To celebrate their 45th anniversary, Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine (famed for serializing Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Dragon Head among others) published a 1000 page tome in English collecting twenty first chapters and one-shots. Readers may vote on their favorite chapters on the Young Magazine USA website; the top five titles will be serialized on K Manga.
Where to start digging into this big book of riches? We at Beat’s Bizarre Adventure took it upon ourselves to write about one title each and relate our experiences over the next two weeks. This week: grim space tales, yet more vampires, and, of course, horror.
The Last Terran
Writer: Hiroshi Takashige
Artist: Tatsumi Hitomoji
The Last Terran depicts the future as a cold, unforgiving place. Earth became uninhabitable 300 years before the start of the series. Humanity now lives on Lunar and Martian colonies. As resources dwindle, pirates battle the military in the cold vacuum of space.
The series so far reads like a classic hard science fiction story, which given its pedigree isn’t surprising. Spriggan co-creator Hiroshi Takashige asks, “What if traveling to the stars only made things worse for humanity?” It’s a valid question since today’s billionaires are convinced that interplanetary colonization is humanity’s destiny. If resources like food and fuel are dwindling on Earth, though, how would leaving the planet to start over put us in a better position?
Even worse, the move to space made the humans of The Last Terran physically weaker. Generations born in low gravity colonies suffer in high speeds and are more prone to radiation burns as well as other indignities. Even the reveal at the end seems more ominous than hopeful. Takashige has no problem, at least in this chapter, making readers feel like the future is a terrible one.
Admittedly this all reads very late 1980s. If Studio Proteus had licensed this and put it out through Dark Horse, it would have fit nicely in their 90s slate. What gives it a more modern edge is newcomer artist Tatsumi Hitomoji. Their style is reminiscent of Tsutomi Nihei circa Biomega, which also ran in Young Magazine. The scratchy line-work turns the future into a decayed, junky looking place where spacecraft are designed for utility first. There are shadows and dark toning in every panel even outside of space battles. — D. Morris
To Dusk and Twilight
Story and Art: ROBICO
This Young Magazine by Kodansha is thicker than a bowl of oatmeal, good god! Between my love for robots, elves and vampires, I chose vampires with To Dusk and Twilight. It’s a manga written by ROBICO, known for her previous works My Little Monster and Our Precious Conversations. It starts with a hitman about to throw himself off a bridge. At the last minute, he’s rescued by an unnamed female vampire who appears as a high school student. While this vampire debates sucking his blood, she fends off a group of debt collectors with fists and weaponry she conjures from her own hair. Why does she have debt? Could it be to cover the funeral expenses for her late guardian? Or something else?
ROBICO’s art isn’t extraordinary. But it works for this manga, with very clean lineart and lots of screentones used to add a nice balance of greys. Aside from the opening art, the artist avoids pure blacks and darkness aside from the vampire’s schoolgirl uniform; that’s unusual for a vampire series. The backgrounds are either blank or left uncolored to maintain focus on the characters in the foreground. Another neat little detail is that depending on the mood of the characters or the moment, the thickness of the lineart changes to be thicker and simpler in detail.
Art aside, this chapter feels more like a one-shot as it is an open and shut case. Seeing the words “FIN” at the end made it all so bittersweet. I really do want more of this story as I think there is potential to further expand on the world, the story, and these two unnamed characters.
To Dusk and Twilight successfully scratched my vampire itch. Now I want MORE! If Robico ever does continue this series I will be there day one, seated, reading happily. — Justin Guerrero
Pregnant
Writer: Denchi Matsumoto
Artist: Keita Nishijima
When it comes to movies, television, and even video games, it is difficult for me to get into hyper violent and gory titles. By comparison, comics, manga and prose are my outlets to experience these stories in a way that I can not only stomach easily, but embrace with fascination. Maybe it’s the disconnect between the static image and my imagination, maybe it’s the often stellar artwork that brings these gnarly images to life on the page. But I love horror comics; the more messed up, the better. Which brings us to Pregnant.
Upon reading the title you might imagine that you’re in for a rom-com or lovey dovey story of a couple expecting a child. Then you read the first page and immediately, you know that is not even close to what you’re in for. Pregnant is a horror story that follows a young couple who are expecting their first child. At the eight month mark, a demonic entity possesses the child and instructs their father to carry out something horrific before the last two months are up.
In a nice expansion on this predicament, this phenomena plagues many future families around Sakuma City, but the authorities have been unhelpful in figuring out what’s going on. As far as anyone knows, expecting couples are killing one another left and right. There’s some interesting critique beginning to seep through in just this first chapter regarding the inefficiency of the police—something that plagues every state—and how evil is allowed to fester within society’s blind spots.
The art is also great, especially the moments involving demons bursting out of wombs in order to blow a guy’s head off. I definitely voted for Young Magazine to keep serializing Pregnant; I have to know where this story goes.
If you like messed up horror stories, check this out immediately and vote for it! — Derrick Crow
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