Rip-Off Theatre presents: Special Guest Star: Enjoyment of manga apparently runs in the family

I always enjoy when bloggers interview people who either don't normally read comics or aren't really into the blogging and the criticism and the hey hey. So here's my stab at it.

The test subject: My brother Noah Brady, a teenager from the wilds of Oregon.

The review material: My stack of manga volumes that I've received for review (including a few other books from my shelf), many of which I haven't had a chance to read yet.

MJB: What's your experience with manga and anime? Have you read/watched much of it? What are your favorite series?

Noah: I wouldn't say I've read/watched a lot, but I have read a fair amount, and I'd have to say I guess some of my favorites would be anything by Osamu Tezuka.

MJB: How much of Tezuka's work have you read or are familiar with?

Noah: I've read some of Dororo as well as the first two volumes of Black Jack, and I've seen a fair deal of Astro Boy episodes.

MJB: And those would be the black and white cartoon from back in the 60s (I think)?

Noah: No. It was colored and animated and happy and joyful. [Editor's Note: It appears to be the 1980 remake]

MJB: So it seems to mostly be the stuff I've given you to read.

Noah: Yeah.

MJB: Cool, I love that stuff. Tezuka is one of my favorites as well. Let's talk about Black Jack. I've read a little bit of the series, but not these two volumes yet. What would you say you like about them so much?

Noah: Well, I'd have to say that I like the character Tezuka created; he's very mysterious, and he doesn't reveal al lot about his feelings, but thorugh the course of the volumes, you kind of see his character come out and develop, and a lot of different things happen and it just shows you a depth to his character.

MJB: Yeah, Tezuka is good at defining characters through their actions. And he also comes up with some really off-the-wall stories. There are some pretty goofy examples of crazy medicine and surgery here, wouldn't you say?

Noah: Yeah.

MJB: Any that you liked in particular?

Noah: I lked a certains tory about how he operated on a killer whale multiple times, and they became friends, because it seemed kind of really random.

MJB: In what way? Because he just randomly happened upon a whale that needed surgery, or because it's weird that he became friends with a whale?

Noah: Well, it was kjust kind of odd because you have a bunch of stories about him saving rich people who gave him a bunch of money and then out of the blue it's like, "Oh, look, it's a whale, and I'll save his life, and we'll become friends, yay!"

MJB: So it was kind of an odd departure from the formula of the other stories.

Noah: Yeah.

MJB: So, how about the artwork? I like the way Tezuka uses a really cartoony style, but manages to do some serious stuff with it. And he's pretty dynamic too, coming up with really cool action, don't you think? [Editor's Note: This was a poor question. Objection, Your Honor, the interviewer is leading the witness!]

Noah: Yes, I would have to agree with that.

MJB: Did you see any examples of that sort of thing in this series?

Noah: Multiple times. In fact, all the time. I mean, for every one frame of peaceful, not-action-intense situations, he has about 32 frames of dramatic action-packed, um, drama.

MJB: Yeah, I love that sort of thing. How about the surgery scenes? Did you find them suitably grotesque?

Noah: Yes, in fact there's quite a few moments of intense gut-ripping found throughout.

MJB: What did you think about the sidekick/wife character? Was she a good addition, or just an annoyance?

Noah: Well, she was kind of pointless, because every once in a while she would come in and actually be part of the story, but for the most part it was, Black Jack, go save somebody; Black Jack, go defuse this bomb; Black Jack, go stop the army of invading aliens, and then she would show up and it was like, "Oh, hey, let's talk about me going to school!"

MJB: So you thought she detracted from the action?

Noah: Pretty much.

MJB: Do you think she helped develop his character, since you mentioned that he was kind of mysterious?

Noah: She did a little bit, because multiple stories that she's in she'll ask a simple question that leads to a humongous story about his past, and it'll be like oh, geez, she's actually worth something! Good thing she asks questions.

MJB: What about her origin story? That was pretty weird, right?

Noah: Yeah, it was.

MJB: But the series might have been better without her?

Noah: It probably could have been.

MJB: Anything else you want to mention about Black Jack before we move on?

Noah: Not really.

MJB: Okay, how about Dororo? I myself really like the series, but what did you think about the volume that you read?

Noah: I thought it was good.

MJB: Compared to Black Jack, did you like the action and adventure?

Noah: Yeah, I did. Where Black Jack offers kind of a suspenseful, "oh my god, what's going to happen?" outlook, Dororo puts more of a, I don't know, I just feel it's more fun to kill people with swords than scalpels (although Black Jack doesn't really kill anybody, but whatever).

MJB: Yeah, swords are cool. Speaking of weird origin stories, what did you think about Hyakkimaru's? [Editor's Note: See more about said origin here]

Noah: Craziness.

MJB: Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Tezuka was great at coming up with insane ideas and making them work to tell cool stories. Did you like the idea of the guy hunting demons to regain his body parts?

Noah: Yeah, it was pretty cool.

MJB: And how about the goofy prosthetics that he had?

Noah: They were pretty goofy, but there's nothing much cooler than watching a guy throw off his arms to reveal swords and slash people. I mean, come on, how's that not fun?

MJB: I certainly agree. And on another similar note to Black Jack, how did you like the sidekick in this series?

Noah: Um, he was much more helpful, instead of being just the character that kind of just illuminated the past of the main character. Even thosugh he did that as well, he added his own conflict into the story and gave it some depth, while the sideckik in Black Jack was just "Oh well, my background's pretty lame."

MJB: I liked the relationship between Hyakkimaru and Dororo as well, the way they were kind of antaogonistic, but still seemed to like having each other around.

Noah: Yeah. They seemed to be like foils for each other.

MJB: And how about the action in this one? Even cooler, right?

Noah: Yeah, definitely. Demons are much more fun to kill than tumors.

MJB: And the demons were all weird and strange too.

Noah: Yep.

MJB: One thing I like about Tezuka is the way he puts some goofy jokes and gags into the manga, like having characters make funny faces, or talk to the reader, or make anachronistic references. Did you like that sort of thing, or did you think that it detracted from the story?

Noah: I enjoy when he does that kind of thing. For example, in the front couple pages of the second volume of Dororo, they encounter a mysterious wall, and the sideckik is like, "It's the back side of a medicine billboard", and the main guy says "What?!", and he responds, "I'm just kidding, it's blank."

MJB: Maybe you have a similar sense of humor to mine, because I love that sort of thing, but I've read reviews where people complain about it. I think it's a good way to balance out the heavy drama. Plus, it's just something Tezuka liked to do, and it makes his personality shine through.

Noah: Yeah, it'd have to agree with you; I can see where some people would be more into the book for the action and would want to read it for the samurai, not for the jokes and fun. Some of us just need a little comic relief once in a while.

MJB: Well said. Anything else you want to mention about Dororo?

Noah: Not so much.

MJB: Okay, I saw that you read volumes 33 and 34 of Naruto. How familiar are you with the series?

Noah: I haven't read very much of the manga series, but I've watched a crap ton of the anime. I mean, I've watched the whole thing and all the filler season, and I started watching the new series and got bored with it, and I noticed that you had these two that seemed to jump in right were I left off, so I thought, what the hell, might as well.

MJB: Now, I have very little experience with the series, having read only the first chapter of the manga and watched a couple episodes of the anime. Would I have any idea what is going on in these if I tried to read them?

Noah: Only barely. The common premise of these two is that the main group of characters are trying to rescue their friend, who doesn't really want to be rescued from the bad guys, having gone to join them. That's basically been the premise for a lot of the series.

MJB: But given a brief summary, like the two-paragraph one that is on an early page of volume 33, would I be able to jump in and give it a go? Or would it be better to go to Wikipedia and read the entire plotline up to this point?

Noah: You probably could get by from where it's at reading just the summary, but if you really want to know what's happened, you should probably wiki it.

MJB: All right, I was curious if I should try it out. But how about you, did you dig the story here?

Noah: It's a pretty all right story. It's just it seems kind of repetitive after a while. The first 100 or so chapters do show character developments as all the people learn new skills and become stronger, but by the time you've gone through all of them they just seem to do the same thing over and over, but the main character never changes, and he always seems to do the same things, and it's like come on, really?

MJB: So the series seems to have stretched past the breaking point. That seems to happen with some of the really successful series, since the creators (or editors) try to keep them going. Do you think this series could have ended at some point, or should it have gone onto a different type of storyline or something?

Noah: I think that there wasn't really much of a point in the story where you could have just cut it off and be done, but I feel that the way that they've taken it is just boring. They don't add much new content. They add new characters every once in w a while, but once they do their new stuff, they all just pull the same moves over and over again, and it gets old.

MJB: Is the action still dynamic and exciting, or is it just more of what you've seen before?

Noah: It can be pretty deynamic and exciting, some of the time. Other times, it's just, once again, he seems to follow the same sequence of events.

MJB: So it sounds like the earlier volumes of the series (or anime) might be worth checking out, but it does suffer a drop-off in quality.

Noah: Yeah.

MJB: Anything else to add about Naruto?

Noah: No.

MJB: I guess I shouldn't bother asking that question. Here's one that I haven't read, although I did read the first chapter at some point: Heaven's Will. Can you explain what that one's about?

Noah: It's about a girl who can see ghosts, and she's afraid of everything that she doesn't understand, so she freaks out and runs away, and she meets this cross-dresser guy who can exorcise ghosts, and they go on adventures, and she finds out that he cross-dresses so his sister's spirit can come back and enter his body, because she died because of him and he feels really bad about it.

MJB: Weird. So was it worth reading?

Noah: I didn't really think so.

MJB: This is in the shojo genre, aimed at girls. Do you think that's why you didn't like it that much?

Noah: Probably.

MJB: Shojo is usually about drama and emotion, with lots of panels of characters faces and less in the way of dynamic action. Would you say that description fits this volume?

Noah: Yeah, pretty much.

MJB: It's only one volume long; do you think it could have lasted longer, or did it tell it's story and end at the right time?

Noah: It didn't tell it's story. It had a letter from the author saying, "Sorry I couldn't finish this, nothing I really wanted to happen happened, my bad." It kind of dropped off in the middle of the story.

MJB: Oh, huh. I was going to ask if you thought girls might like it, but given an ending like that, it might not be worth recommending to anyone. Do you think the sudden ending was the major fault, or did you just not like the story anyway?

Noah: I think the sudden ending was the major fault. There was a lot of character development that needed doing.

MJB: Okay, well that's probably all we needed to know about that one. Next : Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom. This one might be more up your alley. Is it any good?

Noah: It's all right. I mean, it's kind of dorky. It's about this demon guy who ends up being forced into a contract with a human guy, and they have to fight off rebel demons and outcast demons, and all this stuff.

MJB: It looks like an action series; is that the case?

Noah: Yeah.

MJB: Cool action?

Noah: Kind of cool action.

MJB: So what's the dorky part?

Noah: It's just, I don't know, I suppose it kind of reminds me of Inuyasha, just lamer.

MJB: What's lame about it?

Noah: Well, where Inuyasha was kind of, the character developed along the line and became stronger and more powerful, and over time he grew, this one just seems like, Mr. Demon Guy says I want to get into a fight, now I'll just turn into a humongous monster and just kill everybody, yeah, that was really hard.

MJB: So it starts out at too high a level, and there's probably no room to develop.

Noah: Yeah, pretty much.

MJB: Is it funny, or are the characters interesting? Or is it just kind of bland?

Noah: Kind of bland.

MJB: I see that the rating is "Older Teen". Do you think that's because it's violent, or is there some naughtiness or something?

Noah: Probably violence. There's a supreme lack of naughtiness.

MJB: Maybe some panty shots would have livened it up or something.

Noah: Perhaps.

MJB: So it sounds kind of generic, at least judging by this first volume.

Noah: Yeah, pretty much.

MJB: Okay, I guess that's enough for that one. One final book: Death Note. How did you like this one?

Noah: I enjoyed this.

MJB: It's a series that I really dig, although it reaches a peak around volume 7, and the rest of the series is only okay. Did the first volume make you want to read more?

Noah: Yeah, it did.

MJB: What did you like about it?

Noah: Um, I liked that it made you think. It wasn't just, here, let's go bash everything in sight.

MJB: So the plot conflict was interesting and unique. How did you like the characters?

Noah: They're pretty cool. Everyone seems to be slightly eccentric. And by eccentric I mean crazy.

MJB: So do you mean just Light, or other characters too?

Noah: No, pretty much all of the main characters. For example, Light is crazy, Ryuk is crazy, L is crazy. Most of the other charaecters are not as crazy, but everyone seems to have delusions of righteousness. Well, almost everybody.

MJB: Who doesn't?

Noah: Ryuk is crazy in that instead of trying to be righteous, he's causing chaos for the hell of it.

MJB: I like that the plots and schemes are so dense and convoluted, even in this first volume.

Noah: Yep.

MJB: Just wait until you read more of the series. I also thought that it was exciting, even though so much of it was just characters talking or thinking to themselves. Do you think that was mostly due to the art?

Noah: No, I think I was more interested in the plot itself than the art. I'm trying to think of a movie that would be similar, but I can't think of anything. The manga is just so unique.

MJB: Yeah, it is. Me, I think the art helps, and the panel-to-panel pacing really amps up the tension.

Noah: [nods]

MJB: So, yeah, it's pretty cool. Anything else you liked about it?

Noah: The artwork was good.

MJB: Okay, I guess that's the last book. Any other comments on manga, or comics in general, or what you want to read next?

Noah: I think I want to read the rest of the Dororo series next.

MJB: All right, I'll let you get to it. Enjoy.

Dororo: I'll take Osamu Tezuka artwork over cheesy CGI any day

More movie talk below, but I also wanted to mention that I watched Exiled last night, and it was excellent.  It's a gangster/crime movie by Chinese director Johnnie To, and it's full of the sorts of stuff I love in movies like that, like brotherhood among criminals, bonding moments during downtime, and operatic shootouts.  The opening is incredible, in which four gangsters gather around a fifth who has gone into hiding with the intent of either killing or defending him; they have a shootout, and then stop, help him unload all his furniture from a moving truck, then sit down for dinner together.  I love it.  If you dig that sort of "honorable gangster" movie that's kind of a subgenre in Chinese and Japanese movies, be sure to check it out.

Dororo

Japan, 2007

directed by Akihiko Shiota

Since I'm such a nut for the manga, I figured I had to check out the recent live-action adaptation of Osamu Tezuka's weird/cool unfinished series.  And the verdict is: not as good as the source material.  Surprise, surprise.  Of course, that's kind of to be expected; doesn't everybody say "the book was better" about any movie adaptation?  And yes, taking an episodic series and turning it into a coherent two-hour story is not exactly easy, but this seems like an oddly piecemeal job.  It might have been better to take the concept and build a new story on it, but the writer(s) of this version took a few stories, changed some stuff around, and added their own elements wherever they felt like it.  It ends up being pretty unsatisfying as a movie, and especially so if you're familiar with the source material.

Although really, aside from the origin story (which has its own changes, including the odd choice to make Hyakkimaru's prostheses of somewhat magical origin) and the finale (which reworks the "wall" story from volume two, but more on that later), they really only convert one (1) of Tezuka's episodes to film.  That would be the one with the moth demon that married a rich guy and fathered a bunch of monster babies that ate the townspeople's children.  Outside of that encounter (which has some nice, creepy visuals, like caterpillar monster kids slithering all over the interior walls of a house), Hyakkimaru's quest to kill demons and regain his lost organs amounts to little more than a montage of him fighting monsters that combine the rubbery designs of Power Rangers bad guys and some silly-looking CGI.

Also puzzling is the casting for Dororo, which pretty much gives away a twist regarding the character's nature that crops up in the third volume of the manga.  I found that odd, along with the age of the character, who looks to be teenage or older here, but I thought was around ten years old in the original.  I guess working with a child actor would have been too difficult?

And then there's that finale.  That story involving two towns separated by a crumbling wall was one of my favorites in the whole series, but the movie elides the entirety of the interesting conflict (which involved demons spurring the people to senselessly kill each other out of regional pride so they could feed on the dead bodies) in the original story and makes it all about Hyakkimaru's showdown with his father and brother.  I do realize that father/son conflict is the basis of most Japanese movies, and it was certainly an aspect of the original story as well, but this version got pretty damn tiresome.

So, I wouldn't recommend the movie, even if you don't have experience with the manga.  Read the Tezuka instead; that will give you hours more entertainment than this silliness.

-----

If you're interested, you can check out the trailer to the movie here.  And here's a clip from the 1969 anime adaptation of the series, which lasted 26 episodes and actually came to a decisive conclusion (episode list here, if you're interested).  Finally, here's the opening cinematic from the 2004 PS2 game Blood Will Tell, another adaptation of the series.  Since I've become a Dororo connosieur, I'll have to check that one out sometime.

Dororo: Goodbye to the series, and hello to more organs

Well, I was sick yesterday, so I didn't get to the weekly release list.  Sorry, anybody who was waiting with baited breath.  Eh, it was a boring week anyway.

And, in case anybody missed it, I've got a review of Thomas Ott's The Number 73304-23-4153-6-96-8 up over at IndiePulp, and also one of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane Season 2 #3 at Comics Bulletin.  Guess which one is worth reading.

Dororo, volume 3

By Osamu Tezuka

Well, this is a bummer of a book, since it's the final one in the series, and it doesn't wrap up so much as just end.  Apparently, Osamu Tezuka moved on to other projects and never really finished the story, although he does find a bit of a stopping point.  It's too bad, since as with the previous two volumes, there's some good stuff here, including some excellent action and well-drawn emotional conflicts.  Our heroes, Hyakkimaru and Dororo, especially get some interesting dynamics here, with the latter fighting against his true nature, which gets revealed offhandedly (but which I won't spoil), and the former trying to find a balance between his desire to regain his body parts and the need to connect with his fellow humans.  One especially poignant story sees Dororo befriend a young horse whose mother was the steed of a great general, but who was possessed by a demon.  Hyakkimaru wants to kill it, excited at the prospect of recovering another organ:

But Dororo just wants his new friend to be happy:

It's an unfortunate conflict, and one that seems obvious in this series, bringing the two protagonists into opposition.  It doesn't last long (demons have got to be killed, you know), but it's an interesting idea, and one that could have used more exploration had the series lasted longer.  But at least we get an awesome scene of Hyakkimaru chopping the legs off a demon horse:

Other excellence in this volume includes a bandit who rides around on a shark:

A bunch of demon-possessed small animals:

And several of the large-scale battle scenes (and their aftermath) that Tezuka did so well:

That last image is pretty incredible, and the scene leading up to it contains one of my favorite of Tezuka's tropes: the villain who reforms somewhat and redeems himself, usually through self-sacrifice.  This one is a bandit who knew Dororo's father, and wishes to use the map on Dororo's back to locate his hidden treasure.  This leads to all sorts of crazy twists, including a battle scene that sees him turn honorable and continue fighting against the forces of a local magistrate long after he is mortally wounded:

I love that stuff.  

This volume, being the final one, also sees Hyakkimaru finally confront his father, even leading a sort of workers' rebellion against his evil rule:

Did I mention that Tezuka does awesome battle scenes?  We get some great stuff here, and while it's not a completely satisfying destination, the journey feels more than worth it.

But even though the large-scale battles and fights are excellent, Tezuka still nails the smaller moments, like Hyakkimaru realizing that he likes having Dororo around:

Or the goofy slapstick-style bits that he occasionally indulges in:

You get a full experience when you read a Tezuka book, from the large to the small, and it's all worth the time spent.  While this series was unfortunately truncated, he has plenty of other material available (even among the fraction that has been translated into English), and every bit of it is good reading.  While he won't be producing any more of it, hopefully it will continue to be imported, and we'll get to experience his genius for years and years to come.

Dororo: Never fall in love with a demon

Still getting caught up, it seems. I've also got a review of Water Baby up at Comics Bulletin. Not a bad bit of writing, if I do say so myself. Sometimes I'm not completely satisfied with a review when I finish it, and other times I feel like everything worked out pretty well. This is one of the latter.

Dororo, volume 2
By Osamu Tezuka



The reason this series was never finished becomes slightly more obvious in this second volume, as Osamu Tezuka seems to be casting about for a direction for the series, unsure of where he wants to go with the concept. A samurai warrior traveling the land and recovering his lost body parts from demons must not have been enough, because this volume sees him confront the family that rejected him, a plot that could have waited several more volumes for resolution (or maybe that's just the more modern style of manga storytelling; things have changed a lot since the late sixties). Then, his boy sidekick is revealed to have a map to a great treasure etched on his back, providing another running series hook, as Hyakkimaru tries to convince Dororo to seek out the treasure and use it to help the common people. It's an odd, kind of unfocused continuing plot, but that seems to be Tezuka's style anyway, letting stories flow whichever direction his muse took him. And it's not like it's any less entertaining; the series continues to dazzle with big, bloody action, weird demonic fiends, and nutty plot twists.

At the beginning of the volume, Hyakkimaru and Dororo come across a strange wall sitting in the middle of a barren landscape. They stop there to sleep, but are attacked by a bunch of fox spirits, and Hyakkimaru ends up fighting them throughout the night:



It turns out to be an evil place, as they find when soldiers show up the next morning and line a bunch of peasants up against the wall, then execute them with arrows. It's a pretty harsh scene, with Tezuka unflinchingly depicting men, women, and even children being ruthlessly killed. Dororo eventually loses it and attacks the soldiers, and Hyakkimaru saves him before he can be killed, confronting their leader, a strangely familiar nobleman who calls his men off once he figures out who the weird, prosthetic-limbed swordsman is (his long-lost son, of course!). Our heroes then set out toward the local town, where the plot splits into two halves, as Hyakkimaru meets up with his father's family, including the younger brother he never knew he had, and has a dramatic reunion with his mother, which leads to a sad scene of denial:



Meanwhile, Dororo gets captured by the townspeople and beaten mercilessly:



That seems to happen to him a lot. We learn that the town sits on the border between two warring kingdoms, so it was split, with people on each side arbitrarily assigned to a kingdom and sent to battle their neighbors. Dororo befriends a street urchin who was stranded on the side of the wall opposite his home, left unable to return home and reunite with his family. It's a nice commentary on the ridiculousness of war, which can gather up people who care nothing about borders and politics and give them a pointless reason to murder the people they used to be friends with. Eventually, the culprits behind the whole dispute are revealed to be a group of fox demons who have been filling people with rage toward outsiders, resulting in lots of dead bodies for them to feed on. That's as good a symbol of propaganda-wielding governments as I can think of.

Eventually, the two plot threads come together, and Hyakkimaru has one of those emotional battles that work so well in samurai stories:



Then, he defeats the evil fox spirit, leading to an awesome display of victory:



His father is left alive though, so there's still room for a big confrontation, which, given the truncated nature of the series, might or might not happen in the next volume.

The next story is more about Dororo (although there is some nice suicidal angst on Hyakkimaru's part); after being banished from Hyakkimaru's presence, he goes off on his own and befriends a strange woman who acts motherly toward him. She's obviously got some sort of deadly secret though, but he is so lonely and misses his mom so much, he sticks with her. It's a nice bit of characterization; Dororo talks tough, but he's still a vulnerable kid underneath all the bluster. The woman's secret involves a face-stealing demon who takes the form of a Buddha statue and controls a waterfall, commanding her to lure monks to sit under the stream of water, where he kills them and takes their features as his own. While Dororo comes close to being killed by the demon, Hyakkimaru ends up getting over his self-loathing and returns to save the day, in a predictably awesome manner.

The final story in the volume begins in a crazy manner, as the pair of adventurers get saddled with a monstrous child that won't stop following them around:



They end up getting mixed up in the affairs of a town which used to have an orphanage run by a kindly nun, until it burned down. There's also a weird-looking nobleman who has a strange wife and servants. I wonder if they'll turn out to be demons? There are plenty of crazy twists and turns, but it ends up with Hyakkimaru managing to lead the townspeople against the monsters, which turn out to be led by a freaky moth-creature:



And with a nice X-Men-style scene in which the villagers distrust our heroes and chase them away, we finish the volume. It's another excellent piece of Tezuka awesomeness, with some dynamic action, nasty monsters, and good characterization. It probably doesn't hold together as well as some of Tezuka's other works, but it's still a really fun read, with some amazing content. I love the barely-lit silhouette-style of art he uses at times, and it works especially well in the middle of an action scene here:



And the monster art is wonderfully weird. Here's a really cool effect that he throws in:



And the wacky, fourth-wall-breaking humor continues to feature, with characters mentioning anachronistic details, or Dororo asking Tezuka not to reveal a non-manly moment to readers. And then there's his "secret move", which is simply screaming really loud:



That stuff cracks me up.

On a side note, the notes that are provided in the margins are wonderful, explaining cultural references, language-based jokes, and anything else that isn't immediately clear in the translation. This should be a standard manga feature, in my opinion.

So like I said, it's a great read, especially for Tezuka junkies like me. It might not be his best work, but I'll take anything by him that I can find.

Dororo: I love a good limbless samurai story

Hey, I forgot to mention this earlier: I've got a review of Marvel 1985 #1, the first issue of the new miniseries by Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards, up at Comics Bulletin as part of a "slugfest". Enjoy. And then read this:

Dororo, volume 1
By Osamu Tezuka



So this is apparently kind of a lesser work from Osamu Tezuka, an unfinished series from the late 60s mixed in with all the other stuff he had going on. But you could've fooled me; it's just as fun and crazy as everything else I've read by Tezuka, and it's full of action, gore, and weird supernatural monsters and demons. I gotta say, I totally dug it.

Here's the bizarre plot: an official named Lord Daigo makes a deal with 48 demons to become the ruler of all the land, offering them each one part of his unborn son's body. When the child is born, he's a limbless, blind, deaf lump of flesh, so his father sends him down the river in a basket. He's eventually discovered by a kindly doctor, who decides to raise him after taking pity on his appearance and seeing his desire to live:



Eventually, the doctor devises a series of artificial limbs and other devices like glass eyes and a wig that make him look normal. Also, he has amazing psychic abilities, which is how he communicates and is able to perceive his environment. Hey, why not? But their life is disrupted by the constant harassment they receive from demons and monsters, who are attracted to the boy:



I love Tezuka's rendition of those goofy Japanese supernatural creatures. So the boy takes on the name Hyakkimaru (which means, roughly, "boy of 100 demons") and goes out into the world on his own. He has some adventures involving a blind swordsman who inspires him to hone his skills and a band of wounded refugee children who give him the hope to survive, and then he ends up wandering the land, searching for the various demons who stole his body parts so he can recover them and become whole.

Oh yeah, and then there's the title character, a young boy thief who Hyakkimaru sort of takes under his wing after rescuing him from some bad guys. Dororo (which is sort of a kiddie pronunciation of the word for "thief", dorobo) has his own tragic backstory, and the two of them go on adventures together, always keeping up kind of an adversarial relationship, since Dororo wants to steal Hyakkimaru's swords (which are stashed inside his artificial limbs; see examples of their use below). Apparently, Tezuka thought Dororo was the more relatable character, but audiences (including myself) preferred Hyakkimaru, so his adventures became central to the series.

And man, those adventures are crazy awesome. He's always getting into battles, either with freaky demons or regular bandit types. From his first appearance as an adult, we get the idea of the kind of balls-out action Tezuka is going for here:



There's plenty of blood and swordfights, in the awesomely dynamic style Tezuka does so well, like this fight with a demon dog:



Much of this volume is taken up with the origin stories, but we also get a couple adventures involving demon-hunting. The first, about a woman/frog monster who has enslaved a village (and also has something to do with a face-shaped tumor, which was strange) is pretty enjoyable, but the final story, about a possessed sword, was probably my favorite part of the book. It begins with Hyakkimaru facing off against a swordsman who randomly challenges him, leading to a 20-hour psychic battle. Dororo ends up stealing the evil sword, which makes him go on a killing spree in the local village (although I don't know if he actually kills anyone, or just attempts lots of violence). Eventually we learn the history of the cursed sword, which is a nice look at the way violence begets violence, and how its effects can destroy someone's spirit. The swordsman who challenged Hyakkimaru turns out to have a pretty awful backstory, in which he was ordered to kill a bunch of innocent laborers to prevent secrets from falling into enemy hands. He doesn't want to do it, but he eventually follows orders, leading to a horrific display of violence:



It's harsh stuff, and when he eventually meets his end at Hyakkimaru's hands, it's tragic and sad. That's the stuff of good samurai tales, even when it's mixed in with Tezuka's weird blend of action and comedy.

That's right, this is like most anything by Tezuka; there are anachronisms and fourth-wall-breaking moments (at one point, a character receives a message, states "I can't read", and then presents it to the reader to read for him), and plenty of goofy slapstick. But he's got such command of the comics form, it's all so readable and fun and compelling. The action is all clear and fast moving, and he occasionally uses the Jack Kirby-style technique of making it appear to protrude outward from the page:



I also love the cheeky way he mixes comedy and drama. In one scene, we see a scene of chaotic warfare:



But even in the midst of such a serious scene (millions died!), Tezuka can't resist throwing in bits of comedy like two soldiers waltzing, a guy using his sword as a shish-kebab or his own decapitated head. Man, that's weird, but it keeps things from getting too serious and lets us just enjoy the story.

So, I dunno, maybe this is a "lesser" Tezuka work, but it's a good bit of coolness in the middle of everything else he always had going on. I'll definitely read all three volumes; now let's get all his other stuff made available in English, okay?
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Bonus: Tezuka character cameos!

Acetylene Lamp:



Another Tezuka appearance:



And I think there was a Hyoutan-Tsugi at some point, but I can't find it right now.