’s arch enemy, waiting for and then chasing down a suspect, and then chasing down a lead to find the actual serial killer.

By the time the night is over John has shot one man to save the life of a man he’s just met. He no longer has the limp, but he has a new flat and a new flatmate to go with it. He’s also certain to never be bored again with a friend and flatmate like Sherlock Holmes.

BBC’s Sherlock is a modern retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novels and stories. The first episode, A Study in Pink, is based on the first Sherlock Holmes story A Study in Scarlet. If you’ve seen the episode of ASiP you already know what happens in the manga version.

Pink Iro no Kenkyuu is basically a scene-by-scene retelling of the episode, so if you enjoyed the episode you’ll most likely enjoy the manga as well. There are, of course, little differences here and there but nothing major.

The art is gorgeous, and also slightly different from the ‘traditional’ manga style. This is especially obvious in the characters’ faces. The characters were drawn to look like the actors in the show, and the designs are pretty spot-on. The artist even included Benedict’s eye freckle in Sherlock’s design.

There isn’t too much of a focus on backgrounds, but there are a few that are drawn that are brilliant and basically look exactly the same as they are in the show. There’s even a two-panel spread of the living room inside 221B that is very detailed, right down to the wallpaper. There’s also a nice panel of the park where John runs into Mike, and Roland-Kerr Further Education College (where Sherlock and the killer have their final showdown).

The physical volume also includes some colour pages, which are beautifully done and reflect the colour scheme of the TV episode.

I can’t say much about the dialogue, though I’m assuming it’s basically the same as in the show (with an extra line added here and there, usually from John thinking to himself). The manga hasn’t been picked up by any English publishers and the copy I have is in the original Japanese. There are scanlations out there, but no official translations. Though considering the show’s popularity (and the fact that the manga series got a second volume for the show’s second episode, The Blind Banker) there’s a good chance of it being brought over.

So if you’re a fan of BBC’s Sherlock definitely check out the manga; though since it more or less re-tells the episode scene-by-scene you won’t be missing any new material if you don’t read it. It’s also worth checking out for the art alone just to see the actors in the show in manga-style form.

Sherlock – Pink Iro no Kenkyuu is published by Kadokawa Comics and is not available for purchase in English at the time of this writing.