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Green Blood is a Seinen series by Kakizaki Masasumi. Set in Industrial Age New York after the American Civil War, specifically the vicious and lawless slum of Five Points, Green Blood is essentially Gangs of New York in manga form. The series follows the lives of two Irish-Catholic brothers, Luke and Brad Burns who are trying to survive the best they can in a world where gangs run everything and everyone's corrupt. Luke is young and idealistic while Brad...well, Brad is an assassin for one of the biggest gangs in Five Points.

This manga contains examples of:

  • Abusive Parents: Edward cares little for his two biological children, Brad and Luke, and sadistically engages them in combat upon being confronted.
  • The Alcoholic: Brad is implied to be one early in the story, to cope with his life as a Professional Killer.
  • Always a Bigger Fish: After the collapse of the Grave Diggers gang, in part by Brad's hand, Brad lands himself a bounty on his head worth 1000$... Which is often plastered next to a wanted poster of Edward King with a whopping 15000$ bounty on his head.
  • Archnemesis Dad: Edward King, is the father of Brad and Luke and the series' Big Bad, being the one responsible for the massive bloodbaths that occur throughout the story. He's more specifically Brad's archnemesis as he killed Brad's mother right in front of him.
  • Badass Boast: Many, this is the age of Tall Tales after all.
    • "I am Black Horse. I strike fear into the hearts of all white men!"
    • Edward King walking up to the sheriff of Abeline and his deputies with his hands up, before pointing a Finger Gun at one of the deputies. Eagle kills the deputy when King goes on to say "Bang!"
    Edward King: "So what happens now? Ya got enough deputies?"
  • Batman Grabs a Gun: The good and seemingly pure Luke points a gun at his brother's Boss to defend Brad.
  • Barbarian Long Hair: Brad has a long unkempt mane that flails around whenever he fights, fitting given that he prefers fighting up close and personal like the warriors of old.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Don't harm Luke, if you know what's good for you. Brad will find you.
    • Don't ever say to Kip that his size is "cute". He'll do nasty things to you.
  • BFG: Edward King is so huge that he can travel around with a packed-up gatling gun over his shoulder like it was a log, and uses a revolver that looks huge even in his hands that punches holes in people with an incredibly loud and iconic BANG!. And he's still a notably Quick Draw even with such a huge gun.
  • Blasphemous Boast: Edward King: "That God'a yours turned his back on me long ago!"
  • Blood Knight: Edward King's idea of "The American Dream" is to roam the frontiers, airing out entire villages, towns, rival gangs, officers of the law and Native reservations with his gang of highly skilled and completely unscrupulous mercenaries for money, food and supplies. Neither men, women, children or animals are safe from his Might Makes Right tendencies. This Insane Troll Logic is shown to it's logical conclusion when a priest tries to ask why he massacred the townspeople, to which Edward replies that he was "free" to do so before putting a bullet in the priest too.
    Edward King: "God, huh? I don't really recall God being upset with me, but if you say so. If you mean to have my life, it will probably have to be God who takes it. Twenty-five years ago, America pledged my freedom to me. This is my freedom!"
  • Boom, Headshot!: How Raymond kills some people who caused a ruckus in the Iron Butterfly as well as JJ.
  • Break the Cutie: Brad was broken hard as a child. Then Luke was. Jenny Macy gets it when her mother dies, and Ned Huddleston later on. However, all of them become stronger people for it.
  • Bullying a Dragon: Yes, Kip, go up to Brad and tell him just how you had the Iron Butterflies kidnap Luke to lure in Brad. Only reason the little twit survived was Brad had more important things to do.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Played with. King outright admits he has so many enemies he can't possibly remember them all. But he's quick to pick up on Luke's reminder and understand who he is.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Edward gets called out by his children whenever they confront each other throughout the story. It's completely justified given their grievances are with how much of a sadistic monster he is. Not that Edward particularly cares what his children think of him.
  • Cigar Chomper: Several characters partake in cigars, but it is exemplified by Edward King who smokes them like a chimney as a display of his outrageous wealth.
  • Cold Sniper: Eagle, the Sniper of the Crimson Gang is this in spades. He only has a single, staring bloodshot eye, an Eyepatch of Power, never says a word and never misses his mark.
  • Cruel Mercy: Sparing Kip when all he has to look forward to without his father's protection is a life of misery as a bum on the streets.
  • Death by Origin Story: Brad and Luke's mom was murdered by their father, right in front of Brad.
  • Determinator: Cut Brad and Luke to pieces, shoot them, smash them, do whatever you want. They will never, ever, ever quit.
  • Dirty Coward: Gene McDowell constantly berates Edward King for having fled NY "with the tail between the legs".
  • Disappeared Dad: Edward King, Brad and Luke's dad, left NY years ago, after killing their mum.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the pain and bloodshed, the brothers succeed in their quest together and are able to embrace a future in which they're happy. Brad passes away peacefully in 1915 after returning to New York-and probably Emma, while Luke as an old man who remarkably resembles his father visits his gravestone with his grandkids in 1918, who internally exclaims to Brad that "it was a good life, wasn't it, Brad?"
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
    • Gene McDowell may be a ruthless gang boss who trained a little boy as an assassin and used him as a killer, but while he may despise his son, but he won't allow him to be killed and will even risk his life for his sake. He is also disgusted by his former friend Edward's pointless cruelty.
    • Utterly averted with Edward King who doesn't give a shit about Brad's mother or Brad himself. He doesn't even think of him as a threat and makes a very offensive comment the first time he talks about them.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Raymond doesn't understand why would Brad risk his life and career with the Grave Diggers after he kidnaps Luke. Even after Brad explain his reasons, Raymond still refuse to believe it.
  • Evil Counterpart: Raymond is the eviler counterpart of Brad. He wears white, is usually cheerful and smiling. He also has no sense of honour or mercy, is a Manipulative Bastard, with quite the ego, and has not even the tiniest bit of humanity left.
  • Eye Scream: Plenty. Edward especially gets his eye shot out by Luke.
  • Facial Markings: Edward King has three adjacent moles under his left eye, a sign of being Born Lucky according to superstition in both the East and West. Astute readers may recognize the pattern as the same one DIO has on his ear.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Charles Howard has a reputation as a kindhearted man and an economic hero of the town, but in reality, he's a Glory Hound and egomaniac who has no issues having an innocent woman murdered for refusing to sell her farm to him.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Don't let Raymond's benign look and constant friendly smile fool you. He's utterly ruthless and won't hesitate to kill a kid in cold blood to get what he wants. Edward is the king of this, though, and many of the Crimson Gang act like fully functioning human beings, only to reveal the bloodthirsty maniacs they really are when pressed.
  • Fighting Irish: Most of the main characters are this, but Edward King exemplifies it, being an over two meters Hunk big enough to instantly kill a man with his bare hands who co-founded and runs a series of increasingly violent "gangs", even when a more proper word for them would be warband.
  • Gatling Good: Nono, Gatling VERY BAD! The series effectively shows why these things became so feared (even remarking on the enthusiasm of it's creator) and along with the invention of dynamite, why gatling guns singlehandedly ended "old-school" warfare. Edward King sells one to Kip when he comes back to New York, which Kip uses to gun dozens of gangsters in the span of a minute, with the Crimson Gang apparently making a living renting gatling guns looted from the Civil War out to clients (before proceeding to rob said clients blind while they're at it, and killing them).
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Kip, very much so. His idiotic hotheadedness starts a freaking gang war shortly after a prostitute said his size was "cute" and needing a scapegoat for mutilating her.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Black Horse of the Sioux dies to save his people and give them hope. Brad and Luke try this for the other at times, but never quite pull it off.
  • Hidden Heart of Gold: Gene McDowell acts like a jerk but deeply cares for and respects Brad underneath his cold demeanor and he has always wanted to protect the Five Points.
  • Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Emma is a prostitute working at a brothel. She is also a loyal friend (and lover) of Brad's and deeply cares for her friends.
  • Jive Turkey: The black cattle thieves were given appropriate dialect for the day, but they're all intelligent and pretty good hearted people who're just tired of being trampled on.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Edward is a colossal man strong to kill a man with one punch, but is still stupendously fast on the draw and tough as nails. Getting shot in the eye barely even slowed him down.
  • Mix-and-Match Weapon: Brad's revolver gunblade, which lets him be equally effective no matter the range.
  • Psycho for Hire: The whole Crimson Gang, but "Fast-Draw" Hawk earns a special mention for headshotting a man who came for revenge against the shady client with his revolver just to prove his skills were the real deal to said potential client.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Really, for a brutal gangster, Gene isn't that bad a guy. he's protective over the prostitutes who work for him, and his gang as well and the only reason Kip survived after the shit he pulled was Gene loving him as his son even as much as he thought Kip was a loathsome little beast. He also acts as The Handler for Brad to keep him from going down even darker paths.
  • Red Baron: Brad is known as "The Grim Reaper", but Edward is known as the "The Villain of The Century".
  • Refuge in Audacity: Say what you will about Edward King, but his plot at the end to rob a bank in Kansas City, using his own capture and execution as a distraction and holding the city hostage with a stolen navy warship is as ballsy as it is crazy. Especially as if Eagle had been one millisecond off on timing in shooting the hangman's rope, a man as heavy as King would've had the rope snap his neck right there.
  • Roaring Rampage of Rescue: There's nothing subtle about the way Brad rescues Luke from the Iron Butterflies and then proceeds to massacre both gangs; he singlehandedly guns down and carves up enough gangsters to fill the streets of Five Points with corpses.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Two mooks (one from the Grave Diggers, another from the Iron Butterflies) flee in terror after Brad managed to kill their respective parties even if he was encircled.
  • Sibling Team: Brothers Brad and Luke, after both of them decided to leave Five Points and hunt their father down.
  • Stepford Smiler: Raymond is almost constantly smiling. He's also a brutal hitman.
  • Teeny Weenie: Kip McDowell doesn't pack very much down below, and an entire arc gets started when he throws a sex worker out the window for calling it "cute."
  • Tragic Keepsake: Edward King's old watch with photo of him and Gene that Brad keeps as a memento that he has to kill King one day.
  • Unexplained Recovery: Okay, how did Raymond survive Brad chopping off his arm, shooting him in the face and leaving him in a burning building?
  • War for Fun and Profit: Edward King's MO. he loves selling deadly weaponry, as well as his and his gang's deadly services.
  • We Have Reserves: A very, very rare heroic example. the Sioux and Cheyenne warriors throw themselves against the Gatling Gun wielded by Parrot of the Crimson Gang, willing to hurl their lives away until he's out of ammo.
  • The Western: A very rare example of a Western manga that is actually a straight Western. Previous attempts in the genre have been either mixed with Fantasy or Science Fiction.
  • "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The final chapter ends with an elderly Luke, with his daughter and granddaughter, visiting Brad who is buried next to their mother, and whose grave shows that he lived to the age of 68.
  • World's Strongest Man: Edward King is less of a gunslinging criminal and more like Raoh with a six-shooter and shoulders as wide as a barn door. He takes on gangs, armies of natives and the entirety of Kansas City with nothing but his grit, insane physique and the Flock of Wolves that gather for scraps of his loot.
  • You Have Failed Me: Interesting variation. Edward doesn't seem too mad Swallow failed his mission before killing him. It's more that his failed henchman was helpless and King just took the chance to murder someone.
  • Zerg Rush: Black Horse and the Sioux & Cheyenne at the battle of Hayfield. As noted in We Have Reserves, the white men have a gatling gun, the Native Americans have nothing of the sort. They get through and win only because there's so many of them that the gatling runs out of ammo before it can kill them all.

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