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May 2, 2014
Published a full 2 years before the release of the infamous OVA of the same name, Tony Takezaki's Genocyber (genocide + cyber, get it?) is a manga that tries to do a lot of things, but just can't pull them off too well. The manga begins with a fight scene and some exposition about the world for one chapter, before shifting to the Genocyber's backstory for the next four. And then it just ends.
I wanted to talk about the length of the manga later, but I just can't speak to the manga's quality without making the most glaring problem explicitly clear: this manga is cut
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way too early to be enjoyable. 5 chapters. That's all there is. What gets accomplished in this time, you ask? Nothing. Genocyber isn't even created in the four chapters of backstory. That's how early this got cut. And it's a real shame, but mourning something like this isn't going to do much good. On to the appraisal of individual parts.
The backstory chapters are a little light on necessary information, but they aren't bad. It's pretty average late-80s/early-90s cyberpunk stuff with more of a focus on grotesque body horror than usual. It's certainly no Ghost in the Shell, but plot-wise it's a fun little romp. The lack of explanation of anything - it's clear the author was probably going to explain stuff over time as not to make it too much of an infodump - really dampers how much one can enjoy the story, though, forcing the reader to just kind of continually go "well, okay" to everything in the story because it doesn't really make much sense. This really affects one's impressions and understanding of the characters, too, and they are most affected. The reader doesn't know why anyone is doing anything besides at the most basic level. Elaine and Diana are innocent psychic teenage girls, their dad is a moral scientist, the big bad corporation head is a villain who wants to exploit the girls' psychic power for something (it's never really explained why). Also, the evil faction employs a ton of henchmen that are either faceless or are wearing a mask. Also they might be robots? Nothing about them was explained.
The art's nothing special. The Genocyber's design is actually extremely interesting and I haven't quite seen something like it, but all we see of it is during the short fight in chapter one and a few similar-looking pieces of armor in chapters 4 and 5. Otherwise, it looks like what you'd expect it to look like, although it seems to take a few cues from American underground comics here and there. The gore is - surprise! - actually pretty light as far as cyberpunk noir goes, and definitely not anywhere near to the OVA's level of gore. It probably would have been better with more gratuitous gore, but the few gruesome massacres that remain are serviceable, I guess.
I really think that if this hadn't been cut, it could have been at the very least a solidly enjoyable series. It had everything that could have worked on a longer scale - mysteries, characters with development potential, cool designs, et cetera - but it just gets cut too early for any of that to matter. Even a few more chapters, maybe making two volumes all together, would have been enough to save this manga and make it a pretty cool buried treasure. But sadly, this isn't the case, and Genocyber is left to languish in the hell of being unfinished. Not just unfinished, but painfully, outrageously unfinished, a series that didn't even get a chance to make a case for itself.
To beak it down:
Interesting premise and the design of the Genocyber is cool, but the series' extremely short length holds it back from achieving anything notable, and instead makes it only an exercise in 'what could have been.' If you haven't seen the OVA, see that first. If you've seen the OVA and you NEED more Genocyber, read this. Anyone else? Skip it.
5/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 5, 2014
Picked up this apparently obscure manga for a college anime/manga class - didn't have any expectations going into it, but I ended up enjoying it a lot.
Nonnonba to Ore, or simply Nonnonba, is a story about growing up - the chapters each provide vignettes of daily life growing up in pre-WW2 Japan, evoking senses of nostalgia easily even if one did not live through the time period. Some chapters are connected, some aren't. The book is, then, better enjoyed in chunks than plowing through it all at once.
The book's art style is interesting - personally, I found it more reminiscent of western cartoons than what's
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thought of as 'manga'; this isn't a flaw, however, it ends up working in the book's favor. Also of interest are the yokai of the story, whose appearances are directly taken from traditional art. This juxtaposition of old and new creates a work with a surprising amount of depth for what appears to be a children's story on the surface.
The characters in the story have depth, albeit not much, because many major characters do not remain in the story for more than a few chapters at a time, wherein they usually go through some form of major development before disappearing. The core characters - the protagonist, his family, and Nonnonba - go through varying degrees of development based upon how much they realistically need. This works well, but do not expect anything too flashy or touching. It is pragmatic at best and nonexistent at worst.
The real stars of the show, arguably, are the yokai. Each chapter seems to revolve around them as much as it revolves around the events in the protagonist's life. They may only appear for a few pages, sometimes even a few panels, but they steal the show with their variety and dynamic presentation. If you read this book for no other reason, read it for the yokai.
I enjoyed this book as a stand-alone volume, but it's not for everyone - it's a tad expensive because of the brand new packaging and translation, so read it online first to get a feel for it. I definitely find it worthwhile, but much more so from a anthropological standpoint than a fun standpoint.
Overall, a 7 out of 10. Read this if you (like me) like Japanese folklore or stories of growing up right before the 1940s. Otherwise, you can probably find more 'enjoyable' things elsewhere.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Oct 12, 2013
Minor spoilers ahead.
I used to be a huge fan of Junji Ito's work - I sang his praises constantly on Tumblr and recommended him to many of my friends. Now, I see the fault in my actions.
Jigokusei Remina - Hellstar Remina - is a work that feels ultimately pointless.
Hellstar fits quite nicely into the Junji Ito mold - the female heroine watches the world collapse around her, and nearly everyone in the story dies. The work is so full of violence and death that I nearly felt sick reading it - not because I can't stand violence or death (hell, one of my favorite movies
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is End of Evangelion) - but because everything in it feels pointless.
There is virtually no explanation for WHY the things in the story happen. They just happen, seemingly without any sort of reason. At least in Ito's other works - Uzumaki, for example - there is a REASON for what happens and the death that it entails. This reason is nowhere to be found in Hellstar. The planet Remina just comes and destroys everything for no reason. Millions, if not billions, of innocent people die for no reason. You watch them die - not only die, but struggle to live by doing everything they can, and then still die. The death in the story is dealt with so objectively that it is not fun to read. You feel nothing towards these people killed en masse; they are simply plot devices. Not only is it uncomfortable, but it is flat-out boring.
This kind of voyeurism can be enjoyable sometimes, sure, but in this work I found it totally off-putting and uncomfortable. Like I said, I felt that it was handled in a miserable way compared to usual Ito.
The main characters don't have enough time for real development - Remina stays the absolute same throughout the story, and every other twist can be seen from a mile away. The story feels so forced through these characters, your level of psychic distance from the fiction is astronomical.
The work is just boring, with its only redeeming qualities coming from Ito's art. The man has a real talent for drawing grotesque landscapes, may they be on Earth or on foreign locales, and his characters are expressive physically if not emotionally.
Pass on this and read Uzumaki instead, or some of his shorter-form collections. They have much more impact and depth than this misfire.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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