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29 April 2011 2 Comments

Mermaid Saga, Volume 1

Creator: Rumiko Takahashi
U.S. publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781591163367
Released: July 2004
Original run: 1984-1994 (Shōnen Sunday)
Awards: Seiun Award

I came to read Mermaid Saga as part of the April 2011 Manga Moveable Feast focusing on the series’ creator Rumiko Takahashi. I’m ashamed to admit it, but before the Feast I had never read any of Takahashi’s works except for Ranma 1/2, which I adore. Mermaid Saga is one of Takahashi’s shortest series and she completed it between 1984 and 1994. Also in 1994, Viz Media began publishing the entire work in three volumes: Mermaid Forest, Mermaid Scar, and Mermaid’s Gaze. In 2004, Viz re-released the series in a smaller sized second edition under the title Mermaid Saga, this time in four volumes. Mermaid Saga, Volume 1 contains all but the last chapter of Mermaid Forest. Once again, the Manga Moveable Feast has given me the excuse to read something I’ve been meaning to get around to for quite some time.

Mermaid Saga is told in a sequence of related short stories. The first volume collects “A Mermaid Never Smiles,” “The Village of the Fighting Fish,” and frustratingly only the first half of “Mermaid Forest.” There is a legend that eating the flesh of a mermaid will bring a human eternal youth and longevity. However, it is just as likely, if not more so, that the person will be poisoned by the flesh, either killing them or transforming them into a monster. Yuta, who has eaten mermaid flesh, is arguably one of the lucky ones. Although immortal, he is tired of the suffering and pain of dying only to return to a life where he is lonely and ostracized. And so he searches for the mermaids, believing that they are the only ones who know how to return his body to normal, allowing him live his life, grow old, and die.

I was happy to find that Takahashi executes dark and creepy in Mermaid Saga just as well as she handles comedic and absurd in Ranma 1/2. Her mermaids are not gentle and kind supernatural beings. Instead, they are vicious and selfish creatures, not only towards humans but towards their own kind as well. (Not unlike humans, actually.) They are also somewhat of a mystery—other than the fact that their flesh and blood has strange and powerful properties when consumed, very little is actually known about the mermaids.Still, whether out of obsession or desperation, mortals pursue the mermaids and immortality. But without complete knowledge or understanding of the circumstances, this can lead to severe and dire consequences for all involved. Unfortunately, because the details regarding mermaids are only slowly revealed, it sometimes feels like Takahashi is making them up as needed for the story rather than having a coherent and consistent vision to begin with. But even if that is the case, the mood remains the same throughout Mermaid Saga and the stories are effectively disconcerting.

I really enjoyed the first volume of Mermaid Saga. My favorite story, despite some over the top dialogue, was “The Village of the Fighting Fish.” The chemistry between Yuta and Rin is excellent and the development of their relationship over such a short period of time is completely believable. While I find Yuta to be the most interesting character at this point, they all have distinctive personalities and well developed backgrounds. This is true for most of the minor and secondary characters as well. I’ve come to expect dynamic and exciting action sequences and fight scenes from Takahashi and Mermaid Saga doesn’t disappoint in that respect either. The art is skillfully done: the backgrounds and landscapes are wonderfully detailed, water and spray look wet, the mermaids are terrifying and beautiful in turn, and the panel and page layouts show effective variation. Overall, I feel that Mermaid Saga is off to an excellent start with engaging stories, art, and characters. I look forward to reading the rest of the series—I may have found a new favorite Takahashi.

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9 March 2011 Leave a Comment

The Guin Saga, Book One: The Leopard Mask

Author: Kaoru Kurimoto
Illustrator: Naoyuki Kato
Translator: Alexander O. Smith and Elye J. Alexander
U.S. publisher: Vertical
ISBN: 9781932234817
Released: December 2007
Original release: 1979
Awards: Seiun Award

The Leopard Mask is the first book in Kaoru Kurimoto’s epic light novel series The Guin Saga. Kurimoto began the series in 1979 and as of the author’s death in 2009, she had published one hundred forty-seven Guin Saga novels, making it one of the longest works written by a single author. So far, only the first five novels of The Guin Saga, consisting of the first major story arc, have been released in an English translation. The Guin Saga, Book One: The Leopard Mask, translated by Alexander O. Smith with the assistance of Elye J. Alexander, was first released by Vertical as a hardcover in 2003 and then in a paperback edition in 2007. The English releases include the wonderful illustrations by Naoyuki Kato. In Japan, The Guin Saga is a very popular and highly influential work. I have seen numerous authors, mangaka, and creators cite Kurimoto and the series as a source of inspiration for their own work, including Kentaro Miura and his manga series Berserk. Additionally, The Guin Saga received a Seiun Award in 2010 for Japanese Long Fiction.

Twin brother and sister Remus and Rinda are the last remaining members of the royal house of Parros. Wandering the extremely dangerous Roodwood on their own in an attempt to escape their pursuers from the Mongauli army, they come across a fierce and frightening warrior. The man is nearly naked, wearing only a loincloth and a strange mask shaped like head of a leopard that seems to have been magically affixed to his own and which he is unable to remove. He has no memories of who he is, where he comes from, or why he is injured and alone in the Roodwood. He remembers two words: Guin, which he believes to be his name, and Aurra, which remains a complete enigma to him. But no matter who Guin really is, he may be the only chance for the twins survival.

At least for me, the most interesting character by far is Guin, even though hardly anything at all is known about him. The mystery shrouding Guin and his past intrigues me, not to mention his form and martial capabilities. One thing that did bother me, and something that Remus comments on about halfway through the novel, was that for someone claiming to be an amnesiac, Guin tends to remember some fairly important information when it’s convenient for the story. I have a feeling and hope that this may be further explained in later volumes. I found the twins to be slightly annoying; Rinda especially comes across as somewhat of a spoiled brat. I liked most of the side characters, particularly Istavan and Orro, even if he did gain and lose his accent from one appearance to another. Towards the end of The Leopard Mask, Kurimoto does some really nice things with the character of the Black Count, who is more complex than he might first appear. Characterization in the novel is mostly based on the character’s actions and reactions rather than really getting to know their thoughts or feelings.

The Leopard Mask is a good hook for the rest of the series, introducing the world and characters, but it doesn’t stand as well on its own; it really seemed more like a prologue to me. The prose can be overly dramatic at times, but that is more an indication of the genre rather than the fault of the translators. (In fact, I think that Smith and Alexander did a fine job with the translation.) It’s almost as if the story would be best read aloud or performed. The action and fight sequences are particularly well done and exciting. Kurimoto does have a tendency to “rewind” the chronology from scene to scene and sometimes it can be difficult to get a good sense of the passage of time. The best descriptions in the text are reserved for Guin as well as for the other freakish and bizarre things in The Leopard Mask. Overall, the world has a very dark atmosphere to it. While I eventually enjoyed The Leopard Mask, I wasn’t really taken with the book until close to the end. However, I’m still looking forward to giving book two of The Guin Saga, Warrior in the Wilderness, a try.

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11 February 2011 5 Comments

Harmony

Author: Project Itoh
Translator: Alexander O. Smith
U.S. Publisher: Viz Media
ISBN: 9781421536439
Released: July 2010
Original release: 2008
Awards: Nihon SF Taisho Award, Seiun Award, Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation

Harmony, by Project Itoh, was originally published in Japan in 2008, winning both the 2009 Nihon SF Taisho Award and the 2009 Seiun Award. Although I was previously unfamiliar with Itoh’s work, I was very excited when the novel was picked up by Viz Media’s Haikasoru imprint and released in 2010 with a translation by Alexander O. Smith. Happily, Harmony has been very well received in English and was recently nominated for the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award. As far as I know, this is the first book in translation and the first Japanese novel to ever be nominated for this award. (The nomination is also particularly meaningful to Haikasoru as the imprint takes its name from Philip K. Dicks award-winning novel The Man in the High Castle.) Harmony is currently the only work by Itoh available in English although a fairly reliable rumor has it that Haikasoru has more Itoh plans in the works. I really hope that is true.

After an unprecedented, worldwide mass suicide, admedistrations across the globe are thrown into turmoil. In a society that views the human  body as a vital resource and a public good to be protected at all costs, suicide is an unthinkable crime. The Helix Inspection Agency, a part of the World Health Organization, is charged with the investigation into the incident. For Tuan Kirie, a Helix member playing an important role in the investigation, the event is very personal. She herself once attempted suicide in defiance of the admedistrative system of which she is now an integral part. She watched as one of her friends took her own life during the mass suicides. Her father was one of the original developers of the WatchMe nano- and biotechnologies that allow the admedistrations to function, but which may have also laid the groundwork that would make such a wide-spread tragedy possible.

The most unusual element of Itoh’s writing in Harmony is his use of EML, or Emotional-in-Text Markup Language (which looks very similar to other markup languages such as XML or HTML.) Even if a reader isn’t familiar with markup languages, it is soon obvious what is going on and the EML shouldn’t provide too much of a challenge. Some people might see it as a clever gimmick, but I found the use of EML to be quite effective and integral to the story. It emphasizes many aspects of admedistrative society in both subtle and direct ways: The EML is a constant reminder of the biotechnological advances that have been made; the perpetual recording and surveillance of individuals’ lives, health, and minds is made obvious; emotional states and human desire are shown to have been reduced to data points for clinical observation; the barrier between one person’s experiences and another’s is broken down. I believe EML is critical to Harmony and I doubt anyone will be able to convince me otherwise.

As with any fiction successfully exploring utopia and dystopia, Harmony is extremely thought-provoking in addition to being engaging. It is easy to see the obsessions and neuroses of today’s societies, particularly those regarding health, reflected and taken to the extreme in Harmony’s world. Occasionally, Itoh can be a bit heavy handed, but overall his world-building has taken a logical if not entirely realistic path. Even a near perfect world can’t make everyone happy and the methods used to get there can be terrible no matter how they are justified. The epilogue doesn’t mesh as nicely with the rest of the novel, but it does provide important information, clarifying specific plot elements while still leaving some ambiguity to the story. I enjoyed Harmony immensely—it’s smart, thought-provoking, and has stuck with me for quite some time after finishing it. I really hope to get a chance to read more of Itoh’s work in English.

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