MW

by Osamu Tezuka

I wish I knew more about the history of comics in Japan.  I would be particularly interested in knowing how MW, a twenty-six chapter story originally serialized between 1976 and 1978, was received by the public.  In this book, by the universally acclaimed master of Japanese comics, Osamu Tezuka, we are given a story that involves gay sex, child molestation, sexual torture, and images of corrupted members of the clergy.

I know that these days, all bets are off in terms of what can be depicted in Japanese comics, but I figure this must have caused a stir at the time, being written and drawn by the man who created Astro Boy.

MW tells the story of Michio Yuki, a beautiful and feminine young man who was kidnapped and molested by a group of thugs at the age of twelve.  While being held captive by one of the thugs on a remote island, Yuki was exposed to MW, a deadly nerve toxin being stored at an American military base.  He and his captor are the only people to survive the attack, but Yuki's brain is forever altered, making him an inhuman sociopath.

When the book opens, Yuki has achieved a position of some prominence at an important bank, a position he uses to blackmail clients for his own gains.  In short order, we see him seduce and kill the bank's manager, and then impersonate her to rob the bank on his own.  Yuki is working towards his grand plan, which is to find the location of the remaining stores of MW, and then use them to kill all life on the planet.

The young gangster who first kidnapped Yuki has, in an attempt to atone for his sinful ways, become a priest.  That doesn't stop Father Garai from keeping Yuki's murderous secrets, and having regular assignations with him.

This story is as much about Garai's wrestling with his own guilt as it is about Yuki's evil deeds.  I was surprised by how dark this story got, and how sexual, without being completely explicit (at least in its visuals - Tezuka tends to blur the lower half of his couplings, but he also suggests that Yuki makes love to his dog).

This is a very compelling read, and quite liberal for its time.  When a lowlife photographer tries to sell compromising photos of Garai to a muck-racking newspaper, they refuse to run them because the city editor is herself a closeted lesbian.

One thing I didn't understand was why the United States was constantly referred to as Nation X, despite the fact that we knew one Lt. General who falls afoul of Yuki's charms is from Kentucky.  Perhaps some explanatory notes would have been helpful...

Buddha Vol. 1: Kapilavastu

by Osamu Tezuka

Short of leafing through some random books, this might be the first full manga book I've ever read. It's been rare that manga appeals to me, but this title has always caught my eye.

Tezuka, the godfather of Japanese comics, uses this eight-volume title to tell the story of Siddhartha Gautama, although he only appears briefly in this book.

Instead, the first volume is concerned with the travails of Chapra, a slave boy with dreams of freedom and a mean throwing arm; his mother, also a slave; Tatta, a young member of the pariah caste, with magical powers; Naradatta, a Brahmin monk; and General Budai, who ends up adopting Chapra and turning him into a warrior, before discovering his upbringing.

This book is very much concerned with status and caste, as the characters rail against the pre-ordained places they must inhabit in society. None of these characters are historically part of the Buddha myth (unless I don't remember my Hesse from many years ago), but instead seem to be there to provide context and drama to the story. I imagine that Tatta will continue to play an important role in the story in future volumes.

Not typically being a fan of manga, I still found that the book flowed nicely and read quite easily. Some aspects are strange - the updated forms of speech (Tatta calls the animals his 'peeps') and endless procession of cute, Bambi-eyed animals, not to mention the level of nudity not usually seen in comics - but they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. Tezuka's double-page spreads and landscape shots are absolutely gorgeous.