6 August 2012

Some Thoughts About Good Manga 3

It's that time again to share my thoughts on some good manga. The first of two manga I want to write about today is a story drawn and written by Oshimi Shuuzou. He's probably best known in Japan and the English manga community for his rather unusual story, Aku no Hana (Flowers of Evil), which has proven quite successful enough to earn an anime adaptation in the near future (I was surprised to hear it was even licensed by Vertical). But enough about that, because I'm actually here to talk about a 1-volume long manga Oshimi recently put out back in 2011 by the name of Sweet Poolside.
Oota Toshihiko is a meek 7th grade boy who's teased for having an unnaturally hairless skin. Meanwhile, his female classmate Gotou Ayako suffers from having unnaturally hairy skin which she must shave everyday, despite being terrible at shaving. And by the 2nd law of manga-tropes, Oota accidentally walks in on Gotou shaving one day, and is then roped into helping her hairy classmate shave. Oh Japan, this is why we love your anime and manga.
So what makes this worth reading? Well, it's pretty much the go-to manga for those with a shaving fetish, a relatively uncharted territory even for doujins or H-manga in my experience. I think that partly has to do with Japan's "culture," (if you know what I mean) and in fact, Oshimi himself admits in the afterword that he was quite relieved to hear that some of his readers did find it erotic. Of course, that's not to admit I have a shaving fetish (I don't. Really.) but I always give props to stories that tackle something new, whether it's ground-breaking social commentary or boner-inducing fetish-fuel. And although the story's primary appeal is the shaving-fetish, Oshimi doesn't get too carried away as he prevents his characters from becoming mere vehicles for the fetish itself. The only real flaw is that despite the unusual premise, the actual plot is a little too typical for a light romance story. Then again, since the story is only about 140 pages long, the premise alone is enough to hold the reader's attention all the way through to the end.
In case you're wondering why Sweet Poolside is only ~140 pages long, that's because there's a ~40 page oneshot that's included at the end about a boy who has the power to see through clothing. It's a funny little story with a nice twist in the end, and the Umezu references are a nice touch as well. Hopefully some scanlator will pick this short project up in the near future.
Now before I get to the 2nd manga of this post, I want to talk a little about one of my favourite mangaka, Yokoyama Mitsuteru. It's a real shame that while other influential shonen mangaka such as Tezuka or Nagai have gotten recognition outside their most iconic classics (Astro Boy for the former and possibly Mazinger for the latter), Yokoyama seems to be hardly known outside of Tetsujin 28 (also known as Gigantor in the States). The reason for this, I think, has to do with Yokoyama's "dry" style of storytelling, which heavily emphasizes plot over characterization, and is unable to resonate in modern-day fans of manga who are drawn to the medium in the first place by its potential for expressiveness. So while readers can sympathize more easily with Tezuka's characters who openly show sadness and loneliness, or get riled-up along with Nagai's characters with their expressive close-ups of intense rage, they might be at a loss as to how to feel about Yokoyama's characters, who rarely even have thought bubbles attached to them. I don't see this as a flaw, however, as I find his lack of dramatization lends way for a more honest and realistic air where characters don't seem artificially written to pull at my heart strings or to be entertaining. This is exactly why I love his historical manga. Whereas other historical manga will be written so that many events are dramatized so that the average reader can find "boring old history" to be interesting, Yokoyama stays clear from that and simply tells it like it is.
Now the reason I mentioned Yokoyama, of course, is because the 2nd manga I want to talk about is Babel II. A great shonen-classic of the 70s, the story is about a boy named Kouichi who discovers that his real identity is Babel the 2nd, the descendent of an alien named Babel who once ordered the construction of the mythical Tower of Babel. Once discovering his true identity, his latent psychic powers awake and, like any superhero, must now do battle with a supervillain named Yomi, who plans to take over the world. The premise itself seems very childish, as it rightly should be since that is its target demographic, but there's something about this manga that still makes it a great read for even for older readers. And that something is the villain Yomi.
Although the manga is titled after the main character, the manga might as well be called Yomi because not only does he get as much screen time (or more accurately page time?) as the hero, but he steals the spotlight through his sheer competence, a quality so many super-villains seems to lack. There's no "catch-the-hero-and-explain-how-he-could-possibly-stop-my-plans" or "construct-elaborate-plans-to-kill-the-hero-after-catching-him" nonsense that you'd typically expect from a children's comic about villains that aim at world domination. He's always serious, professional, and would rather die before underestimating his arch-nemesis.  In fact, he really can't afford to underestimate Babel II because the hero possesses 3 ridiculously overpowered servants, Lodem (can transform to anything), Ropross (giant Pteranodon-robot that can fly at supersonic speeds and fire rockets and sonic booms), and Poseidon (giant humanoid robot that's armed to the teeth, virtually indestructible, and can operate on both land and sea). Despite the odds being seemingly stacked against Yomi on paper, his resourcefulness and cunning manages to corner the hero many times and almost makes it seem as if he had the upper hand all along. Furthermore, where other super-villains won't bat an eye when their henchmen die, Yomi shows several instances of love for his men, who in turn, deeply respect him. The best example of this would be when he willingly gives up a chance to destroy Babel II because Babel II has taken Yomi's henchmen hostage. Seriously now. That is one classy villain. So I salute you, Yokoyama, for creating a damn fine character who lets his actions speak far louder than any words can.

P.S. Go watch Imagawa's re-imagining of Tetsujin 28 in his 2004 remake if you haven't yet. It is absolutely fantastic.

15 comments:

  1. Babel II sounds absolutely amazing, hope someday I will get to read it.

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  2. Thanks for the article HOX, your blogs are always an interesting read .
    Just finished Epileptic ( because of your recommendation ) and it was a fantastic book!

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  3. I remember an anime about Babel 2 being produced sometime around the mid 2000s, it was pretty terrible on most fronts to be perfectly honest as it felt extremely rushed and the production values were very low. This blog post definitely makes the manga seem a lot better.

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  4. The 2001 anime has nothing to do with the manga, unlike others low budget adaptions from the same studio like Nagai's Mao Dante, Ishinomori's Genma Taisen and even Yokoyamas's Mars. For some reason, they decided to go with a totally new story for Babel II and I just don't know exactly why.

    That said, the manga is fantastic, I wish I could read the sequel, Sono Na Wa 101, but it was never released on my country as well as Babel II Side Story(or Part. 4), which Yokoyama doesn't like that much. Also, both the 70s TV Series and the 90s OAVs are pure crap, maybe Babel II just don't translate well into anime.

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    1. Yeah, I'm not quite sure why Yokoyama seems to dislike part 4 so much that he created Sono Na Wa 101. I understand that part 3 ended pretty well, but there wasn't anything about part 4 that seemed to go against the spirit or the logic of the manga. Maybe he felt a little guilty about pulling the whole revival card again.

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    2. But... From what I remember, Yomi returns on the final chapter from Sono Na Wa 101 too. I'm not sure, but I think he and Koichi kill each other or something like that. 101 can be much more grim than Babel II, even the chapter with Gin Rei is pretty hardcore stuff.

      What do you think about Babel II The Returner? It seems to just ignores 101, but I don't know what to think... I'm not too much into the whole "modernized Yokoyama" thing.

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    3. I haven't read it but I'm personally not too interested as I'd miss Yokoyama's "dry" writing style too much.

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  5. This Yomi fella seems pretty rad. Too bad the story isn't told from his perspective.

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  6. Araki (the author of Jojo's Bizarre adventure) has said that Babel II is one of his favourite comics. He said that the fights were very clever and interesting, so he used a similar approach in the Jojo series rather than have it like a normal shonen battle manga. I really wish I could read Babel II, and I hope someone translates it someday.

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    1. Oh I didn't know that! now I really want to read Babel II!!

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  7. Hox, I have two questions. First, does Babel II have furigana? It was published in Shounen Champion so my guess is yes but is my guess right?

    Second, are you familiar with Furuya Minoru's (Ike Inachuu Takkyuu-bu, Ciguatera...) Himizu? It's four volumes long and only two volumes have been translated (by SnoopyCool and KEFI & Gantz_Waitingroom). Could you at least consider doing the rest? It has been many years and it is still not completely translated and I'm pretty sure many people would love to read it.

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    1. 1)Yes, Babel II does indeed have furigana for any kanji used.

      2)I've been asked many times to pick up Himizu and to that, I'm sorry to say that while it is technically on my to-translate list, it is not very high in priority as other projects.

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  8. I grabbed the raw for Sweet Poolside the other day and kinda laughed at the shaving fetish thing, but the plot seemed straight forward (for someone who can't read a fucking word of japanese.. well "Hai" and "iee" know those to confirm I'm 18!), always happy to see I'm not the only one digging up weird titles.

    Whenever I check manga-updates my hope that some of these cool titles will get translated kinda dies. I like that someone picked up Aventurier, a manga adaptation of the classic Lupin novels:

    http://my-scanlations.blogspot.com/2012/08/aventurier-shinyaku-arsene-lupin.html

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    1. where can I read sweet poolside?

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    2. You should easily be able to find links just by googling "Sweet Poolside raw"

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