Psyren: Dragon

I read Psyren, Vol. 3: Dragon

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE comics).

Afterschool Charisma: The New Adventures of Hitler

I read Afterschool Charisma, Vol. 5

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps and comics).

Bokurano: Maki Ano

I read Bokurano: Ours, Vol. 5

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has free comics).

Psyren: Baby Universe

I read Psyren, Vol. 2

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has free comics).

Grand Guignol Orchestra: Troubadour's Love Song

I read Name Your Link

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps and comics).

Kurozakuro: The Final Volume

I read Kurozakuro, Vol. 7

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

Afterschool Charisma: Attack of the Clones Continues

I read Afterschool Charisma, Vol. 4

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

Wedding March Story

I read March Story, Vol. 3

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

Grand Guignol Orchestra: Stigmate

I read Grand Guignol Orchesta, Vol. 4 (Grand Guignol Orchestra)

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

Kurozakuro: Resistance

I read Kurozakuro, Vol. 6

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin.

Kurozakuro: Secret Pity

I read Kurozakuro, Vol. 5

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

Afterschool Charisma: Attack of the Clones

I read Afterschool Charisma, Vol. 3

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

I Reads You Review: KUROZAKURO, VOL. 1

Creators: Yoshinori Natsume with Camellia Nieh (translation)

Publishing Information: VIZ Media, B&W, paperback, 200 pages, $9.99 U.S., $12.99 CAN

Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-4215-3659-0 (ISBN-13)

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Kurozakuro is a shonen manga from Yoshinori Natsume, the creator of the manga, Togari, and the writer/artist of Batman: Death Mask. Kurozakuro is about a boy who is bullied in school until fate brings him strange, new, and even dangerous powers.

In Kurozakuro, Vol. 1, readers meet Mikito Sakurai, the school punching bag for all the delinquents on campus, who also manage to enrich themselves with Mikito’s allowance. The gentle and easygoing high school student does not feel like a victim, but soon, his tormentors will be his victim. After swallowing a mysterious orb, Mikito meets Zakuro, a strange kid who offers to grant Mikito’s most heartfelt desire. When he chooses being stronger, Mikito inadvertently changes his life, but he also endangers his own life and the lives of all those around him.

This will sound strange, but the whole time I read Kurozakuro I kept thinking about Steve Ditko. It is as if Natsume borrowed from Ditko comics or were inspired by them. The trials and tribulations of Mikito as a bullied kid are reminiscent of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s Peter Parker of The Amazing Spider-Man, especially the early issues. The swallowing of the orb to gain powers is similar to Ditko’s DC Comics’ character, The Creeper, as is the design of the ogre child, Zakuro. The parts of the story that take place in Mikito’s dreams and the design of the ogres recall the visuals and graphics Ditko used in his Doctor Strange comics.

Beyond that, this is an excellent monster and quasi-superhero comic. It’s fun to read, and it has this dark, urban fantasy vibe this is quite attractive. Right now, it seems like a shonen manga to watch.

A-

#IReadsYou Review: GOGO MONSTER

 

GOGO MONSTER
VIZ MEDIA

CARTOONIST: Taiyo Matsumoto
TRANSLATION: Camellia Nieh
ENGLISH ADAPTATION: Annette Roman
LETTERS: Susan Daigle-Leach
ISBN: 978-1-4215-3448-0; paperback; Rated “T” for “Teen”
459pp, B&W, $27.99 US, $36.00 CAN

GoGo Monster is a Japanese seinen manga written and illustrated by Taiyo Matsumoto.  Japanese publisher, Shogakukan, published it in a single tankōbon (graphic novel) volume in October 2000.  VIZ Media published an English-language edition of GoGo Monster as a single-volume graphic novel under its VIZ Signature imprint in November 2009.

GoGo Monster, a thick manga graphic novel by Taiyo Matsumoto (Tekkonkinkreet), takes readers into the make-believe life of a third grader.  A mystery and sleight-of-hand fantasy, GoGo Monster asks what is real and what is childhood obsession?

Third grader Yuki Tachibana lives in two worlds. In one world, our world, Yuki is a loner ridiculed by his classmates and reprimanded by his teachers for telling stories of supernatural beings that only he can see.  In the other world, these supernatural beings vie for power with malevolent spirits that bring chaos into the school, the students’ lives, and even nature itself.

In Grade 3, Class 2, Yuki is a good student, but he is preoccupied with the struggle between his good supernatural friends and the bad ones who break windows and paint graffiti on the school walls.  Makoto Suzuki is the new kid sitting next to Yuki, and although the other students warn him against this, this boy becomes Yuki’s steady companion.  Yuki also finds sympathy in Ganz, the elderly caretaker of the school’s flower and vegetable gardens and also Sasaki a.k.a. IQ, a boy who wears a large box over his head.  Makoto isn’t sure if Yuki is making up his fantasy world or not, while Ganz and IQ are cagey about what they believe.  As he becomes more withdrawn, Yuki will have to depend on the friends that stick with him – whether he realizes it or not.

THE LOWDOWN:  The answer to whether Yuki Tachibana’s claims are true or not is obvious to most readers, but the validity of this child’s fantasies are not necessarily the heart of GoGo Monster’s narrative.  The genre to which Monster is closest is not fantasy, but rather the coming of age story.  In fact, Monster is a coming of age story presented in such a fashion that the reader must be a detective – searching for the truth by discovering Tachibana’s motivations and by dissecting what little of his past is presented to the reader.  The star of the story is Yuki Tachibana and he doesn’t disappoint.

Taiyo Matsumoto’s tale mixes environmental and green metaphors and symbols which gives the story’s themes of renewal and rebirth, not only for Yuki, but also for his classmates.  What Matsumoto does best, however, is engage the reader.  Matsumoto structures the story so that the reader is constantly trying to find the truth.  The execution of this comics or graphical storytelling is such that the reader is always looking for something – a strange looking creature or a subtle movement in the face of a staff member or student at the school – that will answer a question.

You will want answers, and you will be won over by this maddening complicated child, Yuki Tachibana.  He is our surrogate into this literary world.  GoGo Monster is a monster of a read, filled with a sense of wonder about the natural world, about the supernatural world, and also about living in the real world.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of the manga of Taiyo Matsumoto will want GoGo Monster.

A-
7.5 out of 10

Revised and Posted on Friday, September 18, 2020


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