Scanlation Get: Mazinger Z

So, this year at Otakon I ran a panel on the man himself Go Nagai. In doing so, I wanted to catch up on some of his anime and manga works. I managed to watch a ton of (pretty terrible) anime adaptations of his work, but didn’t get around to much manga. I started and recently finished Mazinger Z though. This ending up being pretty interesting because while I had known of Mazinger Z the only related series I had seen was Mazinkaiser and Mazinkaiser SKL. So, I went into this title pretty fresh.

Kouji Kabuto and his younger brother are living with their genius scientist Grandfather after their parents died in a lab accident. Over all they are still an upbeat family living a good simple life. One day Kouji on the way to school experiences a major earthquake. He hurries home to see if his elderly Grandfather is alright. What he finds is a giant hole in the garden which has opened up a path to his Grandfather’s secret lab. Here he finds is the giant robot Mazinger Z and his dying Grandfather after some rubble crushed him. Right before he dies Gramps lays some heavy shit on Kouji that Mazinger is his and can be use to “save the earth or destroy it” it’s up to Kouji to decide.

Shortly there afterwards Kouji takes Mazinger Z out, only to find he can’t control it and it goes on a rampage. During this he has a run in with another piloted robot, Aphrodite A, created by Professor Yumi and piloted by his daughter Sayaka. After a short fight Kouji gets things under control and just in time when a third robot shows up and starts attacking the city. Kouji and Sayaka join forces to fight the evil Dr. Hell and his mechanical beasts.

Mazinger Z moves at a breakneck speed. Events tend to just roll right into another. I really enjoyed that aspect even if it just seems that sometimes I just had to accept stuff. Boss has a robot now? Sure why not?

The villains in this were a lot of fun too. Dr. Hell himself comes off kind of generic, but his henchmen are all kinds of crazy. Baron Ashura is (in the most literal sense) half man and half woman. There was back and forth panels as the female and male side exchanged dialogue. It’s a lot of fun, though I could have passed on the bizarro shower scene at one point. Was that supposed to be sexy or funny (either way let me stab myself in the eyes)? Count Brocken is also another winner. A headless man in Germen military gear who often carries around his head (but it can float too!) often flies in on some sort of hover pad and threatens Kouji. The levels of ridiculousness of this can be mind blowing, watch out!

This title was just a lot of fun to read. It was said Go Nagai wrote this to blow off some steam after working on Devilman and you can tell he is writing to have a good time. I really liked that, I could just feel fun coming off of the pages. I also enjoyed a lot of small things like the fact Kouji and Sayaka just like each other and there isn’t any tsundere bull. I also like that Sayaka is a strong brave female character, it was a shame though that she ended up being mostly useless.

My only complaint really is after what is the “ending” to the series there is a number of short one off stories. The ending has been a really intense point. I think leaving off with these short stories really hurt the impact of the ending.

In terms of fan service and gore Mazinger Z comes out like a baby kitten compared to a lot of other Go Nagai works. There are bits where Kouji or Boss get a look at a naked woman but it never really goes past that to the whole other level some of his titles go (I’m looking at you Cutey Honey and that statue licking scene!). There is some violence but for the most part it’s pretty mild and doesn’t focus much on it.

As in my past reviews on Go Nagai the art is well very Go Nagai. I’m starting to not notice how awkward the art is any more. Though man, the pilot outfits sure are freaking goofy looking. Over all, I’d say the art was better than Cutey Honey’s but had less interesting panel layout then Devilman.

This is a summer popcorn flick of manga, it’s a lot of fun and full of action but, nothing to deep going on. I do recommend it though if you like Go Nagai’s other works, or if you are just looking for something fun to read.

Scanlation Get: Tantei Gakuen Q

Okay, I am all moved, though I still have a ton of boxes to unpack.  Which like 90% of them are manga.  I was hoping in the new place I'd be able to fit in more book shelves. I under estimated just how much furniture I have though (also baseboard heating is a cock blocker).  Doh!  Anyone need a microwave cart?  Maybe I can fit a bookshelf in the pantry...

This week's title is in one of my favorite genres, mystery.  It is something I didn't realize I liked so much until a few years ago when I watched the Agatha Christie anime. I was then like hot damn, now that I think about it I really like mystery.  When it comes to mystery and manga/anime it tends to be a lot of teen boys, closed room, and being trapped on islands.  There is a lot of precedents for this, Yoshihiro Tatsumi (A Drifting Life) was doing a lot of mystery one-shots,  in the 1950's, of this type before getting gekiga rolling.  It can get a bit old but in short bursts I find this style of mystery wonderfully enjoyable. I could wax on more about Japan and mystery manga (I ran a mystery manga panel at Otakon and Anime Boston one year...) but I'll stop and talk about this week's title.

Which is Tantei Gakuen Q (Detective Academy Q) by Seimaru Amagi and Fumiya Satou.  It is one of these formulaic mystery manga like Detective Conan or Kindaichi Case Files.  Though it has a bit of a twist, it's about a group of students going to detective school.  Not just any group but the top class at Dan Detective School known as class Q.  It is kind of like Scooby-doo without the dog and every one has even more of shtick.  Lets's see... super computer geek?  Check! A guy who is a martial artist and has good intuition? Check! The mysterious guy who is up to something? Check!  A cute girl with a photographic memory? Check! And a main character who is just good at everything but seems like a total dope?  Oh so check!  They never really are more then the shtick but they still comprise a fun group of characters and their strengths and weaknesses are played into the plot pretty well.  It being more about a group of people rather then a single person helps to mix it up a bit and helps build a story where a bunch of different tactics are used to solve a case. The school angle is also played in with a rivalry with another class and working to keep their spots in class Q.  It is a nice added element that helps break of the monotony that some of these titles fall into.

Titles like Conan, Kindaichi, even Murder She Wrote fall into an annoying mystery trap them selves. Who would want to meet these people?  Wherever they show up people die!  Poor Jessica Fletcher imagine all the death she must have seen her lifetime!  With Tantei Gakuen Q being a detective class it gives them a legit reason to investigate a murder, often there isn't even a murder!  Amazing!  It might just be a set up for a class test or they might just be studying a closed room crime or such.  They manage to mix up the different story arcs pretty well, which helps to keep it fresh.

The art is very anime esque, strong lines, and not to much screen tone.  It's a pleasant enough style but I don't think it will wow anyone but it is surly more well drawn then a lot of stuff out there.  Interestingly the artist Fumiya Satou is the same artist for  Kindaichi Case Files.  If you have read Kindaichi it looks almost the hundred percent the same. (Those would be two titles that would make for a good cross over).

This isn't a title that will win over new converts to the mystery genre but if you already like Kindaichi, Conan, or even  Agatha Christie it's worth a look at.  Two interesting tidbits:  The first is when my friend was living in Japan a few years ago he said the anime adaptation of this was airing and that it was huge.  It was everywhere and the middle school kids he was teaching were talking about it all the time.  The second is that apparently Seimaru Amagi  is the pen name of Yuya Aoki who wrote Get Backers.  Uh, WTF?!...Brainsplosion!

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

Review: Baron Gong Battle Volumes 1-3

So, I won some manga from the 365 Days of Manga contest over at Suduvu.com so I thought I would actually review them for my blog. Word of warning, I asked from the strangest/weirdest stuff that Jason Thompson had so a lot of it is pretty "special". I received three volumes of Baron Gong Battle, and volumes of Central City, Orochi Blood, and Tokyo Zombie (which I already own, lols).  If you post an image of yourself with the manga you can get five more.  So here I am with the manga I won.

My first review is of the first three volumes of Baron Gong Battle. Now, I prefer to review series as a whole, but this is all I have so it will have to do. Thiss series has nine volumes total which it seems only the first six came out in English and it's been in limbo since 2005 or 2006. Though after after reading the first part I highly doubt that this title will take any interesting surprises to invalidate my review.

So I can basically sum this title up as simply terrible, I mean really terrible. Just about everything in it from the writing to the art is just a fucking travesty. Honestly, what this title has going for it is that it is so bad and so ridiculous. Did I mention the mangaka was the same guy who did the Battle Royale manga? (Yeah, that guy...) Honestly it's even hard to tell if the author knew it was so ludicrous. In some of the more comical moments it seems the author might have a clear understanding of the crazy exploitative crap that's being written and having fun with it. There are other moments that are told in such a deadpan manner, it is hard to imagine the author being anything but the utmost serious.

So, I am going to start with the art. The art is so offensive to the senses, that it would be the first thing anyone would notice about the title. Now I am pretty torn about the art so I need to talk about two different and distinct aspects of it, one the the drawing skill and two the character designs.

I cannot deny Taguchi can draw and draw pretty well at that. Everything has a lot of detail, in fact in some places it has a pretty absurd about of detail. Which I love, I really enjoy the sort of hyper realism you see in the works of Ryoichi Ikegami, who did the art for Crying Freeman, and Sanctuary. I can see some of that in Taguchi's work, high detail with screen tone done very effectively, a lot of cross hatching, and a fairly good design sense when it comes to panel placement. In fact if it wasn't for the fact everything collapses with the character design, I'd really like the art.

Ah, the character design... What a cluster fuck of terribleness. It's like Taguchi took everything in about terrible character design, and took it to heart as his style. I'm only going to talk the main character Baron Gong, otherwise this would never end.

It's like Taguchi thought "What could make this character as cool as possible? A scar! Well, if one is cool then five is totally bad ass. It would be even more cool if they were all on his face!"

The placements of the scars doesn't really make sense. They don't look like they were cause by fighting but placed on purpose. Which would mean that the Baron himself would have had to done it or at some point someone did it to him, either of those choices don't make any sense in the realm of the story. These scars are also never talked about either, they are just their for design effect. In this case the phrase less is more would have helped out a lot.

Then the hair, oh God the hair! Again this is an anime combo (to the max) of a whole bunch of things that might (keyword "might") be cool on their own and combining them into a travisty of a hairdo. Baron's hair looks like a cockroach who watched Dragon Ball Z hair and never left the 80's with a mullet. Taguchi, please pick just one! Don't combine them all into one über hairstyle! It's not cool, really! In the end every character ends up being so over the top on anime design tropes they just end up being really fucking ugly but not in some endearing way but grotesque way that leaves you with an uncomfortable feeling.

This causes another problem the background art with its hyper realism and the characters with outrageous anime character design cause a time distortion of reality giving readers cerebral hemorrhaging. Okay, maybe it won't cause your brain to bleed but it comes damn close to doing so. They just don't work together.

The story its self is a mess of the most exploitative exploitation film, and the most inexplicable, trope filled sci-fi story in existence. Our hero the Baron (Is he a Baron or is Baron his first name? ARGH! Brain hemorrhaging...) is after ancient monsters known as Neo Humes. Why are they called Neo Humes, you ask? The Baron came up with it himself, it is short for New Humans. (Yep, that's right...moving on now...) A female Neo Hume have been recently re-found and experimented on. Her children now want to take over they world as they need to eat regular old humans so they can sustain their molecular structure or some crap. They also can't have children they melt into piles of goop shortly after birth, but that doesn't stop the Neo Humes from trying really hard (and I mean really hard).

Baron gets involved in all this because one of the Neo Humes killed his girlfriend. After which there is an awesomely absurd scene of Baron and the head of his somehow still living girlfriend having a conversion just before she passes away. This all leads to the fact pretty much nothing in this manga makes a drop of sense when it comes to logic. Each of the story arcs are basically monster of the week crap. Why are these Neo Humes attacking Baron one at a time though? The story states there are something like 50 or so of them, why don't they attack all at once? Why didn't they just attack some where else in the world all at once and take it over and move out from there? They are super powerful beings, that easily could. Of course! They after Baron's DNA, why you ask? After having his arm ripped off he replaces it with the arm of a Neo Hume he killed. (Really, I do that every Tuesday.) So, some how his DNA must be compatible with theirs any maybe they could make non-goo pile babies with him.

For the three volumes I read things pretty much goes on like that. A monster shows up, Baron kicks its ass in some over the top super macho way. I couldn't stop reading it though. I just had to see what was the next completely fucked up thing would happen next. Such as a chase scene that had Baron launch a Mini Copper into an elevator to make it to the top of a sky scraper. So as much as I hated a lot of what makes up this manga it's so weird and exploitative I really did enjoy it. I can't say most people would like it, but if you enjoy more of the insane exploitative manga titles like Wounded Man this is worth a look though.

Final Verdict: Brain Explosion