I just love reading comics graphic novels, especially when time is of the essence (gone are the days of finishing a book in one three-hour stretch). Graphic novel versions of classic tomes do exist – I have Dostoyevsky’s Crime & Punishment[1] and Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, to name two. Then again, I know it’s been a while, but here are a two from a handful of graphic novel titles I have read recently in the past year.
Both are works of the great Tezuka Osamu (手塚 治)[2] which I fortuitously found at the St. Pancras’ branch of Foyle’s whilst waiting to catch a train back to Sheffield. Both stories are somewhat grim, but nevertheless, to paraphrase the oft used term in literary critique, gripping. The first one I bought was MW (or mu-u - ムう, as it were), a serialised work done in the mid 1970’s. MW’s plot revolved around a serial killer/terrorist and the web he tangles around any person that got close to him. The other work of Tezuka was Ayako (奇子) about a girl that was brought up in the household of a wealthy landowner whose family has a very dark secret. Actually, a few dark secrets. Both stories had some similiarities in their themes despite the different settings in their storylines. Both protagonists experienced life-changing traumas early on in their lives.
In MW, Michio Yuki was the only survivor of an atrocity committed by an unnamed state[3] on his home island of Okino Mafune near Okinawa. Michio’s escape was aided by Garai, who later defiled the young lad whilst hiding in a cave. Ayako is no better, she was a product of the incestuous product of Su’e and her patriarchal landowner father-in-law, Tenge Sakuemon. This relationship was an open secret in the family but was ‘allowed’ due to the patriarch’s position, much to the disgust of Sue’s husband, Tenge Ichiro. The twists and turns in the tale began with the appearance of the Tenge Jiro, one of Sakuemon’s son who is a clandestine agent for the occupying American forces.
I felt that both stories somehow illustrate the futility of any attempt at redemption for the main characters, namely Garai in MW and the whole Tenge clan in Ayako. Despite becoming a man of the cloth to atone for his misdeeds, Garai was helpless in making Michio do the same – and many a time Garai succumbs to his old ways much to Michio’s perverse delight. In Ayako, the whole tale weaves through several decades, bringing you to the point in thinking that things will turn for the better only to see an unfortunate end. I’d love to tell more, but I shouldn’t if you do wanna check these books out.
As for Tezuka’s other works, I’d love to check out the eponymous Black Jack but the manga series stretches for ten years (1973-1983)[4]! Perhaps I’d try Apollo’s Song – only two volumes long and weird to boot!
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[1]Nope, haven’t even started on that yet.
[2]The ‘god of manga’ was responsible for well-loved titles like Astro Boy and Kimba The White Lion. Until I came across these two books which contains rape, murder, incest, sodomy and err… bestiality, and not necessarily in that order. Nice.
[3]It was obviously American, which occupied Japanese soil after WW2.
[4]There’s always the anime.
