THE COLOR OF EARTH; URASAWA'S PLUTO; MUSHISHI;

THE COLOR OF EARTH

Monday, May 4th, 2009

Saturday i read The Color Of Earth, a touching graphic novel from Korea, about the close relationship between a single mother and her daughter living in rural Korea. Set a few decades it has a timeless and universal appeal, while still being set in Korean culture.

URASAWA'S PLUTO

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

A manga series i cannot recommend highly enough is Naoki Urasawa's Pluto (more officially, Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka).

It's a remake, essentially of Osamu Tezuka's AstroBoy (in Japanese, "Mighty Atom"), more specifically, the story arc known as 'The Greatest Robot on Earth'. Instead of AstroBoy being the star of some light-hearted adventure, it is a murder mystery thriller, but starring a robotic detective named Gesicht (whose counterpart in the original was a secondary character).

It's set in the future, where robots are commonplace. Many look like robot toys, others look human, none are supposed to feel real emotions. They are all supposed to be bound by Asimov's Laws of Robotics (1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.).

It is some years after a brutal war, in which some of the most powerful robots practically destroyed a country. Someone or something is now destroying those robots (and others, such as Atom). Gesicht is assigned the case.

MUSHISHI

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Another worthwhile manga is the series Mushishi. A Mushi-shi is essentially a kind of exorcist, who removes or contains hostile supernatural spirits (known as 'mushi'). The book follows one such person, named Ginko.

Ginko spends his life wandering from place to place, dealing with the mushi that are causing problems, though he can't stay in anyone place too long, or he begins to attract the mushi.

It's set in Japan's past, mostly in small villages and the countryside, rather than among samurai or nobles, and with the daily struggle to survive than wars or politics. Thus it has a timeless quality - except for Ginko, who wears rather modern looking clothes (a leftover from an earlier version where it was set in modern times).

It's an episodic series - there's no overall story arc (although we do occasionally jump to scenes of Ginko's youth). There's no extreme violence, or screwball comedy, or histrionic drama - it's more atmospheric and moody, and beautifully drawn. It really grows on you (but watch out, that may be a mushi).