Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 28
Posted: June 7, 2011 Filed under: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 3 Comments »Hirohiko Araki – Viz – 2010 – 104+ volumes
This is English volume 16, I just like using the Japanese numbers.
Every year I do the Arakifest on June 7 as a celebration of the amazing coincidence that I share a birthday with one of my favorite artists. Except this year I forgot my own birthday (I suddenly remembered yesterday, and my priority was not letting my license plates expire), so I have no extra content to offer you aside from the review of the final volume of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure part 3.
Which is okay, because honestly, this is way better than anything else I would’ve talked about today.
I read an article in the back of the first Elephantmen graphic novel recently, written by Richard Starkings. He talks a lot about the history of British comics. All of it is interesting, but he talks about Pat Mills and 2000 AD specifically as an inspiration. That it was work like Flesh that made him appreciate comics that are specifically written as fantastic stories for ten-year-old boys. These particular comics have a spectacular, over-the-top hook, and then run with it, but also don’t take themselves too seriously or get bogged down in boring, depressing details. In the case of Flesh, the fantastic hook is that cowboys have come to the cretaceous period and are rounding up dinosaurs to send back to the present in time machines, because the planet is too polluted to raise any other source of meat. In Elephantmen, it’s croc-men fistfighting with hippo-men over ancient artifacts.
In Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, it’s vampires fighting a tough-guy high school student with ghost versions of themselves while stopping time long enough to do hilariously over-the-top things. I’m the biggest fan of well-written action comics with unusual ideas executed with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor. It’s a difficult thing to do, and not even Elephantmen pulls it off very well (every issue is too much like a pity party for that). Flesh does, and well enough to have a British killer animal predecessor (Hook Jaw, about a shark) and a successor (Shako, about a polar bear). Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has always hits these buttons for me, and this final volume just cements its place in my personal comics hall of fame forever.
I can’t talk about this without spoiling it, so I’m going to cut the rest of the review (“review” being relative, because I’m just going to talk about everything and gush embarrassingly). Suffice to say, I could not have been happier with the way things turned out. While the outcome may have been obvious, getting there was one of the most spectacular and unusual rides in comics. I was not disappointed, and I urge any sort of fan of shounen manga to go out and read Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. It’s strange, but you will not be disappointed in the end.
Goong 10
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: Goong Leave a comment »So Hee Park – Yen Press – 2010 – 26+ volumes
this is an omnibus containing vols 11-12
So much back and forth! Shin feels like puking after Chae-Kyung “betrays” him and is cold towards her for an entire volume. Then, Chae-Kyung is the brave one who sets their feud aside in lieu of health concerns, and they are back together, with Chae-Kyung back in Shin’s good graces. It could be argued that Shin was betrayed by Chae-Kyung’s talk of divorce, that he finally learned to love her and his affection was kinda scorned, but still. He was a jerk again, and for an entire volume.
Still lots of drama. Surprise! Shin’s mother is close to giving birth, and Chae-Kyung’s grandfather is on her deathbed. These things can go nowhere good. I did like the way the former event will turn out, but a huge storm is approaching over the latter. I’m a little horrified, actually, because I just want Shin and Chae-Kyung to stop second-guessing one another, and this is going to be the worst for that.
There’s also still Hyo-Rin and Yul to consider. Both still rankle their intended’s opposite, and while this volume does have unpleasant jealous outbursts from both Shin and Chae-Kyung, both are becoming better and better at containing their rage and blowing off jealousy as the silliness it is. In Chae-Kyung’s case, it really does seem as if she has no intention of encouraging Yul. In Shin’s case, he… well, he did love Hyo-Rin, and he does things he shouldn’t, but it still doesn’t seem likely that he will cheat on Chae-Kyung. So there’s that, but it’s infuriating that these issues are still coming up. Hyo-Rin and Yul are positively relentless.
Elsewhere, Shin decides to take being king very seriously, and perhaps that means letting Chae-Kyung go. His father sees this, and the two have a discussion for the first time… well, since the manga started. Perhaps the seriousness is what his father wanted all along.
Also, there’s a really great scene on the Queen Mother’s birthday where it’s revealed that she enjoys traditional Korean wrestling more than any other traditional event. This goes along with Ms. Park humiliating her characters spectacularly, except in the case of the Queen Mother, she has no shame about her preferences. In that vein, she also asks Shin and Yul to wrestle. It’s great, save for the fact that Yul seriously needs to shut up about Shin’s wife.
Anyway, that was not a review of any note. I am enjoying this series immensely once again, and it makes me very happy to read two volumes at a time. But this is because I am a huge girl about comics, and can’t resist romance and drama when it’s so well-done. Goong is certainly queen in that department. I am disappointed that it is still going over the same issues again and again and AGAIN… but on the other hand, this keeps the cast of characters small, and every volume gives us a little more insight. Shin and Chae-Kyung can be an annoying study sometimes, but the side characters are developed very well, and I do like seeing the roles they play a little more in each volume. And… yes, annoying as they are, I love seeing Shin and Chae-Kyung together, too. Sigh.
Seiho Boys’ High School 6
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: Seiho Boys' High School Leave a comment »Kaneyoshi Izumi – Viz – 2011 – 8 volumes
I feel like I’ve already talked about this series’ good points a thousand times, but they bear repeating, because every volume is just as funny and sweet as the last one. I loved the first two chapters in this volume (well, two chapters, and two short bonus stories), as they were about super-jerk Nogami and how much he really cares for his girlfriend. The two of them were having issues, but their relationship was never really in any danger, and it was wonderful to see Nogami so completely at a loss and asking for help.
And did I mention that this took place during the school festival? One where Nogami suggested crossdressing as a theme, and everyone was depressed because they made such ugly girls? Oh yeah, that was gold. It goes right along with the comments I made about the humor in Goong, about how I love comic creators who can utterly humiliate their characters for maximum laughs. You have to have really strong characters to be able to pull that off, and Seiho Boys’ High School definitely succeeds in that.
The next story was pure comedy, about a gigantic box of “blue ribbon” pornography being passed from room to room, the story of how and why it was making its move around the dorm, and what happened during a dorm inspection. But even during pure comedy, Maki paused for a moment to reflect on graduation and what his time in high school might mean several years down the road. It was a nice pause, and the bittersweetness mixed well with the comedy.
The final story… the final story was about Takano and Maki. These stories are always a little bit about the two of them getting closer as a couple. But this story was also about how Maki is apparently the only virgin among his group of friends. Many things happen in this story. One of them is this.
(an image, sorta NSFW, but not really dirty… mostly just funny)
Goong 9
Posted: June 6, 2011 Filed under: Goong 1 Comment »So Hee Park – Yen Press – 2010 – 26+ volumes
this is an omnibus containing vols 9-10
Okay, so maybe you just have to read this series in big chunks to appreciate it. The romance moves so slowly, and Chae-Kyung is so unhappy, it can be agonizing to read in one-volume pieces spread out over months. But when you read several volumes back-to-back, you can appreciate that things are just moving slowly, and that Chae-Kyung does still have some power to make her own decisions.
The big issue right now, of course, is Chae-Kyung’s divorce, and how to go about it. She thinks the easiest way is to announce that she wants it on a national interview. But Shin has been softening, almost learning how to act human, and her genuine love for him makes it difficult to wish for this. She’s still unhappy, of course, and Shin’s still a jerk much of the time. But you can see the cracks in his robot jerk mask when you read a big chunk of the story. He is a jerk, don’t get me wrong, and he really should be treating Chae-Kyung better. But he doesn’t know how, since he’s been kept at arm’s length his whole life, and he’s learning slowly. He is getting better.
There are lots of nice domestic scenes in this volume, the type of thing that Chae-Kyung has wanted all along. Shin allows her to impulsively jump out of a motorcade to go to her favorite donut shop. They eat bowls of ramen together, late at night, at her parent’s house. And in one really amazingly adorable scene, Chae-Kyung takes Shin out on a date. They’re not dressed up, so nobody recognizes them, and Shin sees what it’s like to be a regular person. It’s a shame there’s still so much drama going on, and that neither of them are happy, because it’s stuff like this that make me really appreciate the whole gimmick of “Chae-Kyung doesn’t know how to live at the palace since she’s a regular girl, but Shin doesn’t know how to live outside the palace” thing.
And… there’s plenty of drama, still. The arson attempt is blamed on Shin, still, and the media gets ahold of it. Shin and Chae-Kyung finally move to their own palace, but the public sees this as an attempt to flee, or that they were expelled from the main palace out of shame. Hyo-Rin threatens to reveal that Shin proposed to her, and that his marriage to Chae-Kyung is a sham. Shin discovers love letters between the King and Yul’s mother. Yul is still trying to make passes at Chae-Kyung (which Shin, to his credit, is getting better at not throwing a fit over), but he’s now got a greedy fiancee of his own who’s bent on becoming queen… conveniently fitting his mother’s plans for him. And Chae-Kyung’s grandfather is dying. I don’t know what else could happen. Doesn’t that cover all the bases?
Oh wait, that’s right, maybe Shin will get deposed? There’s always a risk of that. Maybe Shin or Chae-Kyung will get hit by a car. That’s about the only other thing that would put it over the edge.
The drama is getting pretty ridiculous, but it’s balanced now by the more interesting and steadily developing relationship between Shin and Chae-Kyung. I do genuinely enjoy that part of it.
And again, not enough can be said about So Hee Park’s sense of humor. She loves humiliating her characters. This series desperately needs a little levity, and some of these characters really do deserve humiliation. It is usually Chae-Kyung who experiences nosebleeds at the worse possible times, but sometimes Shin gets his too, and he so sorely deserves it (my favorite scene in this volume is where he goes on at length about his dream “ordinary” life, and Chae-Kyung observes that the only thing he knows about normal life is what he sees on TV).
And then there’s Eunuch Kong. I don’t even know anymore. He’s funny, but sometimes… he develops what I’m just going to call Patty and Selma syndrome. I’ll note that I love it desperately, and leave it at that.
I’ve got two more volumes of this to read… really, four volumes, since now they’re published in omnibuses. I love this treatment for the series, because it really does read better in big chunks. But I’m back on board. This is some ridiculously addictive romantic drama.
Grand Guignol Orchestra 3
Posted: June 5, 2011 Filed under: Grand Guignol Orchestra Leave a comment »Kaori Yuki – Viz – 2011 – 5 volumes
Okay, yes, I like this series an awful lot now. There are still some confusing things about the plot (mostly with the cast of side characters that appears infrequently but are often discussed and important to the story), but this volume did a good job of making the characters a whole lot more likable and the plot a little more clear. Sort of. Plus, the art is still wonderful to look at, and suits the story well.
The convent story from last volume wraps up quickly here, but not before introducing two new reoccurring characters and a “shadow organization” that opposes the queen. One of the characters is interesting, the kind of crazy Victorian psychopath that only Kaori Yuki can bring to life (well, Kaori Yuki and Black Butler’s Yana Toboso). I like him well enough, but unfortunately he’s yet another piece of the complicated Lucille backstory, something that involves a lot of minor characters and confusing flashbacks. While Lucille’s backstory is proving to be more and more interesting, it’s annoyingly involved and told poorly, and really, it’s about the only thing dragging the series down right now.
The next story in the volume is one that finally spotlights the mysterious Gwindel, the tall cellist of the orchestra. He’s got guignol arms and insists that Celes is better off not knowing too much about the other members of the orchestra. The group shows up at the home of a powerful Duke that opposes the queen, one whom raised a character behind the atrocities at the convent in the last story. There, they find that the Duke is preparing to marry Spinel, a spy for the queen.
Just kidding. The duke and Gwindel suddenly turn on everybody and Lucille is bitten by a guignol.
This story is awesome. It was difficult to tell how things would go for Celes and Kohaku, because Lucille really is bitten and infected by a guignol, and Gwindel did turn on his traveling companions rather spectacularly, and is insane to boot. Could the series continue as a story with Celes and Kohaku looking for a way to cure and/or free Lucille, trapped in the body of a guignol? Sure, I could believe that. I was looking for ways the characters were going to squirm out of the setup, but I was prepared for the worst all the way through.
Lucille’s backstory continues to unravel. We see flashbacks of his time with Spinel, we learn about some of his days with crazy Berthier in the orchestra, and we learn a bit more about his… nature. It comes off as rumor and speculation, but part of me wonders if it may actually apply to the story.
Every volume gets better and better, though. The series isn’t without its flaws, but the convoluted backstory with a thousand characters is way better than the one in Angel Sanctuary, the plot is far more interesting than Fairy Cube, and the characters more fun than the ones in what I’ve read of Earl Cain. I like Kaori Yuki, and so far, this is my favorite of her series. Good news!
This was a review copy provided by Viz.
Goong 8
Posted: June 5, 2011 Filed under: Goong 1 Comment »So Hee Park – Yen Press – 2010 – 24+ volumes
Sigh. I fell in love with the premise and drama in this series, but I’m becoming uncomfortable with the way the plot seems to be running in circles, and that none of the characters can catch a break from one another, least of all Chae-Kyung.
With the Queen’s pregnancy, she is taken off active palace duty, and her usual responsibilities are delegated to Chae-Kyung, who is still too ill and not well-prepared to take over as Queen. As expected, the court ladies bully her, Yul’s mother plots behind the scenes to gain the Queen’s powers, and there are about a thousand misunderstandings between Chae-Kyung and Shin.
Aside from the fact that nobody treats Chae-Kyung well, not even her mom (she’s not allowed to at this point), it’s the misunderstandings that make me most angry. Shin blows up at Chae-Kyung when, while waiting for him in his study, she picks up the phone after Hyo-Rin leaves an insulting phone message and tells her to stop badmouthing her little brother. Shin walks in at the end of this exchange, then yells at Chae-Kyung to stay out of her business. When Chae-Kyung explains to Shin that she doesn’t think he set the fire in Yul’s mom’s place, Shin gets mad that her trust comes from Yul’s version of events and not his own.
And yet, it’s pretty clear that Shin is finally falling in love with Chae-Kyung. There’s a scene in this volume where the couple kiss, and both come away from it pretty… aroused. He needs to take a breath and step away from the conversation before he says something horrible and demeaning. He needs to treat Chae-Kyung better, and he needs to stop being such a jerk.
Yul continues to move in on Chae-Kyung, too. He knows exactly how, and gives her all the attention that Shin should be. And Shin gets mad. Instead of doing the things that Yul is doing (checking on Chae-Kyung’s health, bringing her snacks, being genuinely nice), he gets mad at Chae-Kyung for cheating on him. Bah.
There’s also this whole business with Chae-Kyung wanting a divorce after a few years. She won’t be able to divorce Shin if he remains crown prince, especially now that his mother is having a baby. If she does, it will bring shame and ridicule on herself and her family, something she won’t be able to escape the rest of her life. Her solutions are constantly shot down. This is dangerous stuff she’s contemplating here, and Yul is feeding her a lot worse solutions to her problem. On the other hand, she’s so miserable that she deserves a way out.
Parts of it are still funny, though. So Hee Park’s sense of humor is bizarre, and she finds just the right times to slide jokes into the story. My favorite scene in this volume is where Eunuch Kong and Lady Han are helping Chae-Kyung come up with clever put-downs for the sharp-tongued ladies of court, then suddenly bail on her when they begin to fool around with each other instead. It’s the absurd and mildly disturbing sense of humor that is keeping the series readable among all the drama.
I’ve got the next several volumes available (they’re 2-volume omnibuses from volume 9 on, which is amazingly nice), and I’m hoping that reading a huge chunk of the story all at once will make me see that the narrative is moving forward, and that it’s not all about the misery of Chae-Kyung. Maybe… maybe Shin will get nicer, and things will turn more romantic, too. I would fall in love with it again it if that happened.
Venus Capriccio 4
Posted: June 5, 2011 Filed under: Venus Capriccio 2 Comments »Mai Nishikata – CMX – 2010 – 5 volumes
The shuttering of CMX meant that we miss out on the last volume of this series. There were definitely better shoujo titles available from CMX, but this one was still pretty cute, and it’s a shame that we don’t get to read the end.
This volume goes deeper into Akira’s family life when one of Akira’s father’s students shows up in Japan and demands to hear Akira play. Akira wrestles with his conscience for some time, not wanting to play for the boy, then when he is wowed by the boy’s playing, he decides to apply himself and come up with a new, powerful technique. Another story is about Akira mastering a difficult piece in a week for his aunt so that he is allowed to stay in Japan with Takami. Another story deals with Takami, her oldest brother, her bad grades, and just how much her brother and Akira really love her. The first story details a very awkward, but enjoyable date between Akira and Takami.
It’s the chapter about Takami and her brother that made this book great for me. Her brother is an extremely pushy and particularly emotionless math teacher, and tells her that if she doesn’t bring her awful grades up, she can no longer take piano lessons. Takami tries extra hard, which is very funny, and it’s nice to see Akira back off and give her the space she needs to study, while being quietly supportive from just outside her reach. And her brother winds up being extra awesome. The bonus chapter notes in this volume cover all of Takami’s brothers, but I think the oldest was my favorite after this chapter.
I also liked the German piano student, Julian. Though Akira treats him coldly (because he is a student of his father’s, but also because Julian is very familiar with Takami), he’s a pretty upbeat guy. His introduction involves him getting lost and loudly yelling for help in both English and German. He and Takami have a lot of fun together. Later, he unintentionally insults both Takami and Akira, but he’s a pretty great guy about it, apologizing, but not too much since it was mostly Takami and Akira’s faults for getting bent out of shape.
And Akira and Takami’s relationship… it’s still close, but even with the cute date at the beginning, it’s still not “official,” nor have they kissed or really… you know, done anything. The book also ends on a cliffhanger: is Julian’s playing more powerful, or is Akira’s? I don’t have any doubts about where this story is going, but I still regret not being able to read the final volume.
CMX was wonderful for publishing the most adorable shoujo series. There are cuter books than this (try Stolen Hearts), funnier ones (try My Darling Miss Bancho), books with more likable characters (I liked Lapis Lazuli Crown), better romances, more fun plots, et cetera. But Venus Capriccio is still a fun series for any shoujo fan, and if shoujo is your cup of tea and you happen across it in a bargain bin or used book store at some point, don’t hesitate to pick it up.
Madara 1
Posted: June 5, 2011 Filed under: Madara 1 Comment »Eiji Otsuka / Sho-U Tajima – CMX – 2004 – 5 volumes
If I’m not mistaken, this was one of the launch books for CMX. It’s also by the same team who gave us MPD-Psycho, and the writer also gave us Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service. That was the reason I decided to get this on a whim when a used copy came in at work.
I was pretty disappointed. Obviously, this is nothing like the other series I’ve read by Eiji Otsuka. I’m used to his psychological horror, and this is a more traditional fantasy story of a mid-90s vintage. It’s pretty generic, and the art… well, looks like a generic fantasy series from the mid-90s. I’m not the biggest fan of Sho-U Tajima’s art, but he’s definitely good at delivering pretty functional character designs and settings for MPD-Psycho, and he’s great at disgusting gore. That does come up a few times here (one memorable instance is when a crocodile man gets the top of his head knocked off, leaving the lower jaw on a bloody neck stump), but otherwise, functional 90s art just doesn’t work very well in a fantasy manga.
I got excited for a minute at the beginning, because the premise is very similar to Dororo. Madara is found floating down the river one day, a baby that’s been robbed of all its limbs and features, but with a strong aura. An old man named Tatara decides to build Madara a body made of “gadgets,” or artificial limbs, eyes, ears, et cetera. When the story starts, Madara’s peaceful town is invaded by the henchman of an evil king, and Madara defeats the enemy, but loses his grandfather Tatara. The defeat also grants him his ears back, and with his dying breath, Tatara sends Madara on a journey to defeat the eight generals of the king, each with one of Madara’s body parts, and also to take vengeance on the king that dismembered baby Madara in the first place. A girl named Kirin accompanies him on this journey.
As awesome as the “getting your body parts back” premise is, everything else is pretty generic. Madara is a ‘tude-filled hero, there’s a fairly uninteresting romantic comedy-type relationship between Madara and Kirin, the fights with the evil generals are rather boring (even with Madara’s limbs flying all over the place on cables and such), and… they’re little more than evil generals. Madara has beaten two of them by the end of the volume.
The characters aren’t that likable, and a boring plot ruined an interesting premise. My opinion of this also may suffer because I’m reading an actually good fantasy novel right now (The Name of the Wind by Rothfuss is AMAZING), and it probably made this look even worse in contrast. I won’t be picking up the rest, unless they just happen to come in at work and/or I completely run out of manga to read.
I should admit that parts of this book reminded me a little of Magic Knight Rayearth (especially the enemy crowd scene, where generals were dispatched from the group). I don’t know if that made this better, or MKR a little worse. Only Dark Horse’s upcoming reprint will remind me.
Lychee Light Club
Posted: June 1, 2011 Filed under: Lychee Light Club 1 Comment »Usamaru Furuya – Vertical – 2011 – 1 volume
Holy crap! This book is amazing! Graphic, extreme in just about every way, intense, insane… pretty much all of the above. I adore Usamaru Furuya, and this book pretty much made me a fan for life, twisted and sick though that may seem.
There is a note in the back that the story is based on a play performed by the Tokyo Grand Guignol theater troupe, and that Suehiro Maruo was one of the performers. This play was apparently what inspired Furuya to become an artist. That Suehiro Maruo was involved makes a lot of sense, because the art and parts of the story and gore evoke Maruo quite a bit. Furuya isn’t quite as bold and ornate in his illustrations as Maruo, but he comes pretty damn close. Furuya’s art and story are also much more readable than the stuff I’ve seen from Maruo.
The story itself… hm. I don’t know what to make of it. It was utterly original, in that I had no freaking clue where it was going at any given time, and I liked that. It does have that in common with 20th Century Boys, another series which is hard to predict, but Lychee Light Club was more because the characters were literally insane.
What is it about? Well, it’s about a group of boys who form a club to escape what is apparently the dreary life in their heavily industrialized town (the when isn’t specified, but their uniforms suggest early 20th century). It’s about their strict hierarchy, their inexplicable desire to murder to keep their club location a secret. It’s about admiration, power, love, devotion, and sex. It’s about how they build a robot. And it’s about how even a little mistrust sows the seeds of doubt and sets off a bizarre chain reaction. It’s about how Zera will either rule the world or die.
Really, there’s lots of things going on at once, and the importance changes from chapter to chapter, usually. It’s interesting like that. When leader Zera begins to suspect members of the Light Club of insubordination, murder and paranoia begin to take hold, and the latter half of the volume is about how the club falls apart and the members are slowly picked off.
It’s the ending sequence that I will never forget, though. It is extraordinary. Visceral, gory, abrasive, and exquisite. It is disgusting, there’s a bit of a twist I didn’t see coming, and it’s even a little noble. Does love enter into this story? Not really, but there’s a little sweetness at the very end anyway.
A big part of what makes the ending so successful is the artwork. It’s good all the way through the book, but Furuya really has his style pegged here. In general, he’s good at adapting the art style to his story, but in general his character designs always look sort of similar. Here, they are a cross between Genkaku Picasso and Suehiro Maruo in the way their eyes and expressions are drawn, and of course the ubiquitous uniforms (and, as my roommate asked immediately when I told him Maruo inspired it, yes, there are people wearing eyepatches). The characters definitely have a wonderfully sinister and maniacal appearance at all times, even the more cheerful members of the Light Club. Girl Number One, Kannon, is the only touch of beauty throughout the entire book, both appearance and personality-wise. Appropriate, since she is the only beauty that Lychee learns to identify. The murder scenes, though, are what really stands out. Someone is gutted within the first ten or so pages, and while there are some murders throughout the book (including a really unlikely, but well-drawn one where someone is folded in half backwards), it’s the gore in the ending sequence that reaches the true heights of guro visual greatness. I have a hard time with ero-guro in other works since, while it is always visually striking, usually it involves rape and abuse along with murder. Morally, I’m uncomfortable with the work. In this case, however, the extra elements are absent, and even the murder is somewhat karmic. My conscience is clear, save for the fact that some of the violence is difficult to stomach.
It’s definitely for those with a strong stomach. And while I may make it sound fragmented and a little confusing, the story is pretty easy to follow and doesn’t really diverge from the path it sets out on. The artwork alone, especially at the end of the book, should be enough for people looking for “underground” manga or comics, but the story stands up well too, where normally “underground” works are a little more out there. I dearly hope this book does well, because I would love to see anything and everything else by Usamaru Furuya, and I know Vertical is more than good for it as long as the sales hold up.
20th Century Boys 15
Posted: June 1, 2011 Filed under: 20th Century Boys 4 Comments »Naoki Urasawa – Viz – 2011 – 23 volumes
I knew it. I think we all did. It went down a little differently than I thought it would, and I thought the Pope would play a different role. What happens in the story is much more fantastic than what I expected. As everybody says: deified. My only question is if… what I’m talking about is the same as before. Somehow, I suspect that is not the case. I am curious.
Unfortunately, the translation notes ruined the surprise at the end of the volume for me. We see an unusual two-page preview for volume 16, featuring a character strolling down an empty street. I wasn’t sure what the significance was until the translation notes identified the character. Then I freaked out. Again, this… particular thing isn’t that hard to pick up on, and I’ve been expecting it since the post-1999 story started. But I’ve been curious how this will be re-introduced into the story. All sorts of things can happen from this point.
Anyway. Enough of the veiled spoiler-free commentary. There’s plenty to like here, even without major bombshells from the story. The volume starts with a new character, an Italian priest named Luciano who bears an uncomfortable resemblance to John Belushi. In his youth, he was a drunk counterfeiter, until another priest and future mentor crossed his path. Luciano stumbles across the Friend’s New Book of Prophecy, and while at first he laughs it off as nonsense, he realizes that many of the items in it are true, and he begins to fear that the Pope will be assassinated when he visits Japan for the World’s Fair. He tries to warn the Cardinals, but this only triggers a very obvious cover-up operation, so Luciano flees Italy for Japan to try and save the Pope. He doesn’t speak a word of Japanese, but somehow he finds Kanna and the Kenji Faction and warns them with enough time to take action.
Father Luciano, awesome as he is, bothers me. One of the weaknesses of both this story and Monster is that they have far too many characters, each with their own section of story to tell. It’s less of a problem in 20th Century Boys, but Father Luciano is a great example. I doubt this man will be a major player ever again. He does illustrate the global influence of the Friends Organization, but did we really need to introduce and spend half a volume with a new character to learn that? And that a man that doesn’t speak a word of Japanese happens to find Kanna and her crew, along with a Priest that happens to speak Italian and is sympathetic to Luciano’s cause, along with being a former gang member himself, seems a smidge unlikely to me, even for 20th Century Boys. Having said that, I still think Luciano’s a great character, and the fact he looks like John Belushi and doesn’t speak Japanese will definitely make me remember him if he does reappear later. His tattoos are also pretty memorable, and very elaborate for a priest. The man running around in America right now? Any of Kenji’s classmates that aren’t Yoshitsune or Otcho? Random police officers and gang members? Not so much.
I loved the way Otcho and the anti-Friend group took action when they learned about the plans to assassinate the Pope. Seeing them getting the mobs to work together, and watching many different small groups comb for assassins in an enormous crowd around the Pope was pretty fantastic. But even this was overridden by the pair of bombshells dropped at the end of the volume. The 13th Assassin really does a number on the story when he finally does appear, and Urasawa really knows how to make the most of a ridiculously dramatic moment.
Even though I do hate it when authors involve too many extraneous characters in a story, I do like Father Luciano, I like the conspiracy that the Friends Organization seems to have cooked up against the Pope, and I adore what happens at the end of the volume. This has been the best volume of the series yet, and given the peek we see into volume 16, it’s only getting better from here.
