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The Best Manga, 201 3

By Shaenon K. Garrity

THE BEST MANGA, 2013

OTAKU USA
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 3 SHOJO The Heart of Thomas .......................................................................................... 5 Loveless .............................................................................................................. 6 Paradise Kiss ...................................................................................................... 7 Limit .................................................................................................................... 7 SHONEN Heroman ............................................................................................................ 9 Knights of Sidonia .............................................................................................. 9 Kitaro.................................................................................................................. 10 The Last of the Mohicans .................................................................................. 11 SEINEN The Drops of God: New World .......................................................................... 13 Thermae Romae................................................................................................ 14 Message to Adolf .............................................................................................. 15 Sunny ................................................................................................................ 15 ALTERNATIVE/OTHER The Demons Sermon on the Martial Arts ...................................................... 17 Tokyo Love: Rica tte Kanji?! ............................................................................ 18 SPECIAL FEATURES Digital Manga Shonen Jump Alpha (Viz) .................................................................................. 19 ComicLoud (BookLoud) .................................................................................... 20 Return of the Henshin Hero Kamen Rider .................................................................................................... 22 Skullman .......................................................................................................... 23 Inazuman .......................................................................................................... 24 Kikaider ............................................................................................................ 25
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THE BEST MANGA, 2013 INTRODUCTION

2013 in Manga
By Shaenon K. Garrity
SIX MONTHS IN, could 2013 be the year manga grows up? After years of American manga publishing being mostly a shonen-and-shojo affair, suddenly publishers are scrambling to license the biggest new seinen, alternative, and other adultoriented titles. Yen Press grabbed Mari Yamazakis Thermae Romae, a surprise blockbuster in Japan and winner of this years award for oddest manga elevator pitch: ancient Roman architect travels through time to modern Japan to learn about different kinds of public baths. Dark Horse published Emerald, an eclectic collection of short manga by Blade of the Immortal creator Hiroaki Samura; Kodansha published Danza, a collection of six stories by the prolific Natsume Ono (Ristorante Paradiso, House of Five Leaves); and Viz gave us the contemplative orphaned-kids graphic novel Sunny, the latest from alt-manga superstar Taiyo Matsumoto (Tekkonkinkreet). Meanwhile, Vertical skipped ahead in its publication of the acclaimed winetasting manga The Drops of God to produce The Drops of God: New World, an omnibus collection focusing on the chapters about American and Australian wines. It cant hurt to tap into some of that Napa Valley-loving Sideways readership. Publishers also ventured beyond the usual boundaries of manga. This summer, two major manga-ka have illustrated prose books out in English. Slam Dunk and Vagabond creator Takehiko Inoues Pepita: Inoue Meets Gaudi is a journal of Inoues trip to Spain to study the work of architect Antoni

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Gaudi, while Vampire Hunter D artist Yoshitaka Amanos fantasy novel Deva Zan is lushly illustrated with his own paintings and prints. International collaborations between American and Japanese creators seem increasingly common, ranging from The Demons Sermon on the Martial Arts, the latest in a trilogy of thoughtful manga adaptations of classic samurai texts by Sean Michael Wilson and Michiru Morikawa, to the Stan Lee/Tamon Ohta shonen manga Heroman. This has been a killer year for English translations of classic manga, starting with the gorgeous Fantagraphics edition of Moto Hagios legendary proto-BL epic The Heart of Thomas, about the drama that erupts at a German boys school when a lovesick student commits suicide, which has

been at the top of many an it s my otakus please-translate list problem! for years. So has Shigeru No t Mizukis beloved spooks-and- yours! scares kiddie manga GeGeGe no Kitaro, one of the most lovable manga of all time, now out from Drawn & Quarterly as Kitaro. Even more ambitiously, PictureBox has announced a new 10 Cent Manga line of vintage postwar-era childrens manga, starting with Shigeru Sugiuras bizarre adaptation of Last of the Mohicans. And if youre looking for something adultmake that very adult PictureBox is also publishing The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame, a collection of BDSM bara (gay-oriented) erotic comics by Tagame, an artist as brilliant and accomplished as he is obscene. As radically different as these titles are, theyve established PictureBox as a publisher thats willing to take risks with genres other American publishers shy away from. Manga has been around in translation for long enough that the return of a previously-translated but long-out-of-print title is cause for celebration. The folding of Tokyopop in 2011 freed many of the prolific publishers licenses to be snapped up and reprinted by other publisherslike Viz, which is now bringing Yun Kougas hit shojo fantasy/ romance Loveless back into print in a series of omnibus editions, and Vertical, which is doing the same with Ai Yazawas stylish fashion-world dramedy Paradise Kiss. Other reprint projects are more surprising. Rica Takashimas cute semi-autobiographical

indie manga about the Tokyo lesbian scene, Rica tte Kanji?!, published ten So years ago in a low-budget you have format by Yuricon founder noth in g to Erica Friedman, is back, in say ? a snappier edition with previously untranslated bonus material. And Vertical has resurrected Osamu Tezukas classic WWII espionage drama Message to Adolf, the first of Tezukas manga ever translated into English (originally by Viz), out of print since the 1990s. Of course, in the minds of some manga fans, books are pass anyway. After years of struggling to compete with o n l i n e p i ra c y , b o t h Japanese and American publishers are finally embracing digital manga. So far this year, two major English-language digital manga magazines have launched, Shonen Jump and ComicLoud, and publishers are racing to find ways to get manga onlineand, more challenging, make it pay. Old-school manga fans havent been forgotten in the digital rush. Comixology.coms online publication of a wealth of classic Shotaro Ishinomori manga, including Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009, suggests a future for classic manga in electronic media. After all, unlike the edition previously published by Tokyopop, the digital Cyborg 009 need never go out of print, remaining available to future generations of kids. As manga in the U.S. starts to grow up, lets hope it never loses its cyborg-battle-loving childhood heart.
Wait, J u li.

THE BEST MANGA, 2013

THE BEST MANGA, 2013

SHOJO
The Heart of Thomas
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Publisher: Fantagraphics Story and Art: Moto Hagio Rating: Unrated/13+ On the first day of spring, a student at a German boys school jumps off a bridge to his death. He leaves behind a letter (one of two, it turns out) to a classmate: This is my love. This is the sound of my heart. Surely you must understand. So begins Moto Hagios The Heart of Thomas, one of the towering classics of manga and a title many American fans have been aching to see in translation. One of the manga that redefined shojo in the 1970s, The Heart of T h o m a s w a s also, along with Keiko Takemiyas Song of the Wind and Trees, the prog e n i to r o f B oy s Love manga. But modern BL, with its fluffy, apolitical sex fantasies, has little to do with Hagios masterpiece. The Heart of Thomas is Romantic in the capital-R sense: adventurous, emotionally harrowing, concerned with the beauty and love and the soul, straining toward the sublime. Its about boys in love, yes, but by the end of the manga love has exploded beyond sexual feeling to encompass all vital human connections. But my prose is purpling. The story gets underway after Thomass suicide, when Erich, a boy with a haunting resemblance to Thomas, transfers to the still shell-shocked school. Although Erich looks like Thomas, hes nothing like the shy, gentle boy his classmates remember, and he resents being compared to the dead boy. Despite himself, he becomes entangled in the lives of the gregarious Oskar and his cool, studious roommate Juli, two upperclassmen who were scarred by Thomass death. The Heart of Thomas is about scars, literal and figurative. The ever-present specter of Thomas becomes a symbol of emotional wounds left unhealed, absent friends and enemies who will never come

SHOJO

back to clean up the messes they left behind. As the cast expands to a dozen or so major characters, we learn that everyone has wounds like this, and the only way to heal is to reach out to other people and risk being wounded again. Hagios art is glorious. Her sweet-faced characters tumble across stark black-and-white backgrounds, illuminated by symbolic flashes of light. Elegant collage compositions wreathed in flowers, vines and stars illustrate the characters fantasies and fears. In intense moments, Hagios effortlessly clear line turns jagged and pained. Its dramatic but never overwrought, always the work of an artist in complete control. In Japan, Hagio is often ranked second only to Osamu Tezuka (and frankly, her output may be more consistently good), but its taken a long time for her work to make headway in the US. Thanks to Fantagraphics and translator/editor Matt Thorn, its finally getting the attentionand the beautiful hardbound editionsit deserves. The Heart of Thomas is one of the best manga ever published in English.
Shaenon Garrity

Loveless
Publisher: Viz Story and Art: Yun Kouga Rating: 13+ Beneath his lovely face, the bandages he always seems to wear, and his cat ears, Ritsuka Aoyagi is a strange and broken 12-year-old. His psychiatrist Dr. Katsuko knows the story: at home, he is abused by his mother, and he suffers from amnesia and dissociation ever since the mysterious death of his older brother Seimei. He is distant from his classmates, even the few, like sweetly clueless Yuiko, who try to get through his shell. Life sucks, he thinks. I wish it would hurry up and end. Then he meets Soubi, a handsome, cat-earless young artist who claims to have known his brother in college (as friends? Lovers?). Something about the powerful adult sets Ritsukas heart awhirl, and for Soubi, the feeling is even stronger: I love you,
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Ritsuka, Soubi promises. Ill protect you. Ill do anything for you. I give you all of me. Soubi makes himself a part of Seimeis life, smothering him with tenderness not quite familial, not quite sexual, not quite that of a faithful servant. Soubi also tells Ritsuka that his big brother was killed by a secret organization called Septimal Moon. Soubi is fighting Septimal Moon, but he needs Ritsukas help to do it, waging strange, psychic battles where the two of them become linked by psychic chains and use word spells rather than physical blows. With Soubi at his side, Ritsuka enters the secret worlds of magic and adulthood, although deep down, he worries if Soubi, this strange, mysterious adult, really loves him at all Previously published by Tokyopop, Yun Kougas Loveless is now available from Viz in snazzy new omnibus editions including bonus pages and color art. Its a long, meandering, magical-realist crawl through favorite fujoshi themes: loneliness, love, bondage, suggestive male-male relationships, and, of course, cat ears. In the one really brilliant idea in the series, its set in a world where virgins have cat ears and tails which fall off when they have sex, a transformation befitting this rite of passage. Metaphors literalized as fantasy are also behind the magic chains which link lover and beloved, master and servant, and the idea of words turned into psychic force (Hes doing it again, killing me with sweet words). There are a lot of ideas in this manga, on top of a large cast of androgynous-looking characters all with their own damaged psyches. Unfortunately, some ideas arent so well fleshed-out: the fantasy/sci-fi/dark-conspiracy elements, for instance, and the word battles, which consist of little more than pointless posing and seem shoehorned into the series to give it a potential action hook for an anime series. Theres also the question of how seriously were supposed to take the borderline pedophilic relationship between Ritsuka and Soubi. It seems that for Kouga, sometimes its titillation, sometimes its a joke (This guy is a pedo freak whos obsessed with a sixth grader),

SHOJO

and sometimes, rarely, its a loving platonic relationship between a boy and the 20-year-old man he idolizes but it does make the series hard to recommend to people who arent familiar with the kinks of Boys Love manga. At its best, its a metaphorical journey through issues of adulthood and childhood, the need for love and the persistence of emotional scars; but its also a very rambling, geeky manga, whose better moments are buried beneath fujoshi fanservice and sometimes confusing panel layouts.
Jason Thompson

Paradise Kiss
Publisher: Vertical Story and Art: Ai Yazawa Rating: Unrated/16+ If I could steal one cartoonists art style, I might pick Ai Yazawa. In her breakout manga Paradise Kiss, she developed a style thats equal parts sexy, stylish, cute, and quirky. Her impossibly leggy characters model chic fashions one minute, topple over in stick-figure pratfalls the next. She draws people, their clothing, and the tiny details of their worldsbeads, candies, cups of coffeewith equal facility and imagination. Although all too often she falls back on pasted-in photo backgrounds, she can even draw great environments. Paradise Kiss returns again and again to one crucial set, the cozy basement studio of the art-school fashion students who call their line Paradise Kiss. As Yazawa puts her characters through a relentless gauntlet of teenage agonies, the studio becomes first a retreat from the world, then a home. This is most true for heroine Yukari, a studious, strait-laced girl who starts skipping cram school to hang out with the weird fashion majors: frilly and childlike Miwako, sardonic punk Arashi, glamorous crossdresser Isabella, and, most of all, the sexy, brilliant, bisexual designer George. The Paradise Kiss gang recruits Yukari to be their model for the art schools
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big fashion show, but Yukari cant balance her demanding college-track life with her secret life in fashion, and it soon becomes clear that somethings got to give. Paradise Kiss, previously published by Tokyopop and now back in print from Vertical, is a semi-sequel to Yazawas previous manga, the untranslated Neighborhood Story, and occasionally crosses streams with her most recent series, the music-industry soap Nana (published by Viz). All three manga are about creative misfits falling together into makeshift families, and all deal with art and style as personal expression, as windows into the soul. Yukari soon finds that pursuing George means competing with his art: He got me all worked up, she complains at one point, but once the subject turned to clothing he totally forgot about me. But, as her new friends gently try to point out, maybe what Yukari really needs is to find her own artistic voice. All of this is told with a mixture of high soapy drama and tongue-in-cheek humor. The characters frequently refer to the fact that theyre in a manga, sometimes announcing in advance what the plot of a chapter will be. Ultimately, its less about sex and romance than it is about growing up, rebelling, and finding yourself. Its a love story, yes, but in the world of Ai Yazawa, art and love are achingly close to the same thing.
Shaenon Garrity

Limit
Publisher: Vertical Story and Art: Keiko Suenobu Rating: Unrated/13+ Teenager Mizuki Konno knows how to survive high school. As long as she keeps her head down and stays on the right side of her queen-bee best friend, she can drift in the rarefied air of the popular girls and look down on the miserable, misfit ranks of the

SHOJO

bullied. Then a horrific accident strands Mizuki and a group of her classmates in the wilderness. While they wait for help that inexplicably fails to come, theyre forced to rely on their own strength and wits to survive. And in a survival situation, the girls who were once on the bottom of the high-school pecking order are suddenly on top Keiko Suenobus previous manga Life, about a girl who engages in self-mutilation, dealt with such hot-button teen issues as suicide, bullying, and rape. Limit picks up many of the same themes, especially the cruelty of teen cliques and organized bullying, and moves them to a setting where the emotional brutality turns physical. Even as the girls realize they need each other to live, their fears, jealousies, and resentments turn them against each other. The nerdy, bullied Arisa takes advantage of the opportunity to wreak revenge on the popular

girls, Mizukis friend Haru reveals the frustrations seething beneath her flawless surface, and Chieko, a quiet nobody at school, turns out to be preternaturally competent in a survival situation. Limit is Heathers and Mean Girls mixed with Battle Royale and survival-story horror manga like Dragon Head and The Drifting Classroom. Somehow, Suenobus polished and pretty teen-shojo artwork gives the claustrophobic brutality and violence of the story an extra gloss of horror. When cute sailor-uniformed schoolgirls lunge at each other with scythes or dissolve into torrents of unhinged laughter, something has gone very wrong. It remains to be seen whether Suenobu can maintain the taut, unsettling tone past the first volume, but so far Limit is as intense an experience as youre likely to have reading a shojo manga.
Shaenon Garrity

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THE BEST MANGA, 2013

SHONEN
Heroman
Publisher: Vertical Story: Stan Lee/BONES Art: Tamon Ohta Rating: 10+ When comics legend Stan Lee (think Marvel Comics) turns his hand to manga, you know something good is going to come of it. In this case, very good. Heroman is an exciting, engaging story of a superhero for the 21st century, as Lee himself puts it. Cheerful American boy Joey Jones lives with his grandmother in Central City on the West Coast and works earnestly at a breakfast joint before school to help pay the bills. Unfortunately, his paychecks arent enough that he can afford the coolest, newest toy on the market: a robot called the Heybo. Fortunately for both Joey and the Earth, he finds a broken, discarded Heybo and sets about repairing the small robot, which he names Heroman. What he doesnt know at the time, but discovers soon after, is that Heroman transforms into a giant robot that has the power to save Joeys friends from the insectoid alien invaders known as the Skrugg. As the story unfolds, Joey begins to learn that even a poor working boy can gain the power to change his life and those around him. Lee and BONES weave a heartfelt, optimistic tale sure to charm the imaginations of both kids and adults. Heroman takes some of the best qualities of the shonen and mecha genres (gentle humor, action-packed battle sequences, good friends, and, of course, giant robots) and presents them in a story equally compelling to both American and Japanese audiences. Tamon Ohtas art-

S6%1 L)) - T%021 O,6% / BONES

work is clear and precise, a pleasure to view as it flows easily from one page to the next; the character designs are fun and immediately likable. In short, Heroman is a well-rounded, thoroughly enjoyable romp. With luck, the quality will hold through future volumes, and it will go down in history alongside predecessors such as Astro Boy and Speed Racer.
Amanda Vail

SHONEN

Knights of Sidonia
Publisher: Vertical Story and Art: Tsutomu Nihei Rating: Unrated/16+ Far in the future, the solar system has been destroyed by the alien Gauna, colossal beings like giant embryos that roam the stars consuming everything they encounter. The Sidonia, a citysized space ark made from the ruins of the planet, is home to the only survivors, preserving a few thousand specimens of humanity on a voyage through the galactic night. Nagate, a teenager who was raised secretly in a hidden room in the ships bowels, emerges after his grandfathers death into the real Sidonia, where fanciful castles and gardens cling to the spaceships interior walls, where new genders and human-animal hybrids are common, and where corpses are recycled into compost so that nothing is wasted. Luckily, Nagate has incredible combat skills, and instead of getting composted, he joins a group of other gifted teens in piloting the Garde, giant humanoid mecha that are the best defense against their nearly indestructible enemies. But can Nagate truly fit into this brave new world? And how long can humanity run from the mindless (?) tentacled monsters that still pursue them? The back cover text calls Knights of Sidonia Tsutomu Niheis most accessible work to date, and its hard to argue with that description. (And in this case, accessible is a good thing.) Niheis previous works, Biomega and Blame!, were full of H.R. Giger-esque monsters and stunningly audacious science fiction visuals, but were more like FPS video games than stories, following blank-slate protagonists through ever more perilous challenges. In contrast, Knights, his first shonen manga, is full of boys manga clichsteens piloting giant robots, classmate rivalry, school hijinks, sexy girls and girl-boysand even such un-Nihei-esque things as character and

dialogue. Yet the mix of the familiar and the strange works just right; Niheis quiet, understated style restrains the usual blood, sweat and cheese loudness of shonen manga, and he handles the space ark premise with the hardscience-fiction sense of awe found in all his works. Valiant pilots giving their lives to save humanity, a long voyage through the stars with limited resources fleeing an implacable enemy, dark secrets and soap-opera drama between the pilots themselves its got all the elements of a boys mecha show, but its also a bit like Battlestar Galactica if the Cylons were designed by H.P. Lovecraft. Good stuff.
Jason Thompson

Kitaro
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly Story and Art: Shigeru Mizuki Rating: 13+ Kitaro is a yokai. While the word is often translated as demon, it is more accurately described as a mischievous spirit; yokai can be good, neutral, or eviljust like human beings. Kitaro is good and kind, even if he is a bit strange. For one, he likes to hang out in graveyards in order to absorb spirit energy. For another, he only has one eye (his left eye is actually his father, who occasionally hops out of Kitaros eye socket to provide assistance or advice). He is friends with gross bugs, slugs, and scavenger birds, and he has extraordinary powers that enable him to be remarkably resilient in his fights against evil. Shigeru Mizukis classic stories of Kitaro have been reworked and reimagined many times since he first created them in 1959, although the only English translations are in obscure out-of-print bilingual editions. Fortunately, Drawn & Quarterly has taken on the task of making Kitaro and several other Mizuki works available in English. Mizuki is, hands down, a master of his art. His exquisitely rendered, detailed line drawings of background scenes and

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SHONEN

a story that pits science against nature and spiritual power. Kitaro journeys with young scientist Shuichi Yamada to the South Pacific to investigate the existence of a Zeuglodon, a strange landwalking creature thought to be the immortal ancestor to the modern whale. Yamada, wanting to keep the glory of scientific discovery all to himself, sets off a disastrous chain of events that show the dangers of fear and selfishness, particularly when coupled with the devastating powers of science such as the atomic bomb. Mizuki, who was a soldier in the South Pacific through the horrors of World War II, is a pacifist, a message that often comes through in his works. In Kitaro, he maintains an avid curiosity about the world, and a belief in the power of any one individual to change things for the better.
Amanda Vail

The Last of the Mohicans

Publisher: PictureBox Story and Art: Shigeru Sugiura Rating: Unrated/All Ages With The Last of the Mohicans, PictureBox launches one of the coolest manga translation projects to come down the pike in a long while: 10 Cent Manga, a line of early pulp manga of the type that drew Japanese children to magazine stands and manga rental shops in the 1950s. Creator Shigeru Sugiura was one of the bestselling manga artists of the postwar era, and The Last of the Mohicans was his breakout hit. The version published by PictureBox is a remake drawn in 1974, when Sugiura was in his 60s, after he had developed an interest in alternative gekiga and reinvented himself for an adult audience. Its a peculiar, hypnotic blend of old-fashioned childrens manga and 1970s pop-art experimentation, the manga equivalent of Nobuhiko Obayashis deliberately cheesy yet genuinely disturbing 1977 horror film House. The Last of the Mohicans makes only glancing

monstrous yokai are balanced by overly simplistic but somehow expressive renderings of the main characters and other humans. Perhaps the best way to describe Kitaro for a Western audience unfamiliar with Japanese folklore is to reference The Twilight Zone. The early serials are like slightly more playful versions of that classic television showa bit eerie, unexpected, and odd. Kitaro uses his bag of fantastic tricks to save humans from malevolent yokai and ensure that criminal individuals get what theyve got coming to them. Mizuki pokes fun at a number of internationally famous predecessors along the way, including Hollywood movie monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, the London werewolf, a Western witch) and Japans own Godzilla. As the serials progress, Mizukis compositions become more daring and dynamic, and his stories likewise. In Creature from the Deep, Mizuki crafts
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contact with James Fenimore Coopers novel; the protagonist is named Hawkeye, there are Native Americans with hooded eyes and white colonists who look like textbook illustrations of George Washington, and there the resemblance ends. The plot is a red-blooded Western adventure set in a cartoony world where characters turn to the reader to provide exposition and the horses and bears talk. The anachronistic humor and slapstick gags create whiplash changes in tone that make Tezuka at his wackiest look sedate. Things get particularly weird in the battle scenes, which are half realistic carnage and half people getting bonked on the head to wacky sound effects. Bloody confrontations and somber death scenes coexist with lines of dialogue like, Shut it, Hawkeye, you bedwetting brat! Sure you dont need to go before nighty-night? The art is a jumble of drawing styles, giving The

Last of the Mohicans the kitchen-sink feel of American underground commix. About half the characters are drawn in a detailed, realistic style, and the rest are rubbery cartoons. Hawkeye himself is a round-faced little kid who resembles Bobs Big Boy. Much of the art is crudely drawneither with the crudeness of childrens comics or the crudeness of underground artbut Sugiura periodically lavishes attention on detailed, expansive wilderness vistas, many of them copied from old Jesse Marsh Tarzan comics. Last of the Mohicans is the kind of comic that defies criticism. Is it a juvenile mess or a brilliant postmodern collage? Is it an adventure-comedy for children or a pastiche for adults? Is it a good comic, a bad comic or an awesome comic? All I can say is that I can hardly wait for the next 10 Cent Manga.
Shaenon Garrity

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THE BEST MANGA, 2013

SEINEN
The Drops of God: New World
Publisher: Vertical Story: Shu Okimoto Art: Tadashi Agi Rating: Unrated/13+ In the 80s and 90s, when stores were wary of buying long-running manga series, American manga publishers concealed the length of their manga by using subtitles instead of volume numbers, in the hopes that someone would pick up (for example) Maison Ikkoku: Good Housekeeping when theyd be intimidated by Maison Ikkoku Volume 11. Apparently the old ways are back, because Vertical has jumped ahead in Drops of God, the epic wine-tasting manga, publishing Volumes 23-24 as the omnibus Drops of God: New World. The skippingahead makes some sense, because the New World story arc focuses on something of obvious interest to American readers: American wines (well, and Australian wines; the term New World here refers to all non-European vintages). The backstory: Shizuku (a young man lacking book smarts, but gifted with amazing senses of taste and smell) and Issei (an equally gifted, but cool and arrogant, wine expert) are competing to identify the Twelve Apostles, the worlds 12 greatest wines, based only on flowery descriptions left behind by Shizukus late father, a wine genius. To read Drops of God requires accepting the premise that wine tasting is objective rather than subjective, and that the hero and his rival can hear a description like A dark purple reminiscent of jet-black darkness. A wondrous aroma of eucalyptus leaves, mint an intermingling of Orient and Occident wafts up from the glass and respond Oh, sure, I know that wine! Thats a 2004 Heitz Cellar Cabernet Sauvignon! In this world, sniffing a glass of wine means tripping out through phantasmagorical images of gardens and falcons and castles and fine art (Burgundies depict stillness and endless, magnificent depth and complexity, using only one color like an expertly crafted ink painting. This wine, though, is like a monochrome lithograph by Georges Braque, with assertive contours yet somehow offhand, which in fact is part of its appeal.) (For some strange reason, there are no scenes of them sniffing a bad wine and being transported to a garbage dump of rusting machine parts, piles of fish heads at the dock, etc.) In New World, Issei heads to Californias Napa Valley, while Shizuku heads to Australia, both following clues that they think will lead to the Seventh Apostle. In the process, both of them taste lots of wines (whose labels are shown in closeup so the reader can buy them) and get involved in the kind of adventures Indiana Jones might get in if he was a wine taster: kidnapped at gunpoint by crooked wine-dealers, caught in a forest fire, etc. For all its high-class pretensions, smart and subtle it isnt (the scene with anti-Japanese racists is like something from an 80s manga), but the combination of shonen manga gung-ho enthusiasm and bourgeois wine trivia somehow works and makes this one of the most entertainingly over-the-top manga of recent years. The art is smooth and attractive, although the sometimes wonky faces of the minor characters make it pretty clear theyre drawn by assistants. Considering that New World jumps ahead 12 volumes from the last volume of Drops of God, its fairly readable as a stand-alone bookmore a testament to the lack of plot than anything else but if I have one criticism of the Vertical edition, couldnt they have added at least a short plot summary or character descriptions for new readers?
Jason Thompson

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SEINEN

Thermae Romae
Publisher: Yen Press Story and Art: Mari Yamazaki Rating: Unrated/13+ Lucius is an architect in the Roman Empire, a serious, conservative man with one professional passion: making a great Roman bath, a thermae, in the classical style. When he goes to the bath for inspiration, soaking among the hustle and bustle of slaves selling snacks and waxing the bathers body hair, hes suddenly sucked into a drain and emerges in a public bath in 1970s Japan. (Pardon me, foreigner-san have you been under the water this whole time? Never seen anything like a Japanese bath before, have ya?) Although Lucius doesnt understand a word the flat-faced men are saying, hes perceptive enough to be blown away by what he sees in this strange new world: shower sprinkler nozzles! Cold beer in aluminum cans! Plastic water buckets!!! He soon time-travels back to Rome again, but only until the end of the first chapter. Again and again, he time-slips forward to Japan, and each time, he learns new bathing science, as he pops up in hot springs, bathrooms, water parks, and assisted-living communities where doddering old men ask him to scrub their backs. Reluctantly awed by Japans advanced civilization, he vows to use what he has learned to make the greatest Roman bath of all! (It is clear to me that these flat-faces treasure their bathing culture. Learning the best of other cultures is for the sake of Romes future!) Mari Yamazaki, the creator of this surprise Japanese bestseller, really knows her baths and her culture-clash comedy: shes married to an Italian man, has traveled around the world, and her reminiscences about Turkish hammams and Sicilian hot springs in the bonus pages are well worth reading. Thermae Romae started off as a one-shot gag

THERMAE ROMAE > MARI #AMA$AKI 2009

manga about the abiding love of baths shared between the Japanese and the Romans, and its funniest when its pointing out cultural differences, mostly bathing-related ones, although there is a great chapter about the parallels between Roman and Japanese phallic cults. (Despite a little steamy dialogue and the naked statue on the cover, bronze and marble penises are the only ones youll see in this PG-13 manga.) Other recurring jokes involve Luciuss anachronistic attempts to replicate modern bathing equipment with ancient Roman technology. Although the art is only just about good enough to tell the joke, the early chapters are really funny. Unfortunately, the fun cant last; the joke gets old and cold like a wet towel, due to the same formula

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(Lucius has a problem, Lucius time-travels to Japan, Lucius goes back to Rome with a solution) being repeated in every chapter. If there was ever a manga that needed to stop being an episodic gag manga and develop a story arc, its this one, but it doesnt (despite some teases of possible story) and the second half of the first volume gets tedious. The best thing to recommend it is that itll definitely get you interested in baths, which was certainly Yamazakis intent; like Hikaru no Go or Kingyo Used Books, Thermae Romae is basically a nostalgic attempt to resurrect a Japanese tradition, in this case public bathing. (Its notable that Lucius isnt initially transported to present-day Japan, rather to 1970s Japan, an acknowledgment that public bathing is now considered old-fashioned, a pastime of old retired men and saggy-boobed old ladies.) Perhaps the 2012 live-action movie does a better job of making a story arc out of this lukewarm batch of stories. Special props to the Yen Press edition for the waterproof cover.
Jason Thompson

Message to Adolf
Publisher: Vertical Story and Art: Osamu Tezuka Rating: 13+ The title alone is clue enough that this monumental work by equally monumental manga author Osamu Tezuka is far from light. In fact, it is quite heavyboth literally (the first volume is over 600 pages) and figuratively. And just in case anyone is holding onto thoughts that the title might simply be a fancy metaphor of some kind, the cover of Verticals sexy new volume makes it abundantly clear that the manga is indeed about Adolf Hitler. If nothing else, that bulldog stare above the signature mustache should certainly catch some eyes from across the room in a bookstore. Tezuka has never shied away from depicting difficult subjects. In Message to Adolf (previously trans15

lated by Viz as Adolf in a long-out-of-print edition) he follows the lives of three Adolfs from the early stages of the Nazi regime to its end (although the first volume only takes us to Germanys invasion of Poland, which started WWII in earnest). One, most will know already: Adolf Hitler. Another, Adolf Kaufmann, is the son of a German consul to Japan and his Japanese wife. The third is Adolf Kamil, a German Jewish boy who is part of the Jewish population in Kobe, Japan. The driving character of the story, whose path winds in and out of the three Adolfs, is Sohei Toge, a Japanese reporter whose brother is murdered by the Nazis. Toges grief over the death of his brother hardens into a resolve to bring down the Nazi regime after his inquiries are met with a bureaucratic smoke screen and eventual torture at the hands of high-ranking officials. Toge emerges from that horrible experience with the knowledge that his brother possessed secret documents that could bring down Hitlerand he wont rest until hes found them and brought them to light. As he does so well in his other works, Tezuka illustrates large principles from the perspective of ordinary human beings. He unflinchingly shows how all people, even heroes, contain within them the potential for both good things and bad things, creation and destruction, light and dark. Tezuka puts his characters through the wringer, showing the reader how they react to tremendously painful, almost unimaginable situations. Under pressure, even those who strive to right horrible wrongs can themselves commit equal wrongs. Tezukas Adolf is a tale that defies any pat labels. Its a scathing story of political intrigue, blind allegiance, and unforgivable discrimination. Its also a story of determined friendship, the beauty of common decency, and the spark of love. Its a story of people caught within a machine that is so much bigger than they are, and how even small actions can affect long-lasting results.
Amanda Vail

SEINEN

Sunny
Publisher: Viz Story and Art: Taiyo Matsumoto Rating: 13+ You might remember Taiyo Matsumoto from the 2006 film Tekkonkinkreet, based on his Eisner Award-winning manga Black & White. If you havent yet had the pleasure, Matsumotos latest, Sunny, is a good place to start. Far from generic manga, Matsumotos work is heavily influenced by Moebius, the French comic artist. Sunny is less abstract and experimental than GOGO Monster, although Matsumoto once again visits the world of deeply troubled children. Set in 1970s Japan, Sunny follows the kids of the Star house, a foster home/orphanage: that is to say, some of the kids have parents, some dont, and some dont want to see their parents anymore. Different chapters follow the ensemble cast in interconnected one-off stories. Theres smarty-pants

Sei, who believes his parents might pick him up again; the school-skipping White, who fantasizes about dying a gangsters death in the groups abandoned car clubhouse; and Megumi, who grieves for a dead stray cat and wonders who buries orphans when they die. Matsumotos use of splotchy watercolor-like stains to depict Junsukes afro is one of many captivating art choices in the book, although to be clear, the book isnt pretty. The Star home kids are ugly, ruddy-cheeked misfits, and thats part of their charm. Its easier to sympathize with these kids than the ennui-ridden teens of Blue Spring, and Sunny never becomes as outright psychedelic as No. 5. In short, if you hated GOGO Monster you might like this. Although Im always happy to read more Matsumoto, I love Matsumoto at his most surreal, so Sunny isnt my favorite. Nevertheless, I recommend it.
Erin Finnegan

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THE BEST MANGA, 2013

ALTERNATIVE/OTHER
The Demons Sermon on the Martial Arts
Publisher: Shambhala Publishing Original Author: Issai Chozanshi Story: Sean Michael Wilson Art: Michiru Morikawa Rating: Unrated/All Ages Though its source material by Issai Chozanshi (1659-1741) is not as famous as Hagakure: The Code of the Samurai or Miyamoto Musashis The Book of Five Rings, this poetic book immediately stands out as the best of Sean Michael Wilsons three graphic novel adaptations of classical works of Japanese philosophy. An anthology with a very loosely framed narrative about a swordsman who goes into the mountains and overhears demons (or tengu) discussing philosophy in the trees, The Demons Sermon explores Zen Buddhism through seven Aesop-like fables of humans and animals: snakes talk with centipedes, a rat petitions a toad priest to ask the gods for deliverance from a cat, a butterfly discusses life with a bird. To call most of these stories is a stretch as they are basically philosophical discussions. A frequent theme is that everything has its place in life for a reason; the centipede is surprised that the snake can move so fast without legs, and when the daytime birds mock the owl for its ugliness, the owl says this is the way nature made him. Even the cicada finds that its discarded shell is just as content as he is: Because I havent got anything inside of me, Ive escaped from the world of pleasure and pain, of gain and loss. An anxious sparrow asks the butterfly what it was like to be a caterpillar, confessing his own worries: I have heard a story that in September Ill enter the ocean and become a clam. But the butterfly tells the sparrow not to worry, for the clam-sparrow wont remember his past life anyway: The mind of the form follows that form. When the form is extinguished, the mind of that form disappears, too. This is obviously a metaphor for death, and many of the tales express this materialistic philosophy. Apart from one or two brief slips into complex Buddhist terms, The Demons Sermon expresses the Zen principle of dont think, do; or better yet, just be (my own paraphrase) in ways anyone can understand. Theres little actual martial arts, with the exception of the best story, The Mysterious Technique of Cat, in which three cats,

>2012 S,%0&,%/% P7&/-'%6-215, I1'.

unable to beat a particularly tough rat, go to their master for advice and are told the flaws in their respective methods. This is not a book of practical technique, but as a book of philosophy, its fascinating, a dreamlike exploration of consciousness, life and death.

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ALTERNATIVE/OTHER

Michiru Morikawas artwork is the perfect match for the text, her eerie, detailed illustrationsespecially the lovely renderings of various animalsperfectly matching the poetic feel.
Jason Thompson
>R-'% T%.%5,-0%, ALC P7&/-5,-1+, 2012. S20) 4-+,65 4)5)48)(, %5. *24 3)40-55-21.

Tokyo Love: Rica tte Kanji?!

Publisher: ALC Publishing Story and Art: Rica Takashima Rating: Unrated/18+ (full edution); 16+ (library edition) Street artist Rica Takashima, now living in New York, made her mark in manga with her strips published in the short-lived Japanese lesbian magazine Anise. Erica Friedman, the Wests biggest booster of yuri (lesbian) manga, translated 100 pages of Rica tte Kanji 10 years ago, and now returns with a 230-page ebook of old and new material, the ultimate collection of Takashimas bubbly art and queer-positive stories of Tokyo lesbian life. Rica, an inexperienced but out lesbian, moves to Tokyo for junior college, where she hesitantly explores the Nichme bar scene and meets Miho, a spiky-haired fine arts student who plays video games and sleeps around. I grew up out in the country, so Ive never met an actual lesbianthis is the first time I can talk to someone openly, Rica tells Miho. Miho is expecting a one-night stand, but Rica is shy, and somehow they become friends instead. And then, slowly, between school exams and drunken nights, crafts projects and sick days, they fall in love. As Friedman notes in her lengthy interview with Takashima which is scattered throughout the book, Tokyo Love: Rica tte Kanji?! avoids clichs: its neither a angsty coming-out story nor a sexy love story (nor a combination of the two, like Milk Morinagas Girl Friends). Instead, its a fun look at the lives of two friends-maybe-turnedlovers, an exploration of a subculture (factoid: Hey, do you like Cutey Honey? can be a pickup line), and a look at some of the issues same-sex couples face, such as deciding whether to have children. Re-

freshingly, theres very little pedantic in Rica, no lengthy speeches or stereotypical homophobic bad guys; such issues are handled more subtly, like in the flashback scenes to Miho and Ricas childhood, when Ricas friends pressure her to go out with boys but her mother demonstrates love and understanding. Most of this book consists of short pieces published in anthologies, and Miho and Ricas narrative sort of peters out after the first 100 pages, but in return we get some other Takashima comics, such as the fluffy but entertaining Fight! Cutey Beret!, a parody of Cutey Honey with two half-naked girls in berets and artists aprons fighting the evil forces of conformity, prejudice and nuclear power (Only our love and passion for art can defeat our enemy!). The Rica strips are the best, but these oddities help make the book the complete (so far) Takashima collection, an anthology of delightful, highly personal comics published outside the traditional manga world of readers polls and Photoshopped backgrounds. The main book contains nothing unsuitable for teens, but Takashimas adult comics are collected in the 30-page extra ebook Grace & Miki After School, a cartoony romp about a Japanese and American girl dating in New York and their imaginative sex life.
Jason Thompson

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THE BEST MANGA, 2013

SPECIAL FEATURES DIGITAL MANGA

The Otaku USA Ninja Consultant compares two digital manga magazines, Shonen Jump Alpha and ComicLoud.

Shonen Jump Alpha (Viz)

Even though I own every issue of Shojo Beat published in America, for some reason, I was never an American Shonen Jump subscriber. Nevertheless, I am a Shonen Jump girl at heart. I love the popular Jump titles like One Piece, Naruto, and Hikaru No Go, although admittedly I was a Jump anime fan before I read Jump manga. Since I was typically following the anime of my favorite series, Ive never been one of those people pirating the latest chapters online. I like the idea of Shonen Jump Alpha, and saw the need for a legit day-and-date publication years ago (when I had to stop coworkers from spoiling Naruto each week), but I never thought it would actually happen. When it did, in 2012, I had mixed reactions. Is it too little too late, in this post-manga-bubble world? What about those kids who used to read the print magazine in libraries, now that English Jump is digital-only? And what titles are in Alpha anyway? Im thrilled to read Cross Manage, the first lacrosse manga to be translated into English. You read that right, theres more than one lacrosse manga series, this is just the first to be translated. I love sports manga, even though Im not a sports fan,

and the more obscure the sport the better. Cross Manage seems fairly straightforward and formulaic as sports titles go, with the added twist that its told from the male coachs perspective as he gets a Bad News Bears girls high school lacrosse team into shape. The art is clean and appealing without being terribly unique. If Cross Manage hits all my good buttons, romantic comedy Nisekoi hits all the bad ones. Nisekoi reads like a shopping list of well-worn romance tropes; Raku is searching for his long-lost childhood girlfriend, and his only clue is a locket to

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which the mystery girl holds the key. (The key and lock thing had me immediately thinking about medieval chastity belts.) Rakus chief romantic interest and key-holder is Chitoge, a girl who love-hates him and happens to be from a rival yakuza family. Instead of reading this, Id rather have you read Kitchen Princess, or even watch Onegai Twins. Yakuza-as-comedy is played off better in Ouran High School Host Club (specifically Episode 22 or Volume 8). Thanks to shojo manga, Im sick of characters who dont know if theyre in love or in hate. To Nisekois credit, if youre new to manga this plot wont be wasted on you. The artwork is clean, although it is neither unique nor memorable. I loved the first three volumes of fantasy-cookingadventure-manga Toriko but stopped buying the books around Volume 5. If it was consistently included in Shonen Jump Alpha Id keep reading Toriko. It wasnt in the two issues I sampled, and I didnt buckle down for the annual fee to find out if its usually in there. I stopped watching Bleach around Episode 60, so it was bizarre to read Chapters 516 and 517 in Alpha. It made me feel ancient when I didnt understand or remember (or care) about all the rules of using ones bankai. A few pages of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal made me feel an order of magnitude older. As with Bleach, I stopped watching Naruto Ship20

puden ages ago. Naruto Chapters 609 and 610 seem downright apocalyptic, as if the series might be wrapping up soon (Kishimoto has hinted at the series ending). I am curious to see how it concludes (if at all). Im bummed that Bakuman isnt in Alpha, since its the only Jump title Ive been rabidly consuming one paper tankobon at a time. Bakuman exposes the very bones of Jump itself, making one hyperaware of which title comes first in the lineup. I wish Alpha was an exact reproduction of the Japanese weekly Jump issue, so I could read more Blue Exorcist, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, all the while dissecting the ratings Bakuman-style. I read Alpha on an iPad 2, my iPhone 5, and in Google Chrome. The Viz manga app doesnt take full advantage of the iPhone 5 screen just yet, and sometimes it would crash rather than go to the next page. It was much easier to read on the iPad in the Kindle app. And so, just as I couldnt really justify subscribing to the print edition of Jump, I cant really justify subscribing to the electronic version either.

ComicLoud (BookLoud)
ComicLoud is clunky and expensive compared to Shonen Jump Alpha. At $4.99 per issue to Jumps $1 to sample issues (or $25.99 annual fee), it hardly

DIGITAL MANGA

seems worth the expense, as less than half the titles are worth reading. Ive been waiting for years to read Ippongi Bangs comics. Diary of a Manga Artist has some practical day-to-day mangaka stories with the occasional offtopic rant, all drawn in a charming, relatively oldschool chibi style. Id pay $5 to read Bangs work, but $5 per chapter is steep. Shintaro Kago is the other artist-worth-reading in ComicLoud. His weird experimental comics are reminiscent of Usamaru Furuyas Short Cuts. Rather than an ongoing story, each chapter is a short work, mostly grotesque stories about hospitals and geriatric care, as experienced by a homecare nurse. In one issue, geriatric delinquency leads to the invention of a machine that forces cops to look the other way. In an earlier single-page comic, people are given a lifetimes worth of toilet paper at birth. Then theres Nobunaga Girl, which is easily one of the top five worst manga Ive ever read (a distinction shared by titles such as Vermonia and Laddertop). Taro Matsumoto can draw neither characters nor backgrounds. The writing is terrible, too; one of

Oda Nobunagas servants is reincarnated as a modern school girl with a lame bio loader weapon. Quadrifoglio 2 asks the question, What if Initial Ds Shuuichi Shigeno could draw girls in addition to cars? Im not an Initial D fan, but Quadrifoglio 2 is so weak as to make Initial D look like a masterpiece. Meanwhile, if you like stories about scientists working on fightin mutants in experimental facilities, your time might be better spent watching Zetman or Towanoquon than reading X Hunter Ray. Id complain about the art, but Nobunaga Girl sets the bar so low that its hard to object. Early issues of ComicLoud suffer from cloudy pixelation fragments, but later issues seem to have solved that problem. Most pages appeared too small to read on my iPhone 5, and were also a bit small on the iPad 2, making me wonder what they were sized for in the first place. Any time you zoom in to a page you have to X it out to turn to the next page, which is both counterintuitive and unnecessary (in Shonen Jump Alpha, anyway). If ComicLoud acquired one more worthwhile title it may someday justify the cost.
Erin Finnegan

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THE BEST MANGA, 2013

SPECIAL FEATURES Return of the Henshin Hero

Shotaro Ishinomori (1938-1998) hasnt exactly gotten the love he deserves in America. An assistant of Osamu Tezuka, Ishinomori created such classics as Cyborg 009 (the first Japanese superhero team) and the infamous Japan Inc.: Introduction to Japanese Economics, jump-started both the Super Sentai (the franchise that served as the basis for Power Rangers) and Kamen Rider series, drew the Nintendo Power Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past comic, and is the current record holder for most comics published by one author. But secretly, 2012 was the Year of Ishinomori. I say secretly because nobody exactly caught on to what was going on until the home stretch, but seriously, look at what happened: characters from his TV shows like Space Ironmen Kyodain, Inazuman, and Akumaizer 3 were reimagined for not one but TWO Kamen Rider movies, the CG animated film Re:Cyborg 009 hit theaters, and the piece du resistance: Comixology unleashed a portion of Ishinomoris manga in English! All previously untranslated (or, like Cyborg 009, out of print), Inazuman, Skullman, Kamen Rider,

Kikaider, and Cyborg 009 are now available for purchase for iOS and Android devices! Im still somewhat in denial that this actually happened. Each of the titles is more than definitely worth your time and money, not only because theyre all wall-to-wall action, but also for Ishinomoris brand of storytelling. There are moments where its ham-fisted with camp but there are also moments that will bring you to tears. Throughout the series, you can see Ishinomoris beliefs and concerns about mankinds future, the dangers and promise of progress and even what he feels it means to grow up into an adult. Here, let me show you...

Kamen Rider
Contrary to popular belief, Shotaro Ishinomoris Kamen Rider manga wasnt the source material for the legendary 1971 TV series, it was a tie-in. And out of all the tie-in manga that were made for the original series, its Ishinomoris that is the most iconic. After all, it was the basis for 2005s Kamen Rider THE FIRST and its sequel, one of the monsters in Kamen Rider Agito was made as homage, and (regrettably), it was referenced in last years Kamen Rider x Super Sentai: Super Hero Wars. At four volumes (though Comixology is releasing it in three), it doesnt just retell the show, it stands on its own as a great series and an example of Ishinomori at his best. The backstory has become a tokusatsu (Japanese special-effects shows) staple: Shocker, an evil organization set to rule the world with its army of cyborgs, kidnaps motorcycle racer and biochemist Takeshi Hongo. Against his will, he is surgically altered to become one of the Shocker elite, but before his memories are erased he is saved by his old mentor, Dr. Midorikawa. After narrowly escaping Shockers base, our hero dons the outfit stashed inside the Cyclone motorcycle and declares war on the organization as Kamen Rider! Whats great about the manga in comparison to

A// -0%+)5 > ISHIMORI PROD CTION INC.

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its live-action counterpart is that there are no limits to the creativity. Its not trapped by the special effects limitations of the time that made the show laughable; the monsters are more menacing, the fights considerably more violent with limbs being ripped off, and the story takes a much darker and more adult tone, matching that of the first few episodes of the TV series. The most impressive feat though is how it handled one of the major changeups of the series, namely the replacement of Hongo with Hayato Ichimonji, the character soon to be known as Kamen Rider 2. In real life, Hiroshi Fujioka, the actor who played Hongo, shattered his leg during a motorcycle stunt. Instead of just ending the show, the Powers That Be managed to use it as an excuse to revamp the show, bringing in a new actor to be another cyborg like him that Hongo had rescued. (In the actual show, the reveal takes all of 45 seconds.) Since the manga ran alongside the TV series, the story in Ishinomoris manga ended up being affected as well. While other, later tie-ins retconned that Hayato was the main Rider all along, Ishinomori took this development and ran with it. The passing of the flame from Hongo to Ichimonji serves as the core of one of the most graphic, dramatic, and suspenseful moments in the entire series. I wont spoil it but said scene was so powerful that it was adapted by the live-action TV series into a multi-episode arc! Truly, this is one of my favorite works by Ishinomori and I cannot recommend it enough.

Skullman
Skullmans exposure to the West is somewhat jumbled. We first got the remake/sequel manga by Kazuhiko Shimamoto via Tokyopop (now, of course, out of print), then the anime from FUNimation and all of this before the actual one-shot manga from Comixology. In a way Im not bothered by the turnout. Because, though it is compelling, Skullman is unfortunately one of the weaker offerings by Ishinomori. Skullman was the original idea for the show that
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eventually became Kamen Rider. However, it was deemed too dark and gruesome for kids and didnt make the cut. That didnt stop the the concept from being turned into a one-shot comic (it actually beat Kamen Rider to the punch, being published two years before its broadcast). Billed as a Romanesque Horror Story, the one-shot revolves around Skullman and his shape-changing ally, Garo. As it turns out, the two have been on a mass-murder spree across Japan, with the police unable to stop them. However, as youd expect, theres more to these murders than meets the eye, the victims being part of a large conspiracyone that our hero is determined to reveal by any means necessary. Its exciting, violent, and otherwise fantastic, but the weakness of Skullman? It ends abruptly. After 90 or so pages of buildup, it hits you with a hefty amount of exposition AND a tragic ending. Sure, its

RETURN OF THE HENSHIN HERO

a way to leave you wanting more, but not when theres a snowballs chance in an inferno of a continuation. Shimamotos follow-up picks up the slack in this case, but that doesnt stop this incarnation of Skullman from ultimately being underwhelming.

Inazuman
Inazuman is a rare case of the manga tie-in outdoing the source material. Dont get me wrong, the TV series of Inazuman is wild, colorful, and action-packed with one of the best flying cars ever (a sentient flying hot-rod that shoots missiles out of its mouth), but the manga is a different kind of monster. Its more fleshed out with a stronger storyline and characters, and deeper roots in science fiction. Saburo Kazeta is a teen with wasted potential. He aces all of his tests but does none of the homework, lounging around and being a complete hornball to his girlfriend. All that changes when he receives a telepathic message with one word: Chrysalis. The message comes from the leader of the Youth League, a team of youngsters with psychic powers who are fighting a secret war. They persuade Saburo to join their fight against the evil Banba and his evil psychic army. With their help, he is able to manifest his psychic abilities, becoming the human chrysalis, Sanagiman and his ultimate form, the lightningcharged Inazuman! While there are monsters and psychic manifestations, most of the action in the Inazuman manga is human-on-human ESP battles. But I honestly find myself thinking of this manga as the Japanese version of the British sci-fi series The Tomorrow People. Think about it: both are centered around young psychics who attempt to rally their peers together to protect the world. Also, both shows have reasons for their heroes being so young: their psychic powers develop and manifest more naturally during puberty. However, the Youth Leagues very existence is more grounded in Ishinomoris own beliefs. (At one point, he actually stops the story to spell them out for you!) At the time, he believed that mankind was reaching a dead-end due to corruption and selfish greed, and that parapsychological

research was the way of the future. So yes, its a case of Children Are The Future, but its an instance where it actually makes sense: as Ishinomori would put it, since theyre still children, they havent been corrupted yet by the cruelty of the world. Face it, its definitely better logic than the live-actions Its a kids show, thats why! Really, its as if Ishinomori aimed to do to Inazuman what he did with Kamen Riders adaptation and break the dial. If that was the case then all I can say is mission accomplished.

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Kikaider
Remember Kikaider: The Animation? It was one of the more memorable entries in the early years of Adult Swim, adapting Shotaro Ishinomoris manga tie-in of the tokusatsu series Android Kikaider. When news of it first came out, a portion of the oldschool live-action Kikaider fans werent entirely thrilled with it, labeling it too dark and melodramatic. Thing is, though, the majority of people who complained probably didnt read the source material or they would have called the anime tame. Compared to other Ishinomori shows like Kamen Rider, Kikaider goes down a different, darker road. After an explosion in the laboratory of Dr. Komyoji, Jiro, a young man wearing a guitar on his back, suddenly wakes up in the woods. With no idea who or what he is, hes soon forced to fight the first of the many androids from the DARK organization, led by the twisted Professor Gill. Jiro discovers that he has the ability to transform, becoming his true mechanical form, Kikaider, to protect Komyojis children, Mitsuko and Masaru. Hes nearly indestructible, save for one critical weakness: upon hearing the sound of Gills flute, Jiro goes mad, his conscience circuit working overtime to ensure he doesnt fall back into DARKs clutches. Jiro runs away from the Komyojis, believing Mitsuko wants to destroy him; in reality, she wants to finish his circuitry and make him complete! Thus begins Jiros journey as he not only fights against the forces of DARK who want him to return, but also to discover himself. Ive always loved the twist of the Kikaider manga that its Jiro on the run; its a stark difference from the live-action series where the Komyoji children spend every episode lamenting and trying to find their amnesiac father. At the same time, its a fresh means of exposition and also shows Jiros development. You get plenty of intense battles between him and the other DARK androids but you also get powerful character moments. At times, though, Kikaider walks a fine line between drama and ridiculousness.

Youll get moments expounding the human condition, but youll also get an android delivering a poignant monologue while dressed as Count Dracula. Also, Giant Robot Dinosaurs In New Yorkneed I say more? But above all else, the finale of Kikaider (which, as of this writing, has yet to be released in English) is what elevates this manga to Classic status. (Note that the Comixology Kikaider is the classic one, not the modern remake Kikaider Code 02 released by CMX.) The most bittersweet yet amazing thing Ishinomori has ever written, he lays out his response to the mangas thesis: What does it really take to be truly human? Throughout the manga, were given constant throwbacks to the fairy tale of Pinocchio, the most blatant being the name of the conscience circuit, Jiminy, named after Pinocchios own conscience, Jiminy Cricket. Like Pinocchio, Jiro tries ever harder to become human. To some extent (trying to avoid spoilers), he succeeds but Ishinomoris solution is both challenging and bittersweet.
Mike Dent

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