Another Alice, Another Wonderland

 

 

Ryohei Arisu is a disillusioned slacker stuck living in the shadow of his perfect little brother.  The sadness of everyday life surrounds him and his future does not look bright.  Until one night, when a massive and unusual fireworks display transports him and his two friends into a strange new world, a world where deadly games are played both for great prizes and for the right to continue living for another day. 

 

This manga series initially released in the US as a live-action Netflix series.  I tried to get into it, but who has the time or the patience these days to sit around and watch a 45-minute episode, let alone multiple ones in a row?  Plus I watched it in the English dub with subtitles, and that always gets me messed up, thinking about the minute differences between what the dub says and what they actually say.

 

Me, I preferred the manga, in case it wasn’t obvious.  With a manga, one can take one’s time reading it-not that I did much of that with how cerebral, fast-paced and action-packed it was.

 

The games are really think-y and would be almost impossible for anyone without a ton of lateral thinking and strategic ability.  Nothing about where the players are or who brought them there is explained, which serves as an excellent hook for people to keep reading.  We even get a brief scene of some fanservice from female player Shibuki.

 

Me, I have already some familiarity with author Aso Haro’s work from an earlier series known as Hyde and Closer (which I would also highly recommend), but this one is a lot more grown-up and even darker than his first one (if you can believe it).

 

And, yes: there is a vague “Alice In Wonderland” theme running through the work (if the main title wasn’t enough of a hint for you).  Hints and clues and in-game information pages are based on classic playing cards, and we have already seen characters named Chishiya (Cheshire Cat), Arisu (Alice) and Usagi (Rabbit, as in White Rabbit).  Some people may find that annoying, preferring to stick mainly and/or only to original work, but as long as it sticks to only sneaky little side references like those, I am not complaining.

 

The characters also manage to show a lot of themselves (or at least have the implied potential to), and the same goes with growing as people.  With his life on the line in games involving serial killers and flaming arrows, Arisu finds within himself a desire to live.

 

Would that we were all so lucky…

 

Is This Still The 20th Century?

 

 

A long time ago, volume after volume of Naoki Urasawa’s “Monster” was released in the US.  I read every volume I could get my hands on, if only to make sense of all the mysteries that were teased throughout the work.  It seems to be a hallmark of Urasawa’s that he never just plops the main conflict and the main villain and their main goal down right in front of you.

 

No, you have to work for it.

 

And the same holds true for 20^th Century Boys.  The story jumps wildly between the present day, what is implied to be the future, and the friend group’s shared past growing up in the 1960’s-70’s.

 

Several loose threads are present: a mysterious group that is led by a mysterious man with mysterious powers and up to no good, an unknown threat to the world itself, and an unseen group of heroes who will eventually defeat this threat.

 

To be honest, there is so much going on in this series that is almost impossible to tell where it all begins.

 

A children’s group in the 1960’s-70’s has a bunch of mundane adventures, witnesses history and discusses deep topics.  In the present day, many people connected to the group are meeting with mysterious fates.  And one member from the old group has started a cult, based around their old playtime secret symbol, and gained strange powers with the implicit intent to destroy or otherwise upend the world.

 

We follow Kenji Endo, our protagonist, as he attempts to unravel this twisted web of intrigue.  And, as he does, so do we.

 

As I said before, the whole business of following all the threads and finding out how they all connect is a big part of why one reads something like this.  It’s like Evangelion, or Urasawa’s previously-mentioned Monster in that way.  The artwork is stark, enough to fit the serious themes that, yes, are still present in a story containing a worldwide cult with mysterious powers.  We get to watch the protagonists and others as they grow up and try to find their way in a world that is not always kind to them.  There is a real gritty realism to it.

 

That being said, there are a lot of characters and, yes, threads to keep track of, so it can sometimes be hard to remember what is what, particularly if you buy/read only one volume at a time.  By the time you have finished reading Volume 1, you may very well have forgotten all of it by the time you get to Volume 2.  (Which would be more than understandable.)

 

And the time jumps are definitely not helping.

 

That being said, this series is allegedly one of Urasawa’s best-known works.  Monster wasn’t too bad, either, and that is the only series of his that I am actively familiar with, so that is my only frame of reference.  So I get the feeling that 20^th Century Boys is also going to wind up being something I was glad I read, and held onto for as long as I could.

 

Links and Updates, Updates and Links

 Dear Readers,

Here we are, at more than four months since my last manga review.  As always, you can blame the pandemic, my own lack of time to spend at the bookstore, and my local library system being too slow to get in anything actually good half the time.

 But all is not lost: I come bearing news related to some of my favorite series, ones that I have even mentioned before on this blog!

1. Spy X Family has recently gotten an anime!  It's true!  You can find it online in both subbed and Funimation dubbed format, depending on where you look.

And, if you're one of those people who likes to try things out before you buy them, like myself, there are plenty of free clips available on Youtube.

I have been following the series in the official English-language Shonen Jump manga format ever since Vol. 1 and, I must say, it has yet to disappoint me, even up to the current latest release of Vol. 7.

2. Both Black Clover and My Hero Academia are nearing their ends.  This news leaves me with a heavy heart, as I have blogged postings extolling the series since their first volumes released on our shores.

I follow the manga of My Hero Academia every week on the Shonen Jump website, but for Black Clover I have only been following the Funimation English-dubbed release on Toonami.  (I felt as though I had no choice at the time, given how quickly the anime overtook the English release of the manga.)

My point is that I can only pontificate on the current state of the manga for My Hero Academia.  Months after the greatest war we readers have ever seen, the villainous All For One continues to warp/fuse together with his protege, Tomura Shigaraki, the Symbol of Fear.  Izuku has been betrayed, found a new ally, and is currently teleported away from the main battle.

Meanwhile, Dabi's past is revealed as he faces Todoroki, and Shigaraki's power continues mutating and growing out of control.

I mean, we know that Izuku will survive and go on not only to narrate the story, but also to "become the greatest hero in the world", but he and his friends are still facing an uphill battle.

But at least Black Clover is taking a three-month hiatus in order to work on their final arc.  Academia, however, looks like it's going to be a doozy.

3. Do you readers remember when I said that I had found a site with free translations of the One Piece In Love ("Koisuru One Piece") manga, but I didn't have the link for you?

Well,  now I do!  And here it is: https://scansofmetsudo.weebly.com/one-piece-in-love.html

Boy, do I sure hope that works!

The link above should take you to the work of a dedicated fan who, with his friends, has managed to translate all of the manga's Volume 1 chapters and one or two of Volume 2's.

Well, readers, that's all for now.  But please, stay with me and, with luck, I will once again one day have new manga reviews, written just for you!