I think a good alternate title for Randi Fisher’s The Pride Of Life could be “The Greatest American Furry”, but I don’t mean that to be negative. Bumbling purple wolf creature Kedamono, after acquiring superpowers from eating the extremely rare fruit of a mystical tree, is nowhere as intelligent as Ralph Hinkley and possibly even more inept at utilizing his powers early on. His journey towards a better sense of self so far has yet to disappoint, with a consistent whiplash between slapstick and high drama that surprisingly isn’t that bothersome.
Widely regarded as the village misfit, Kedamono feels he can finally manage to gain a modicum of respect by becoming an impressive superbeast, though he quickly realizes just how looked down upon the mutated beings are- partly due to a widely held belief that superbeasts die extremely violent deaths. And with their firsthand knowledge of Keda’s general incompetence, most of the Vulfpacht tribe understandably don’t want to be in his vicinity when the worst happens. However, the entire pack soon finds itself as one half of a gruesome battle against a gang of superbeast gryphons, and Kedamono then has to prove his value both to himself and his loved ones.
When writing a loser protagonist, one has to be careful they don’t make them so pathetic to where the reader throws their hands up in the air and clicks on another site. Luckily, Kedamono gets a suitable amount of heroic moments just at the right time, after some gradual buildup. It’s pretty easy to find yourself laughing at his misfortune on one page, but then wanting to give him a hug in the next one. The side characters are equally as skilled at being able to juggle intense action scenes with drama and comedy, including a pair of griffin people that according to the author are tributes to the manga One Piece. Unsurprising, as Pride’s alternating tone is eerily close to many shonen comics, right down to its ever present trope of a hero gradually learning new skills over their story arc. Or in this case, at least how not to get the crap kicked out of them so often.
The art is fairly solid from the jump, and it only gets better as the story progresses. By part 5 or so, it’s beyond professional- the lines become cleaner and the color scheme brightens. As of now the cast is pretty much just animal creatures, with only one human appearing to date, and almost all of them have very distinct and expressive looking designs (the purple wolves aren’t that homogenous). There’s a lot of well done perspective shots in the fight scenes (which are fairly bloody but not to an absurd degree), and the slower, cuter moments are just as effective.
So far The Pride Of Life (which can be found here) is charming, exciting and hilarious with some very nice visuals. It has no problem having its cake as well as eating it, and even if the main story isn’t to your liking, it’s definitely hard not to smile at some of the fan letters answered by the characters themselves.