There are two universal truths in today’s rapidly changing comics industry. The first is that Dog Man is the defining comic of our era. The second is that more people are reading manga and Webtoons (aka vertical scroll comics) than ever before. Therefore we at The Comics Beat have chosen to embark on a new venture: Beat’s Bizarre Adventure. Every week we’ll have three writers recommend some of their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea and elsewhere. This week we have an up-and-coming Shonen Jump series, a science fiction apartment complex mystery, and, of course, lightsabers.
Gokurakugai
Writer/Artist: Yuto Sano
Translator: David Evelyn
Letterer: Kyla Aiko
Publisher: VIZ
Before the Kagurabachi hype train started, there was another Shonen Jump series that caught people’s attention and that was Gokurakugai. Its three volumes have been reprinted multiple times. While it hasn’t yet reached Kagurabachi levels of excitement, it deserves a wider audience.
Written and illustrated by Yuto Sano, Gokurakugai follows troubleshooters Tao and Alma. While they solve any and all problems, they are primarily focused on killing maga, monstrous resurrections of human corpses. Alma is half-human and half-maga. With Tao’s help, he tamps down on his maga instincts in order to save people. But things become decidedly more complicated when the two of them encounter other human-like maga, as well as a dangerous individual that has been watching Alma closely since birth.
Gokurakugai started off as a one-shot before it became a full series. You can tell that was the case because the first few chapters are seemingly random stories with no connection to each other. It only settles into a rhythm when it introduces Yomi, the leader of a manga “family.” This is much closer to Shonen Jump’s house style, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Recent developments, like the idea that some maga are more human than others—as well as the possibility that a maga might be someone you once loved—create intriguing dilemmas for our heroes.
With the exception of the third chapter, which the artist clearly was not able to finish before the submission deadline, Sano’s artwork is a sight to behold. The action scenes especially are highly detailed. They make you think, “This would look really good as an anime.” Each character is unique and extremely memorable in terms of design and personality, especially Tao.
With just 19 chapters published via a sort-of-monthly schedule, it’s clear that Gokurakugai is still figuring itself out. That said, the series has a lot of potential. I am eager to see where the story will take us next. — Hilary Leung
Skygrazer
Writer/Artist: Masakazu Ishiguro
Editor: Ajani Oloye
Translator: Ko Ransom
Production: S. Fang, G. Lu, P. A. Yeap, E. Hayden
Publisher: Kodansha
Content warning: depictions of sexual violence.
Skygrazer is an apartment complex, but don’t expect anything fancy. It’s a maze of additional sections in which you could easily get lost without directions. A string of seemingly unrelated murders connect the building’s inhabitants. These incidents converge to a point, then explode with a bang.
I’ve recently bought a lot of manga, some of it blind. Skygrazer was one of the latter. It wasn’t until I looked up the name of its artist, Masakazu Ishiguro, that I realized he was the very same creator of the acclaimed series Heavenly Delusion. My expectations skyrocketed. But no amount of information or anticipation could prepare me for this book.
The first chapter begins with three boys planning to raid the adult section of a bookstore in search of porn mags. The next chapter features a death at a filming set. These events seemingly take place in modern times. But then Ishiguro reveals that in the world of Skygrazer, advanced robots have become household items and human-like artificial life forms are commercially available. Since we are experiencing the dawn of a similar future, I find musings on differing thoughts and approaches to this topic highly valuable.
Skygrazer is not a self-serious sci-fi piece, though, in which each character frowns as if they are facing an extraordinary threat. The characters are instead as quirky as the story. The rookie detective Sakuraba, especially, is a hilarious character who is both annoying and amusing. Overall, Skygrazer is fun, striking and thought-provoking. It is definitely worth your time. — Merve Giray
Star Wars: The High Republic – The Edge of Balance
Writer: Shima Shinya, Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older
Artist: Mizuki Sakakibara, Nezu Usugumo
Translator: Mayuko Hirao
Publisher: VIZ
I’ve been on a Star Wars kick lately so I decided to check out these manga tie-ins to the ongoing High Republic era of the canon timeline that Disney and Lucasfilm have been putting out. It follows the adventures of Jedi Knight Lily Tora-Asi and her band of fellow Jedi who have relocated refugees to the planet Banchii. Her master Arkoff, her padawan Keerin, and two younglings Viv’nia and Nima make up the primary cast.
The story exists on the “edge” of major events going on within the greater High Republic storyline. These include the hyperspace disaster, the destruction of Starlight Beacon and the invasion of the Drengir and Nihil. Unfortunately I find these to be the weakest part of the story. It feels at times as if you are expected to know of these events already to understand their full impact.
What this series does have going for it is its characters. I love the cast of these books and was actually shocked by the brutality of the trials Lily and company are put through. One such scene in the second volume made my jaw drop. But Lily, Keerin, and the two younglings are beacons of (star)light throughout this book. They try their hardest to do the right thing and live up to the Jedi code of protecting others.
The biggest highlight of the book is artist Mizuki Sakakibara’s clean and dynamic style. The line work is just superb and everyone is emotive. The action is also fun to watch and easy to follow. You can see the heart that went into putting this series together. Likewise, Nezu Usugumo’s work in the back-up story to the first volume blends well with Sakakibara (which makes sense, Sakakibara storyboarded it) and has a similar feel. — Derrick Crow
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