Naoki Urasawa is an author who I’ve been reading for some time – my interest in him was rekindled recently. His works include MONSTER, 20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Master Keaton. His latest is Billy Bat.
The predominant theme in his stories is conspiracy, on a colossal scale. MONSTER follows a doctor named Tenma on the trail of a brilliant young sociopath. 20th Century Boys is a worldwide conspiracy that finds its humble beginnings in a group of kids’ secret club. Pluto is marketed as TEZUKA X URASAWA, and is a darker retelling of the Astro Boy story arc, “The Greatest Robot in the World”. The length of these stories is tremendous – ranging from 8 volumes to 22 volumes. I say tremendous because he manages to weave a web large enough to sustain the lengths of his books. I’d love to see how he plans his books out. I’d probably kill a man for a glimpse.
Generally when I read comics, I’m reading them in two ways – I’m reading the story and at the same time I tend to break down layouts and sequences that I think work particularly well so I can file them away for later. With Urasawa’s comics, I can’t. They are propellant; I am stuck to the edge of my seat going 300 miles per hour and before I know it I’ve finished a book without stopping. I read MONSTER in the span of about 2 days! It is 18 volumes.
MONSTER especially is a great series to give to someone who dislikes anime and manga. The only Japanese thing about it is the main character and the race relations that occasionally arise – in all other regards, it reads like a good thriller/suspense novel. Urasawa’s mastery of paneling is sublime; his faces are expressive and real. He doesn’t necessarily make you care about all the characters; often what you care about most is whether or not they can help to stop the impending conclusion of the conspiracy in question. There are conspiracies inside conspiracies; small fry get knocked off as the masterminds manipulate their ways closer and closer to what they’re after. You don’t know who is going to get bumped off next, and you are always made to wait just long enough, so that you forget death is a possibility. I could honestly go on for hours, but I won’t! All I’ll say is this: if anything I’ve said sounds interesting, check it out!
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 11:47 PM and is filed under Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Pluto=best manga ever. One of the few mangas that really gets you excited to read yet can still touch you.
Nah, your wrong. Monster is.
The only thing more scary that the main protagoist is Inspector Lungi’s work ethic.
I cannot recommend Monster enough… I didn’t read it all in 2 days though :)
It was giving me chills while reading it. I explained it to a couple of friends, and they’d be like “Wow, that sounds really good! So it’s a novel?” and I’d let them know that it is a manga. Totally dumbfounded them.
I too have had this reaction!
Glad I’m not the only one! I described one scene to a friend of mine, and just my description gave her nightmares :) Great story.
With such a strong recommendation, I feel a moral imperative to check these out. Which book/series would you recommend starting with (I ask with the experience that the best overall isn’t always the best introduction)?
Hmm, that’s a tough question! MONSTER is out in stores in it’s entirety … you can only read most of the other in their entirety online. For you, my friend, I might recommend Pluto! In addition to his normal conspiracy shtick, he has robots. Also, it’s the shortest of all of them … I can’t give a 100% recommendation since I’ve only read the first 3 volumes, but those are really gripping.
You can read the whole translation on onemanga.com, I only recommend that because I’m buying the translated volumes anyway, that way I can always have them to read and re-read. Delete this if you object.
Pluto I mean. Though technically it’s all on there.
I haven’t read the books but I did saw the MONSTER anime and it was great
Ah, yes, Urasawa.
Monster was truly compelling indeed, and 20th Century Boys is just fantastic.
Also, this is a small thing, but it may be worth noting that Urasawa was just the artist of Master Keaton for quite some time.
It’s true! I feel like it was partially training ground for him …
Urasawa is one of my all-time favorite authors. 20th Century Boys was one of the manga that inspired me to pursue my BFA. Pluto and Monster are fantastic story’s also.
Wow!
I haven’t read MONSTER, but I’ve read the first several volumes of 20th Century Boys. I have the bluray of the first 20th Century Boys movie, which is just simply awesome, and I did a subtitle script for the movie. (Though I still haven’t polished the second half) It’s going to be a trilogy. The second and third movies cover 21st Century Boys
The concept of 20th Century Boys really grabbed me, because I think lots of us had circles of friends like that when we were kids, and that really grounds what is an otherwise fantastical story in reality.
I couldn’t agree more … it really ties the story to reality in a way that still allows for all the bizarre stuff that happens later on.
AAH!! im glad you did a review of Urasawa and his work, i was one of the ppl who suggested it :D.
I would suggest starting with Monster, even tho its large, as Ananth has said, you wont even feel the lenght, youll be at the edge of your chair the entire time, PROMISE :).
If you read 20th Century Boys, remember not to miss its conclusion 21st Century boys. Pluto is great as a break inbetween 20th Century Boys and Urasawa’s latest work, Billy Bat… basically i would recommend going Monster, 20th CB, 21st CB, Pluto, Billy Bat, theres a big reason for this, this is the chronological line they were written (if im not mistaken, ive been an Urasawa fan for a long time since Monster had recently came out so i just read them as they came out), and i enjoyed how Urasawa evolved in his writing skills and story telling.
Good luck and i hope you enjoy it! :D.
oh, btw, you might enjoy this interview with Urasawa:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFh-z17rSq8