With more people reading manga and Webtoons (aka vertical scroll comics) than ever before, Beat’s Bizarre Adventure gives three writers an opportunity each week to recommend some of their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea and elsewhere. This week we have former delinquents, a gory Tezuka comic, and, of course, birds.
Catch These Hands!
Writer/Artist: murata
Translation: Amanda Haley
Lettering: Bianca Pistillo
Design: Wendy Chan
Publisher: Yen Press
Ayako Takebe was a proud teenage delinquent in high school. Now that she’s an adult, though, her friends are marrying and having kids. Takebe decides to change her style and clean up her act. But then she runs into her old nemesis Kirara Soramori at the clothing store, who challenges her to meet her in a nearby park. When Takebe shows up, ready to throw down, Soramori confesses her love. Could these former rivals have a future together?
murata draws Takebe with glowering eyes that terrify regardless of what she is doing or wearing. She has no idea how to be in a relationship; she’s much more comfortable challenging Kirara to a test of strength than she is going out with her. But Takebe’s stubbornness is just what Kirara likes about her. At the same time, while Kirara might look like a responsible adult on the surface, she’s just as weird deep down as Takebe is. It’s a lot of fun to watch them stumble around and figure out what they want from life and each other.
At four volumes, I think Catch These Hands! runs long. Takebe and Kirara’s relationship spins its wheels for a volume and a half. A stronger focus on the side characters and their stories, as you see in series like How Do We Relationship?, might have given the series more to work with. But I admire how the comic keeps to its theme: that there is no wrong way to be an adult. You don’t need to marry a guy, have a kid, or dress to fit other people’s expectations. You just need to have the courage of your convictions.
I just turned 33 last month, so I’ve been asking myself the same questions lately. Who am I now, and where am I going? Should I measure my own life by what other people want, or should I be thinking about what I want? I don’t know if I have any answers. But Takebe and Kirara’s silly adventures gave me solace. — Adam Wescott
Dororo
Writer/Artist: Osamu Tezuka
Translation: Dawn T. Laabs
Production: Hiroko Mizuno, Glen Isip
Publisher: Vertical
One of the great strengths of Osamu Tezuka was his willingness to experiment and take chances. Some artists of his caliber and success might feel content to stick to their wheelhouse but Tezuka never really had one. He worked on Astro Boy, Princess Knight, and Kimba the White Lion, all very different series, simultaneously through the 1950s.
As he progressed into the 1960s and 70s, Tezuka took stock of the world around him. His interest in the gekiga style and its representative magzine Garo led him to create COM. But it was his reported revulsion towards one manga that led to one of his most famous creations. Supposedly, upon seeing Shigeru Mizuki’s GeGeGe No Kitaro and not understanding why people enjoyed something so ugly looking, the God of Manga created the samurai horror masterpiece Dororo in response.
If Tezuka wanted to outdo Mizuki’s folk horror classic, he sure did his best. Dororo follows Hyakkimaru, whose body parts were stolen from him at birth by 48 demons thanks to a deal made by his greedy father. He wanders the land in search of these monsters. Every time he kills one of them, he regains a body part. The thief Dororo accompanies him on their journey through Japan’s bloody Sengoku period.
What’s startling about Dororo is how gruesome it is compared to Tezuka’s other work. It’s not that Tezuka ever abhorred violence or characters with moral flexibility; Black Jack and MW prove otherwise. Dororo though is on another level. The medically trained Tezuka hones in on the body horror of Hyakkimaru, who resembles a corpse as an infant. His mentor makes prosthetics out of the remains of dead children. This is a work of a truly grotesque nature.
Yet Dororo also features some of Tezuka’s most accomplished cartooning; whether that’s his yokai designs, his action sequences, or how horrifying it is whenever Hyakkimaru regains a body part. Tezuka also plays with black and white more so than in his earlier work. Dororo acts as a bridge between the more genre oriented work of his earlier career like Astro Boy and the more experimental, adult comics of his later years like Phoenix. Still, the series is the work of a master at the peak of his abilities pushing his craft to the limit. — D. Morris
Winged
Writer/Artist: Laica Chrose
Translation: Q
Platform: Webtoon
Another self-published comic to lovingly yap about? You better believe it, my fellow birb nerds! Winged is a young adult webtoon by writer and artist Laica Chrose that began as part of the 2020 Short Story Contest. It centers on a dove called Pidge who is caged by a collector. A chance encounter with a crow fighting for survival against humans grants her a chance to escape. The two of them embark on an adventure where they must rely on each other for survival.
From the perspective of humans, these birds just look like birds. But when we switch perspectives to the bird characters like Pidge and the Crow, they are represented as gorgeous humanoid designs with unique outfits, shapes, hair designs and more. The shift in perspective reminds me so much of Broadway plays, which I am certain that Laica Chrose must draw inspiration from.
The art in this series is just gorgeous. It’s in black and white with hints of color to add variety to designs. There’s a loving amount of detail and effort put into the characters, in their anthropomorphic and bird forms, that reminds me of shojo manga. Laica also draws each bird from various angles using lighting and posing. It’s a time-consuming feat not many can do easily, even with many references.
Winged is a standout on the CANVAS platform and I can see why it has gained the following it has. If you want to support the author, you can through their Patreon or by buying the various merch they have created. — Justin Guerrero
Follow Beat’s Bizarre Adventure to get weekly manga and webtoon recommendations!
