Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning

After the disappearance of his older brother, Ayumu continues to lives with his sister-in-law as normal despite that lack of resolution to the mystery of it all. However when strange incidents start to occur at his school it’s not long before he finds himself in the middle of a dangerous conspiracy. Only his self-faith and powers of deduction can overcome the puzzles that await him.

Spiral is perhaps one of the most anti-shonen series out there. Confrontations appear regularly, but are always presented as tests of logic as opposed to an exchange of blows. Mindlessly shooting up your enemy presents no satisfaction to the intellectual cast, despite many of them being quite capable assassins, and so it is victories of the mind that are valued above all else where betting your life on your reasoning is the only real way to win a true victory. As such entire chapters of talking heads can go by, but the detailed scripting makes for engrossing reading.

‘Who are the Blade Children’

Anyone familiar with the Spiral anime will be familiar with this tagline. As the series debuted viewers were constantly teased with information about the Blade Children, who they were, and what the mystery about them was in relation to Ayumu’s life and the mystery surrounding his brother. Expectations were high for the final episode when all would be revealed… except nothing happened. True, the show ended with a Hollywood-style showdown, but the conspiracies weren’t explained and audiences were left feeling a little cheated.

It turns out the series only covered half of the manga which continues to plot to a full and proper resolution. With divulging any spoilers, I can say the ending is full and complete with pretty much everything explained thoroughly. So thorough in fact that the explanation if what/who the Blade Children are takes up an entire volume in itself!

It may base itself on reasoning, but the second half of Spiral sends itself into some pretty unreal scenarios as increasingly outlandish concepts come into play surrounding the final mysteries. Spiral might have its own logic, not necessarily one that relates to the real world. A very worthwhile dialogue-based manga then, just a bit far out there for some readers.

Dojin Work

The dojin (self-published comics) scene is Japan is huge. With some artists selling multiple thousands of copies of their work it’s virtually a self-sustaining business within the world of manga. The lure of fame and fortune can be strong, particularly for protagonist Najimi who think it an way to sell out and make an easy living. Failing to take into account that drawing a comic is hard, let alone trying to actually sell your stuff, especially if your artwork stinks, we follow Najimi into a world populated with geeks and freaks.

A quick flick through a volume of this series won’t reveal a thing about this manga. The unglossy artwork does well to keep its hilariously jaded and mean sense of humour well under wraps from the passing eye, making the joy of reading this manga stronger as anyone seeing you read won’t have a clue to the filth being discussed within it. It’s no big secret that some dojin comics are porn, of which Dojin Work shows nothing. However the psychological impact on a creator making their first porn comic is hilarious (‘it’s like masturbating in public’ we’re told).

As time goes on Najimi’s sales steadily rise from single figures to double digits, against her friends who all regularly sell in the thousands. She gains a rival who issuitably awful and the two battle it out to get the best sales. Best character of all Tsuyuri who is comfortable with her status as a pervert and subtly manipulates her friends into making the worst and most embarrassing decisions on their creative journey. The whole thing is totally understated, but out of all the yon-koma available in English this is probably my favourite.

Of the six volumes, Anime Works only published up to the 4^th one and exists as one of my biggest wants of unfinished manga. They did also release the 12 episode anime series which is worth checking out as an emergency backup. If you’re familiar with the Comiket scenes from the likes of Genshiken and Lucky Star, you might be tempted to take a cynical glimpse at this anti-Bakuman series.

Tenjo Tenge

Soichiro Nagi and Bob Makihara are a couple of street punks looking to conquer their high school – a plan which promptly fails as they get the crap beaten out of them. It turns out Todo High is a mess of inhumanly strong fighters and martial aritsts who don’t take kindly to having some newbies start causing a ruckus. Seeking refuge at the Juken Club, a dissident martial arts group populated with two female hotties and one male loser, they begin their training to fight back.

In short: Tenjo Tenge is so awesome it doesn’t really need a plot.

Tenjo Tenge is not to be confused with Tenjho Tenge though, oh no. The difference in removing that ‘h’ is indicative of this book being an entirely different beast to CMX’s previous ill-advised release of the same manga. Tenjo Tenge is all about the boobs and the blood and makes no apologies for it. So CMX choosing to edit out the worst parts (i.e. the selling points) seems like a pretty bizarre decision. Needless to say the hardcore fans went apeshit at the idea of a manga being censored, boycotting the entire company and demanding an uncut version.

With the event of CMX being unceremoniously (and somewhat unfairly) shut down, Viz jumped at the chance to give the series a proper go leaving in all the action in larg format double volumes editions and even inserting colour pages. Basically it’s everything that was asked for –I just hope the fans who moaned at CMX choose to back up their words with their wallets. As for the manga itself, it’s refreshingly OTT and thoroughly disgracefully stupid. If seeing muscle-bound freaks and scantily clad girls beating seven shades of shit out of each other I’d struggle to think of anything more earnest and relevant than this one.

Blacksad

I’m going to stretch a bit outside of my safe zone and check out some comics to time that are not manga-related at all. It’s in keeping with the Japanese definition of manga at least (comics, right?), and if that explanation doesn’t gel then fine it’s my blog so I can write about whatever I fancy! ^_^

In terms of American comics I’ll be honest and say most mainstream superhero comics bore me. There have been shockingly few new significant characters introduced over the last couple of decades, and the old ones are so ingrained that no one dares change anything about them, which kind of kills any attempt at credibility in the drama as you know you’re pretty much guaranteed a predictable happy ending each time. Manga’s a bit more risky and suits my taste, but every so often I still get a little worn out with that too start to crave something… different. And so I turn my eyes to the mainland…

Known locally as bandes dessinées, or simply BD, the French and Belgian comic industry is well-established with comic volumes regularly selling in the hundreds of thousands. Not as big as Japan, but I’d hazard bigger than the US and certainly more so than in the pitiful UK. A standard volume is around 50-odd pages, A4-ish in size, hardback and therefore quite expensive. They’re premium goods with titles seemingly holding their value several years after their initial release. Aside from the anomalies such as Asterix and Tintin, most BDs are inexplicably ignored and unknown in English-language territories, but thankfully the walls are slowly bringing broken down.

John Blacksad is a private investigator cat who works in a world where corruption, sleaze and crime run rife throughout society. This is pulp territory of crime fiction with an animal twist. Mammals and reptiles mix as well as black horses and white wolves in this tense 50s-style world where prejudice only barely runs under the surface. The animal designs create archetypes that enhance characterisations rather than distracting from the plot or making it look silly. There’s a strong style to this substance, and the sublime watercolours brim every page with a finesse that is very rarely seen in comics of any sort.

Dark Horse released a volume that compiles the first three comics into one solid hardback. It’s lovely stuff and serves as a real showcase to the work. A fourth volume did come out in France last year, but as yet there’s no sign of a translated release and as years go by between individual releases, it might be quite a long while before a second triple-volume book is feasible (assuming it would even be considered). All the same Blacksad is an amazing comic, and well worth risking regardless of your normal taste in comics.

Monster Men Bureiko Lullaby

Some manga you might want to hide from your parents, but this one you might want to keep safely buried away from everyone you’ve ever met. Quite what kind of possessed creature you’d have to be to produce a manga like this, I have no idea. That it was even considered for translation, let alone actually released over here, is something worthy of my respect. Everyone involved in this book has major cojones, or simply don’t care. And that also applies to anyone who attempts to read this.

Consider this a warning then that this is a pretty obscene and depraved manga. Comparisons to Robert Crumb are absolutely justified…

Containing a series of short stories, the first of which depicts a penis that doesn’t want to be used for rape any more, and so knocks its owner out, flips the main body upside down and takes control as the main head (look at the front cover – he’s walking on his hands, see?). This is just for starters…

Serialized originally in Garo magazine, this is underground manga with humour about as dark as it gets. Sane people will be repulsed as they read a later story about a mutant sperm that becomes sentient from being ejaculated in the middle of a nuclear explosion, and goes on the depict his life as he grows up. It’s probably not wise describe further what else goes on in the book, but needless to say it involves a lot of penises, masturbation, most/all orifices, necrophilia, sex from inside the womb (you read that right), and pretty much any combination of all the above.

Certainly not for prudes or the judgemental. This is truly dangerous waters and if you’ve read it don’t be offended if I then have nothing to do with you.