MW

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MW by Osamu Tezuka
Long-Winded Review #5 [Immoral Edition]

Series Overview:
Tezuka's 1976 manga MW follows the story of Yuki, a sadistic criminal mastermind, and Father Garai, a Japanese Catholic priest. They are the sole survivors of a poison gas leak that killed off an entire island's population. They also share a complicated relationship. They are lovers of sorts. Essentially, while hiding away during the MW gas leak incident, a 20-something Garai (not yet a priest) took advantage of a young Yuki thinking he looked quite gentle and feminine. After the incident, Yuki suffered some brain damage due to slight exposure to the MW gas that caused him ... to lose all sense of morality and started committing atrocious crimes. Garai, feeling guilt over the MW incident and what he had done, became a priest to repent for his sins and attempt to cleanse Yuki and redeem him. As adults, despite Father Garai's resistance, Yuki constantly seduces him and uses him, taking advantage of his good nature and guilt. Over the course of the story, Yuki commits a chain of seemingly unrelated crimes towards a specific goal, while Garai tries to keep him in check or stop him. This forms a very interesting dynamic, as they go back and forth between lovers, adversaries, and collaborators, usually all at once, all the while getting to the bottom of the MW conspiracy.

Writing:
Tezuka's writing here is more accessible than in Ayako, which is his only other work that I've read. In Ayako, the story developed on many fronts and spanned decades. In contrast, MW has a much more linear story focused on the two main characters. Much like Ayako, Tezuka touches on some important historical issues of the time, in this case the American military bases stationed in Japan at the time and the fear of weapons of mass destruction.

It also casually features many homosexual and bisexual characters, with Yuki himself constantly cross-dressing to commit crimes or seduce important people of both genders, and Father Garai liking both men and women despite his priesthood. I found this to be very progressive for the time, even by today's standards. Not much commentary is made about it, instead it's just casually there. Same goes for its depictions of sex, both hetero and homosexual. From what I understand, at the time, especially in Japan, sex in general was a point of controversy, in sequential comics or otherwise. In contrast, much like in Ayako, female characters are mostly there to be victims to be killed or used (not that the males in the story have it much better, but it's worth noting). Compared to Western Comics and other media in the '70s, I still feel Tezuka was way ahead of his time in both social issues and writing conventions.

The main appeal of the story is watching the dynamic between Yuki and Garai, and seeing Yuki's plans play out in clever and interesting ways, while Garai struggles with his faith and values. Sometimes there are cliches and contrivances, but for the most part it was satisfying to see the plot develop. It's also worth noting that Tezuka does this in only 26 chapters, all while not being reliant on heavy text like some other works of the time, manga or western.

Art:
The artwork in MW is quite good, and a slight but noticeable improvement from Ayako, which was released about 4 years prior. Tezuka's style is fairly simple, with clear line work and only a slight use of shading when necessary. Sometimes it can be a little cartoony, even cheesy, but that's a product of the time and it generally doesn't impair the serious tone of the story. His drawing prowess really comes out when he draws detailed cityscapes and natural landscapes. I was especially impressed by his various depictions of Yuki, who seamlessly transforms from a suave business guy at work to a convincing woman in disguise, or from a burly macho man in the streets to an effeminate sensual man in the sheets. He is a very well designed character whose appearance works for nearly any disguise without altering his body type or facial features, and it takes a real master to come up with and draw a character like that.

As for Tezuka's paneling style, it is very dense, usually having from 6 to 8 panels in a page. This allows him to meticulously pace the story, while showing more moment to moment actions and reactions than a modern manga might. Despite having so many panels per page, for the most part he goes light on the text, instead opting to depict characters' expressions, body language, actions, and reactions to get the point across. Very good use of "show, don't tell", which is refreshing especially when compared to Western Comics of the time. I find Tezuka to be a masterful sequential artist for these reasons, and along with his easy to parse style, it makes this a very smooth read.

As a word of warning: if violence, sex, emotional and sexual abuse, torture, manipulation, and various other despicable acts offend you, steer away from this book. This is a story about a man that embodies true evil, after all.

Conclusion:
All in all, this was a very enjoyable manga. It's not perfect, suffering from some cliches and contrivances and a few predictable twists. But regardless of that, the plot was interesting enough, the pacing was great, the art impressive, and the main characters absolutely incredible. I would highly recommend this if you're at all interested in '70s manga.

Final score: 9/10

MW is a psychological thriller manga that probably gives us the most despicable villain of all time. This is definitely a manga that proves you don't need tons of blood and gore to have a good suspense story. The Most disturbing message that MW puts across, is that the fight against evil is destined to be a Pyrrhic victory. But regardless the only thing we can do is fight on whatever the cost. We have no other choice. Let's face it, Osamu Tezuka was a genius! He managed to capture the true demented character of Yuki Michio . A Character so evil ... that he makes Johan Liebert look like a angel in comparison. I would probably recommend this manga to anybody who really likes good old-fashioned horror. There is much more that could be said, but you should see this for yourself. It is a classic that will be enjoyed not only by thriller fans, but by anyone who appreciates carefully crafted story with a lot of depth. The art work on the other hand is one of the downside of this manga. Some charters looks Asian when other characters look western. And the twist ending is so not surprising.

I really have to admire Tezuka's ability to cover an enormous range of subjects. There's not many people that would seriously attempt a graphic retelling of the life of the Buddha, a Nazi spy drama, samurai stories, and a queer crime romance. It's not hard to tell why he was such a trailblazer, not only in his early work like ASTRO BOY but in his gekiga era as well.

MW is a mixed bag. It's an interesting premise. The Catholic clergy is a rich subject to mine for storytelling and the queer criminal angle is pretty fresh even now. With that said, it's not a story ... that's aged particularly well. The women here are one-dimensional wilting lilies and Yuki himself, the aforementioned queer criminal, is a caricature. Thankfully our protagonist Garai is more interesting and has some really rich conflict going on as he struggles not only with his vows and with Yuki but with his own history and his sexuality. It might have been a stronger piece if Yuki weren't so cartoonishly evil and the story had focused more on Garai's attempts to fix him.

Even more than MESSAGE TO ADOLF this story is tangled up in the early gekiga style. Tezuka never really amended his art to fit better tonally with his later stories, so his characters look as cartoonish as people like Dr. Tenma from ASTRO BOY. In MESSAGE TO ADOLF at least it lent his depiction of Hitler himself a real vibrancy, but during the grittier sequences it just doesn't work. MW is the same way. There are rare panels when he tries something more realistic, like in the page where Garai is haunted by the memories of his first meeting with Yuki, but overall it looks a little too Disney. Something like Nagai's DEVILMAN does a better job of bridging the two artstyles. If MW got a modern update in the style of Urasawa's PLUTO, it could make for a fantastic anime or manga.

It's an alright read in the end. Tezuka remains a technical master. His pages are composed well and his grasp on story is strong. The trouble is that his villain here is so comically evil that it strips all the depth from the telling. As it is, it's impossible to get past the dissonance between style and subject. Not one of the master's stronger works.