There are two universal truths in today’s rapidly changing comics industry. The first is that Dogman has once again become the defining comic of our time. Second, more people are reading manga and webtoons (aka vertical scrolling comics) than ever before. Therefore, we at Comics Beat have decided to embark on a new venture called Beat’s Bizarre Adventure. Each week, three writers recommend their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea, and other countries. This week brings us Tokyo Death Game, more vampires, and of course actors.
Alice in modern country
Writer/Artist: Aso Haro
Translation and adaptation: Jonah Mayahara Miller
Art and lettering corrections: Joanna Estep
Publisher: VIZ
Before Squid Game, there was Alice in Wonderland. This live-action version was one of the biggest premieres on Netflix, and I was an avid viewer from the beginning. After reading all eight episodes, I waited until Viz published an English print version of the manga.
For those who didn’t get caught up in the current Alice in the Country craze of 2020 when the pandemic kept everyone at home, this is a death game series where players are sent to an alternate version of Tokyo. There they have to play and win to survive. The story focuses on a particular young man named Ryohei Arisu, who in the real world prefers to waste his days with his friends Karube and Chota. One day, the three of them watch fireworks and find themselves alone in the ruins of Tokyo. Alice and her friends get caught up in a game where the difficulty is determined by the suit of playing cards and numbers. If you win, you survive until the next day and buy enough time to find a way to escape or play another game to extend the day. If you lose, the game is over.
What I loved about Alice in Wonderland was its sheer creativity. The game is written to test the player’s physical strength and endurance, mental fortitude, emotional and psychological endurance, and intelligence. It was very thrilling to read because you don’t know the real purpose of the game until the end. If I had been a player in the game at that point, I would have been dead. This shows the strength of manga artist Aso Haro’s writing skills. While the Netflix adaptation took some liberties to make some games more exciting on the big screen, I thought they did a great job of preserving the essence of their corresponding games from the manga.
Arisu starts out as a lazy, good-for-nothing gamer, but quickly and almost unconsciously establishes himself as a leader. (Maybe all Alice needed to unleash that personality trait was being thrown into a life-or-death situation.) His ability to stay focused and calm, especially in psychological games. made him a powerful ally to the rest of the people. He poses a threat to the players and the Kings and Queens.
There are some dissatisfaction with the way the story ends and the big plot twist, but overall “Alice in Wonderland” is an irresistible manga for death game fans. — Hilary Leon
Blood: The Last Vampire 2002
Writer/Artist: Benkyo Tamaki
English translation: Carl Gustav Horn
Translation: Yuji Oniki
Art and Lettering Touchups: Rich Anderson
Publisher: VIZ
Blood: The Last Vampire 2002 is a sequel (excluding dates) to the film of the same name, and follows a still-living Saya hunting chiropterans at the turn of the millennium. She is disillusioned with her position as a hunting dog chained to humans to kill vampires. However, she must once again infiltrate the high school and discover a girl’s connection to a group of chiroptera.
Saya clearly doesn’t want to do this anymore. Her new handler reprimands her whether she succeeds or fails in her mission. The condition of Akiko, the girl she is tracking, is not improving. She ran away from her turbulent home life and ran away to a delinquent wing. Their leader looks a lot like Saya.
It leads to an interesting backstory for Saya, but it deviates from what was probably originally intended in the movie. I prefer the original intent, but it’s not bad either. The origin story of chiroptera is also well-developed.
Tamaki injects this book with the action, blood, and gore you’ve come to expect from this series. There are moments when you wish you had seen more than what you’re seeing now, and that’s okay. Tamaki is also a porn artist, so there’s quite a bit of sex and nudity. If that makes you uncomfortable, don’t pick this up.
I think this book could be remastered and re-released in 20 years. Because, I don’t know if this is a translation problem, but this book has dialogue problems. The dialogue seems incorrect or some of the sentences are incomplete. I think it needs an update. Overall, I like this manga. This is a great entry in Saya’s story and well worth checking out. — Derrick Crowe
double
Writer/Artist: Ayako Noda
Translator: Maciel Gutierrez
Copy editor: Tina Tseng
Quality check: Nemoto Daichi
Proofreader: Katie Kimura
Retouching and lettering: Vibrraant Publishing Studio
Publisher: Tokyo Pop
Yuhito Kamoshima and Takara Takarada are acting partners with different methodologies. Eugene studies every detail of a scene to determine exactly how the character he is playing will act at that moment. Takara immerses himself deeply in his role, so rather than “acting” he dreams of the inner world of his subjects. Unfortunately, Takara is unable to tie his shoelaces, wash his clothes, or continue working to save his life. There, Eugene lives with the charismatic Takara and takes care of him in hopes that he will become a star someday.
The pitch for “Double” is “a toxic codependent relationship between two talented actors.” However, that alone cannot fully express the unique charm of this manga. Double doesn’t follow the typical rhythm of other manga series you’ve read that are set in the entertainment industry. The characters argue, get lost, and go out drinking together. Sometimes they lie to each other and even to themselves. Artist Ayako Noda lets her readers go with the flow and decide for themselves how they feel about certain characters at that moment.
That is until that scene where Noda locks in and increases the intensity to maximum. There is a scene in Volume 2 where Takara is working on a film by a famous director. The director asks Kora to act out a certain scene, but Kora objects to this. He had been developing his character with Eugene for a long time. “Who told you to do that?” the director asks. “Did you bring something in from outside?” Noda asks, drawing the face away from the protruding eyes and mouth, as if it were a wild animal. But there was something even more shocking in front of him. That is Eugene’s vision of Takara’s mouth being dolled up from behind while hugging her body.
Double is a short read with just five volumes published between 2019 and 2023 (the series is on hiatus until 2024). Nevertheless, the series had a huge impact. In 2022, it was made into a TV drama, which received positive reviews, and also won the Excellence Award at the prestigious Japan Media Arts Festival. I recommend this book even though it is published in America by Tokyopop, a publisher whose crimes against manga artists are well documented. Only the best can overcome my distaste for Stu Levy and his empire. For better or worse, double is good. — Adam Wescott
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