365 Days of Manga, Day 52: MW

MW ???) • Osamu Tezuka • Vertical (2007) • Shogakukan (Big Comic, 1976-1978) • Seinen Action Suspense • 16+ (graphic violence, nudity, sex)
Stoic Catholic priest Iwao Garai has a dark secret: he is the lover and confessor of Michio Yuki, a beautiful, bisexual, Kabuki-trained sadist who commits crimes of shocking depravity–rape, kidnapping, murder–between trysts with Father Garai. The two men are the sole survivors of an accident, covered up by the Japanese government, in which a deadly nerve gas developed by a foreign country (unnamed but obviously the United States) wiped out an entire island village. What happened in the village changed Garai from a juvenile delinquent to a guilt-ridden priest, and Yuki from an innocent boy to a soulless killer, and now Yuki torments Garai like a demon from his past. But there is a method to Yuki’s madness, as he tracks down the people responsible for the accident and the chemical weapon itself, MW. One of Tezuka’s bleakest works, MW consists mainly of a long litany of Yuki’s crimes and evil schemes, which Father Garai watches with maddening passivity. The plot is as convoluted and improbable as any of Tezuka’s attempts at intrigue; even the characters admit that the final denouement is like something out of a cartoon. But it’s arrestingly told and endlessly audacious, and the effeminate, sexually magnetic, unabashedly wicked Yuki is one of Tezuka’s most memorable characters–and an interesting counterpart to the more sympathetically portrayed gay and bisexual bishonen just gaining popularity in shojo manga at around the time MW was serialized. (Review by Shaenon Garrity)

Today’s review is another Tezuka review by my good friend and amazing writer/artist/mangaphile, Shaenon Garrity. As I mentioned yesterday, I gave Shaenon the job of doing all the Tezuka reviews for Manga: The Complete Guide (both the original book and this update), because Tezuka is too classy for me and I would rather spend my time grubbing around in the dirt reading manga like “Enmusu” and “Violence Jack.” -_- *ahem* Anyway!
The good folks at suvudu.com recently tallied up the statistics for the first 50 days of “365 Days of Manga” and answered the question “Just what sort of person fills out forms for free manga online?” Personally, I kind of imagined a mixture of people like Tank Girl in the ’80s and Bruce Campbell in those Old Spice commercials. More realistically, I’ve gathered some data from the forms, and I’ll share it with you now.
First, your ages:
Over 18 – 77%
Under 18 – 23%
I had noticed that most of the winners are over 18, despite the attempts by companies like VIZ and Udon to publish “all ages” and preteen manga. Is the age of manga readers rising? Teenagers and preteens, send us your manga requests! But what about your manga preferences?
Shojo/Josei – 30%
Seinen – 22%
Shonen – 15%
Yaoi – 11%
No Preference – 24%
Shojo/josei is the highest requested category, although so far the winners have been mostly seinen lovers — is this just bad luck for the shojophiles? The preference for seinen over shonen might be linked to the ages of the readers. We have a steady undercurrent of yaoi requests, and a lot of “no preferences,” which I take to mean “prepare to receive the weirdest manga I have.”
So those are my wild guesses about the demographic of web-savvy manga maniacs. There’s something else I’ve been wondering which can’t be answered by the suvudu form results — do “365 Days of Manga” readers read just manga, or do they also sup of a variety of other types of graphic novels and comics? Do they know the joy of “Yokaiden”, “Scott Pilgrim”, “Finder”, “Won Ton Soup,” the work of Dylan Meconis and Jason Shiga and Derek Kim and Jen Wang? Recently I’ve been working on some of my own comics, specifically on a comic adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft story The Strange High House in the Mist. I’m a horror and fantasy fan from way back and it’s a huge pleasure to draw my own stuff when I’m not reading manga. I’m currently on page 11 of a projected 16 pages, so please check it out!
And now, today’s winners! Today’s new manga winner is Mona K. of California (congratulations!), and the repeat winner is Adele S.!

Congrats, Adele! I’ll do my best to send you some really awesome books that you don’t already have for your next 5 manga. Till tomorrow, it’s “365 Days of Manga,” over and out.

5 Responses to “365 Days of Manga, Day 52: MW”

Hamel says:

November 6, 2009 at 10:08 pm

About the last bit
I read other things too not just manga (my favorite non-manga comics is TMNT by far)
and I still didn’t win >:
WHassinger says:

November 7, 2009 at 2:25 pm

I read a lot of different graphic novels and manga holds no particular position in my enjoyment of the format. The stories presented are neither better or worse than anything else.
I’d like to point out that it makes sense that your audience for a manga critique series on the Suvudu website would be frequented primarily by adults. I’m not sure that the audience here is an accurate representation of the manga reading audience. A lot of the stuff on here isn’t going to appeal to kids.
As for my choice of material, I like shonen but I can get that from Shonen Jump if I want it. Also it’s not hard to find good shonen right now. Seinen I don’t know nearly as well so, if I win, I want to try something new and interesting. If I choose “I don’t care” it’s because I’m willing to take my chances. I vary.
Now I just need to win *hint-hint*.
Jason Thompson says:

November 7, 2009 at 5:05 pm

Whether the science fiction, fantasy & horror books on suvudu matches the “manga” readership is a good question. Personally, I think there’s probably a significant overlap. Although there is a great deal of popular non-fantasy manga in Japan — the Oishinbos, the sports manga, the mystery/crime/thriller manga, the pet manga — the nonfantasy manga hasn’t made nearly as much of an impression in the U.S., with the possible exception of romantic comedies. As for the age thing, if I was in junior high/high school today I’d probably be reading books like Eragon and Twilight.
On the other hand, the controversy over the rebranding of the “Spice and Wolf” novels in the U.S. shows that the manga/anime and paperback novel crowd are still different groups with different tastes. I’m happy to have “365 Days of Manga” on suvudu where it adds a different flavor to suvudu’s existing pop-culture soup.
Lastly, I agree with you that good seinen manga doesn’t get nearly enough publicity in the U.S.
Agent 00 Ebil says:

November 8, 2009 at 3:05 am

Back in 2005, my local library (and place of work) got a grant to obtain a graphic novel collection (See, graphic novel in library terms is American Comics, Manga, Manwha, basically anything comic-like). So, after kinda doing the “I’m too old/cool/sophisticated/whatever to read comics” thing, I broke down and asked the Librarian in charge to pick me out some titles to read. All those titles were American comics. So, I actually started out on American comics, though more in the vein of Chynna Clugston-Major. I’ve been totally addicted to that section since. I still read a lot of non-manga comics though (even though I prefer Japanese Manga). I was totally excited about the new Courtney Crumin – why oh why did it take so many years? Though, I don’t read much Marvel/DC. I just read X-Men: Magneto Testament. Just wow! It was not what I was expecting, but it was still really good. I thought it would be more of a “Magneto’s rise to power’ thing, but no, this was all before that… it was really more of a comic expose on WWII and it’s effect on Jews in Germany…but with a Marvel character to reel in those x-men lovin’ minds (which, I’m not really, but honestly, I’ll pretty much read anything with the whole ‘why did the villian turn bad’, it’s just fascinating). And, I’ll admit it, I was beyond excited when I found out that Papercutz published Geronimo Stilton graphic novels. I JUST read Yokaiden a few days ago, it was cute, I liked how it gives Americans more of a look at Japanese mythology, but I can also get that from Yokai Doctor. Though, I do not know the wonders of Derek Kim (sorry). But yeah, basically lot of graphic novels.
As for “no preference”… bring it on. I think I can take just about anything except Bobobo-bo bo-bobo. That one I just refuse. But thankfully, I’m assuming that goes under shonen so I figure I’m pretty safe. Plus, if it inflicts horror on my brain, I figure I can always donate it to the library and “share the wealth”. I’ve always thought Parasyte looked pretty weird and it has a steady following at the library. Plus it’s good to expand your horizons (or whatever cheesy saying you want to insert there), afterall, I thought I’d hate Pumpkin Scissors and I’m completely in love with the series, same with Samurai 7…and Black Jack.. and… well, yeah, I guess it’s just good I’ll read stuff that doesn’t initially appeal to me. Though, I really do wish you had a “Kids/All Ages” selection, because I love reading vizkids and other ‘all ages’ titles. Man, Dinosaur Hour was awesome XD I laughed the entire time.
Oh, and I got the library to order Oishinbo and I saw a kid checking it out. I did a complete Happy Dance and we talked about how fascinating it was to read about Japanese food! Though, your comment on Junior High kids…I think the only reason more Junior High kids don’t read manga is because they’re not worth Accelerated Reading points. I swear, if Manga was worth AR points, they’d be all over it like monkeys on bananas. Plus, a lot of the times, when kids are looking for stuff to read, the parents veto comics and go “You can only read those comics once you finish your AR points”, I always give a mental high-five to parents who allow their kids to read manga. I can’t tell you how many times a kid is like “I was reading the XYZ manga at school and all the other kids were like ‘THIS IS AWESOME’”. Plus, comics are being more encouraged in schools for those ‘reluctant readers’. I just don’t think you see them represented on this site because while kids are all about the free stuff, they’re either on youTube watching Anime, or oneManga reading scanlations. Sad, but true.
Jason Thompson says:

November 8, 2009 at 1:01 pm

Thanks for the post!! I actually love Chynna Clugston-Major too. (And I too started out on Western comics, like Carl Barks’ Uncle Scrooge and Dave Gibbons’ Doctor Who, since there wasn’t much manga translated when I was little..) The main reason I don’t have a “kids/all ages” option in the manga contest is because there hasn’t been enough kids/all ages stuff printed — most of the manga printed in the U.S. is rated 13+ or higher. But if you win I’ll send you an email, and you can email me back and say “STOP THE TRUCK!! GIVE ME ALL-AGES MANGA!!” and I’ll do my best.
And Derek Kim’s graphic novels are really good!