Recently finishing the fascinating Trash Market by Tsuge Tadao, translated and edited by Ryan Holmberg, published by D&Q, (no doubt a post forthcoming), I found myself in the mood to read more and a few clicks later brought me to the website of London based comic book publisher Breakdown Press, looking through their impressive catalogue my eye fell on Flowering Harbour by Hayashi Seiichi, again translated by Ryan Holmberg, after very much enjoying Golden Pollen and Other Stories, published by the now sadly defunct Picture Box Inc,I thought I'd have to give it ago. Flowering Harbour contains just the one story, and is produced in what could be described as a chapbook style with a stylish vertical obi, looking over the book it seems such a refreshing change that none of the cover art work here is encroached upon by a barcode or price tag, it's immacutely presented. As well as the story there is a brief introduction from Hayashi entitled Bohemian Living giving a contextual impression to the story which originally appeared in Garo in 1969.
As previously mentioned Flowering Harbour contains just the one same self titled story, it's a soulful one which ends as quickly as it arrives, so it's a little difficult to describe the drama of it without giving it all away, but the story is one of lost and loosing love, illustratively it feels wind blown, (some of it's scenes are played out in a storm), which adds to the sense of the character's emotions being blown and caught up on the much larger scale, although brief it's great to find yourself caught up in it's storyline, having it presented here on it's own makes it the more easier to turn back and read and enjoy again. It's also great to see that more from Hayashi is on the way, Drawn and Quarterly are issuing the paperback edition of his Red Colored Elegy any day now, perhaps it's already out where you are?, and then in December Breakdown Press have lined up Red Red Rock: And Other Stories to look forward to.
Opus first appeared in serialization in 1995/1996, recently it's been published by Dark Horse, (November 2014), in a translation by Zack Davisson, Dark Horse have done a great job with the publication of Opus, reading Opus it's hard to resist visualizing it as it may appear in an animated form given Kon's filmography, although he started out originally in manga. Visually the book is stunning, the full page art work at the beginning of each chapter could hang on the wall of any gallery, the book comes including a final chapter which was only sketched out in pencil that wasn't included when Opus was initially serialized, this brief end chapter was found after Kon's sudden death from cancer in 2010, it extends the story line featuring Kon himself, but even with this chapter there's the feeling that the story line of Opus is open ended, it could just keep going.
The premise of Opus is quite a simple one although how Kon builds upon it displays the ingenuity that we've come to associate with the rest of his work, in some ways utilising the story within a story approach Kon examines a number of different aspects to the creative process and the relationship between the author and the characters they create, Kon built on this spiralling the story out crashing through barriers that we assume end with the frame that are there whilst we read stories and manga. The jacket describes Opus as being a meta-fictional tale and it is, Chikara Nagai is a manga artist, creator of series Resonance whose lead protagonist, Satoko, is an agent fighting the evil forces of Masque, head of the Nameless Faith cult. Under pressure to deliver the final instalment Chikara finds a page which is seen depicting a tunnel leading down, falling through he finds himself in the manga that he has created, after demonstrating to and convincing Satoko that he is the creator of her story the metaphors begin to abound, essentially with Chikara as a god figure, and his character's there merely as puppets in a preordained story, without will, but these ideas are treated with irony and humour. Another character central to the story is that of Lin who obtains the all important last page of the story who is then pursued through much of the story by Chikara and Satoko whilst they fend off Masque, who is also in pursuit of Lin. Added to this Satoko is imbued with telepathic abilities something which rises to the forefront of the story when later in the story she finds herself spilling back out of the manga and into Chikara's world after he returns to his world, the story reverses back through to dark events in the character's pasts, and through various forms of resurrection, one by the pen of creator Chikara himself.
As already mentioned the artwork is spot on, the images of the storyline cracking and disintegrating as they are pursued are spectacular, at various points Chikara finds himself situated in a pure white void, out of the story, (but still within it - if you know what I mean), at one point it's mentioned that there are other places where the story is happening, hinting to the reader not only to restrict themselves contemplating what is visually happening within what is being drawn opens up the dimensions of the story in a highly original and absorbing way, and of course Kon pursues the story in and out of these places too. Opus is a masterpiece, one that I keep turning to with relief knowing that yes I do have a copy.
Unfortunately funds don't currently stretch to being able to afford the complete omnibus of all three parts of Domu - A Child's Dream, (translated by Dana Lewis and Toren Smith), so for the time being I'm having to make do with the first instalment, it's a slight temple scratcher as to why this isn't more readily available, being from the creator of Akira, you'd assume that it would be available in multiple formats 24 7, but there we go. It's been a long while since I've watched Akira and I'd have to confess that I've not reached a reading of the volumes as of yet either, although reading a little about Domu online there appears to be a slight crossover between the works, whether this becomes more apparent in volumes Two and Three I can't yet say. Much of the idea for Domu apparently came from Otomo's own experiences after first moving to Tokyo where he lived in an apartment block with a large number of cases of suicide, the setting of Domu is in a danchi, the Tsutsumi Public housing complex, that has seen 25 deaths in 3 years, the story opens with Mr Ueno jumping from the roof, which thereafter leads to the case being investigated by Inspector Yamagawa. These scenes alternate a little between seeing the police ruminate on the case and going over the past history of the mysterious deaths, with that of being introduced to some of the notable characters of the block, who'll feature again as the story begins to unfold, Mrs Tezuka, who suffered a miscarriage late in her pregnancy term, Yoshio Fujiyama, a man who lives with his mother, Fujiyama is suspected of being a child molester, who despite his age has the mental age of a 5 year old, he's given the nickname of Little Yo, Yoshikawa an alcoholic who at some point in his past was involved in a truck accident, his son, Hiroshi begins to feature more prominently when a new family moves in and he plays with the daughter, Etsuko, Otomo contrasts the pair juxtaposing their return from play to their respective apartments, Etsuko chatting away describing, rather worryingly, that they've been playing with Little Yo, with that of Hiroshi returning to the apartment with his father sprawled out amongst bottles asking for him to bring him more beer. Another character who at first is described only as being Sasaki's son, (Tsutomu), seems to keep himself to himself, there is also old man Cho, who sits out on the bench all day so obvious he evades attention.
The police locate a witness who saw Mr Ueno on the night of his suicide who remembers vividly his strange baseball cap which had been attached with a pair of angel wings, things get stranger when a police officer on patrol goes wandering and is also found to have jumped from the roof, and further still when Inspector Yamagawa pursues a voice mocking him for an episode in his past is lead to the roof, and sees the illuminated image of a spectral old man Cho hovering towards him, he suffers the same fate of those he has been investigating. In a way the first volume of Domu is a book of two halves, in the second, much of the action is seen through Etsuko's eyes, she spies old man Cho's levitation tricks, and the attention shifts to him as being the malevolent force that is behind all of the strange deaths, his head appears to rise up out of the table in Yoshikawa's flat as if it were poking up out of water. Needless to say the artwork in Domu is breath taking, Otomo's drawing is awe inspiring to study, and despite the impression of the vastness of the danchi, there remains a certain claustrophobic element in his depiction of it, looking at his buildings it's understandable that he is a source of inspiration for subsequent generations of artists, in particular one maybe being Hisaharu Motoda whose book Neo Ruins is still one that remains prominent on the wants list.
Another Inspector arrives to take up the case who also begins to hear voices prompting him to leave the complex, but whose voice is it?, old man Cho's?, Yamagawa's?, no doubt all will be explained in the subsequent volumes. The end of volume one culminates with Sasaki's son who we see studying hard in his room, then being distracted by his hobby of making model aeroplanes, as we watch him old man Cho's spectral presence is seen hovering outside of his window and then entering the room. Otomo plays these culminating scenes off of one another to maximum affect, with the scene of old man Cho appearing in Yoshikawa's flat left unresolved, but Etsuko bumps into Tsutomu Sasaki on an errand ending the first volume on a rather gory note. In Domu Otomo explores a dark psychology, which points to the conundrum of who is actually being used by who, no doubt nothing is to be taken at face value, although I'm not sure as to how it's plot will resolve itself I'm glad to have become acquainted with it's first instalment.
Recently published by Picture Box, is this selection translated and edited by Ryan Holmberg, previously Drawn and Quarterly had published Hayashi's Red Colored Elegy, so this makes a much appreciated addition to Hayashi's appearance in translation. Collecting four stories these are also accompanied by an essay by Hayashi - Azami Light: Childhood Remembrances, from 1972, and also an essay by the translator Ryan Holmberg. At a first reading the stories have a fragmented feel to them, Hayashi's style mixes traditional Japanese art with a mixture of Western influences, from pop art to DC comics, looking at the lines of some his female characters you wouldn't be far off if you were reminded of the Taisho era artist Yumeji Takehisa, but many other influences intercede with this style. The first story Dwelling in Flowers, from 1972 tells the story of an artist trying to escape a past love and at the same time telling the strained relationship with his mother. Stylistically this is one of my favourites in the collection, the pace of how the story unfolds joins perfectly with the slightly enigmatic feeling that the story is unresolved, this feeling can be felt to differing degrees throughout the collection. In Dwelling in Flowers there's the appearance of the origami paper cranes which feature in Hayashi's work. Without first reading Holmberg's essay Red Dragonfly from 1968 feels that it is dipping heavily into elements of the autobiographical, following again a mother/son relationship, not too distant is the passing away of the father whose portrait looks over them as they eat. It's a tale set in the austere post war years, where the mother has to rely on the generosity of a male visitor who comes to the house, but this comes at an emotional, (and physical), price for both mother and child, Red Dragonfly, I think is the shortest in the collection but has a deep emotional dimension to it. The last two stories, Yamanba Lullaby, from 1968 and the title story Gold Pollen from 1972, are laced with layered allegorical meanings, which Holmberg's essay fully elucidates on their meaning and definition.
The inclusion of Holmberg's essay Momoko and Manga: Seiichi Hayashi's Maternal Roots, (Momoko was Seiichi Hayashi's mother), and also Azami Light, the essay from Hayashi himself makes this book a fantastic document, in Momoko and Manga, Holmberg traces Hayashi's childhood and his first contact with children's literature through a neighbourhood friend, whom Hayashi nick named Uncle Pipe who would later be instrumental for Hayashi to move into the world of having his art published. Holmberg traces Hayashi's involvement with Garo and his work post Garo, provided within Azami Light is some examples of Hayashi's art from his self published magazines from the late 50's and early 60's. Holmberg's essay goes on to explore Hayashi's influences, notable those of classical Japanese art which can be seen referenced in some of the stories here, also Holmberg's essay fills in many of the biographical details which can be detected throughout the stories, giving the fuller picture to the more allegorical and hidden meanings within them.
Probably the only slight gripe is that I wished there was more of the stories to this volume, but the inclusion of the essays makes for a great addition in contextualizing Hayashi and his art within the alternative scene of the late 1960's, rather tantalizingly Gold Pollen and Other Stories is listed as Volume One in Picture Box Inc's, Masters of Alternative Manga Series, another name that is mentioned a number of times is Tsuge Yoshiharu, so here's to future volumes.
Sunny is a book that I've been anticipating to read since it was published back in May, the translation of vol 2 is due to be published in November so I thought I'd better track out a copy of vol 1 before 2 appears. Simply put the book is close to perfection, the story is beginning to slowly unfold across art work that could quite easily hang comfortably next to masterpieces that are exhibited in contemporary art galleries, the tantalizing full colour pages do make you slightly wish that the whole could also be presented in the same way, but I'm really not complaining. There are probably numerous blog posts on Sunny which could easily outdo my post on it, my favourite is over at Brain Vs. Book, so I'll only offer a brief post of appreciation, the setting is an orphanage, (The Star Kids Home), the sunny of the title is a dilapidated Nissan Sunny that the children play in, amongst them it seems that Haruo is the car's most frequent visitor, as one of the other children points out the car is a place where the realm of imagination rules, 'just imagine where you want to go the car can take you'. The translation is from Michael Arias who directed the film adaption of Matsumoto's TekkonKinkreet , there's something about Matsumoto's art and story lines that are laid back but at the same time carry the subtle urgency of the dilemmas that face his characters, the potential of the serious or the humorous hovers as you turn from page to page, segment to segment.
Tatsumi directed by Eric Khoo, is an animated biographical film of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, which dips into Tatsumi'sADrifting Life, the film achieves a fantastic balance between biography and adaption, which if you're not familiar with his manga orgekiga, (dramatic pictures), as Tatsumi renamed his genre, will make you eager to seek out his books, or perhaps more of them if you've not read all of them already. The film was premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, Tatsumi was involved in the making of the film, and the artwork on film captures what we see on the page of his books very well. The film begins with an honorific salute to Tatsumi's inspiration, Tezuka Osamu, and his appreciation is never too faraway from the narrative throughout the film, in one of the later biographical segments Tatsumi recalls his first meeting with Tezuka, before the he departs for Tokyo, the film alternates between biographical segments and adapted stories. The first of the stories presented is 'Hell', a story that follows a photographer sent to Hiroshima to document the aftermath of the bomb, reduced to tears by what he sees, he discovers the burnt shadow of what appears to be a son massaging his mother's back and takes a photo-graph of it, later returning to the shadow he discovers that the wall has been pulled down. The story goes on in time to the 1950's and Koyanagi's photo is used as part of a 'No More Hiroshima's' campaign, which sees the photographer begin to profit from his image, which bites at his conscious. Then a stranger gets in contact with Koyanagi claiming to be the son who everyone thought had been killed in the blast as seen in the shadow image, he tells Koyanagi that the boy whose shadow could be seen was actually a friend he had organised to kill his mother so that he could inherit her money, the crime caught in the flash of the bomb and then by Koyanagi's photograph. The story is an excellent example of the way that Tatsumi can build a set of circumstances and then completely change their direction and adopt an opposing set of meanings and implications, the hand of fate intervenes.
Each of the biographical segments are opened with a little animated look at historical events occurring to Japan that transpired throughout Tatsumi's life, these drift into scenes from Tatsumi's life, the strained relationship with his brother, Okicahn, also a manga artist who was ill with a lung complaint and was jealous of Yoshihiro's active life. Tatsumi's family was hit by financial hardship and this lead to Tatsumi determined to continue with his drawing, entering competitions with his work in an effort to contribute to the family, eventually we see him leave home and move into a flat with other artists and have his first experiences with women. Another point that comes across emphatically is that of Tatsumi distinguishing his work from manga drawn for children with that of the manga he wanted to draw for adults, and another milestone in his life is the publication of his first manga Black Blizzard. In the meantime more stories taken from his works are introduced, Beloved Monkey, a story about a lonely factory worker with a pet monkey who suffers an industrial accident that severs his arm, Just A Man, follows a manager at a firm caught in a loveless marriage who with secret savings endeavours to have an affair, before facing his secluded pension years with his wife, most of Tatsumi's stories have a spiritual bereftness about them, people caught in unwanted lives, usually searching for a way out or finding some form of appeasement, be it permanent of temporary.
The last two stories are Occupied from Abandon the Old in Tokyo and Goodbye from the collection of the same name, Occupied, feels like a story that perhaps is drawn from experience, or perhaps draws parallels with Tatsumi's ex-periences and themes within his work, a manga artist who draws for a children's publication is being laid off after the publication of the work his contracted for, he finds himself up against a severe bout of writer's block, and after a meal he succumbs to sickness, in a toilet he sees pornographic graffiti drawn on the walls which after an offer of work drawing erotic manga proves to be a source of inspiration, for him the moment is almost an epiphany, but he is discovered when he can't stop himself drawing on the walls and his moment of salvation is drowned with accusations of 'Pervet!' from the people outside and the police are called, the story, as also can be seen in Tatsumi's work is imbued with an almost feverish desperation. The film ends with Tatsumi looking and thinking over his life and work, and it's one to be inspired by.
Another foray into the world of manga led me to the first installment of Iwaaki Hitoshi's eight part series Parasyte/ Kiseiju which won the Kodansha Manga Award way back in 1993, recently I have also read Lychee Light Club by Usamura Furuya whose art work was stunning but over all left me feeling a little non plussed, the same could be said of Parasyte to a certain degree, perhaps it's the case that nowadays maybe I'm just a little too old to enjoy these kinds of story lines the way I might have done in the past, although I'm still interested in discovering and reading more manga series/titles. Although I've used the Japanese Kodansha cover above I read the Del Rey edition translated and adapted by Andrew Cunningham, who includes some translation notes, (check out Eastern Standard blog). I've seen Kiseiju referred to as a science fiction/horror manga and it does include violent and gory scenes, the story is seen mainly through the character Shinichi, a high school student, starting with a meteor like invasion of earth by aliens who are worm like in shape, they use humans as hosts, (wriggling in through the ear), and also we discover for food. In Shinichi's case though something goes wrong and the alien doesn't take possession of his brain but of his right hand, the alien has the ability to shapeshift and open it's eyes, as his relationship with the alien develops Shinichi gives it the pet name of 'Migi', (Right in Japanese), at first Shinichi is about to severe his arm but after Migi begs him that he doesn't they come to the agreement to stay together. As the story develops the news reports on a spate of killings which become known as The Mincemeat Murders, (due to the state of the bodies after the aliens have fed), which makes Shinichi come to the realization that perhaps he alone is the only person who knows what is occurring. Migi is hungry for information about human behaviour and stays awake whilst Shinichi sleeps to study human history, and in turn asks Shinichi questions about his feelings, it becomes apparent that Migi has extra sensory powers and con-nections with Shinichi, he begins to feel Shinichi's feelings, as when he meets up with Murano, (the girl Shinichi has a crush on), Migi takes on the form of an erect member much to the embarrassment of Shinichi. Another amusing aspect to the relationship is that Shinichi is constantly talking to Migi, he becomes so involved in their conversations that he forgets where he is, another embarrassing episode is when they are overheard talking at an urinal stand.
The plot begins to develop when a supply teacher, (Tamiya Ryoko), arrives at the school, Migi, through it's extra sensory powers comes to the realization that she is host to an alien, they arrange to meet outside of school. At the meeting Tamiya reveals that she is pregnant by a man who is also host to an alien, and it's left in the balance as to whether it will be born a human baby or an alien baby...Although Tamiya Ryoko manages to keep her killing instincts in check her partner turns hostile towards Shinichi and Migi and hunts them down at the school. There are a few twists and turns to the story that I'll leave out from mentioning, I'm not too sure if I'll be hunting out Parasyte 2 in the near future, it's impossible to judge the series from this first installment, this edition comes with Q & A pages from readers to Iwaaki which is a really great touch, I think I like my manga with a tendency towards tackling social issues or perhaps more character driven story lines, although Parasyte had some entertaining and original ideas, I'm glad to have sampled it. Maybe next I'll give Usamura Furuya's take on No Longer Human a try.
This volume collects two novels by Hideyuki Kikuchi, also author of Vampire Hunter D, Wicked City, Demon City Shinjuku, that were both originally published in Japan in 2005, translated by Joe and Yuko Swift and published by Black Horse Books in 2009, accompanied by fifteen pages of illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. It could be said that they are quite noir-ish in style and show inspiration from Lovecraft, also at times reminding me of Otsuichi. The first story, A Wind Named Amnesia is set in a post apocalyptic America, after a recent reading of Jonathan Lethem's AmnesiaMoon it wasn't too difficult to make parallels with the two stories, an event occurred in the not so distant past that has caused a collective amnesia, reading the story also provoked memories of reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, although with a few differences, ok, perhaps maybe more than a few. The two main characters, Wataru and Sophia, find themselves on a road movie-like quest of a journey as they head, at Sophia's request to New Orleans, along the way they encounter various gangs usually made up of a violent leader and those just trying to survive, after each of these episodes they pick up a straggler who wants to continue with them, but usually leaves after finding a renewed sense of themselves. These survivors carry vague recollections of their past lives which are variously recalled in slight abstraction. Set in the futuristic year 20X5 another factor that threatens them are the existence of the Guardians, huge mechanical robots that were used to police the cities before the apocalyptic event and now roam randomly, their drivers now skeletal. Wataru recalls his meeting with Johnny, who seems to have escaped the amnesia, teaches Wataru world history and instructs him that he must spread the word of this civilisation that man had created before the amnesia struck, Johnny recalls the apocalyptic moment the amnesia started, when Johnny meets Wataru he tells him that his mental age had reverted to that of a three year old. Sophia's history is clouded in ambiguity, and as their journey progresses she begins to exhibit some strange powers, none the least her ability to communicate with the survivors who have lost the ability to speak in a recognisable language. As they travel from city to city and gang to gang, it becomes apparent that something malevolent seems to be travelling not too far behind them, Wataru begins to suspect that Sophia has some extra-terrestial connections that could also be linked to the collective amnesia.
The second story, Invader Summer seemed to clinch it in being my favourite out of the two, set around the High School of Yubue City the main protagonist is Katagiri, a well trained student of Kendo whose abilities are outstanding, through his conversations with Sayo we learn that he had a relationship of sorts with her late sister Yayoi. The narrative follows Katagiri as he walks past a dilapidated house and sees a slightly spectral girl, later the girl is seen again in the playground of the school. Through the various perspectives of Katagiri's friends, Mikimoto, the poetry writing literature student and Kuramochi, a judo champion, things begin to go a little strange for the community of students, the boys begin to fall obsessively in love with the pale girl, collectively lingering around her house, a human eating dragon monster appears which has been pulled out of the realm of fantasy by one of the boys whilst fantasizing over the girl. The pale girl appears before Katagiri asking for his friendship and reveals that her name is also Yayoi, (although with a different family name to that of Sayo and Yayoi). A local journalist friend of Katagiri, Otomo, begins to investigate the girl's history which doesn't add up to what she has been telling people. Another story line that weaves it's way through this is of a group of Yakuza who keep approaching Katagiri, which usually ends with their defeat by Katagiri who defends himself without a sword. Invader Summer contains many story lines as it explores it's characters involvement with the plot, some of which end up being more relevant to the main story than others which makes the story an enjoyable reading experience, and the slightly abstracted way the characters are introduced, at first they are described figurativley and then later named specifically in the narrative kept you uncertain as to who was being introduced and to what degree they would be involved in the central plot, keeps the reader guessing. This story too has an extra-terrestial theme, (albeit that of a dysfunctional alien), which reaches it's conclusion at the local Natsu Kudari festival.
At the moment it seems that my reading is not complete without having at hand a manga to read, and after reading Mitsuse Ryu, Moto Hagio seems like a logical choice, with the news that Fantagraphics will be publishing Hagio's shojo classic The Heart of Thomas/ Toma no shinzo I thought I'd better catch up with their previous book by her. A Drunken Dream and OtherStories collects ten stories that spans thirty years, 1977-2007, the stories are translated by Matt Thorn and includes the essay TheMagnificent Forty-Niners, in which he introduces the artists that made up the influential manga group, all commonly believed to have being born in 1949, although as it turns out Hagio was the only one actually born in this year. I'd have to admit being torn between either posting solely on Iguana Girl or posting on the collection as a whole, although reading through the stories in this selection, they seemed to get better and better as they went along that not to post on any of the others seemed like a little of an injustice. The narratives in Hagio's stories are quite simply conveyed, most of these stories are brief but everyone leaves a resonance with the reader after finishing them, most are largely told from the perspective of a child who is caught at the moment as they are beginning to interpret and awaken to the machinations of the adult world, or are caught responding to some distant tragedy that has taken place in their past, Hagio's use of metaphor in her stories adds another dimension to them. A predominant theme that appears is that of societal conceptions of the normal, well adjusted child as opposed to those that are seen as being ugly or not fitting in, as in Hanshin: HalfGod from 1985 a story about a pair of conjoined twins, one beautiful, who is brash but also has a limp and is therefore carried by the other twin who is not as beautiful but is studious and takes care of her sister, it's also implied in the story that the beautiful twin is sapping the uglier twin's good health. The story explores her feelings of resentment with her beautiful twin, and Hagio's ability to examine the motives and perceptions of the reasoning process in her characters is both exacting and moving to read, the moral table is turned many times in this story when the doctors come to the conclusion that they should be separated, although it will be the case that one of them will die in the operation, Hagio leaves it to the last pages in adding the unexpected twist that changes the perspectives held by her characters.
The title story A Drunken Dream/Suimu, also from 1985, stands out from the others as it's setting is on a space station, it's a fantastic love story that spans across dream and reality, as well as shifting between time periods. The story is seen through the narrator, an androgyne, who has a reoccurring dream of a love unfulfilled, a mysterious person inhabits these dreams and when a group of new recruits arrive at the station the narrator excitedly discovers that among them is the person in the dream. At first reality seems to intervene on the dream, although Hagio has a knack of pulling the rug from beneath your feet at precisely the right moment which ends most of her stories in an enigmatic way, things come to a conclusion but a sense lingers that things are far from being resolved, which leaves the reader contemplating again what has occurred in her stories. The two longest stories Angel Mimic and Iguana Girl, (both from 2008), see Hagio exploring the traits of her characters to a greater degree, Iguana Girl is a story that explores the neurosis between a mother and daughter, (and sister?), the use of metaphor leads the reader into perceiving the narrative one way, but then Hagio turns the story in an unexpected direction which leaves you wondering which of the characters the metaphor is being applied to or which of them it is being perceived by. Angel Mimic/Tenshi no gitai follows the complex relationship between a young high school teacher and one of his pupils whose irrational behaviour hides an episode from her past, at the same time she harbours a fascination for angels which is another enigma to the teacher. The selection also comes with an interview between Hagio and the translator Matt Thorn where they discuss her beginnings and influences as a manga artist.
For quite a while I've wanted to start reading more manga but haven't been too sure which titles to begin with, manga appears to have so many different genres and sub genres within it that it's quite easy to become overwhelmed by choice. I've only read two books of manga before reading the first volume of Eden - It's an Endless World,I've read the first volume of Welcome tothe N.H.K by Tatsuhiko Takimoto, (a story whose central character is a hikkikomori), and also Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, I enjoyed reading both of these books, I guess with manga it's simply a case of diving in and discovering what titles you like and those which you don't, although I'm not too interested in checking out the well known ones. This overwhelming choice of manga is something that Hiroki Endo discusses in an afterword to Eden, he talks also about finding the perfect CD amongst the huge choice to be had, the one manga, song or film that you can relate completely to, for him it was Evangelion but he finds that it's magic begins to wear off, or perhaps that you change, his afterword addresses this constantly changing relationship between who we are and why we become attracted to certain books, music, films.
Eden - It's An Endless World was published in Japan by Kodansha, translated into English by Kumar Sivasubramanian and published by Dark Horse Comics and Titan Books. The first volume of Eden opens in a post apocalyptic world, to begin with there are three principal characters who we get the impression could be the only survivors of an undefined ending of the world; Enoah and Hannah, two junior high school age kids, and also the older, Layne, a wheel chair bound scientist who we discover quite early on in the story is gay. They discuss facets of the bible, and Enoah asks Layne about his father, Enoah only has sparse memories of him. The story begins to be told through flash back sections which are marked throughout the book with the page backgrounds being in black, Layne recollects growing up with Enoah's father, Chris, in the small town where they grew up Layne was beaten up for being gay, Chris never broke off their friendship, an undercurrent to the relationship between Layne and Chris is that possibly Layne holds an unrequited love for Chris, the two men studied science together and the narrative jumps to them working in a purpose built secret military laboratory base trying to find the antidote and cause of a mysterious bio-hazzardous virus which attacks the body, causing the outer skin to harden and the central organs to liquefy. Chris becomes frustrated with the authorities and begins to pass information onto an illegitimate organization, Propater. Hannah and Enoah seem to be special cases as they have DNA which is immune to the virus, Layne at some point has contracted the disease and his condition seems to be worsening. Walking around the now deserted compound Enoah comes across the pieces of a robot called Cherubim which he reassembles.
As chapter one ends helicopters arrive at the base which Enoah refers to as their Eden, and unknown to him his father is amongst the masked men that land and have begun to take control of the base under the guise of rescuing them, tracking down Layne, Chris states he's come for his revenge, a fully functional Cherubim begins to open fire on the men and helicopters, wiping them all out. Chapter two is set twenty years after these events and follows a youth, accompanied by Cherubim, as he explores a city scape now overrun with vegetation and plant life, perplexingly he comes across a body which is being mauled by dogs, inside the ribcage he finds a set of computer discs. The next morning the youth is awakened by a group of bandits that take him hostage, whose leader, Sophia, has hacked into Cherubim and discovered that the youth's name is Elijah and also his father's identity. Eden is a series I think that I could quite easily read in it's entirety, the drawing is a great balance between simplicity and detailed study, the whole tone is one that could be labelled as being speculative, the cover states that it's for mature readers, the first volume is in fact quite mild, although I think as the series goes on, I gather things become more explicit, the volumes that come after this one look in turn at the histories of the central characters, although I think before I take them up I may turn to Endo Hiroki's two volume collection Tanpenshu.
