Unadapted manga you’re missing out on
Dorohedoro is a seinen manga with a great blend of hyperviolence, mystery and dark humour, written and illustrated by Q Hayashida. The story follows Kaiman, an amnesiac who travels the slumlike world of 'Hole’ to find a magic user that turned his head into a reptile’s. His only clue is the ability of a face that appears at the back of his throat to identify the culprit. And it gets even weirder.
Take a great balance of gore and comedy, a fun take on the concept of magic and a gritty, yet very detailed art style and you’ve got yourself a stylishly crazy ride. I can’t not also mention that this is a manga that does body horror absolutely right.
DOGS: Bullets and Carnage
An action-heavy seinen from illustrator and character designer Miwa Shirow that focuses on a retired assassin, a mutant gunman, an unlucky information broker and a swordswoman, all connected, in one way or another, to the underground of a dystopic city.
This may come out a bit odd, considering the nature of the medium, but this manga lives in black and white. Miwa’s solid black shading and scarce use of screentones are very atmospheric, so I encourage anyone who’s into inking and comic-making to check out this manga. It is action based, yeah, but the action is presented through an unusually cinematic style that’s great to study/ learn from!
Pluto presents one of Osamu Tezuka’s stories, “The Greatest Robot on Earth”, reimagined as a murder mystery that follows robot detective Geischt in his search for the culprit of a series of human and robot murders. Its 8 volumes show amazing (amaaaazing) linework by Naoki Urasawa and focus on themes such as war, evolution, hatred and human nature.
One of the things Urasawa is best known for is his use of mystery and ability to take advantage of our fear of the unknown when telling a story. As such, Pluto’s threat is perpetually present in the backstage and his faint presence helps keep the story rolling. Although, the characters in the front stage contribute to its enjoyability too, since they show an interesting take on the possibilities of robot evolution.
A manga artist is suddenly pulled into the world of the manga he’s currently writing and has to explain his role as the creator to the heroine, all while trying to run from a cult leader. ‘Sorry, babe. Trauma is what readers like.’
Expect from a Satoshi Kon manga what you would from a Satoshi Kon movie: blurred boundaries between fantasy and reality, engaging ideas about identity, amazing art. Might as well just play some Susumu Hirasawa while reading.
Sakamoto Shinichi’s manga begins like most sports manga do, with an amateur high-school student with hidden potential, promising growth through trial and error, all that. The growth does occur, but not like the first chapter may suggest, since choosing ‘the painful path’ is what turns out to bring true gratification. The art is very detailed and expressive, so much so that many chapters have very little dialogue, but the emotion is all there.
As with most deconstructions, it’s way more enjoyable to experience the tone shift youself, not spoiled by some dude on the internet. So shhhhh.
Anything from Igarashi Daisuke
All of Igarashi’s work is full of life, detail and surreal beaty and is, sadly, pretty unknown. Many of his stories feel like love letters to the marvels of nature, much like Miyazaki’s work does, and they balance simplistic character designs with rich backgrounds just fine.
As this post is already super duper long, these are a few of his stories you should check out: Children of the Sea (a manga about two boys that were raised by dugongs), Little Forest, Majo and the latest, Designs, whose drawing process you can see in the Manben episode dedicated to Igarashi Daisuke.
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