No Longer Human vol. 1 by Usamaru Furuya
No Longer Human vol. 1 by Usamaru Furuya
Serialized in Shukan Comic Bunch
Published by Shinchosha Publishing and Vertical Inc.
“I found a word to express my feelings. Right now… I feel forlorn.” – Yozo Oba, No Longer Human.
When I first wrote about my personal excitement over Vertical’s licenses early this year, of the lot, No Longer Human was closer to a curious acquisition rather than a something that I was truly excited for. Blame it all on my Japanese literature teacher who loved Sonezaki suicides and Haruki Murakami more than this work of Osamu Dazai. Prior to this, I had not heard of Ningen Shikaku. When Ed Chavez told me about how this was one pivotal title that should be read in Japanese literature (and was his personal favorite), I didn’t understand the gravity or the weight of those words but only knew that if this was a manga adaptation of my master’s favorite novel, then it’s definitely something worth looking at.
I was very fortunate that when I reserved the book the other day in our local bookstore, the book was immediately sent to me yesterday. I don’t know if I was fortunate, or unfortunate, to have received this book so soon. In fact, since I read the book during my cigarette break, I’ve been feeling emotionally catatonic. Not even the cheeriest BL, shoujo, or shounen manga could stir my emotions. Even Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life, which I read after, was pale in comparison to the emotional weight of this manga.
Never have I read a manga who made me understand and feel what it meant to be no longer human.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Solanin by Inio Asano
Serialized in Shounen Sunday
Published by Kodansha and Viz.
There are times when we just want the world to stop.
There are times when we try to ask the meaning of our lives.
There are times when we wish to find these dreams filled with meanings.
There are times when we find the strength to find these dreams… only to see life take its chances away from us.
Solanin is a manga about the hopes and dreams of couple in want of a particular change in their life. This is perhaps a life we once dreamed of. This is also the manga that reminds us what is real.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Red Blinds the Foolish by Est Em
Serialized in Mellow Mellow and Gekidan
Published by Ohzora Publishing and Deux Press
There was a time when I used to dream of Spanish fiestas. La Tomatina. Hogueras de San Juan. San Isidro de Madrid. Corrida de toros.
And I did not dream of this because my country, the Philippines, used to be a Spanish colony. My fascination with it lies in the romance of the activity. There was something beautiful and romantic with the order that comes with the chaos of a fiesta. I’ve seen bits and parcels of it in my own local fiesta, but that charm extends just as much with the Spanish ones, particularly with the Corrida de toros. I find the power in controlling the bull fascinating.
It is in this same fascination that I ended up reading more through the pages of Est Em’s Red Blinds the Foolish. While I admit that I did grab it first because it was written by Est Em, I didn’t realize that she will drag me into this romantic world of toreros.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Sundome by Kazuto Okada
Serialized in Young Champion
Published by Akita Shoten and Yen press
I read into Sundome after having heard quite an interesting podcast from Melinda of Manga Bookshelf and Ed from Comics Worth Reading. Their review was a thoughtful assessment on the relationship between a youthful vigorous boy named Hideo and the girl of his dreams Kurumi. That’s putting things lightly. Their relationship is far from normal and after having read a couple of volumes… it’s definitely the kind of romance we’d dream about. Just like the word Sundome, it’s the kind of story that stops before it could even climax.
Sundome’s published in one of those magazines who have girls in bikinis for their covers, Young Champion. Not that I have anything against it, but it conditions my head to think thoroughly on what I should be expecting. This is the first time that I have read something from Young Champion hence what really got me going were the reactions of Melinda and Ed and how this series was a mildly erotic tale internally tackling tough questions on personal enslavement. If you guys listened to their podcast and heard all of the things they were talking, you just had to read it. At least, for those who are comfortable with BDSM, you just had to read it.
And so I did, with an eager hunt from my favorite sources, find a couple of volumes of Sundome. The art was not exactly engaging for me but its cover summed up what to expect from the series: a sulty invitation to what you cannot see, let alone have.
Popularity: 15% [?]
Historie by Iwaaki Hitoshi
Serialized in Afternoon
Published by Kodansha
Life has its strange ways of twisting fate. It can take you to the deepest trench of fandom only to fish you out and show you something your heart has always longed for. In this case, it took a simple reminder of Parasyte and its author and how he has that strange new title running in Afternoon, Historie.
It didn’t take me a chapter to be swept away. A young man fleeing the Persian continent, dragging Aristotle with him in his makeshift pedal boat. The historian in me could not help but squee over this romantic tale of a young man following the footsteps of Odysseus. And did I add that you have Alexander the Great in manga?
Oh yes, Historie has one great history to offer.
Popularity: 11% [?]
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