Slightly Biased Manga

I actually liked the second volume a lot better than the first. While the Deadcross story wasn’t my favorite thing in the world, I really liked the Kino the magician and White Planet arcs.

There are still a few things which are mildly disturbing about the series, though. Last volume it was the closet full of dog pelts. This volume it was the fact that Tezuka dedicated an introduction to talking about how people thought it was too violent for Astro to be falling on the ground and breaking, but not a thing was said when a little boy was slapping his younger sister around in the last story. There wasn’t even any repercussions for it… the little girl actually sacrifices herself in the end, and nothing is said about the beating. What the hell, I guess it was the sixties.

I liked the robot magic stuff, though. It’s kind of weird that the human magician was better than the robot magician, who used science. Another disturbing thing was that noone made a fuss about the robot being dramatically shot and killed at the end IN THE MIDDLE OF A CIRCUS. Why wasn’t it suggested that the robot was going to be resurrected? Noone even seemed sad after his passing.

Still kinda too boring for me though. I have to get to the “Greatest Robot On Earth” arc before someone licenses Pluto, though.

I actually started this series for the rather shallow and utilitarian reason that I want desperately for Pluto to be licensed, and I thought that somehow it would help if I knew background info. So I embarked on the 23-volume series. I ordered the first two to get me started. Two down, 21 to go!

It was actually very cute and quite nostalgic despite the fact I have no childhood associations with it. It reads like a very American retro cartoon. It would definitely be something I would wholeheartedly recommend for kids. Not only are the plots fairly simple, but it stars young kids, makes jokes, and has a good sense of right and wrong. No swearing, no nudity, nothing objectionable. Definitely the first manga I’ve read that I would have no problem handing over to a 7-year-old.

This is, of course, not counting in the fact that the main plot in this volume was about a woman who kidnapped people’s pet dogs and implanted their brains and nervous systems into robots, making cyborg dogs that could break the robot rules and kill people (nothing graphic, though). The most shocking thing about this was the scientist’s closet stuffed full of dog pelts. It was almost comical, and slightly creepy in the otherwise wholehearted story.

I liked it, it’s definitely unique and very different from anything I’m reading now. However, I didn’t wind up falling in love, and I probably won’t be getting new volumes very frequently. But we’ll see if it grows on me.