Review by Ed Sizemore

Gesicht has been assigned to guard Adolf Haas and his family. Haas’ former colleagues have decided he’s a liability and want him dead before he can reveal too many of their secrets. But Gesicht is starting a personal crisis as buried memories begin to surface, revealing shocking details of his past.

Also in this volume, Hercules faces off against Pluto, while Uran, Professor Ochanomizu, and Professor Tenma all have to come to grips with what happened to Atom.

Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Book 5
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Volume five at its core is about robot psychology. It specifically focuses on how robots handle hate. This theme is first mentioned during Epsilon’s conversation with Hercules in volume three. Epsilon is worried that as robots grow closer to humans, robots will learn hatred. He’s scared of the consequences robot hatred will have. We also see this theme briefly alluded to in volume four, when Tenma tells Ochanomizu that emotions like sadness and frustration are needed for an artificial intelligence to truly mature.

Tenma’s statement in volume four is further significant because it offers a different definition of intelligence than is commonly held. Tenma believes that true intelligence is both cognitive and emotive. Robot law demands robots be built with suppressed emotions, thus robots are stunted intellectually. It’s obvious that even Ochanomizu doesn’t share this view, since he thinks Atom is a masterpiece. Tenma sees Atom as a failure because of his lack of emotional range. Further, I believe Tenma is echoing Urasawa’s own belief on the nature of intelligence, and I suspect we will see the rest of the series explore this idea.

Why does Tenma see emotion as fundamental to true intellectual development? In the West, we have a compartmentalized view of human nature. We see the cognitive and emotive sides of our beings as not just separate but in opposition to each other. Urasawa is offering a more holistic view of human beings. Reason and emotion are opposite sides of the same coin. Just as there is no such thing as a coin with one side, so too there is no such thing as pure cognitive intelligence. Pure rationality is simply machine processing. For cognition to have life there must be emotion. What fuels us to seek a cure for cancer? A well-constructed, logical argument about physical health? No. It’s compassion. It’s seeing people suffer and die from cancer and being moved emotionally to want no one else to endure the same fate.

So why does Epilson fear hatred? Because of its irrational nature. Robots are constructed with multiple levels of safeguards to prevent them from intentionally harming humans. Any strong emotion would bypass or override those safeguards. What happens when robot behavior truly becomes human and losses its predictability? Robots are stronger, faster, smarter, and more durable than humans. Robots have enjoyed civil rights because they are not seen as a threat to humanity. But what if humans can no longer trust robots? They’ll revoke robot civil rights. Imagine how the newly emotive robots will react to the loss of their civil rights. Epilson fears for the future of the Earth, if robots learn to hate.

This discussion brings to light the differences between cognitive maturity, emotional maturity, and experiential maturity. Robots have the reason and body of an adult. The difficulty comes when robots begin to develop emotions but have no experience to handle what they’re feeling. It’s obvious why they would be dangerous at this stage in their lives. In humans, the danger is mitigated by the fact we are physically developing as we begin to mature emotionally. Of course, you can’t program in emotional maturity the same way you can program in rationality. Assuming we’re as committed as Tenma in making robots holistic persons, the problem is how to safely develop emotional maturity in robots.

There is a great Tezuka moment in this book. One constant motif in the original Astro Boy series was robots teaching humans how to behave humanely. In this book, Gesicht has come to realize the anger buried deep inside himself. He confesses his anger to Haas and how it scares him. He asks Haas if the hatred ever disappears. Haas has let anger consume and define him all his life. Here, a robot who has a right to hate Haas and his brother is shamed by his anger and begs to be free of it. In that moment, a machine is teaching a human proper care for the soul. Haas sees his failure as a person and cries. It’s a powerful moment of redemption for both men.

Adding depth to the exploration of robot psychology is the chapter focusing on Uran. She is coping with the loss of her brother. We see her going through the same steps of grief as a human. It’s a heartbreaking chapter as we come to see how deeply she loved Atom, even if they didn’t always get along. Uran shows how emotionally complex robots really are. I love that the school principal understands this and advises the teachers to treat Uran like any other student coping with death of a family member. The last two pages are the most poignant. They also show us how amazingly perceptive and accurate her intuitions are.

This book introduces Professor Tenma as a major character. In the original series, Tenma was an enigma. You could understand why he created Atom, and even why he rejected Atom, but not why he went on to treat Atom the way he did. Urasawa fleshes him out more, like he does with all of Tezuka’s characters, while preserving an air of mystery around him. The conversation between Tenma and Ochanomizu is one I’ve longed to see as an Astro Boy fan, two robotic geniuses talking shop. There’s a darkness to Tenma that unfortunately skews his vision of life. He focuses on the negative emotions and thinks they are the path for robots to reach full personhood. I’m hoping in the next volume that Ochanomizu will offer a corrective, showing Tenma that robots can mature just as fully through love. Atom and Uran are the perfect examples of this.

As always, the art is amazing. One thing that struck me in this volume was the perfect pacing of each scene. Urasawa knows exactly how many panels to dedicate to each moment to produce the needed emotional impact or dramatic effect. If there is tension between two characters, he knows whether you need one or two silent reaction shots to convey the proper friction. The last scene of Uran’s chapter is amazing because each panel is a punctuated moment. Each moment increases the emotional potential of the scene. Slowly, meticulously, Urasawa progresses the narrative to the last page, where we are hit with all that stored emotion. We feel both knocked off our feet and relieved. Then brilliantly, the last two panels provide the seamless transition to the next chapter.

I want to praise Viz for their reproduction job. In the last three volumes, there are pages that can’t have been easy or cheap to get right. Viz has spent the time and effort to make sure the book you’re holding is the same quality as the series it contains. The Viz Signature line is at a slightly higher price point, but the books are worth every penny you pay.

I have to say that volume five has been my favorite book of Pluto so far. It’s an incredibly rewarding read, both cognitively and emotionally, with multiple layers of narrative. I love how Urasawa is giving new depth to older themes while bringing in new themes to explore. It’s a book that has captivated and energized my thinking for several days. Each time I think about a particular chapter or character, I get excited by all the ideas that come flooding in for me to examine and play with. Setting the imagination on fire is the hallmark of great literature.

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

Review by Ed Sizemore

**Warning: This review contains spoilers.**

With this volume, the narrative jumps ahead three years to the summer of 2000. We finally discover what happened to Otcho since he disappeared twelve years ago in 1988. We also discover what happened to Professor Sikishima and his family. Remember, volume 1 opened with police investigating the Sikishima family’s disappearance.

20th Century Boys Book 4
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On a structural level, this volume is really about tying up some loose ends and reintroducing Otcho into the main storyline. In a sense, Urasawa is paying back his debt to the reader. Otcho was the red herring of the first two-and-a-half volumes. Urasawa owes us an explanation of where Otcho’s been and what he’s been doing. Especially since Otcho is the one who created the club and its distinctive symbol.

The previous three books have featured Kenji’s reluctant transformation into a hero. This volume is the story of Otcho’s metamorphosis. He starts out following the typical Japanese male life plan. He studies hard, goes to college, gets a corporate job, gets married, and has a child. All the while, he focuses more time and energy on his career than his family. It takes the death of his son for Otcho to break free of this drone mentality. After taking an honest look at his life, Otcho decides to literally leave it all behind and begin a new life in Thailand.

Otcho finds a spiritual mentor and begins the process of reshaping his life. I love Urasawa’s definition of personal strength. The strong aren’t the physically powerful, they are the ones who care so deeply for others that they will fight to the death to protect them. It’s not the Western model of the individuals forging forward in isolation. Urasawa is rejecting the Clint Eastwood/lone gunfighter concept of a hero. Here it isn’t incidental that the true hero is part of a community — it’s essential. This encapsulates what we learned watching Kenji take on the mantle of saving the world.

Reading Otcho’s back story, I couldn’t help but feel that Urasawa was making a critique of the Japanese business ethos. He finds a corporate culture that sacrifices family for profits to be morally bankrupt. We were given a glimpse of this when Kenji is told by the franchise representative that caring for Kanna is a hindrance to good sales. It becomes starkly clear when Otcho is such an absentee father that his son is killed while chasing after a business man he mistakes for Otcho. I wondered if Urasawa was indirectly implying the Japan bubble economy popped because of this fundamental flaw. That businesses, like individuals, need to be deeply connected to the community for strength and health.

Volume four also reinforces the idea that there is nobility and honor within all of us. Otcho may have given up on himself and lived in self-imposed exile, but Kenji still has faith in his childhood friend. The core members of Kenji’s resistance group are homeless men. Urasawa believes passionately that no one is beyond a second chance. The people we think are useless, broken, used up, or irrevocably fallen can still have it in them to do great things. They just need someone to believe in them and give them the opportunity to live up to their potential. It’s an encouraging message that even we the readers can still change our life and our world for the better. The only thing holding us back is our own limited self-perception.

It’s getting harder to find original ways to praise Urasawa’s artwork. And with eighteen volumes still to go, the problem’s only going to get worst. Urasawa is the consummate comics creator; he knows how to seamlessly blend the art into the storytelling. This allows him an economy of narration. He can say in a couple of panels what might take several paragraphs to convey. By illustrating it, the point or emotion comes across as more real and immediate than prose might be able to capture.

For example, the way Otcho’s world shatters at the news of his son’s accident is conveyed in just two panels, but we see and feel it all in those two pictures. Another example is when we first meet Kenji in this volume, we immediately see that he is more serious, more focused than when we last saw him. We feel the weight of those last three years on him. The visuals are truly stunning.

20th Century Boys continues to be an excellent series with a meticulously crafted plot with real depth to the story and characters. Urasawa conclusively demonstrates that comics can convey stories as dense and layered as any novel. Comic readers should be championing this as one of the series that proves graphic novels are worthy of that name and have come to full maturity. 20th Century Boys is a must read for readers of all stripes.

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

Since reading Pluto, I’ve discovered that manga adaptations can bring something new to the table. Just because the story is inspired by something else doesn’t mean it’ll be derivative or unoriginal.

Samurai 7 Book 1
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Unfortunately, that’s not the case with Samurai 7, a science fiction manga based on the classic film The Seven Samurai.

The premise starts with an interstellar war wherein men with swords fight giant robots … successfully! It’s silly. It feels like the author just wanted to draw this stuff and so took someone else’s much better story to justify it. A rice-growing village will be attacked by a spaceship once the harvest comes in, so a couple of peasants come to town to recruit hungry samurai (since they can only pay in food) to protect them. They wind up with a cocky youngster, a cyborg head without a body, a leader who got most of his men killed, a big dumb guy, and others.

Surprisingly, most of the book is talking, not action. There’s one big rescue scene, in which a child is saved from a kidnapping, but I would have thought that a book about warriors and robots would have had more scenes of excitement. The book ends with the fighters just reaching the village, after another action scene in which they face down a ship. Artistically, it looks like the characters have wandered in from other, different stories.

If you already know the source material, this will likely provide nothing but a couple of cheap laughs. If you don’t, this is a pale, pointless imitation. (A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

One of the best manga of 2008, Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, will debut in animated form on Syfy on October 12. The former Sci-Fi Network is running “Ani-Monday“, an anime programming block. After airing on Mondays on Syfy, the episodes will re-run on Chiller (a channel focused on horror and suspense) in the following week.

The cartoon series is rated TV-MA and is promised to “remain true to the original story.” Neurosurgeon Dr. Tenma saved a child who then turned out to be the monster of the title, a cold-blooded killer with no remorse. Tenma then sets out to remedy his mistake, giving up his career and risking his life to chase the young man around the world, all while the police suspect him of the murders.

On the East Coast, two episodes will air every Monday, beginning at 11 PM. There were 74 episodes produced, which means a nine-month (or longer) run. Read the full Viz announcement for more information.

From the first color page of this volume, I’ve never seen pink look so menacing. The big-nosed Professor Ochanomizu is trying to spend his day off from the Ministry of Science at a park, but his mandatory security detail robot interrupts the respite. The professor finds a discarded dog-bot and tries to repair it, but the parts are too old and can’t be found anymore.

Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka Book 4
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This first chapter is astounding in its achievement. The reader thinks they know what’s going on, that the professor is right in thinking a security detail is overkill. The world’s seven most advanced robots are being targeted for destruction, along with their creators, but no one wants to believe that they’re in that much danger. Then Urasawa twists everything with a surprise visitor with a disarming appearance.

But before that, we see the Professor’s concern and effort in trying to help a creature he has no obligations to. The work puts him back in touch with his scientific efforts from before his governmental title. The scenes humanize him quickly and introduce him as a caring person, regardless of his role and situation. This isn’t the first time character stories shed new light on the world of robots and humans living together.

That he’s not able to overcome practical matters, like the age of the robot and the lack of needed parts, keeps events feeling realistic and provides a sense of mortality, even when it comes to machines. He takes partial responsibility for it, connecting a theoretical decision to a practical, unfortunate result, echoing the bigger theme of the series plot.

And that’s only the first chapter. The meat of the book returns to the bigger question, of how robots really differ from humans once they become advanced enough. Can they kill? Might they want revenge for perceived or actual damages? Will they go beyond what’s considered acceptable to achieve their desires?

Goji, the rumored creator of the Persian robot army, threatens Ochanomizu’s grandchild in order to get Atom to face off against his tornado robot. Atom’s never seemed more real to me — Urasawa’s portrayal of him as a realistic child makes this story all the more powerful. We keep being told how advanced a robot he is, but visually, he’s an angry little boy, concerned that one of his friends is in danger.

It also makes the threat all the more over-matched. How can Atom and his sister Uran possibly defeat a robot in the form of a natural disaster, one that can create its own tsunami and bring a wall of water down on those that oppose it and its master?

More and more threads come together in this volume. Adolf (from book three) has a mission involving Gesicht (book one), who’s about to leave for a Japanese vacation with his wife. Goji (book two) makes an appearance. Uran (book three) plays more of a role. The last of the seven advanced robots, Epsilon, appears. More victims are targeted, and more plots are revealed, culminating in the appearance of Doctor Tenma (as shown on the cover), the inventor of Atom. There are plenty of events I don’t dare mention because I want readers to discover their surprise and significance for themselves.

This series has all the excitement of any cliffhanger-driven adventure series containing amazing events, but it’s the deeper theoretical concerns that make it one of the best of the year. I don’t have the words to describe how accomplished the art is in telling this story and keeping the reader involved. Another artist couldn’t explore the nature of humanity so well, because his robots wouldn’t be detailed enough in their appearance and behavior. The work is stunning and picks a huge emotional punch.

The question keeps coming up: Which is the better series, this or 20th Century Boys? I was firmly in the latter camp until reading this volume. While both are excellent, I’m beginning to think that this is the greater accomplishment.

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)

by Ed Sizemore

Continuing from my previous Otakon report, here is a list of Saturday’s panels and events.

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Lost in Translation

This was another panel where I forgot to record the moderator’s name. The essence of the panel was to discuss things that can’t be directly translated into English and look at how anime companies have handled such phrases. One thing I learned is that in Japanese the verb is usually the last element of the sentence. That means when a sentence gets cut short, all the translator has is subject and predicate, but no idea of the relationship between the two. Since a phrase like, “Jim, ball” doesn’t make sense in English, translators have to supply verbs that might fit the circumstances. So they might translate the sentence fragment as “Jim got the ball” or “Jim hit the ball” or “Jim, look, a ball!” Other topics discussed were cliches and colloquialisms, gendered pronouns, use of familial language with strangers, and spelling names in English. This was the moderator’s first time running a panel, and she did a great job.

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM Phoenix

This is the new animated TV series based on Tezuka’s manga series. The animation is gorgeous, and the story closely follows the manga. It’s on my must-see list.

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Frederick Schodt Q&A

Fred, as he likes to be called, was one of the first translators of manga. He has written several books on manga; the most famous is Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. Currently, he is co-translating the Pluto series by Urasawa. This was an unstructured panel that allowed attendees to ask any question they desired. Mostly, Schodt endedup talking about how he got interested in Japan and manga and his experiences as a translator. Most of what he discussed can be found in this interview from Electric Ant magazine. Fred is a great speaker, and the hour flew by.

5:00 PM – 7:00 PM Ghost Slayer Ayashi

This is an animated TV series about a group of ghost/demon slayers set in Japan around the first half of the 19th century. It’s a good action series with a great cast. The animation is excellent. I will be renting this series.

7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Masquerade

This is one of the main reasons I go to anime conventions. The masquerade is where fans play instruments and perform skits, dance numbers, and stand-up comedy in costume. It’s been maligned and misunderstood by the mean-spirited, but for me, it’s the quintessential fan expression of love. I adore the masquerade. What sells it for me is the sincerity of the performers. Are the jokes cheesy? Yes. The acting and writing bad? Of course. Is it wonderful? Unquestionably. If you pardon the puns, it’s awfully charming and charmingly awful. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s three parts anime, two parts video games, one part manga, one part American pop culture, a sprinkle of high school drama, a pinch of high school band, and a dash of randomness all put in a blender set on puree. One routine had a couple in costume flag twirling to a Broadway song, another routine was five girls dressed up as modern Sailor Moon Scouts singing a Spice Girls medley, and another routine was a costumed couple doing ballet. How can you not love such diversity and creativity?

I only stayed for the first two hours, which means I only saw about 2/3 of the acts. I was getting tired and knew I had just enough in me to make the drive back to where I was staying. If I had been staying in Baltimore, I would have stayed for the entire show.

Sunday Events and Panels

9:00 AM – 11:00 AM Resiklo

This was a low-budget, live-action Philippines post-apocalyptic sci-fi film about humans trying to survive after aliens have wrecked havoc on the Earth. It’s definitely a B movie, but I love B movies, so it was right up my alley. You can learn more at the official movie site.

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM The Roots of Japanese Anime

This collection of pre-World War II anime shorts is almost impossible to explain. These were made before the anime industry was trying to copy American animation styles. The shorts are steeped in traditional Japanese culture and story telling. You really have to see them for yourself. You can see a trailer for the DVD set at the official site.

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Osamu Tezuka, Astro Boy, and the Manga/Anime Revolution, moderated by Frederick Schodt

Schodt is currently giving this presentation around the country. He begins with a short biography of Tezuka and early experiences that influenced his writing and art. Schodt then goes on to show how with Astro Boy, Tezuka founded the modern manga system. Simply put, Tezuka demonstrated that you could take a popular serialized manga, collect the stories into trade paperback books, then license the property for animation and merchandising, and finally license the series for overseas distribution. The Astro Boy manga began its run in 1952, and the anime began in 1963, the same year it was licensed for US syndication by NBC. Astro Boy was the first weekly, half-hour, animated series in Japan. Astro Boy became a national icon and a symbol of scientific knowledge and advancement.

Overall Impressions

I enjoyed this year’s Otakon tremendously. The biggest change for me was going as press and meeting lots of new people. This is also the first year that I spent more time in panels than in the anime rooms. I used to go to conventions because they were the best place to see and sample a larger variety of anime. But with Netflix and Rent Anime, I have access to everything currently on the market and a large percentage of older series. So this has allowed me to shift my focus at conventions.

The shift in focus has given me a renewed enthusiasm for convention going. Truthfully, I half went to Otakon looking for excuses not to go again, but I failed. Instead, I came away with panel ideas for Otakon and maybe myself.

The only sad part of Otakon is the fact it happened the weekend before San Diego Comic Con. Even as I’m typing this, Otakon has already been forgotten by the public. Everyone’s attention is focused on the news coming out of SDCC hourly. Hopefully, Otakon can be scheduled further from any of the other big conventions to keep it from getting lost in the crowd.

With any convention, your attitude going into it greatly determines what you can derive from the experience. Large-scale cons like Otakon really are a culture unto themselves, and you have to have an open mind to see and experience the unexpected. There really is something for everyone at Otakon, and for serious manga and anime fans on the East Coast, I suggest you go at least once. You especially have to attend the Masquerade when you’re there.

Here are links to con reports by my dining companions and a couple others.

• Anime Almanac
• Ani-Gamers
• Reverse Thieves
• Janaiblog
• Ogiue Maniax
• Publishers Weekly
• Anime News Network
• Anime Vice

After launching Rumiko Takahashi’s new series Rin-Ne online (with simultaneous publication to US web and Japanese print), Viz has now created an entire website with free manga chapters.

SIGIKKI is the result of a partnership between the Viz Signature line (which publishes titles aimed as adults, including 20th Century Boys, Oishinbo, Detroit Metal City, and Pluto) and the monthly manga magazine IKKI. The Japanese publication is described as “the home of some of the most innovative, bold, and compelling titles in the world of contemporary manga.”

In addition to the manga chapters, the site contains interviews with creators. Here’s the full press release, with series descriptions. Depending on reader demand, print collections of the online series will follow after online serialization.

On Thursday, July 23, BOKURANO: OURS, by Mohiro Kitoh; DOROHEDORO, by Q Hayashida; SATURN APARTMENTS, by Hisae Iwaoka; and I’LL GIVE IT MY ALL…TOMORROW, by Shunju Aono will be posted. The week following brings the first chapters of KINGYO USED BOOKS, by Seimu Yoshizaki; HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES, by Natsume Ono; AFTERSCHOOL CHARISMA, by Kumiko Suekane; and TOKYO FLOW CHART, by Eiji Miruno. David Welsh did some more research on the Japanese titles.

What a great way to build readership for manga for adults! Free samples are the way to go. That site again is sigikki.com.

This is a bit of a departure for the site. Usually, when it comes to manga series, we leave them up to one reviewer or the other instead of switching off. Although Ed’s previously reviewed the first two volumes, I wanted to get in on recommending this astoundingly good series.

20th Century Boys Book 3
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This volume is where Kenji reaches his turning point. He now understands what’s going on — someone who knew about their childhood games of saving the world is making the disasters they dreamed up come true — and he has the choice of whether to try and stop him. It’s unbelievable, both to him and the reader, and yet, though Naoki Urasawa’s skill, frighteningly plausible.

I’m really impressed by how well this series reads in collection. You can tell that it was originally serialized, because every chapter, you’re skillfully brought immediately up to date with the key items you need to know to be sucked into the latest installment. And each one ends with a powerful image, concept, or cliffhanger, driving you immediately into the next chapter. Yet as a book, it all reads smoothly, ratcheting up the excitement.

As Kenji visits with other childhood friends, attempting to find out more about the mysterious Friend cult leader, it’s interesting to notice how much kids resemble their parents. They’re replicating themselves, making the same mistakes in a new generation. Few remember anything about the games they played when they were young; they’re all caught up in current problems. They may be small, compared to thousands of people dying and the potential destruction of the world, but their concerns are important to their lives, and that’s what they’re focused on.

The art, as always, is masterful. Nothing disturbs the flow of the story, and the perfect moment is shown to capture the feeling of the scene. Urasawa is using some basic concepts, bound to affect the reader deeply — a baby in danger, one man unable to believe he can make a difference, a destiny that’s fear-inducing — but they transcend cliche due to the emotion he invests and conveys.

When Kenji makes his decision, he reaches for his old guitar and begins playing it hard until the strings break. He makes me believe in the idea that rock’n'roll can save the world. It’s an interesting idea for a group-oriented society, since rock is about individualism (although that ends up being ultimately conforming as well). During a Friend gathering, Kenji finds himself disturbed by the uniformity around him, the way they’re all reacting together. He’s a prophet trying to share the truth but ignored as an outsider. The desire to fit in, to belong, both inspired the Friend and drives his followers.

(A complimentary copy for this review was provided by the publisher.)