Scanlation Get: Shin Devilman

So, this week is another Go Nagai title, Shin Devilman! (It was what I was “feeling” the most this week). So Shin Devilman is like Doctor Who if the Doctor and his companion where both male, and kind of gay. Say, if Captain Jack and Ten went on adventures without any female companions (I know there are fan girls shipping that!). Also if everything that went wrong in history was because of demons instead of aliens.

This is a odd-ball volume from all angles. First of all this came out after the original Devilman was done, so you would think it to be a sequel. But no, it is a story that gets retconned (long before there was even a term for it) into the original series. Oddly, though this volume would not only ruin the pacing in the original but also the ending. This title really kind of awkward and where I thought the original Devilman series was kind of a pulp masterpiece this is just kind of crap. Really amusing crap, but crap none the less.

Akria and Ryo manage to some how to travel back in time (really it's not explained) it just happens. Each chapter focuses on someone famous from a different time period. In one it's a young Hitler; another it's Joan of Arc on trial by demons; and in yet another it's George Armstrong Custer just being a bastard. There is a chapter devoted to Versailles and Marie Antoinette which seems like it must have been done only because Rose of Versailles was popular at the time. This title is almost like those PSA's at the end of G.I. Joe. We showed you something violent so here is something educational to make up for it!

As I mentioned this volume is pretty...uh gay. I love my yaoi but Devilman is not where I am expecting any “extra special” boy bonding. It never goes “there” but there are a few scenes which have the boys in oddly suggestive positions. If this were done today I would say it was done for utter fan girl fodder. This is from the 70's though, so I am left really scratching my head. I know part of this volume is to have a chance to expand the boys friendship and have them bond more. (In the original series you don't know all the much about their friendship before story starts.) Expanding their friendship would ideally give the ending more impact, but really it just makes this volume oddly uncomfortable.

The art is on par with the original Devilman so if you hated that, you are going to hate this also. Everyone is still drawn very awkwardly in typical Go Nagai fashion (which I kind of love). I think it has a lot of great and well design page layouts with panels that are very dynamic and more avant-garde then you see in titles today.

This is such a peculiar title, it's like a good bad movie. You know what you are watching is bad but you can't help but be entertained by it. As with anything Go Nagai it isn't for everyone but if you like his stuff it is worth checking out.

Scanlation Get: Devilman

Somehow up until this point I haven't written anything about Go Nagai. I must rectify this issue. If you don't know who Go Nagai he is a mangaka known for Getter Robo, Cutie Honey, Mazinger Z, and a ton of other titles including today's Deviman. He is also responsible for a lot of violence and boobies in anime an manga.

Devilman is considered one of his really enduring classic titles. There have been several anime adaptations, a (terrible) live-action movie, even his own re-imagining in Devilman Lady (which somehow went on way longer then the original Devilman manga did). Devilman is a pretty simple story that is wonderfully creepy and cracktastic at the same time. It's also full of important moral lessons and WTF?! plot twists.

Our hero is Akria a normal dude who is kind of a pussy so much so that when he and his pseudo-girlfriend Miki are corner by bullies all he tries to do is walk away. Miki ends up getting in a fight with them! Only they get a hold of her with the intent to rape her! Akria poorly tries to talk his way out of it but it isn't until his friend Ryo shows up with a shotgun do the bullies leave.

Then Ryo briskly rushes off with Akria to his home telling him his life maybe in danger and that his father has been taken over by demons. Ryo then tells him about an ancient and frighting race of demons that have come back from pre-history to destroy humanity. Only one thing can stop it, Devilman! A man and a demon combined but still retaining the human heart. Ryo chooses Akria for this, but of course Akria refuses being a chicken. It is only after they are attacked by demons that Akria goes for it and apparently the only way to do this is to have an orgy?! Sure, why not. During which most of the participants get killed and Akria joins with a demon to become Devilman (and much less of a pussy, for realz).

From here the story takes a lot of interesting twist and turns as demons start to outright attack humanity and we fine there are others who ended up like Akria as Devilmen. It also has a twist ended that could give CLAMP and M. Knight Shyamalan explosive diarrhea. Honestly I can't decide if the twist ending is genius or terribly stupid. I do remember it getting an audible reaction out of me though, which I give any manga points for.

Now, I really love the art in this title. I did from the first moment I saw it. For most though the super seventies, and really wonky human forms are going to be a turn off. Someone once described Go Nagai's art like fan art, which I can see. It has a very rough sketchy line look, plus all the humans have really odd proportions that just don't seem right. For those who give it a chance though, it can really grow on you, and has a lot of charm.

What I do think is great about the art in Devilman (even over a lot of other Go Nagai titles) is the panel work. It's fucking fabulous and moody. When everyday things are going on the panels are very normal. When stranger and weirder things go on the panels getting stranger and weirder. Lots of black negative space is used, extreme close ups of eyes (ha, take that Lost!), and really cinematic spreads. In terms of layout and panel design this is one of my favorite titles. I think it does a really interesting job.

Overall Devilman is a really interesting title for several reasons, as a very influence title that is still popular in Japan today, as one of great works of Go Nagai, as a title that deals with moral dilemmas as an integral part of the plot, and it is a damn fun title to read. My advice, give it a try, it's a fun ride.

Review: Tokyo Zombie

Now, it is time for the last review for my first batch of manga winnings from the 365 Days of Manga contest. This is a title I already owned called Tokyo Zombie. Since I already own this, you can take that as a good indicator that I like it, and I do! Out of titles I have reviewed so far from the contest I think by far this is the strangest of them. Tokyo Zombie is a single volume story by Yusaku Hanakuma, that is both wacky and oddly thought provoking.

The plot is very much molded after classic zombie movie tropes. This isn't really a bad thing, you never really get the unexpected, but what you do get though is very fulfilling. What sets this title apart from other zombie stories is the basic premise. The source of the zombies in this tale is a mountain of trash known as “Dark Fuji”. At first people are just dumping old trash can't get rid of else where (Japan has some pretty strict rules on how, when, and what kinds of trash can be thrown out.) Eventually, corpses start to get dumped here. Sometimes people even get buried alive. In a rather funny and disturbing scene a young couple bury the husband's nagging mother alive. Only for the wife to kick the decrepit woman's still complaining head off like a soccer ball. Dark Fuji is like scab covering a festering wound before it pops. Once popped, the dead rise from Dark Fuji and run rampant in Japan.

I can't really say much about what goes on in this manga in context without spoiling it. So, I'll give you some of out of context ridiculousness; zombie fellatio; street punks punked by an old man; random casual sex; jujitsu; a supremely gaudy big rig; a dog; zombie cage fight; a pig named Sayaka; pig surfing; and a pig revolt.

This is a really over the top title, it knows it, and just rolls with it. I've watched and read a decent amount of Zombie movies and comics, so I can' help but see some parallels from other titles. What is interesting though is Tokyo Zombie is originally from 1999, which predates the two movies I would strongly compare it to. It is a zombie comedy like Shaun of the Dead, and has elements seen in Land of the Dead, but Tokyo Zombie came before both of those titles! So, I have to give credit there is a lot of creativity in this title.

Also, like any good zombie movie Tokyo Zombie is more then what it seems. It contains a lot of social commentary within. Such as burying people in Dark Fuji like old trash that is in the way. In the first chapter there are several scenes that present problems going on in modern Japanese society. In one street punks are accosting an old man. In another there is a very odd presentation of a group having casual sex, where several men have sex with a school girl laying limp like a blow up doll. There is also a part where some cruel guards are “pig surfing” which could be representative of people living well of the backs of the lower classes...at least I think so. One of the last lines in the book is “It probably ain't just Japan that's got a Dark Fuji” a really obvious statement that every society and culture has problems. Over all this title is really oddly symbolic about the ills of modern society. It does all these undertones well and is never in your face about it.

The art in Tokyo Zombie is pretty bizarre also. It looks like it was done in ball point pen (it may have in fact have been). It seems like something that would have been done by that strange guy everyone knew in high school who drew messed up crap while bored in class. There is a nice dichotomy between the art being rough and the panel layout being rather simplistic. In fact, many of the pages use the same handful of panel layouts over and over again. It works to make this rough art style be told more clearly. The art is both silly and gritty at the same time and it adds a strange, and odd discomfort to the title. To me this art style works much better, in the context of Tokyo Zombie, then any of the “normal” manga/anime styles. The more typical style would have seemed really out of place.

Over all Tokyo Zombie is a great fun title. If you are looking for an alternative manga I highly recommend this title. I think it is a great example of alternative comics and is far more approachable then many. On a similar note if you like zombie stories and are looking for something fun and wacky but still a great example of the genre this is a great read. I do think this title stands well on it's own and is worth a read by everyone, but I understand not everyone will like it.

Final Verdict: Kick-ass

Review: Orochi Blood

My next entry of my 365 Days of Manga winnings is the manga Orochi: Blood. Which is special... Why, you ask? Because I honestly liked this one. This is an interesting little title, as far as I can tell it was Kazuo Umezu's first work to be published in English. Like some other Viz titles at the time though, only some of manga was ever publish. It works out well enough though, Blood is a self contained story, so the reader is not left hanging. Though after reading it I would really like to read the rest of the series.

Orochi: Blood is a horror story with some fantastical elements in it. It never goes to far though, it felt grounded, and had the right amount of creepy tension. The horror is mostly based around family issues and child abuse. Which makes it sound more like a Lifetime movie. Though this Lifetime movie has an immortal girl watching over the characters to just see what happens next. (Immortal Stalker Girls! Up Next on Lifetime.) This immortal girl is our titular character Orochi, who acts as both a character and seemingly omnipresent narrator. She sneaks in and around the dark mansion of a well-to-do family. Orochi watches as the Mother mentally and physically abuses her youngest daughter either for not living up to family standards, or her older sister. At first it seems the sisters have a wonderful relationship and that what is keeping them going, but as the story goes on the things they both do seem more suspicious. Part way though the story the plot curves and Orochi turns from being the narrator to a character with a role to play.

By the second half of the story the younger sister is forced move far away. At some point Orochi goes to check on her and during this time saves her life but at a price. It seems Orochi must take long bouts of sleep every hundred years to continue to be immortal and young. The shock from saving the younger sister forces her to sleep early. She wakes up to find herself in the body of a different young woman (I'd insert a Lost Highway joke if I had one) who as it happens to be just adopted into the same family she had been watching over previously. It is a cheap plot device but it works as it doesn't seem out of place in the context of the story. The sisters are much older now, the eldest is bed ridden with a heart problem, and the younger sister now runs the home. For a time everything seems peaches and cream, but that is soon crushed. The younger sister repeats the cycle of abuse and begins to put Orochi though all sorts of torture. Orochi and the older sister being to bond heavily but this leads to the downfall of everything. This is where we learn that Orochi really wasn't an omnipresent narrator, as one might have though. Leading the reader to believe they might have been missing part of the story the whole time.

This story really sent home the messages that abuse only begets more abuse, and that not everyone is what they seem to be. In the end it might all still sound a bit Lifetime-ish but the story really had a Twilight Zone feel to it. What helps to make this manga creepy though is the art.

The art in this is wonderfully creepy. If you have seen the works of Junji Ito, the art has very similar style. Though Umezu was probably writing horror long before Ito was even a spiral in his mummy's tummy. In fact it's pretty easy to see that Umezu had to have been a huge influence on Ito. Though the art in Orochi: Blood never reaches the grotesque level that some Ito comics reach.

In terms of the story telling, the art, is very effective. Much of the story takes place in a large western styled mansion but the art makes great use of chiaroscuro. Many of the scenes are done in such a way that only part of it is lighted. While, often large, amounts of it remain dark or blacked out. I could feel the claustrophobic feel of being trapped. Which magnificently reflected what was going on in the story very well. The comic felt very Baroque in style, I could differently see the influence.

The second half half the comic didn't seem as dark in terms of layout. The layouts do make significant change though. Early on in the story as we learn the young sisters plight there is never more then four panels to a page. Once certain events unfold you start to get pages with ten or even more panels. Giving the impression we are only seeing small parts of the whole picture. I really felt this title made great use of layout and panel as part of the story telling experience.

I really liked this manga, it has made me much more interested in reading Umezu's other works. I couldn't recommend Orochi to everyone. Though if you like the Japanese slow burn style of horror or the Twilight Zone it is very worth a read. Also if you are a fan of Junji Ito it should be a must read just to see the influences.

Final Verdict: Spiral Plus