GUEST COLUMN BY MATT LOWDER . . . . .
MARCH MANGA MADNESS
Readable in 30-50 minutes on average in today’s formatting, manga has been around in Japan since the late 19th century. By the 1950s it became a cultural staple in Japan, and by 1995 was a global sensation with Voltron, Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, Monster, One Piece, Slam Dunk, Pokemon, and many many other hot pop books and animated series not mentioned here.
For the past several years manga has outsold American western comics by incredible margins, like in 2021, accounting for 77% of all U.S. “comic” sales, compared to about 7% of all comic sales being western-styled superhero comics, typical of DC and Marvel. (“Why” manga is wiping the floor with traditional comics is discussion for another day, but starts with consistent quality, accessibility, and price.) In 2019, Demon Slayer’s manga series sold 15.5 million individual copies at $9.99 each.
Each year in March, I do MANGA MADNESS. It’s typically the only time of year I dive into manga, but occasionally get hooked to a book for a while (“Berserk” and “Death Note” come to mind in year’s passed). This month I may make one additional post with four or five other manga I intend to try, and give a brief summation.
DEMON SLAYER, VOLUME ONE was quite compelling, though a little simplistic in its' details and shading. What’s nice about this though is that rather than admire too much of the art, you can get the point very quickly in each panel and really focus on the story, which is very plot driven and quite good.
Each year in March, I do MANGA MADNESS. It’s typically the only time of year I dive into manga, but occasionally get hooked to a book for a while (“Berserk” and “Death Note” come to mind in year’s passed). This month I may make one additional post with four or five other manga I intend to try, and give a brief summation.
In Taisho-era Japan, kindhearted Tanjiro Kamado makes a living selling charcoal. But his peaceful life is shattered when a demon slaughters his entire family. Only his younger sister survives, now part-demon, and he’s dedicating his life during her coma for over a year to train to become a demon slayer and find a cure for her. He’s a great older brother and their development as siblings was believable and touching. It’s a strong book and I understand the massive appeal of the anime adaptation that many have been buzzing about. It came out in 2016 in manga, 2019 in anime format, and quite nearly, single-handedly outsold all American Western comics combined in 2021. MATT'S RATING: Four out of a possible Five Stars.
My Hero Academia: I’m not in love with what is essentially the plot: “80% of the world becomes X-Men and now there’s schools where middle school and high school kids go to learn to be heroes.” The shading really goes to show what can be done with textures and shades of gray when artists really take the time. Shading and texture in manga is, in my opinion, the most important thing an artist can do with his pen strokes to differentiate himself from others.
I liked the protagonist who is one of the few people on earth to not develop “a quirk” (powers). That’s neat. So what kind of hero will or can he be? It’s pretty fun and not overly serious. I won’t be continuing this, but now understand why teenagers have been reading this since 2014. There are 33 books, and the story is not over yet. I've heard it really expands with a ton of characters and is unexpectedly massive fun later on . MATT'S RATING: Four out of Five Stars.
THE WAY OF THE HOUSE HUSBAND, VOLUME ONE is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kousuke Oono and published in the online manga magazine Kurage Bunch since 2018. The Way of the House Husband follows an ex-yakuza boss who retires from crime to become a house husband. The wife is a career woman, designing clothes.
I found the book to be very fast and breezy, almost underwritten, feeling like fast storyboards for an anime. The art style is simplistic but animated, with splashes of expressively written words serving as sound effects you’d heard within the scene (swish, zip, tok tok tok, chop chop, brrrr, etc). It was the fastest read of the four books in this post. It was also emasculating and flaccid and obviously domestication wish-fulfilment for some readers.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have strong, physically capable, thoughtful, incredibly dutiful man who mostly cooks and runs errands all day for me? No one shows him any reciprocation within this “comedy,” not even the wife. He gives and gives, and everyone wants something from him or suspects him of something. Perhaps that’s the intentional commentary on the gender roles as they’ve been for women for centuries, but the writing doesn’t feel that smart.
Part of this charm is the fish out of water premise, which some people won’t be rankled by . . . . but it was embarrassing watching him operate a Roomba, be lonely, and wear an apron for half the book. There are six or eight books in this completed series. MATT'S RATING: Two And One-Half out of Five Stars.
The Promised Neverland is a Japanese manga series written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu. It was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from August 2016 to June 2020, with its chapters collected in twenty volumes. The series follows a group of orphaned children in their plan to escape from their orphanage, after learning the dark truth behind their existence and the purpose of the orphanage. They are totally used by something or someone I won’t reveal here. It’s a farm, not an orphanage. And it’s really jumps the shark and sticks the landing. My god! So dark and grim. I’m getting Volume Two and Three from the library. MATT'S RATING: Four And One-Half out of Five Stars.
Nice formatting. Thanks!
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