Category: Manga

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H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories


Adapted by Gou Tanabe, translated by Zack Davisson (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-50670-312-1 (Tankobon paperback/Digital edition)

If you’re one of those people who’s never read a manga tale, or who’s been tempted but discouraged by the terrifying number of volumes these tales can run to, here’s a delicious feast of fantasy fables complete in one book revealing all that’s best about comics from the East in one darkly digestible big gulp.

Most manga can be characterised by a fast, raucous, even occasionally choppy style and manner of delivery but this volume of emphatically eerie adaptations is atmospheric, suitably scary and marvellously moody: just as you’d hope when recreating classic tales by the undisputed master of supernatural terror…

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was frail, troubled and remarkably ill-starred. Born August 20th 1890, he was truly afflicted with a hunger to write, but only achieved any degree of success after his death in March 1937 – following a life of desperate penury – from complications of intestinal cancer. Once he was gone, his literary star ascended, with posthumous publications making him a household name who changed the face of fiction forever.

His stories have deeply affected generations all over the world. One person particularly moved is international literary specialist Gou Tanabe who has previously adapted the works of Maxim Gorky and Anton Chekov to manga form.

Perfectly capturing the relentlessly oppressive and inescapably sombre sense of approaching fatality permeating most of Lovecraft’s potent prose, ‘The Temple’ was written in 1920 and first published 5 years later in the September issue of Weird Tales. The adaptor’s mildly updated version (migrated from WWI to WWII) originated in esteemed anthology magazine COMIC BEAM in March and April 2009: detailing the depredations of U-Boat U-29 and the doomed fools who man her.

After a particularly rewarding campaign, German Navy Commander Karl Heinrich Graf von Altberg-Ehrenstein and his officers are taking the night air when they notice a dead British mariner gripping the sub’s handrail. Whilst trying to unlock the mariner’s death grip and eject the corpse, one of them salvages an ancient artefact – a small carved head – and pockets it.

From that moment, their voyage is damned…

Soon, madness and mishap grip the vessel. Death decimates the crew and inexorably the survivors drift ever deeper into depths both physical and metaphorical. When only one remains, he finds the U-boat drawn to a fantastic city and magnificent temple sunken beneath the waves. It is filled with statuary like the little head in his pocket…

Just as he raises his pistol to end the horror, the shattered sole survivor sees shining lights in the sunken edifice…

Lovecraft penned ‘The Hound’ in September 1922 and Weird Tales published it in 1924. Gou Tanabe’s chilling interpretation debuted in July 2014 in the online edition of Comic Walker. The tale is grim, grisly, exquisitely decadent and supremely shocking, detailing the extravagant excess of English gentleman grave-robbers and diabolist magical parvenus St. John and our unnamed narrator.

Bored and indolent, they renew their sordid, blasphemous hobby in a Dutch boneyard, exhuming an arcane trinket from a grave sealed for half a millennium and reap a ghastly bounty after liberating a vengeful howling horror…

After its first foray into the material world, the surviving dabbler attempts every stratagem to escape or expiate the beast, and finds some things have no use for apologies or reparations…

Concluding this first (hopefully of many) Lovecraft treasure trove is another export from Comic Walker (August 2014 this time).

‘The Nameless City’ was written in January 1921 and published 10 months later in The Wolverine. Tapping into the contemporary vogue for arcane exploratory adventure as also favoured by the likes of literary horrorist brethren Seabury Quinn, Clark Ashton Smith, and latterly August Derleth and Robert E. Howard, here Lovecraft shares the story of an itinerant western wanderer (think Indiana Jones without no sense of humour or chance in Hell) who survives Arabian deserts only to stumble upon a previously unsuspected deserted conurbation suddenly exposed by the roaring eternal winds.

Genned-up on local legends, the explorer cannot resist entering the vast metropolis. However, as he plunges deeper within, he finds thousands of boxes like a legion of coffins and realises the occupants are far from human. They may not even be dead…

Enthralling, understated and astoundingly effective, these classic tales have been reverently adapted and packaged in an inexpensive, digest-sized monochrome paperback that will delight avowed aficionados and beguile terror-loving newcomers alike.

© 2014 Gou Tanabe. All rights reserved. This English-language edition © 2017 Dark Horse Comics, Inc.

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Wandering Island


By Kenji Tsuruta, translated by Dana Lewis (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-50670-079-3 eISBN: 978-1-63008-771-5

Kenji Tsuruta was born in 1961 and studied optical science, intending to pursue a career in photography, but instead made the jump to narrative storytelling as manga artist, designer, book illustrator and anime creator. A lifelong fan of “hard science” science fiction authors like Robert A. Heinlein and the comic works of Tetsuya Chiba and Yukinobu Hoshino (Saber Tiger), after years producing self-published doujinshi whilst working as an assistant to established manga stars, 25-year-old Tsuruta began selling his own works in 1986. His short fantasy serial Hiroku te suteki na uch? ja nai ka (What a Big Wonderful Universe It Is) was published in Kodansha’s Weekly Morning magazine.

Soon after, he began Sprits of Wonder: a dazzling scientific romance of gently colliding worlds. It ran in both Weekly Morning and monthly magazine Afternoon between 1987 and 1996, before making a smooth transition to animated features and an award-winning TV series. Dark Horse Comics published the first translated episodes as a 5-issue monochrome miniseries in 1995-6.

After that the artist pretty much moved out of the manga business, to focus on science fiction illustration and character design; a field of endeavour where he won many awards.

Then on July 13th 2010 Wandering Island debuted in Kodansha’s anthological Manga Box AMASIA before being serialised in Afternoon. The first collection was released in October 2011 and Dark Horse began English language editions in July 2016.

The slow-moving, elegiac saga was Mr. Tsuruta’s first major narrative work since the century turned: a beguiling and enticing modern-day mystery set against a fascinating geological backdrop in a fascinating cultural backwater…

Like Great Britain, Japan is composed of numerous islands, many located in areas far beyond commercially viable air routes. To cater to those small communities, independent pilots act as postmen, delivery specialists and rapid freight-hauliers. Freewheeling Mikura Amelia flies an old Fairey Swordfish on her rounds, enjoying a pretty idyllic life as she hops from cetacean research station to trading post to fishing village delivering whatever needs moving for whatever fee she can get.

She used to work with her grandfather Brian Amelia in the family Air Service, but now it’s just her and the cat Endeavour. Her parents moved back to civilisation when the old man died but Mikura loves the freedom of the skies and can’t let go of her grandfather’s great obsession…

Amongst his effects was an undelivered package with her name on it for Is. Electriciteit – which she translated as Electric Island. There are some fables about the place, but most people think it’s a myth…

Mikura, armed with a keen mind, decades of detailed logs and a strange yearning, becomes as obsessed as her mentor with the mystery. Old Brian vanished trying to find the island, but his logs have entries written after he seemingly perished.

… And then one day Mikura actually sees the perpetually shifting, cloud-cloaked atoll – complete with small town – but cracks up trying to land there. She’s rescued by a passing freighter but the frustration of being so close is agonising and unbearable…

Slowly healing, she gets back to work and starts to doubt her own memories, but somehow cannot let go. Eventually she puzzles out its secret: Electric Island moves around the Pacific in a complex and convoluted three-year cycle. The answer only points to more puzzles, especially after she learns of a friend of Brian’s who shared his fixation: her old English teacher who was actually a brilliant geophysicist…

Another quick trip and one last revelatory interview and at long last Mikura is flying off to a long-awaited rendezvous with the unknown…

To be Continued…

Accompanied by text feature ‘Notes on Wandering Island’, detailing the specifics of floating islands, the antecedents of the series and Tsuruta’s history, Wandering Island is a superbly welcoming introduction into what promises to be a sublime treat for every lover of untrammelled wonder…
© 2011 Kenji Tsuruta/Kodansha Ltd. All rights reserved.

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No Need For Tenchi!


By Hitoshi Okuda, translated by Fred Burke (Viz Graphic Novel)
ISBN: 978-1-56931-180-6 (tank?bon PB)

The one real problem with manga is that translated past triumphs seldom stay in print. There are dozens of classic collections that demand rediscovery by a casual rather than otaku audience and many minor masterpieces languish lost when they could be appreciated and adored…

This bright and breezy adventure comedy from 1987 is a rare reversal of the usual state of affairs in that a TV anime came first and the manga serial was its spin-off. Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki debuted as a 6-part TV show (termed an OVA or Original Video Animation in Japan) that proved so blisteringly popular that even before the original season concluded further specials and episodes were rushed into production. Over the next decade or so two more seasons appeared as well as spin-off shows and features (for a total of 98 episodes all told), plus games, toys, light novels and, of course, a comic book series.

The translation most commonly accepted for the pun-soaked title is No Need For Tenchi, but equally valid interpretations include Useless Tenchi, No Heaven and Earth and This Way Up.

The assorted hi-jinks of the show resulted in three overlapping but non-related continuities, with the Hitoshi Okuda manga serials stemming directly from the first season. Okuda eventually produced two comics sagas in this format: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-oh-ki which began in 1994 and features here – and follow-up Shin Tenchi Muyo! which I’ll get to one fine day…

The strip debuted in the December 16th 1994 Sh?nen anthology (comics pitched at 10-18 year old males) Comic Dragon Jr. It ran until Jun 9th 2000, generating 12 volumes of classic laughs and thrills. The stories are generally regarded as non-canonical by fans of the various TV versions, but of course we don’t care about that since the printed black and white tales are so much fun and so well illustrated…

This first volume collects the first seven issues of the Viz tome Tales of Tenchi, which did so much to popularise Manga in the English-speaking world, and opens with a thorough and fascinating recap of that first TV season – from which all succeeding manic mirth and mayhem proceeds – before cracking on to bolder and better bewilderments starring the entire copious cast on all new adventures and exploits…

Tenchi Masaki is an ordinary lad living peacefully in the countryside with his father Nobuyuki and grandfather Katsuhito, until one day he breaks opens an ancient shrine and lets a demon out. Hell-fiend Ryoko tries to kill him but a magic “Lightning Eagle Sword” helps him escape. The demon follows though, demanding the sword and things get really crazy when a spaceship arrives, revealing Ryoko is in fact a disgraced alien pirate from the star-spanning Jurai Empire.

Starship Ryo-oh-ki is full of attractive, shameless, immensely powerful warrior-women including Princess Ayeka, her little sister Sasami and supreme scientist Washu. This gaggle of violently disruptive visitors moves in with Tenchi and family, causing nothing but trouble and embarrassment. Soon the boy and his sword are being dragged all over the cosmos in the sentient Ryo-oh-ki (who, when not on duty, prefers the form of a cute rabbit/cat hybrid critter).

Ayeka and Sasami both harbour feelings for hapless Tenchi but things get really complicated when grandfather Katsuhito is revealed to be Yosho, a noble Prince of the Jurai. It appears Tenchi and those darned space girls are all related…

Tales of Tenchi opened with ‘The Genius’ as the star, currently studying Jurai warrior training under his grandfather’s diligent tutelage, falls foul of the princesses’ growing boredom. Ryoko attacks again, precipitating a devastating battle that threatens to burn the entire landscape to ashes, but is the aggressor really the demon pirate?

In ‘Double Trouble’ the other Ryoko tries to take Tenchi’s sword – in actuality a puissant techno-artefact known as the Master Key – before being defeated by the original, but at the cost of shock-induced amnesia. As the refugees all decompress, ‘Under Observation’ depicts outrageous and inadvisable potential cures for the distressed Ryoko but when the defeated doppelganger’s master Yakage arrives, the entire extended family are endangered. The terrifying star-warrior challenges Tenchi to a duel…

Part 4 ‘Plunder’ is one colossal hi-energy clash as the boy valiantly demonstrates all he has learned to drive off the intruder, but only after the villain takes Ayeka hostage, demanding a rematch in 10 days’ time…

Intensifying his training in ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ Tenchi prepares for the upcoming clash whilst Ryoko pursues Yakage into space, unaware that super-scientist Washu has hidden herself aboard the pursing ship…

‘A Good Scolding’ reveals intriguing history regarding the assorted super-girls whilst Tenchi trains for the final confrontation before concluding chapter ‘Relationships’ brings things to a spectacular climax whilst still leaving a cliffhanger to pull you back in for the next addictive instalment…

Blending elements of Star Wars: A New Hope with classic Japanese genre themes (fantasy, action, fighting, embarrassment, loss of conformity and hot chicks inexplicably drawn to nerdy boys), this rousing romp also includes comedy vignettes starring ‘The Cast of No Need For Tenchi’, and fourth-wall-busting asides, to top off a delightfully undemanding fun-fest to satisfy not just manga maniacs but also any lover of fanciful frivolity and sci fi shenanigans.
© 1994 by Hitoshi Okuda/Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co Ltd., Tokyo. NO NEED FOR TENCHI! is a trademark of Viz Communications Inc.

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Last of the Mohicans: Ten-Cent Manga Series volume 1


Freely adapted from the novel by James Fenimore Cooper by Shigeru Sugiura, edited & translated by Ryan Holmberg (PictureBox)
ISBN: 978-0-985195-6-6 (HB)

Those of us in the know tend to believe that Japanese comics began with Osamu Tezuka in the years following the end of World War II – and indeed in most ways that assessment is reasonable.

However, as the superbly informative article bolstering this superb tome attests, a thriving manga business has operated in Japan since the 1930s, and one of its greatest proponents was artist and author Shigeru Sugiura.

This superb monochrome hardback volume (sadly no digital delight yet) re-presents one of his greatest triumphs as the initial volume in a proposed series of “Ten-Cent Manga” collections. Translated and edited by Ryan Holmberg, it highlights lost works displaying not simply indigenous Japanese virtuosity but also the influence of cross-cultural contact and pollination with other countries.

In erudite, lavishly illustrated essay and appreciation ‘Shigeru Sugiura and his Mohicans’ he describes in fascinating and forensic detail the origins of the project, state of play in Japan pre-and-post WWII. The absorbing life and career of an artist who began as a jobbing strip cartoonist only to elevate himself to the status of Psychedelic, Surrealist Pop Art icon is one that is utterly addictive to fans of American movies and comic books.

The treatise is fully supported by documentary excerpts from the 1950s magazines and strips. Sugiura scrupulously “homaged” and swiped from: Jesse Marsh’s Tarzan, Alex Toth’s Johnny Thunder, and particularly Fred Ray’s Tomahawk. These were most commonplace amongst a wealth of graphic treasures synthesised and transformed into something fresh, vibrant and, most crucially, relevant to the entertainment-starved kids of occupied Japan.

Also included is an article by the artist himself, written in 1988 describing his life-long passion for and debt of influence to American cinema – most especially ‘Silent Movies’…

However, although scholarly and revelatory, the text portions of this singular treat pale beside the sheer exuberant energy and B-movie bravura of James Fenimore Cooper’s text…

Shigeru Sugiura (1908-2000) studied painting before becoming an art assistant to comics pioneer Suihō Tagawa (AKA Nakatarō Takamizawa). By 1933, the student was creating his own strips for the gags and Boys’ Own Adventure style comics that proliferated prior to the war.

He returned to the industry when hostilities ended, producing more of the same, but now influenced far more by the ubiquitous comic books of the occupying G.I.s than the silent Westerns and baggy-pants comedies he had voraciously consumed in his youth.

Shigeru Sugiura blended comedy/action stories for children and achieved great success throughout the 1950s, based on well-known characters such as ninja Sasuke Sarutobi or adapted Chinese classics like Journey to the West, furthermore including modern themes like wrestling, science fiction and even movie sensation Gojira/Godzilla to his fun-filled weekly pages in a most prolific and influential career.

…And Westerns; he did lots of rootin’ tootin’ shoot ’em up cowboy stories…

Sugiura (very) loosely adapted Last of the Mohicans in 1953 (when it was already a very familiar tale to Japanese readers) for Omoshiro Manga Bunko – a line of books presenting world classics of literature in comics form – albeit not exactly any form recognisable to literary purists…

He retired in 1958 but returned in 1970, reworking old stories and creating new pieces from the fresh perspective of a fine artist, not a mere mangaka earning a precarious living.

In 1973 he was already refining and releasing his classic tales for paperback reprints when he was approached by publisher Shobunsha to update another. The 1953 Mohicans became their latest re-released tale, slyly reworked as a wry pastiche and kick-starting Sugiura’s second career as a darling of the newborn adult manga market…

One word of warning: This is not your teacher’s Last of the Mohicans, any more than The Shining resembles Stephen King’s actual novel or the way South Pacific could be logically derived from James Michener’s Tales of the South Pacific – or how anything Alan Moore wrote could be found in films like From Hell or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen…

Sugiura’s updated 1973-74 iteration forms the majority of this chronicle: a fast-paced riot of non-stop adventure, greed, pride, tragedy and whacky humour wherein both heroic frontiersman Leatherstocking and noble savage Chingachgook are re-imagined as bold young lads in bad times, their desperate quest punctuated with weirdly clashing moments of slapstick, creative anachronism, cross-cultural in-jokes and plain outright peculiarity…

It all works impossibly well, beginning with the introduction of Hawkeye, ‘La Carabine Kid’: a young but doughty colonial scout and spy for the British.

The Empire is at war with the French for possession of the New World, with the Kid and his companions suffering many reverses at the brutal hands of the Mingos – a tribe allied to France. They were also responsible for reducing the mighty Mohicans to two survivors: Chief Chinga and his son Uncas.

The plot thickens when the Mingo Chief and his manic son Magua threaten to abduct Cora and Alice – daughters of British Colonel Munro – in an attempt to force the veteran soldier to surrender his command East Fort to the French. After a savage assault, Hawkeye, the Mohicans and dashing Major Duncan decide to escort the girls to the safety of Fort Henry, with the hostiles close behind…

En route they pick up itinerant preacher Father Gamut, before fighting their way on through wilderness and repeated Mingo attacks, always one step ahead of ‘Magua’s Pursuit’.

The struggle is not one-sided. The wily fugitives contrive to blow up a French fort and even link with a war party of Delas who subsequently reduce the ravening Mingos to scattered remnants – but not before the pursuers carry off ‘The Abducted Sisters’…

The scene is set for the heroes to rescue the girls and end Magua’s threat forever – but the showdown is costly with a high price to pay in ‘The Sad Ending’…

Sheer graphic escapism, spectacular storytelling and a truly different view of a time-honoured masterpiece make this an unmissable treat for all lovers of world comics.

This book is printed in ‘read-from-back-to-front’ manga format.
© 2013 the Estate of Shigeru Sugiura. Translation and essay © 2013 Ryan Holmberg. All rights reserved.

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Wandering Son volume one


By Shimura Takako, translated by Matt Thorn (Fantagraphics Books International)
ISBN: 978-1-60699-416-0 (HB)

Huge fan though I am of the ubiquitous digest-sized monochrome format that makes up the greatest part of translated manga volumes, there’s a subtle enhanced superiority to these hearty and satisfyingly substantial oversized hardback editions from Fantagraphics’ manga line (see also Moto Hagio’s A Drunken Dream and Other Stories) that just adds extra zest to any work of pictorial narrative.

It’s just a shame the story still isn’t accessible digitally or that the remaining volumes (as far as I know, we got to Book 8 before everything paused) still languish untranslated for us who don’t speak Japanese….

Especially effective and affecting, Wandering Son was this second intriguing offering from the good FBI, following two youngsters mutually experiencing the most difficult times of their lives…

Shuichi Nitori is a boy freshly transferred into a new school. He’s starting Fifth Grade and on the cusp of puberty. He’s also in a bit of a quandary. Slim, androgynous and, to be frank, rather pretty, he is constantly thinking about wearing girls’ clothes…

On his first day, he is befriended by Yoshino Takatsuki; a tall, burly tomboy harbouring similar secret yearnings. Her instinctive friendliness towards Shuichi is shared by pretty Saori Chiba, who is happy with her own gender but troubled in almost everything else. Always over-eager to please, she is a ball of inexplicable guilty feelings and – even at her young age – is considering converting to Christianity…

From the start, both girls encourage Shuichi to submit to his urges. Yoshino’s clueless mother keeps buying dresses which the despairing daughter just gives to her confused new pal, whilst Saori, also acutely aware of the Nitori boy’s underlying otherness, actively encourages him to cross-dress. She even buys him an extravagant frock for his birthday, almost killing their budding friendship stone-dead.

It is Saori who successfully suggests the unsuspecting class perform The Rose of Versailles as their end-of-term play, with all the girls playing the male roles and vice versa…

(The Rose of Versailles is a monumentally popular Shoujo manga tale – later, a movie and musical – by Riyoko Ikeda, telling the story of Lady Oscar: a girl whose soldier father raises as a man. She/He eventually becomes a dashing Palace Guard and the darling of Marie Antoinette’s Court.)

Both Shuichi and Yoshino are hard-pressed to deny their overwhelming mutual need: boy wants to be girl and girl, boy. Inevitably, their need proves too great and both succumb. Yoshino has her hair cut and goes out in her brother’s school uniform, only to be chatted up by an older woman in a burger bar. Shuichi’s periodic capitulations are less public, but increasingly important to his happiness and wellbeing – and to be honest he does make an astonishingly pretty girl, more so even than Roger Taylor in that Queen Video – although utterly pure, innocent and raunch-free…

Nevertheless, no matter how much Shiuchi and Yoshino wish they could exchange gender, time and biology inexorably march on and the changes of puberty are causing their treacherous bodies to horrifyingly and inescapably betray them…

From any other culture this type of story would be crammed with angst and agony: gratuitously filled with cruel moments and shame-filled subtext, but instead Takao Shimura (Even Though We’re Adults, Sweet Blue Flowers) crafts a genteel, winningly underplayed and enchantingly compulsive school saga that is filled with as much hope and positivity as drama.

As Hōrō Musuko the tale began in Comic Beam monthly in December 2002, running until 2013 and eventually collected as 15 volumes. It is resplendent in its refined charm and exudes assured contentment, presenting a very personal linked history in an open-minded spirit of childlike inquiry and accepting optimism that make for a genuine feel-good experience.

But of course there is more to come in the unavoidably difficult futures of Shuichi and Yoshino…

This moving, gently enticing tome also includes a helpful watercolour character chart, a pronunciation guide for Japanese speech and ‘Snips and Snails, Sugar and Spice’, a fantastically useful guide to Japanese honorifics by translator Matt Thorn, explaining social, gender and age ranking/positions so ingrained in the nation’s being. Trust me, in as hide-bound and stratified a culture as Japan’s, this background piece is an absolute necessity…

The comics portion of this volume is printed in the traditional back-to-front, right-to-left format.
© 2003 Takako Shimura. All rights reserved.

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Shrine of the Morning Mist volume 1


By Hiroki Ugawa, translated & adapted by Jeremiah Bourque & Hope Donovan (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-59816-343-8 (Tank?bon TPB)

Much manga may be characterised by a fast, raucous and even occasionally choppy style and manner of delivery but the first volume of Hiroki Ugawa’s atmospheric supernatural thriller -a moody saga of young love – takes its time to get all the elements in play rather than simply steaming in all guns blazing.

Set in Hiroshima Prefecture (noted for shrines and beautiful mist-draped landscapes) and specifically the city of Miyoshi, Asagiri no Miko or Shrine of the Morning Mist first appeared serialised in monthly periodical Young King OURS between Match 2000 and April 2013: running eventually to 9 volumes of eerie mystery, romance comedy and demonic action.

The saga opens in traditionally portentous manner and carefully unfolds the story of young Yuzu Hieda, one of 3 sisters who are hereditary “Miko” (a combination of shaman, spirit medium and priestess attached to Shinto shrines and temples) who attend to local places of worship. The siblings are particularly gifted with special powers to combat all the supernatural threats menacing the region.

Little more than a teenager herself, schoolgirl Yuzu is troubled by the reappearance of childhood sweetheart – and cousin – Tadahiro Amatsu. After 5 years away, he has come home only to be immediately targeted by evil forces. Despite being teased by sisters Tama and Kurako, Yuzu accompanies them to the railway station just in time to save the prodigal from a sinister, sorcerous old man obsessed with the boy’s blood.

Invited to stay with the Miko in their home, the withdrawn youngster is disquieted by the teasing and references to his past relationship with Yuzu, even though the father of the house proves to be a far-more unforgiving prospect…

Mystic forces are gathering round the introspective, solitary kid – with repercussions felt as far away as Tokyo – and over their dad’s objections Tadahiro is pressured into staying at the Hieda home where he can be properly safeguarded. However, next morning when the girls are at school, a monolithic, cyclopean demon attacks the house. The assault is instantly perceived by Yuzu who dashes back to save him, only to find her long-absent mother already there, having driven off the dark “kami”. Well, one of them, at least…

Typically even Mother Miyuki thinks Tadahiro and Yuzu are a perfect, predestined couple…

With questions swirling about him, such as “why is everybody so interested in my blood?” and “whatever happened to my parents?”, shell-shocked Tadahiro is blissfully unaware that the Miko are forming a protective Council around him, but even he knows something is up when dark newcomer Koma introduces herself and reveals she knew his long-departed father. Intimately…

To Be Continued…

This uncharacteristically slow-paced, contemplative and almost elegiac tale mystery was partially inspired by a classical tale recorded on the historic Inu Mononoke scroll and Hiroki Ugawa’s beautiful illustration perfectly captures a sense of brooding ancient powers at war, even during the most juvenile set-piece moments of awkward young romance and generational embarrassment comedy.

A slightly off-beat but intriguing tale for older readers, this monochrome volume is currently unavailable in digital editions but still readily available through online vendors.
© 2001 Hiroki Ugawa. All rights reserved. English text © 2006 TokyoPop inc.

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Leiji Matsumoto’s Queen Emeraldas volume 1


By Leiji Matsumoto, translated by Zack Davisson & lettered by Evan Hayden (Kodansha/Kodansha USA)
ISBN: 978-1-63236-267-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68233-370-9

Nobody does comics science fiction like the Japanese – although for sheer tight-lipped underplayed drama I’d still place Sydney Jordan’s Jeff Hawk, Frank Hampson’s Dan Dare and most of Warren Ellis’ SF work ahead of even Manga’s greatest masters…

And, of course, there’s all those European creators too…

Nevertheless, in the tech-obsessed Pacific regions, tough, no-nonsense, nuts-and-bolts mystery and bold imagination of the myriad wonders of star flight have long been blended with fancifully romantic futuristic themes. The theme has captivated every generation since Osamu Tezuka started the ball rolling after WWII, making space commonplace and conceptually comfortable for us all.

One of the most talented and respected proponents of the genre was Akira “Leiji” Matsumoto (25 January 1938 – 13 February 2023) whose epic triumphs in manga and anime ranged from wholly self-created graphic landmarks as Space Battleship Yamato! (AKA Starblazers), Galaxy Express 999 and Space Pirate Captain Harlock to directing music videos and an animated film Interstella 5555, based on Daft Punk’s Discovery album.

Born fourth of seven sons in Korume, Fukuoka, little Akira started drawing early, influenced by American cartoons, prose science fiction stories and, latterly, Tezuka’s comics and anime. Aged 18, Matsumoto moved to Tokyo where his professional career began with Mitsubachi no bōken in anthology magazine Manga Shōnen.

He worked in a variety of genres (student drama Otoko Oidon, comedy western Gun Frontier and WWII stories collective dubbed The Cockpit amongst others) until 1974 when Uchū Senkan Yamato launched. As Cosmoship Yamato or Space Battleship Yamato, the epic saga became a huge hit on paper and on-screen, setting the course of Matsumoto’s entire career…

A further 24 series followed until 2014: many linked via a shared universe and characterised by melancholic musing and a quasi-metaphysical search for heroism and one’s place in the grand scheme of creation. Here we’re focussing on a saga that grew out of Space Pirate Captain Harlock, developed from a one-off story in 1975’s Princess magazine.

Matsumoto expanded the tale into a drama serialised in Weekly Shōnen Magazine between 1978-1979, before it was collected in 4 tankōbon volumes and the usual leap to anime. For us English-readers, two large-format hardback comics volumes were released in 2016 and 2017, both with digital equivalents.

Queen Emeraldas is a haunted quest tale, told in poetic episodes played out across a harsh, positively Darwinian future universe quite reminiscent of the Earth’s wild west. It follows the adventures of scrappy Earth boy Hiroshi Umino who escapes a brutal life of poverty by building his own ramshackle and highly illegal spaceship.

The scruff is afflicted with a relentless desire to escape into “the sea of stars”, and his frequent hairsbreadth escapes are noticed – and clandestinely supported – by the eerily enigmatic, utterly isolated and lethally ruthless Pirate Queen of Space. Dreaded across the universe, Emeraldas hunts for something or someone long lost – but not forgotten – and whenever she makes planetfall, the rich, cruel, callous or simply wicked somehow always perish in her wake…

Her interventions keep Umino alive after crashing on Mars, and again after taking ship for Ganymede, despite the machinations of numerous bent employers and ruthless killers who just don’t like the feisty tyke. As a rule, the few that do also end up dead…

Gradually, competing stories unfold, with his incessant, compulsive striving to get into space mirroring Emeraldas’ lonely relentless search. The cause of her scarred face and origins of her incredible semi-sentient wonder vessel are revealed, as the lad makes his way further and further from despised Earth. Along the way, he learns to be strong and independent… and how to kill…

Singly, bolshy boy and black sky buccaneer encounter wild worlds and deviant, decadent civilisations. Hiroshi secures plans for the universe’s most perfect spaceship as the Queen of Space gradually eliminates the worst scum in creation – from killer androids to corrupt lawmen to a racist supremacist eradicating every imperfect citizen he rules over. Ultimately, their paths converge at the Graveyard of Space where Emeraldas rescues Umino from the lures of predatory space sirens…

To Be Continued…

Closing this exotic, intriguing, inspirational initial volume is a brace of short stories from 1980’s Shōnen Magazine #3 & 4: opening in her chance encounter with a race of slaves who reject her aid, after which ‘Dead or Alive! “Queen Emeraldas”’ finds her eradicating traitor pirate Heimdall, who has become a government stooge hunting down his old comrades…

Mystical, poetic, elegiac and iconic, these stellar sagas are as much mythological fable as rip-roaring adventure, starring one of the most determinedly potent and tragically powerful women in all of science fiction. This above all his other triumphs is a lasting testament to the creative legacy of Leiji Matsumoto.
A Kodansha Comics Original Queen Emeraldas volume 1 © 2009 Leiji Matsumoto. English translation © 2016 Leiji Matsumoto All rights reserved.

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Lone Wolf volume 5: Black Wind


By Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima, translated by Dana Lewis (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-56971-506-8 (TPB/digital edition)

Best known in the West as Lone Wolf and Cub, the vast Samurai saga created by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima is without doubt a global classic of comics literature. An example of the popular Chanbara or “sword-fighting” genre of print and screen, Kozure Okami was first serialised in Weekly Manga Action from September 1970 until April 1976. It was an immense and overwhelming Seinen (“Men’s manga”) hit…

The tales prompted thematic companion series Kubikiri Asa (Samurai Executioner) which ran from 1972-1976, but the major draw – at home and, increasingly, abroad – was always the nomadic wanderings of doomed noble Ōgami Ittō and his solemn, silent child.

Revered and influential, Kozure Okami was followed after years of supplication by fans and editors by sequel Shin Lone Wolf & Cub (illustrated by Hideki Mori) and even spawned – through Koike’s indirect participation – science fiction homage Lone Wolf 2100 by Mike Kennedy & Francisco Ruiz Velasco…

The original saga has been successfully adapted to most other media, spawning movies, plays, TV series (plural), games and merchandise. The property is infamously still in Hollywood pre-production…

The several thousand pages of enthralling, exotic, intoxicating narrative art produced by these legendary creators eventually filled 28 collected volumes, beguiling generations of readers in Japan and, inevitably, the world. More importantly, their philosophically nihilistic odyssey – with its timeless themes and iconic visuals – has influenced hordes of other creators. The many manga, comics and movies these stories have inspired around the globe are impossible to count. Frank Miller, who illustrated the cover of this edition, referenced the series in Daredevil, his dystopian opus Ronin, The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City. Max Allan Collins’ Road to Perdition is a proudly unashamed tribute to the masterpiece of vengeance-fiction.

Stan Sakai has superbly spoofed, pastiched and celebrated the wanderer’s path in his own epic Usagi Yojimbo, and even children’s cartoon shows such as Samurai Jack are direct descendants of this astounding achievement of graphic narrative. The material has become part of a shared world culture.

In the West, we first saw the translated tales in 1987, as 45 Prestige Format editions from First Comics. That innovative trailblazer foundered before getting even a third of the way through the vast canon, after which Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights, systematically reprinting and translating the entire epic into 28 tankōbon-style editions of around 300 pages each. Once the entire epic was translated – between September 2000-December 2002 – it was all placed online through the Dark Horse Digital project.

Following cautionary warning ‘A Note to Readers’ – on stylistic interpretation – this moodily morbid monochrome collection truly gets underway, keeping many terms and concepts western readers may find unfamiliar. Therefore this edition offers at the close a Glossary providing detailed context on the term used in the stories…

Set in the era of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the saga concerns a foredoomed wandering killer who was once the Shōgun’s official executioner the Kōgi Kaishakunin: capable of cleaving a man in half with one stroke. An eminent individual of esteemed imperial standing, elevated social position and impeccable honour, Ōgami Ittō lost it all and now roams feudal Japan as a doomed soul hellbent for the dire, demon-haunted underworld of Meifumadō.

When the noble’s wife was murdered and his clan dishonoured thanks to the machinations of the treacherous, politically ambitious Yagyū Clan, the Emperor ordered Ogami to commit suicide. Instead he rebelled, choosing to be a despised Ronin (masterless samurai) assassin, pledged to revenge himself until all his betrayers were dead …or Hell claimed him.

His 3-year-old son, Daigorō, also chose the path of destruction and thus they together tread across the grimly evocative landscapes of Japan, one step ahead of doom, with death behind and before them…

Unflinching formula informs early episodes: the acceptance of a commission to kill an impossible target necessitates forging a cunning plan where relentless determination leads to inevitable success. Throughout each episode plot is underscored with bleak philosophical musings alternately informed by Buddhist teachings in conjunction with or in opposition to the unflinching personal honour code of Bushido…

That tactic is eschewed for a simple commission in opening tale ‘Trail Markers’ as Yagyū leaders plot how to remove the wanderer without incurring the severe penalties built into the social caste system. The disgraced ronin is protected by his own lowly status and a promise of truce unless he returns to Edo but has still found ways to frustrate clan ambitions. The situation has already cost dozens of proud warriors who foolishly sought out the Lone Wolf. And now the Emperor wants to investigate Yagyū activities…

With pressure mounting, schemers Yagyū-Sama and Ozunu agree to orchestrate a duel between Ōgami and infallible swordsman Yagyū Gunbei-Sama…

Using the wolf’s own complex graphic signalling system, the ploy unfolds, luring the assassin to a certain shrine where instead of another commission, he meets the man he supposedly cannot defeat: the one who should have been the Shōgun’s executioner in his stead.

Now as they face off, Gunbei relives the haughty error that cost him the exalted position of Kōgi Kaishakunin and learns to his eternal but brief regret that whilst he might be as good as he ever was, his opponent has grown even better. Moreover, Yagyū spies watching also take note and make more plans…

At this time bounty hunting was commonplace and ‘Executioner’s Hill’ sees the terrifying but currently unemployed Zodiac Gang use their deserved notoriety to terrorise a village whilst looking for fresh prey. Tragically for them, they recognise the “wolf with baby carriage” and overconfidently assume numerical advantage, a strategic geographical position, their own skills and Daigorō as a hostage will be sufficient to bag the biggest prize of their lives…

They were wrong.

When not expediting commissions the father and son vanished into the unnoticed common population invisible to the nobility. A moment of peace and therapeutically hard but honest work is abruptly curtailed when – whilst toiling to plant rice in paddies beside simple but happy villagers – the able-bodied stranger is pressganged by the local lord to build levees in advance of an expected flood…

Like a ‘Black Wind’ (one unexpected and out of season) the act has unforeseen consequences as the aristocrats – incensed by a highborn man demeaning himself (and all nobles) by digging in the dirt beside commoners – deploy warriors to avenge the shameful act and instead fall like harvested crops…

Every role in Japanese society was strictly proscribed and formalised. Certain executed persons were suitable candidates for O-Tomeshi when headless corpses would be used to test and sanctify swords. The swordsmen capable of holding the post were reputed to be as proficient with the sword as the Kōgi Kaishakunin…

As the investigation of the Yagyū’s role in Ōgami Ittō’s disgrace proceeds, the honourable Yamada Asaemon is ordered by shogunate Wakadoshiryori officials to look into the affair. However, ‘Decapitator Asaemon’ is disquieted by the final codicil of his mission: whatever the truth, the shameful behaviour of the Lone Wolf must end with his death…

The court is alive with intrigue and even before he has found his target, Yamada Asaemon is being hunted by Ura-Yagyū assassins…

Their sinister trap catches only one man of honour…

This medieval masterpiece closes with another convoluted tale of duty sullied as ‘The Guns of Sakai’ finds Inoue Geki – commander of Ōsaka castle’s rifle detachment – covertly hiring the nomadic assassin to kill one of the gunsmiths in his employ after discovering Shichirōbei has been making firearms for the rival Western Han.

The job is no simple affair. Somehow the well-set and protected traitor has exposed every spy set on his trail and the dutiful commander is desperate. He’s also not being completely straight with the Lone Wolf, but Ōgami is well aware of the fact and has a plan and ulterior aim of his own: possession of the experimental supergun he knows the master smith and his acolytes have perfected…

Set in a fiercely uncompromising world of tyranny, intrigue, privilege and misogyny, these episodes are unflinching and explicit in their treatment of violence – especially sexual violence – although this collection has the dubious distinction of being rape-free. Still plenty of slaughter though, and an astounding body-count…

Whichever English transliteration you prefer – Wolf and Baby Carriage is what I was first introduced to – Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima’s grandiose, thought-provoking, hell-bent Samurai tragedy is one of those too-rare breakthrough classics of global comics literature. A breathtaking tour de force, these are comics you must not miss.
Art & story © 1995, 2001 Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima. Cover art © 2001 Frank Miller. All other material © 2001 Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.

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One-Punch Man volume 01


By ONE & Yosuke Murata (Viz Media)
ISBN: 978-1-421585-64-2 (Tankobon PB/Digital edition)

The influence of America’s uniquely inspirational superhero phenomenon has spread all over the world since 1939, but if and when recycled through local lenses is always recreated as something profoundly different. Here’s how one Japanese team reprocessed the concept with staggering success…

Wanpanman (AKA One-Punch Man) began life as a webcomic created by an enigmatic creator calling himself ONE – or occasionally Tomohiro. His other notable works include Mob Psycho 100 and Makai no Ossan but the online epic was a personal passion project: a manic spoof and wickedly incisive parody of the American superhero idiom played strictly for mock-heroic laughs. Soon after its 2009 launch the feature went utterly viral, logging over 10 million hits and making traditional publishers sit up and take notice. It also became a firm favourite of many manga creators…

At that time mangaka (“comics-maker”) and illustrator/designer/animator Yusuke Murata (Partner; Eyeshield 21; Kaito Colt; Monster of Earth; Jump Square; Blust!) was looking for something different to work on. Born on July 4th 1978 in Miyagi Prefecture, the artistic prodigy had first come to prominence at age 12 by winning a major games art competition – twice. After schooling, he inevitably turned pro in 1995.

Having completed 37 volumes of Eyeshield 21 (an American Football drama serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump between July 2002 and June 2009), working on the anime adaptation and completing other features, in 2009 Mr. Murata became seriously ill and believed he was going to die.

Wanting to go out doing what he loved, the artist contacted ONE from his hospital bed, and convinced the mystery man to allow his baby to be redrawn by him and published digitally. It was serialised on SHUEISHA Inc.’s manga platform Tonari no Young Jump and became an even bigger hit – all over again. The reworked saga was eventually printed in books and syndicated internationally – 26 Tankobon volumes thus far and global sales well north of 30 million copies. Its unstoppable success spawned games; all manner of merchandise; a radio drama; international animation shows and a now well-overdue live action Hollywood movie…

So, how does it read, comics fans?

In truth, remarkably well to my aged western eyes.

A paean to cathartic, mindless violence lovingly and ultra-realistically rendered, the reworked epic opens with the catastrophic destruction of a modern city in the initial chapter. Amidst the rubble, ruin and senseless loss of human life, the monstrous culprit is confronted by a caped figure claiming to be a “hero looking for fun”…

As the beast-being ramps up the carnage, expositorially bombarding its weedy opponent with its motivation and backstory, the weary-seeming champion strikes back, ending his enemy with ‘One Punch’. The action seems to frustrate him beyond words…

In ‘Crab and Job Hunting’, a flashback to three years earlier finds unemployed, deeply depressed nebbish Saitama confronted by rampaging vengeful crustacean-thing Crablante and accidentally discovering his true vocation – extreme violence – whilst saving a mischievous boy whose pranks triggered the chaos-spree. Inspired, Saitama starts training: practising to become the best fighter in the world…

Eventually stricken bald by his efforts, our hero is now a despondent ‘Walking Disaster’ as his advanced progress mean that every battle is over too soon, ended with a single blow and affording him no pleasure because winning is just too easy, even against giant mutants created by crazy mad scientists like Fukegao and his monstrous human guinea pig brother Marugori or invading ‘Subterraneans of Darkness’: merciless mole monsters claiming to be the “True People of the Earth”. Even their ravening hordes are insufficient to Saitama’s needs. He only ever feels alive when exerting himself in combat, but every battle finishes before he can really get going…

A rare and uncharacteristic moment of personal introspection while killing bugs in his kitchen anticipates a massive clash against a horde of mosquitoes next, but this ‘Itch Explosion’ and subsequent staggering loss of life has a sexily human(oid) origin and cause which prompts an unprecedented second duel in ‘Saitama’. Here, our jaded justice deliverer finds a teen cyborg sidekick to reluctantly mentor in the form of earnest, eager, painfully gung-ho Genos…

The introduction of this disciple expands the series’ scenario, offering first hints at rival secret organisations on the beleaguered Earth (in which entire cities and populations are annihilated with astonishing frequency and ease) as the creature-creating House of Evolution reviews its recent failures before unleashing its bestial legion of monsters in ‘A Mysterious Attack’ on the weird bald guy scotching their schemes…

‘This Guy?’ then sees the ruthless assault escalate when Genos joins in before he’s being singled out by cyborg Armored Gorilla. The devastating duels deliver colossal collateral carnage with the heroes triumphant and consequently learning a few shocking facts about the maniacs stalking them from a brutally battered survivor…

To Be Continued…

The costumed calamity continues and concludes with a bit of Bonus Manga as we glimpse luxuriously coiffed 12-year Saitama beginning junior High School where he is immediately targeted by older bullies …and even teachers. The mysterious school Samaritan can’t help but things change – for the worst – when a marauding monster also goes after him in ‘200 Yen’…

His problems with baldness are then addressed in a quiet (but still monster-mashed) mountain break before a couple of pin-up pages/cover images end this first round of riot and ruckus…

Men in tights and svelte, spandexed warrior women are certainly an acquired taste, and Japan has often embraced and reworked actual US properties like Batman, Spider-Man and the X-Men with mixed effect, but this home-grown hero offers a unique take on the genre that is bonkers, bizarrely infectious and far from the seemingly mindless nonsense it at first appears. Under the lavish and potent artwork and silly plots is a superbly hilarious pastiche with a seductive secret message.

This manic mass-destructive, lovingly and meticulously rendered testosterone-fuelled fist-fest embraces savage slapstick silliness and must surely appear like what western people who don’t know comics always assumed manga looked like, but this is all about subtext and will delight western Fights ‘n’ Tights fans who can see beyond the masks and thigh boots…
ONE-PUNCH MAN © 2012 by ONE & Yosuke Murata. All rights reserved.

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Oh My Goddess! volume 1


By K?suke Fujishima, original translation by Dana Lewis, Alan Gleason & Toren Smith (Dark Horse Manga)
ISBN: 978-1-59307-387-9 (tank?bon TPB) eISBN: 978-1-62115-755-7

Talking of school – as we were the other day – college days also offer plenty of opportunities for comics creativity and, as is usually the case, manga has been there first and explored avenues you never even realised existed.

Fujishima K?suke was born in Chiba, Japan on July 7th 1964, and after completing High School, got a job as an editor. His plans to be a draughtsman had foundered after failing to secure a requisite apprenticeship, and he instead joined Puff magazine in that backroom role. Life began looking up after he became assistant to manga artist Tatsuya Egawa (Be Free, Golden Boy, Magical Taluluto)…

Fujishima graduated to his first solo feature in 1986: writing and illustrating police series You’re Under Arrest until 1992. In 1988, he began a consecutive second series: a fantasy comedy that would reshape his life forever. Although he would work on other manga like Paradise Residence and Toppu GP over the decades, Aa! Megami-sama – alternatively translated as Ah! My Goddess and Oh My Goddess! became his signature work and one that has made him a household name in Japan.

The series began in the September 1988 issue of Kodansha’s seinen (“young males”) manga periodical Monthly Afternoon. The strip ran until April 2014, generating enough stories for 48 tank?bon volumes, a spin-off series and spawning anime, special editions, numerous TV series, musical albums, games and all the attendant spin-offs and merchandise such popular success brings.

In 2020 there were 25 million physical copies of the editions in circulation and an unguessable number of digital sales. OMG! has won awards, been translated across the globe in print and on screens and has a confirmed place in comics history…

Oh My Goddess! is a particularly fine example of a peculiarly Japanese genre of storytelling combining fantasy with loss of conformity and embarrassment. In this case, and as seen in opening chapter ‘The Number You Have Dialled is Incorrect’ nerdy engineering sophomore Keiichi Morisato dials a wrong number one night and inadvertently connects to the Goddess Technical Help Line.

When the captivatingly beautiful and cosmically powerful minor deity Belldandy materialises in his room offering him one wish, he mockingly asks that she never leave him. This rash response effectively traps her on Earth, unable even to move very far beyond his physical proximity. Her powers are mighty but also come with a bucketload of provisos and restrictions. The most immediate and terrible repercussion manifests quickly as he is ejected from his student residence for having a girl in his room…

Belldandy’s profligate use of her divine powers, utter naivety and tendency to attract chaos and calamity make their search for a new home a fraught exercise, but finally second chapter ‘Lair of the Anime Mania’ finds Keiichi trying the apartment of old friend Sada. He was not a preferred choice because he is addicted to anime: a living zombie of fannishness who welcomes the refugees in without even noticing them …or letting go of the TV and video remotes…

All too soon however, and again thanks to the Goddess’ gifts, Sada notices Belldandy’s similarities to his cartoon fantasies and they have to move again…

After a night on the freezing streets, providence smiles on them when a Buddhist priest welcomes them into his dwelling. An individual prone to conclusion-jumping, the holy man’s eventual deduction of her true nature prompts him to undertake a pilgrimage of rediscovery, bequeathing them custody of his earthy abode in ‘A Man’s Home is His… Temple?’

With accommodation secured, the hapless student needs to get back to his education, and in a structured society like Japan there’s plenty of scope for comedy when a powerful and beautiful female seemingly dotes on a barely average male, especially as Keiichi’s new girlfriend seems unwilling to even leave his side…

The solution is to use her powers to “enrol” at his school – the Nekomi Institute of Technology. However, when the clearly “European” newcomer becomes a ‘College Exchange Goddess’ she can’t help but draw unwelcome attention, particularly from Keiichi’s macho, petrolhead fellow students and creepy lecturer Dr. Ozawa. The lifelong rival of Morisato’s favourite teacher “Doc” Kakuta has his suspicions aroused when all his students switch to the classes Belldandy audits and he begins a covert campaign to get rid of her…

More trouble materialises in ‘Those Whom Goddess Hath Joined Together, Let No Woman Put Asunder’ as thoroughly unlikeable campus queen and predatory Mean Girl Sayoko Mishima realises the new kid is a threat to her social supremacy and sets her destructive sights and wealth on Belldandy’s hapless chump. The goddess is more aware of the interlopers inadvertent mystical bad mojo and takes kind, gentle but firm retaliatory action…

College is a series of crucial interconnections and – other than Belldandy – Morisato is closest to his colleagues in the Nekomi Institute of Technology Motor Club: a gang of overbearing, bullying gear-head maniacs, always spending his money, eating his food and getting him into trouble…

However, the earthbound divinity’s role is to aid those in need and when she detects chief brute Otaki is enduring unrequited love she plays matchmaker in ‘Single Lens Psychic: The Prayer Answered’ and sets off a chain of domestic shock and awe…

This mainly monochrome compendium is peppered with brief full colour sections and one such opens ‘Lullaby of Love’ as Morisato finally summons the nerve to move beyond the painfully platonic life sentence he’s been locked into. Sadly, books like Going Steady for Dummies can get him no closer to even kissing his goddess and their first stab at an intimate dinner date turns into a disaster further compounded in ‘The Blossom in Bloom’ as financial shortfalls presage the introduction of Morisato’s little sister Megumi: a gossip spreader and imaginative tale teller. What family furore she will make of him living with a gorgeous exotic foreigner cannot be allowed…

She causes chaos from the start: bearing enough cash to tide them over but only if Keiichi boards her for a week while she takes some important entrance exams. There’s no way the kid won’t expose Belldandy’s supernatural nature to the world…

What big brother should have fretted over was the actual tests, as Megumi aces he exams and is admitted to Nekomi Tech. Now Morisato is plagued with ‘Apartment Hunting Blues’ as he hunts for a decent place to house her. It’s a good thing that Belldandy accompanies the siblings as – once they find the perfect place – the goddess has to exorcise and transform the evil spirit haunting it …the true reason it was so cheap in the first place…

Following the comics comes a text feature by editor Carl Gustav Horn. ‘Letters to the Enchantress’ details the strip’s history and evolution to an English language series, and is supplemented by ‘Editor’s Commentary on Vol. 1’: an expansive collection of footnotes clarifying everything from explaining untranslated background kanji and graphics to detailing significant cultural clues that might bypass most readers.

Oh My Goddess! is a beguiling, engaging and eminently re-readable confection, at once frothy fun and entrancing drama. Think of it as a Eastern take on Bewitched or I Dream of Genie, especially as the romance develops: one that both mortal and immortal protagonists are incapable of admitting to. Throw in the required supporting cast of friends, rivals, insane teachers and interfering entities and there’s plenty of light-hearted fun to be found in this bright and breezy manga classic.
© 2005 by Kosuke Fujishima. All Rights Reserved. This English language edition © 2005 Dark Horse Comics.