Category: Supernatural

Manga of the Month: Mushishi

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Mushishi (蟲師) by Yuki Urushibara

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Yuki Urushibara’s Mushishi showcases an ethereal quality in both artwork and storytelling. She draws you in and surrounds you so thoroughly that the journey feels close to your heart. It is sometimes eerie, sometimes enlightening, and always beautiful.

Mushishi is the tale of Ginko who travels the countryside searching for and helping those affected by unusual, spiritual creatures known as Mushi. These creatures are tied to the threads of life and nature and their effects on humans are varying. Most people cannot see Mushi and that is where Ginko comes in as he can interact with them.

Despite the supernatural elements, Mushishi is about humanity. Ginko seeks out those affected by Mushishi and we learn their story as he does. There are stories of loss, love, change, and pride; where people have been and where they wish to be; and the unlike road of living.

While Mushishi is episodic in nature, Ginko is the key element tying each new tale together. Ginko is not so much a passive observer as he may seem at the beginning and he has a story to tell us, too.

Mushishi is quietly compelling as it unfolds the human condition before you and highlights they mystery of nature.

Manga of the Month: Binbogami ga!

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Binbogami ga! (貧乏神が!) by Yoshiaki Sukeno

Some manga genres are safer than others. Shonen fighting manga don’t always sell gangbusters but they are usually a fairly safe bet. They are the blue chips stocks of manga. Josei manga on the other hand have yet to have anything close to a major success story. Josei has had several critical successes but nothing that sets the world on fire in English in terms of sales. But there is one category of manga that neither get critical praise nor major sales numbers. That is comedy manga. Even titles that you think would sell great due to animated popularity like Azumanga Daioh don’t particularly sell well.

And so American manga companies always seem very reluctant to pick up anything comedy related unless it has a stronger hook that moves it into another category where it might do well. There are a few exceptions to this rule but manga companies tend live by the motto of “once burned, twice shy.” So while I love Binbogami ga! I don’t think it is going to get picked up by Viz anytime soon. Which is a shame because it is a great series.

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Manga of the Month: 7-nin no Shakespeare

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7-nin no Shakespeare (七人的莎士比亚) by Harold Sakuishi

One of the reasons people are usually drawn to manga is the sheer diversity of topics it can touch upon. It often seems no matter how wacky the topic there is at least one manga about it. There is salaryman centaur manga. A manga with a half man half horse creature who works in an office. Erin from the Ninja Consultants does a panel just about unusual manga genres and some of the strangest titles within. So when compared to competitive wine tasting or dissociative identity disorder death metal a comic about Shakespeare would appear to be down right mundane. But as usual there is some unexpected twists to this formula.

It is almost impossible to truly know of Bard of Avon. He is one of the most famous western authors of all time. Although there are countless books about him there is still much of his life we know little of. 7-nin no Shakespeare starts at the Globe Theater with politics swirling around William Shakespeare with everyone including Queen Elizabeth. But it seems that much of these shadowy conspiracies also involve an unusual Chinese woman named Li. Li has the seemingly cursed ability to foresee the future that has haunted her more than it has ever helped her. How does the life of this fantastic woman tie into the fortunes of England’s national poet?

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