GUEST COLUMN BY MATT LOWDER . . . . .
MATT SAYS: I know, this is a lot. So I had planned to only do two posts here, because I don’t think there’s an appetite 'round this ranch for these sorts-a cattle (unless there’s a silent manga minority which has yet to reveal itself). However, I found myself with more free time during the in-between times at work this week and, hey, I have access to about 1,000 manga where I work. So, I took a swan dive. Here are three more bonus reviews.
KAIJU #8, Volume One (2021) Matt's Rating: Four And One-Half Stars Out Of A Possible Five Stars.
The use of full bleed-past-the-edge images, overlapping imagery, portrait art, large font lettering, explosive action, and humor all spell FUN. Kaiju No. 8 is a new manga, so that means long wait times in between new volumes. But this kicks.
In Japan, monsters known as kaiju regularly attack the populace with the Japanese Defense Force tasked with killing them. After their town was destroyed by kaiju when they were children, childhood friends Kafka Hibino and Mina Ashiro both vowed to become members of the Defense Force. Mina has become famous as commander of the Defense Force's Third Unit, but Kafka has failed the examination numerous times and is a member of the clean up crew, Monster Sweeper Inc., whose job it is to dispose of the monsters' dead bodies after battle.
After a small talking monster flies into his body via his mouth, Kafka gains the ability to turn into a monster himself, which gets dubbed "Kaiju # 8" by the Defense Force. Kafka remains fully cognizant while in the form, but gains superhuman strength, and becomes the first monster to escape the Defense Force. It’s wild, y’all. The art is competent, pace is nice, and I could tell the characters apart from each other. Imagine that.
CHAINSAW MAN, Volume One (2020) Matt's Rating: Three And One-Half Stars Out Of A Possible Five Stars.
This was a little pervy, but that’s sometimes par for the course with Shonen Jump. A lot of these are for teens 11-17 after all. So the main character is poor and in debt. The action plot is breakneck-paced, telling us this teen has a demon dog who is extremely cute and somewhat shaped like a chainsaw, WITH A RETRACTABLE 5 FOOT CHAINSAW NOSE, and they kill other demons for an organization when the city needs help.
A huge portion of his payment goes to debt collectors, leaving protagonist with enough money each week for literal rent and bread. That’s it. He's poor and pathetic. Protagonist is killed by his employer when he missed a payment and was no longer deemed useful, in Chapter One! -- but the demon dog brings him back to life by fusing his essence with the protagonists, creating a half man-half demon hybrid dude who can “flame on!” as needed and grow chainsaws from his face and down the middle of both arm from elbow to fingertips, waging war against demons. His ripcord is in his solar plexus.
It’s absolute carnage, bonkers, and he ends up wanting to help a local demon hunting agency led by a curvy women because if they can get back some girl’s cat, she will let him touch her boob, something he’s always wanted to do. He doesn’t think he’ll ever have a girlfriend, or hug a woman. It’s pretty juvenile psychologically, but creative in other ways. I liked it more when I had only read the back cover premise and saw the ridiculous cover art. It’s funny a bloody, for sure.
BERSERK, VOLUME SEVEN (1993) Matt's Rating: Three And One-Half Stars Out Of A Possible Five Stars.
Kentaro Miura's legendary adult fantasy/horror manga follows Guts, Casca, and effeminate Griffith. (Miura died at 54 one year ago in 2021, and the series will not be completed after 30+ years and 41 volumes, though volume 41, published posthumously, miraculously feels like a good ending according to fan-sites). They're Glory-seeking, murdering, and hating each other in this feudal war book is the nastiest manga I’ve read yet.
It's time I hung this up. I have 16 books my brother let me borrow over a year ago, but these last two volumes just continue to put a bad taste in my mouth. They’re really depraved, subversive, misogynistic, and repressed. The detailed art is some of the best I’ve seen, but the content and subject matter, even for 1993 when originally published, makes me worried about the thousands of misguided young men and teens who praised this as the best thing they’ve read.
The subtext messaging in here is toxic. If written just a bit differently, it could be the Shakespeare of manga, and I mean that. There’s no doubt: this world-building and plot are epic. But, I’m out. It’s ferociously problematic, with a lot of emotional pain within the character’s pasts, and bold amoral ponderings borne from trauma. Every character willingly or not willing has some kind of sexual assault encounter. Gender, and the power of masculinity and fragility and “usefulness” of femininity, is gross here. It’s fascinating, but I didn’t enjoy the headspace. It’s one of a kind.
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