Maoh: Juvenile Remix 1

Kotaro Isaka / Megumi Osuga – Viz – 2010 – 10 volumes

I think the record will show that I am a big fan of demons. When it’s right there in the title, especially in a general-interest Shounen Sunday series, it’s hard for me to pass up. Granted, the premise sounded like it could go either way (leader of a group of vigilantes has unclear motives, main character can make others vocalize his thoughts), but demons always swing my opinion in favor of a series.

So far, this is… strange. A bit noir-ish, and very mysterious. The main character, Ando, has been able to do the ventriloquist thing with people since he was young. He was bullied a lot for claiming he could, and also for being a bit of a weirdo (he tends to slip into “thinking” moods, where he ponders strange subjects very intently). This turned him a bit shy around people, so he tends to hold back whenever he sees bullying situations or other crimes being committed, knowing in his heart that the nail that sticks out gets hammered back down due to all his past teasing.

He then starts to see a man named Inukai around. Inukai does stand up to bullying, and seems to have the nerve to stare said bullies down. Impressed by Inukai, but unsure of his own ability to stand up, Ando follows Inukai to an imminent revenge beating one day and finds out that the hero has just as much violence in him as the worst 40 bullies put together. Then he’s not so much a hero anymore. Ando still has to face his own cowardice, however, when he keeps getting confronted with situations where he should stand up and doesn’t, or where his opinion that things should stop is irrelevant and not very helpful. His ventriloquism ability only goes so far in the savage situations he is continually confronted with, and it sounds like he doubts the good intentions of Inukai of keeping the city safe. By the end of the volume, Ando is fairly certain that Inukai’s intentions are far more evil than they seem.

It is WEIRD. There is just no other way around that. Bullying is looked at in a slightly less sugar-coated way than you typically find. Inukai’s philosophies about standing up for one’s self and following one’s beliefs are the usual fare, but when the victims are students and the bullies are vicious, we see that no amount of going to parents or teachers, or even standing up to the bullies, will really help things. Even when Ando tries to break away from his role as a bystander, trying to encourage those that are being bullied, he is usually called out on the fact that he isn’t going to help the situation any. The victims seem to find their way to Inukai, who brutally takes revenge. And then said vicious bullies wind up as members of his vigilante group, which is why Ando wonders about the methods.

Bullies aren’t the only victims. A man who has plans to industrialize the town has words with Inukai in a public forum, and the next day allegedly commits suicide.

Aside from sizing up the general creepy vibe in the town, nothing directly happens to Ando or anyone around him, Ando merely acts as our window into the strange goings-on of Inukai’s Grasshopper group. The dark, long stares of a mysterious bystander on the last page of the volume suggests he is about to get directly involved, but it’s still unclear, really, what Grasshopper is trying to achieve. I mean, all their actions do suggest it’s merely a safe neighborhood.

Weird stuff, and a lot more interesting than the plot summary made it sound. I’m also very happy to see that demons are not yet playing a direct part. Actually, the vibes I get from this series are a little Dragon Head-ish, except way less intense to start with. I’m curious to see where this strange mix of elements is going to go from here, and what will happen when the action starts.