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Apr 14, 2016
There are many reasons to read Onward Towards our Noble Deaths, and it’s hard to pick which one to start with- a good problem to have. I’ll start by approaching the “single volume aspect.” I’ve read All You Need is Kill and Uzumaki, the two standalone omnibuses I see the most on people’s shelves, and would place Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths solidly above them both. About 350 pages, but since it was originally published in 1973, it follows the older style of having more frames per page a lot of the time, so it’s well filled, similar in that respect to the text-heavy
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stories of Ohba & Obata (the duo that wrote Death Note and Bakuman), although in a different way that doesn’t have that same text-heavy feel.
It’s written by Shigeru Mizuki, and, as it says in the back of the book, is 90% fact (and then they tell you what exactly was changed from the actual happening). Shigeru Mizuki is one of Japan’s most legendary mangaka, on the same tier as Osamu Tezuka, (although I found OTND a little more processable by the modern reader than Adolf) although he’s only recently been introduced to the Western eye. He also happens to have been a soldier, who lost his left arm to the war, along with nearly dying to malaria, and those experiences form the basis of OTND. Mizuki’s art style is hands down better than anything I’ve read pre-90s. There’s a provocative contrast between the backgrounds, which are detailed on par with the best of modern artwork, and the characters, who use Mizuki’s distinct stylistic “cartoonish” rendering that’s reminiscent of Ping Pong, Tatami Galaxy, and other “unusual but better” styles (I haven’t read Oyasumi PunPun yet, but I’d imagine it’s similar conceptually to how that plays out with the main character. As a side note, in Urasawa’s Manben series about making manga, Mizuki gets mentioned a lot, and I think was referenced in the Inio Asano episode because of the similarities).
Without spoiling anything, I think I can safely say that OTND is about the tragic absurdity of war, with all the weight of the historical “this really happened” aspect, and a man who suffered greatly from its first-hand perspective. In some ways the themes parallel the classic film Bridge over the River Kwai, only coming from the Japanese soldier’s viewpoint, with the conversations of the characters usually feeling more like Full Metal Jacket. That’s really what’s astounding about OTND- seeing what the atmosphere was like for the “other side,” and the way that one senseless event led to another without anyone seeming to actually want to go down that path, you can’t escape the nagging question, “why did this have to happen?”
I want to keep this short, so let me just say that the omnibus is fantastically bound, and looks great on the shelf, as well as in your hands. It’s also nice how when there is a big 2 page spread they usually broke it up with panels so you don’t lose anything to the binding (there was once where they didn’t, I’m not sure why). It’s put out by Drawn & Quarterly, who I’d never heard of before, so they could probably use your support. I’ll definitely be getting more of their Mizuki as soon as I can.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 18, 2016
This is my first manga review, so please be gentle.
I'll start with rating Beck 9/10. My scoring system is probably wonky (and I may fix it down the road) but that basically means of manga that are definitely worth your time to read, this is about the middle of the priorities list.
Beck is a manga about "chasing the dream," or in a much more real sense, about the blood, sweat, and tears that are the toll for that path. The dream in this case is being a rock star, and throughout the story we see the hard-earned progress followed by inevitable setbacks that accompany
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our protagonist, contrasted by the overnight success of shallower counterparts, bringing into stark contrast just how meaningful success is to each of them (and the effect that wealth and fame has on them), exemplifying the adage "if you don't work for something, you won't appreciate it."
And while if you're looking for deeper overtones along those lines, they can certainly be found throughout, but it's not overt, typed out exposition at all. If you're going to get a deeper message you'll need to look at the way events and characters are come together in a big picture sense. Because of this, Beck sports a nice layering effect- if you're looking for entertainment -humor, inspiration, or just a good story- the manga reads great for you, and you don't feel like you're missing out because you don't care about some extreme moral dillemma, or challenging philosophical question. However, if you need something like that to sink your teeth into it's not difficult to find, it's just not going to be handed to you on a silver platter.
I personally have less exposure to rock, and the culture around it than probably anyone reading this, so take my word for it when I say familiarity with rock or rock bands is in no way essential to enjoying Beck.
The atmosphere that Beck projects so successfully is that of total realistic normalcy- at the beginning of the manga Koyuki, our protagonist, mentions a couple times that he feels so completely normal that he feels invisible, and that drives him to search something that help him stand out, to create an existence with some sort of meaning (not in the sense of changing the world, but rather having something to take pride in personally). As he develops, this background keeps him grounded, and he feels more like someone you would know in real life than an over-the-top, overpowered shonen protagonist. He's a little wimpy, but not obnoxiously so, except when it's dramatic and interesting for that wimpiness to be obnoxious. More than just his personality, the experiences and the personalities & experiences of his crew feel normal & relatable too. For example, the financial difficulties that come with being in a band, and dealing with the physical exhaustion of working blue collar jobs full time in order to make ends meet, and then needing to show up to practice full of energy, then having the motivation to practice on your own at home.
There's good luck and bad luck that play on them, but it feels natural, in the sense of "yeah stupid/great stuff happens that way in the real world too." The stakes feel dramatic, but appropriately so, and carry that much more OOMF because of how real the setting feels. The pace changes enough that you can binge (I read the 34 volumes of this in 4 days, and would have been faster if I'd been able) and not get tired of it.
Unfortunately, only about 1/3 of this manga is available in print (in English) and the publisher went bankrupt. From what (little) I know of rights ownership, that does not bode well for it ever being completed. What makes that particularly unfortunate is that several groups translated portions of this, and some did worse than others. Deeper in, there are more than a few parts where to convey any feeling you need to use your imagination to re-write the words in front of you.
The art, while aesthetically pleasing, lacked a sense of motion, a life of it's own, to me, but that might be because I have a tendency (which I have to correct) to read manga too fast. If you take your time to digest each panel, then you should enjoy the style. The main complaint I had was that at a lot of the climactic moments there was very little text, and you were supposed to "feel the magic" through the art, but (perhaps because I read it so quickly) those scenes felt repetitious and lost a lot of impact.
Bringing it all together, I want to remind you of the initial score- 9. With a better, more consistent translation job throughout, this could very easily be a 10, but as is it's still well worth your time. If you like Bakuman, you'll probably like this- there are more than a few parallels. Although this is technically shonen, it carried a very seinnen-like feel to me.
As I mentioned earlier, this is my first time doing a review like this, and for better or worse I didn't bother reading others to get an idea of what should be done, so I'd appreciate any feedback you have, the more specific the better. Thanks!
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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