Henjin Henkutsu Retsuden

Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Eccentrics, Chronicles of the Bizarre and Eccentric, Bizarre Lives of Eccentric People, The Lives of Eccentrics

Japanese: 変人偏屈列伝

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 1

Chapters: 7

Status: Finished

Published: Jun 1989 to Sep 2003

Theme: Historical

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Ultra Jump

Authors: Araki, Hirohiko (Story & Art), Onikubo, Hirohisa (Art)

Statistics

Score: 6.95¹ (scored by 1,275 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #9741²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #7020

Members: 2,994

Favorites: 11

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Wikipedia

6.95

Ranked #9741Popularity #7020Members 2,994

MangaUltra JumpAraki, Hirohiko (Story & Art), Onikubo, Hirohisa (Art)

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Volumes: /1

Chapters: /7

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Synopsis

This title explores the lives of several famous eccentrics and bizarre personages. From exceedingly violent baseball great Ty Cobb; to the mystery Lady Winchester who believed non-stop and nonsensical building of her house would protect her from vengeful spirits; the healthy but deadly infectious Typhoid Mary; bizarre and fickle 70's promoter Kou Yoshio; and the misunderstood, neurotic electricity great Nikola Tesla. [MAL]

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Characters

Tesla, Nikola

Main

Mallon, Mary

Main

Winchester, Sarah

Main

Kou, Yoshio

Main

Cobb, Tyrus Raymond

Main

Reviews

Sep 24, 2024

raviwe

Recommended

The Lives of the Eccentrics is a compelling collection of short stories, and I highly recommend checking out the Typhoid Mary tale at the very least.

Overview
As the title suggests, this collection delves into the lives and minds of individuals who defy societal norms. The selection is diverse, featuring a sports star, a scientist, a businessman, and characters affected by a mental disorder (hoarding) and a physical ailment (typhoid). There’s also a story about the Winchester house, which feels somewhat out of place.

I’ll discuss each story in order of my enjoyment.

Typhoid Mary
The Typhoid Mary story is genuinely fascinating, exploring the essence of civil liberties and the ... often uncomfortable intersection between personal choices and societal expectations. Mary Mallon, an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, represents the complexities of public health and personal freedom. Her forbidden love for cooking, a passion that ultimately puts others at risk, is portrayed with a mix of beauty, tragedy, and unsettling consequences.

The narrative effectively highlights the tension between individual desires and the collective responsibility to ensure public safety. Through Mary’s character, the story raises poignant questions about the extent to which one’s liberties can be compromised for the greater good. The art, crafted by Araki, complements the narrative perfectly, capturing Mary’s isolation and the societal repercussions of her condition. The exquisite illustrations enhance her bizarre situation, making this tale a standout in the collection and encouraging readers to ponder the broader implications of her story.

Nicola Tesla
Tesla's story is mild and was originally released as a standalone piece. It could have served as a great introduction to the book, so I’m puzzled by its placement at the end. The more realistic art style fits the scientist well, and focusing on the natural emergence of his ideas, rather than his many quirks, aligns perfectly with the book's themes.

The Collyer Brothers
This narrative is essential for creating the eerie atmosphere throughout the collection. It indirectly addresses how certain eccentricities can manifest as mental illnesses and examines societal reactions to them. The brothers themselves are barely present; the story is recounted by neighbors. Araki's distinctive and exquisite art style enhances this tale, making it another highlight of the collection.

The Winchester House
The story of the Winchester house is an odd addition. While it’s well-executed and contributes to the overall tone, it diverges from the collection's focus. The narrative lacks grounding in reality and shifts toward the supernatural, interrupting the flow of the other stories. Nonetheless, it remains an intriguing read.

Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb was selected for his status as one of the first sports celebrities, which may explain his double chapter as the introduction. However, this choice feels less effective than others. His story is interesting, and the art by Hirohisa is competent, but it drags on and ultimately feels flat. The portrayal of a sports celebrity with anger issues is intriguing, but it doesn’t offer much depth.

Kou Yoshio
Finally, we have Kou Yoshio, an opportunistic businessman willing to push boundaries. He seems included for his penchant for challenging ventures, yet he remains somewhat enigmatic. His depiction feels more disturbing than engaging. Hirohisa illustrates this chapter as well, and while he doesn’t perform poorly, his contributions stand out as the least impressive compared to Araki’s work.

Conclusion
Overall, The Lives of the Eccentrics is a worthwhile series, with stories that I would recommend to those interested in near-realistic tales, mystery, and the overarching theme of eccentricity.

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May 23, 2011

Rade-chan

Recommended

Lives of Eccentrics (or Henjin Henkutsu Retsuden) delves on the common theme of eccentricity and weirdness of humanity in Hirohiko Araki's works, this time through a series of small biographies about different famous eccentrics like the severely neurotic genius inventor Nikola Tesla and several other bizarre individuals that have left their mark in our history.

The art varies greatly through the course of the manga seeing how the gap between the release of the chapters has been so long. The series starts with the style Araki used in his early career while drawing Phantom Blood and is therefore a great example of the author's artistic evolution. ...

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Jan 20, 2022

giffica

Mixed Feelings

Similar to Araki's Rohan one-shots, these are a fairly disturbing set of exaggerated stories. Unlike with Araki's Jojo work, however, these stories are pseudo-realistic based in part on various historical figures. Much of what makes these interesting is the part that is made up, often times betraying the source material drastically. Whether that makes for exactly interesting reading is likely personal, but for me I did not enjoy warping stories meant to be realistic to the point they no longer feel believable. In the context of Jojo, that exaggerated style works quite well, but displaced from that universe they tend to feel like bad fanfictions ... of the relative figures. Many of these stories are well drawn, and the action is told quite well between panels, however the content of the story doesn't really line up with many of them due to Araki not actually drawing them himself; a criticism most duel-author manga I feel tend to reflect.

Let me address each story individually.

Ty Cobb is really nothing more than a violent, brute of a baseball player who there is quite little to say for beyond his talent as baseball, and temper. Some aspects of this story are fully exaggerated, while there may be far better modern examples to pull from such as Michael Jordan, Barry Bonds, or John McEnroe. The 1920s baseball angle really is lost on me, especailly because baseball in that era sucked.

Kou Yoshio is probably the most disturbing. It's basically just about a monkey having s*x with a woman. The monkey, Oliver, was a real monkey, but the relations with an actress part are totally fictional. To me it feels like Araki didn't even write this, as it reads more like Hirohisa Onikubo's doujin work.

Typhoid Mary is visually stronger than the others, being drawn by Araki himself, and as a result being more well told. The actual story of this is exaggerated far less than the others, and actually offers interesting moral questions during today's current health happening. However, ultimately I feel like this was a missed opportunity to explore some fairly interesting themes, and rather than give Ty Cobb two chapters, this could easily have used another.

Winchester Mystery House is incredibly well drawn, and is one of the main reasons the art in this story is 9, compared to the totality of the work. Many of the designs, patterns, and poses are things straight out of Jojo, and are indistinguishable from Stone Ocean, or Steel Ball Run's early phase. The writing in this however leaves much to be desired, as it reads like an extended Jojo oneliner reference to some obscure historical event. There is absolutely no conclusion here, and really beyond a short horror story, without any closure or explanation, there is little to chew on thematically.

The Collyer brothers is by far the most pointless of the bunch....nothing really happens, other than explaining the lives of two reclusive brothers, and adding some horror suspense moments. However, the end was quite meaningless, literally, where it switched to a different story that had nothing to do with the Collyer brothers? Unsure what was going on there....

The story about Nikola Tesla is by far the more normal, and almost a simple retelling of Tesla's life, with a little dramatization. Considering this is the one written in 1989, he would have the least amount of info available compared to the other stories from 2003. As a result, Araki doesn't really add to much additional info, or make this a horror story in the same way the others all end up. There is no death, not even big suspenseful moment. It's really just a telling of some of the, interestingly, more boring elements of Tesla's life considering all the other insane things Tesla accomplished. Araki only briefly mentions the strange conspiracies surrounding Tesla, which could have easily made for quite a bizarre story. However, potentially due to this being written before Stardust Crusaders, the really "Bizarre" elements of Araki's storytelling are not present.

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