MISC. MANGA, *Space Opera Xanadax Across The Unknown Dimensions Of The Galaxy

Original graphic novels are still as strong on the comics market as ever, and Space Opera Xanadax Across the Unknown Dimensions of the Galaxy gives you a gripping cinematic experience. Created by Tom Scioli who did the kaiju ode to literature in Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theater, his latest hardcore sci-fi epic has probably one of the longest titles for an American comic book to date. The character designs appear as if they're out of the box cover to an NES game, and there's two concurrent storylines going on at the same time, although the plots never actually seem to meet up before the end of the book. There's is also the bonus story of Princess: The Space Princess From Outer Space which also has an abrupt conclusion. No word as yet if this was intentional for either story or if there are plans for a future volume to continue the saga.

The story is broken into two parts. One involves a cyborg named Xanadax who was given bionic parts to become a more effective minor after his brother sentenced him to work in the mines while he kept his cozy command job. Among other gizmos like a mechanical eye, Xanadax also gets a pair of laser claws similar to Wolverine which he uses to bust out of jail. Along the way, he gets into a bombastic slugfest with the escaped supervillain Vokonokov which takes him the majority of his story to defeat while avoiding his pesky brother's troopers. The other story has a pair of space pirates first taking over a farming planet but then getting conscripted into stealing a powerful treasure which accidently kills their benefactor, so the stellar swashbucklers decide to keep the deadly secret to themselves.

The story of Xanadax plus the space pirate subplot make you feel like you're really watching a sweeping motion picture with action scenes going one after the other with no time for exposition or character development. Tom Scioli's style is an homage to the works of Jack Kirby while simultaneously giving off the appearance of a shonen manga with mainly just the colors of red, white, and black throughout the entire graphic novel. Again, it's unknown if this setting up a series because the cliffhanger ending for both Xanadax and the Princess backup stories, but hopefully it will continue to highlight Scioli's beautiful illustrations which are a throwback to 80s action movies.

MISC. MANGA, *No Need For Tenchi!

Back where it all began, Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki was at first a 6-episode OVA series which has had about 2 other series which count as extra seasons that were also billed under the same title. Since then, there has been a stonking number of reboots, remakes, and spin-offs, each under various titles, but the core OVA series from 1992 is the one that still gets follow-up anime based on it made to this very day. After the initial first batch of OVA episodes, there was a manga that came out in 1994 written and drawn by Hitoshi Okuda titled No Need For Tenchi! which diverged into its own timeline, although there are elements from the second OVA series that reflected what went on in the manga, so both storylines are taking place at the same time just that each one is in a different continuity. The original manga went on for 12-volumes and then was followed up by The All-New Tenchi Muyo! a few years later that went on for 10 volumes. There was a 6-issue comic book mini-series that Tenchi distributor Pioneer specifically published for American fans that acted as sequel to Tenchi Universe written by Tall Tails author JD Calderon and drawn by Ninja High School artist Matt Lunsford, which was recently given a crowdfunded trade paperback collection, but No Need For Tenchi! was the original manga.

Taking place sometime after the 7th episode of the OVA, a duplicate of Ryoko named Minagi shows up to challenge Tenchi, but during the battle she loses her memory. Later, her boss Yakage arrives to get Tenchi's sword in a fight leading to Princess Ayeka's capture. Tenchi has to do some serious grinding to match Yakage who it turns out is from Jurai which is the planet Ayeka comes from, plus he was also a student of Washu who was in league with the previous OVA villain Kagato. From this point on, the manga branches out into different limited stories including Mihoshi going some of her previous space police cases, and even a dip into the Pretty Sammy universe where Sasami is a magical girl.

No Need For Tenchi! is a fine continuation of the 90s anime, although you would have had to have seen the first chapter of the OVA series in order to comprehend what was going on. The story and art are on the same level that the anime creators Masaki Kajishima and Hiroki Hayash had when they first conceived Tenchi Muyo! as an homage to I Dream Of Jeannie. I haven't read The All-New Tenchi Muyu! manga as of yet, but if it's as good as the original manga then it should be worth a look. Viz Manga did an exemplary job translating this, and they first printed it in American left-to-right format, but for the reprint it changed to the traditional right-to-left format as it was intended to be in Japan.

MISC. MANGA, *The Great Yokai War: Guardians

During the late 1960s, director Yoshiyuki Kuroda created a movie trilogy titled Yokai Monsters, and in 2005 Takashi Miike of Audition fame put together an homage to the original films called The Great Yokai Wars. Shoot ahead to 2021 and Miike did The Great Yokai War: Guardians which acted as a reboot of the franchise and only tangentially a sequel to the 2005 movie. There was also a 3-volume manga series adapted by Sanami Suzuki who also did the manga retelling of The Colors Within, although the manga went has an appearance by the giant Daimajin from his own movie franchise.

In modern day Japan, a colossal culmination of evil called the Yokaiju is planning on laying waste to Tokyo. The local spirits known as yokai want to prevent this disaster, so they take their case to the World Yokai Conference to get the help of monsters from other countries, but they decide that Japanese yokai are seen nowadays as cute mascots instead of monsters, so they leave Japan's yokai to deal with this threat on their own. The only hope they have is in young Ken Watanabe who is the descendent of infamous yokai slayer. Ken turns the yokai down, so they talk his younger brother Dai into becoming their savior, but Ken knows this will lead to Dai's demise, so he heads off to the spirit world to find him. With the help of Koko the kitsune, Ken embarks on a crusade to save his brother and possibly help the yoaki with their impending threat.

The Great Yokai War: Guardians is a feasibly likable manga that a reader can check out without having to see the motion picture to like it. Sanami Suzuki is a great artist, although it's hard to say if his writing is up to specs, or if the English translation by Titan Manga wasn't Americanized a step too much. There's plenty of laughs and sight gags to find enjoyable, although nothing as dark as some of Takashi Miike's prior movies. For a lighter view of natural spirits trying to defend their homeland, then this is one spooky army you'll want to sign up for.

MISC. MANGA, *You & Me

Most American otaku from the 90s might be familiar with Hiroshi Aro's manga, Futaba-Kun Change, which was a gender-bending madcap comedy done as an homage to Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/2, but one of his other titles managed to briefly appear on American bookshelves that also honored Takahashi's work, You And Me which was his own take on Maison Ikkoku. Hiroshi Aro has had the entirety of Futuba-Kun Change available in English on formats like Kindle, but You And Me only got seven single issues with no collected paperback when Studio Ironcat translated it in 2002 as the company eventually went defunct under the label IC Entertainment. The original Japanese title for this was Yuu And Mii which of course means "you and me", and oddly enough there is an unrelated manga titled You And Me, Etc., but this version is more of a fast-paced gag series filled with a constantly moving parade of mature situations.

Yuu is what's referred to as a ronin which is someone who has troubling getting into a university, so he moves into his own apartment to concentrate on studying, however his apartment building called Yaninarisou is filled with the peak of strange neighbors. For one thing, Yuu discovers he has a roommate named Mii who is the ghost of a sexy girl that doesn't mind randomly getting naked. Among the other spooky inhabitants are a musclebound shojo manga creator, a creepy loner who longing to make friends, another ronin who truly needs a haircut, an ex-masked female wrestler, and the landlord who always wears midieval armor. Mii takes a serious liking to Yuu and makes his life even more hectic than a teenage ronin could normally handle. From here, Yuu tries to keep his sanity while studying for college, fending off his horny dead roomie, and the other weirdos in this supernatural looney bin.

You And Me is on its own a spastic comedy that never slows down to get into anything deep like character backstory, so it's pretty good for today's swipe left generation. Other historical gag manga like Dr. Slump and Crayon Shin-Chan have gained fans over the decades, but they also had popular anime to back it up. You And Me is one of those lost manga that saw a glimpse on the other side of the Pacific which never got a good enough chance to develop a following.

MISC. MANGA, *American Barbarian

Before doing comics of Transformers, Gobots, GI Joe, and Godzilla, comic artist and writer Tom Scioli had his own original series titled American Barbarian which is a collision of Thundarr The Barbarian, Thundercats, and Masters Of The Universe. Indeed, this is a He-Man-themed take on the standard fantasy adventure hugely inspired by the works of Jack Kirby, which most of Scioli's works tend to as he's done the artwork on an entire graphic novel about the life of the King of Comics. Scioli worked on this while he was doing his Godland comic which was also Kirby-esque.

Set in the devastated New Earthea, the barbarian Meric is the last surviving member of a warrior clan who were all wiped out of by the mummy warlord Two-Tank Omen who has a whole working tank for each foot. Meric pretends to join Omen's forces while keeping his family's secret, the mystical Star Sword, hidden from evil. Meric meets up with a tribe of humans and sets them free from the scavengers and then reclaims the sword to have a cataclysmic clash with Two-Tank Omen resulting in the two of them getting sucked up into a black hole. All the remaining humans form the new United States of Barbaria with the hint that Meric will return someday.

With armored swordsmen, robotic dinosaurs, time travel, and sultry slave girls, American Barbarian grew from a webcomic to hit one-shot graphic novel. It contains terrific splash pages and just like Kirby would do when he was creating the New Gods and Thor. It has a real appreciation for the Bronze Age of comics. If you've recently joined the MOTU fandom, then this is a patriotic rainbow of fan nostalgia.

MISC. MANGA, *A Centaur's Life

Kei Murayama's first big break as a manga creator was A Centaur's Life which is a slice-of-life that just happens to take place in a world of half-human creatures. Murayama's other works include a yuri sci-fi one-shot, but an entire society of demihumans in a modern day humanless Japan is also a fresh idea. If you've read Beastars or were marveled by the mixed species concept of Zootopia, then this should be of great interest.

Himeno is a shy centaur going to high school along with other fantasy beings. Her two best friends are the draconid Nozomi, plus Kyoko of the goatfolk who are in fact not satyrs. She has to deal with the advances of some of her hornier schoolmates who find her attractive because of her being slightly top heavy, although she's fairly modest compared to most fan service norms. There is no major direction for the characters to pursue as their stories are aimed at how a society of different breeds get along. The opening Chapter 0 is somewhat off kilter as it has Himeno asking Kyoko and Nozomi to check a certain part of her body which is normally impossible for a centaur to see, but she is relieved when she appears to be normal, at least compared to other centaurs. There is a strong hint of shojo-ai in this, as well as some definitive sapphic representation in further chapters, but will probably be a big draw for any lesbian fangirls. The commonplace setting of an early 21st Century metropolis is a keen idea for a manga where the entire cast is made of people you would see in an RPG monster manual.

A Centaur's Life is not for younger readers as it does involve some mature situations, although this is not an adult title either. The manga is still running in Japan and Seven Seas Entertainment is doing a fine job releasing it into English in their larger-sized graphic novels. Imagine a toned-down version of Lucky Star inhabited by Dungeons And Dragons characters, and you're set for a fun read.

MISC. MANGA, *I'm In Love With The Villainess

Isekai has become the new standard for otaku, but regularly the protagonist ends up going to a world of high fantasy. I'm In Love With The Villainess does take place in a fantasy world but is slightly more up to date instead of taking place during the Middle Ages. Starting out as a light novel written by Inori and drawn by Hanagata, it was later developed into a manga in the pages of Comic Yuri Hime, a shojo-ai themed anthology mainly targeting older female readers, a market usually referred to as josei. There isn't a lot of isekai focused on sapphic relationships, so this was a refreshing change of pace, so much so that it even got an anime TV series that lasted for a single season.

Rei is an office drone whose only salvation from her dreary life is playing a dating video game for girls known as an otome game titled Revolution. After working to the point of lethal physical exhaustion, Rei is reborn in the magical world of Revolution as the 15-year-old main character, but instead of setting her sights on one of the male leads she targets the token villainess Claire, a stuck-up royal who constantly berates her for being a commoner. Despite the social abuse she receives, Rei continues to publicly make it clear that she flat out loves Claire much the hair drill schoolgirl's chagrin. The academy they both attend is a training ground for citizens to learn elemental magic in defense of their country, and Rei has proved that her MP is so immeasurable that she excels over the all the other students as far a potential is concerned, most of this was thanks to Rei playing the game this world takes place in countless times. Rei even gets a job working as Claire's maid just to be close to her which she managed by knowing her rich father's true backstory. From here Rei eventually begins to break down Claire's spoiled nature and even ends up marrying her and the two of them adopt two daughters which is pretty much the perfect outcome for a sapphic romance.

I'm In Love With The Villainess is a lesbian fangirl's dream come true, and writer Inori intended for this to represent the older shojo-ai audience, although this is still a teen-rated manga that doesn't give into fan service. The manga is very sweet and sincere in its commentary on societal issues not only for LGTBQ readers but also classism with how the elite treat the ordinary working population. The light novel story has concluded including a spinoff set in the same world, plus the anime seems to have wrapped up for now, but the manga is still ongoing, so seeing how a lesbian couple will thrive in a game-based fantasy world after they've already tied the knot should be incentive enough for any yuri fans.

MISC. MANGA, *Kaiju Kamui

Shintaro Arima created this new ongoing manga inspired by Toho monster movies and various mecha shows like Evangelion. Kaiju Kamui is almost like Kaiju No. 8 except with less humor and its more about someone actually piloting a giant monster instead of turning into one. You can see the look of recent kaiju designs in this from sources like Pacific Rim, Godzilla Minus One, and the Monsterverse franchise.

Large creatures labeled Mega-Organisms are ravaging Japan and the only main defense against them are special pilots called Link Operators who have a neural connection to their fighter jets. This new tech is called the Neural Connection Operating System and allows the user full mental control of their aircraft. After an attack by a Mega-Organism, all of the Link Operators are wiped out except for their leader, Yamato Shidou, and he is chosen by a kaiju countermeasures team to pilot their new weapon branded Kamui. The Kamui is the offspring of a former defeated kaiju that scientists had altered to be controlled by an operator placed inside a special cockpit from within the titanic body. It's now up to Yamato to use this prototype to prevent any upcoming monster attacks, even though he is still feeling the emotional loss of his squadron.

Kaiju Kamui is a refreshing idea in the kaiju genre where someone is given total control of a living monster instead of a giant mecha to fight other giants. Amira does a fine job with the mostly original creature designs so they don't just look like your average monster-of-the-week, although the author does need to work on the pacing of his story because a lot of first few chapters has an ace pilot living through one huge loss to becoming the chosen one destined to protect mankind withing in the first volume. If this ever gets adapted, it will hopefully be done in live action since tokusatsu has made some serious progress in the last few Godzilla productions.

MISC. MANGA, *D'orc

With Dungeons And Dragons churning out more animated content, and the rise of isekai being a driving force in anime and manga, then D'orc might be right up your alley. Creator Brett Bean who had previously worked on I Hate Fairyland plus Rocket And Groot came up with this parody of fantasy tropes. Fans of The Dragon Prince will recognize quite a few familiar plot points and story similarities.

In the mystical realm of the Sunderaine, there lies an extended border separating the good side from the bad side of the lands. This area is known as The Scar where there is no good or evil, just ongoing fighting between various factions. However, among the rabble of different races that exist within The Scar is a half-dwarf, half-orc referred to as D'orc. This half-breed wanders the desolate landscape who is constantly trying to avoid either good warriors or bad who want him to join their side. D'orc has a living shield with a large durable eye in the center who keep trying to have him get into fights. This isn't helpful as there's a prophecy which states that the half-and-half is said to bring about the end of the world. Word of D'orc's existence come to light as the kingdoms of light and dark each send their own personal assassin to nip the prophecy in the bud.

D'orc has a modern animation design to it with the numerous other races like humans, goblins, giants, and golems dreamt up by Brett Bean's imagination. The comic has become such an underground hit that some issues are going for hundreds on Ebay and it's already up to its third printing in just a little over a month, plus it had a crossover with I Hate Fairyland. If you ever wondered what a formidable version of Gollum might be up to in Middle Earth, then you should give this romp a read.

MISC. MANGA, *.Hack//Legend Of The Twilight

As part of the triple-pronged hit of the anime TV series and video games, this .Hack chapter was actually the first one to be released in Japan, or at least as part of a monthly manga publication magazine. Legend Of The Twilight is in fact a sequal to .Hack//Sign, the RPG, and the underhyped OVA, Liminality, taking place four years after the apparant threat to the virtual world of The World has passed.

Here, Shugo and his twin sister Rena have won the character avatars of original .hackers Kite and Black Rose, meaning that their online selves resemble those of the playable characters from the RPG, accept slightly younger looking. Once online, Shugo dies during a quest, but is brought back thanks to Aura, who is an AI that exists within The World's mainframe. She grants Shugo a bracelet which has the same abilities that Kite's did, accept this one can actually be seen as a real wearable item. This attracts the attention of a young rare item hunter named Mirielle, who is really the 4-year old daughter of one of the original .hackers. They also befriend an American player named Hotaru, and Ouka, a female werewolf who fights barehanded. Shugo also attracts the attention of Balmung, who was a key player in the video games, but now is a system administrator for CC Corp who runs The World. Shugo later runs into Zefie, a young AI who turns out to be Aura's "daughter". Shugo and the others then set out to find a way of reuniting Zefie with her mother, despite that fact that Zefie is selfish, pushy, and clings to Shugo like a monkey. However, the Cobalt Knight Brigade, who are an official group of player thugs for CC Corp, like a Nazi version of the Crimson Knights, learn of Zefie's existance and plan to wipe her out. After capturing Shugo and his party, they lock them up. But Zefie's abilbity to manipulate the world Neo-style allows them to escape and seek out Aura.

The manga follows a different approach than the anime based on it. In the .Hack//Legend TV series, Zefie isn't in it at all, and Shugo's party has to take on a sort of anti-Aura and her group of hacking followers from destroying The World. The manga goes on for two regular-sized volumes, and then one double-sized third volume complete with bonus chapters. Rei Izumi's artwork is great though and really brings the story to life offline. This is for real fans who've played all four video games, and seen both prior anime series. It might be a little hard for others to integrate themselves in the .Hack universe though.

MISC. MANGA, *Omega 6

Takaya Imamura started out as a character designer for Nintendo who worked on Star Fox, F-Zero, and Legend Of Zelda. He eventually left Nintendo and went on to create his own single-volume manga titled Omega 6 that was first printed in French. Following that, Imamura made a video game adaptation of it called Omega 6: The Triangle Stars which is in done in glorious retro-style pulp that brings back memories of Mega Man. The manga itself is a throwback to 80s cartoons and toy-based TV shows which tells a full story in a solo graphic novel.

Onboard the starship Omega 6, a pair of androids named Kyla and Thunder a brought out of suspended animation for their job as part-time bounty hunters looking for the terrorist Petrogaze. The duo get power-ups when they consume something called "magic fruit", the downside to which is that it rapidly ages them, so they have to spend their off time in a rejuvenation chamber. It's revealed later on that both of them contain the memories of a brilliant professor and his wife who left Earth centuries ago after their own world became overcrowded by aliens that colonized the planet, and they've been looking for a planet of their own to repopulate the human race. They happened to meet up with a race of planet-builders who offer them a world of their own in exchange for capturing criminals with a high price on their heads. While on their hunt, Kyla and Thunder learn that Petrograde was really a decoy for a deeper conspiracy.

Omega 6 is a steady readthrough, although there is a major flashback halfway through the book that the story gives no segue into. Takaya Imamura gives this graphic novel a dynamic look to it for both anime and video game fans even if the plot does tend to jump around. It's super-powered cyberpunk space action that will make you nostalgic for Silver Age anime.

MISC. MANGA, *Tales From The Age Of The Cobra

Enrique Fernandez is a Spanish artist who made his big premiere in the American comics market with an album-sized graphic novel of The Wizard Of Oz through Image Comics, then a few years later IDW decided to republish his original 2-part mini-series into a trade paperback titled Tales From The Age Of The Cobra. Fernandez's technique is old school anime similar to rough pencil-drawn animation that made up most of the 70s like Lupin and Captain Harlock, so a lively adventure inspired by the Arabian Nights was a brilliant fit for his style.

A masked storyteller relays a story set ages ago about the illusive thief Irvi who tries to free his love, the beautiful Sian, from a harem, but he has to literally sleep his way up to her room over a few nights. However, Irvi has to give up on Sian and runs across the unlucky in love thug known as the Bull who soon raises his own empire after renaming himself the Cobra with Irvi being his lucky charm that he keeps around. Irvi finally makes his escape after being the subject of several of Cobra's experiments by a quack potion maker in an attempt to make a powerful elixir. Irvi eventually befriends the performing dwarf Maluuk who arranges to finally put an end to Cobra's evil reign while reuniting to Sian for a series of selective endings that the storyteller alludes to which are up to the listener to decide on.

Tales From The Age Of Cobra has a rich story showing sympathetic for both the heroes and villain displaying how none of them are truly guilty or innocent. Enrique Fernandez's artwork thrives with eye-catching imagery that takes you back to Bronze Age of comics. This comes in an album-sized novel with tight but stunning panels that keep you reading the entire saga in one entire experience.

MISC. MANGA, *Xanadu

Anthropomorphics were huge in the indie comics market in the 80s largely due to all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wannabes, but out of all of them only one managed to establish what most people nowadays refer to as the "furry" genre. Xanadu started out as a 5-issue mini-series by Vicky Wyman in 1988 followed by a sequel mini-series, a color special, and its own fanzine. This was one of the few talking animal comics from the 80s that was entirely cast with anthropomorphic characters and was also a swashbuckling adventure in the spirit of Conan and Dungeons And Dragons. Borrowing traits from both European and Asian folklore, Xanadu begins as a recognizable sword and sorcery tale, but elements of Japanese mythology work their way into the plot. The late Vicky Wyman had a grand sense of romantic fantasy which translated into amazing comic art done in black and white which also leans into manga style.

Set in the magical land of Xanadu, the current Empress is Alicia, a unicorn ruler whose father Allynrud settled his empire after ceasing the quarreling Nobles who are mythical creatures and their adversaries the Freeborn who are the other anthropomorphic citizens. There are also the Domestique animals which take the place of regular animals such as ones for riding on instead of horses. Alicia's foxy handmaiden Fatima is carrying on a flirty relationship with the swaggering feline gentlemen thief Tabbe who keeps infiltrating the castle much to the chagrin of the griffen captain of the guard Plume who has plans of his own for who should be on the throne. Word of this reaches the neighboring kingdom of the Golden Realm run by golden dragons, so the high princess Kajiko arrives in Xanadu along with her younger brother Kinomon who will become one of Alicia's royal guards. Plume's treachery is revealed and he escapes, only to later bond himself with the spirit of the dark sorcerer Typhon which ultimately leads to his demise. The second mini-series shows most of Alicia's court going on a voyage to the Golden Realm but are sidetracked by pair of selfish kyryn and some pesky pirates. The color special acts a prequel set in the early days of the Golden Realm, so it's unusual that nearly half of the entire Xanadu comics run doesn't actually takes place in the empire it's named after.

Vicky Wyman didn't pull her punches when it came to having her animal people expressing their opinions and feelings which makes for a lot of passionate intrigue. Wyman's artwork had great details and unique screen tone backgrounds that are equal to even the most professional manga creators. Xanadu is a stand-alone testament to exactly how deep furry lore can go that shakes off the negative stereotypes that seem to plague the fandom.

MISC. MANGA, *Gaea-Tima The Gigantis

Manga creator Kent started out with a 7-volume dystopian series titled Colorless, but followed it with new giant monster epic, Gaea-Tima The Gigantis. More borrowing from alternative kaiju designs such as Gamera and Ultraman as opposed to the traditional Toho monster movies shows how an attack from a titanic monster can leave a huge impact on a small Japanese town. In many ways, this was a prelude to Godzilla Minus One which came out later the same year.

Sukuba is a small city by the sea that a decade ago was devastated by the arrival of a kaiju called Gaea-Tima. Now, the city has repaired most of the damage and bills itself as a tourist spot with one of the survivors named Miyako has made a living creating miniature figures of the same monster. The arrival of oceanographer Tatsukuni in town is serendipitous as a completely different kaiju appears. Out of nowhere, Gaea-Tima also appears and seemingly fights of the other kaiju and then suddenly vanishes. Miyako finds a small ball left behind after the battle which turns out to be a dried up egg of another Gaea-Tima monster left behind and only needs enough water to reach his full height. Tatsukuni tells Miyako that he's part of a secret group called Fune whose job it is to chronicle and prevent surprise kaiju and has her join their team just as yet another monster attacks leaving Miyako no choice but to use her "pocket monster" to counter it.

This was a vividly iconic manga with impressive monster designs that you wouldn't conventionally expect. Kent has an atypical approach to his art and writing which are much more grounded than what you would find in something like sentai. Don't expect any superheroes in colorful helmets with plastic armor to show up anytime soon. Your average Godzilla-holic will probably appreciate this unexpected new manga treasure.

MISC. MANGA, *Cyborg 009

Just like Speed Racer and Gatchaman, another authentic Japanese anime/manga property converted into an American comic was Cyborg 009 back in 2013 by Archaia Entertainment. This was a 5-issue mini-series(starting with Issue #0)that was eventually reprinted into a single graphic novel. The original manga by Shotaro Ishinomori who also created Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, he had birthed one of the first full superhero teams in Japanese culture during its run in 1964, and it beats out Giant-Size X-Men by a decade from having an international roster of heroes. Cyborg 009 spawned several manga volumes, video games, anime TV shows and movies, plus crossovers with 8 Man and Devilman. Archaia writers Bradley Cramp and FJ DeSanto along with artist Marcus To took some of the early story arcs of the manga and condensed them down into a limited American comic.

A young man awakens with amnesia not remembering his past and escapes from a secret facility ran by the underground organization Black Ghost who have turned him into a cyborg codenamed 009. 009 runs across eight other test subjects who are also cyborgs that break free of Black Ghost's experiments. From this point on, the nine of them use their own individual high-tech powers and abilities to confound Black Ghost's attempt at world domination and spreading their own brand of evil. Sekar is the commander of Black Ghost and had his entire body cyberized which takes the combined powers of all nine of the cyborg team to counter. 009 almost sacrifices his own life to finally stop Sekar, but the bionic heroes succeed with room for further adventures.

Excalibur and Teen Titans artist Marcus To did a remarkable job adapting the first sentai team into an American comic book, plus made it much more diversified than the original Cyborg 009 which was largely weighed down by ethnic cliches. The Cyborg 009 group manage to gel well together despite their cultural differences and unfamiliar backgrounds as they unite their amateur efforts to prevent heavily armed terrorists, which might be due to the limited number of issues in the series whereas an ongoing comic would benefit from a longer narrative. If you wanted a short-cut to understanding a classic manga that help set the stage for tokusatsu as we know it, then look up this dynamic recreation. As a bonus, Issue #0 also reprints the first few chapters of the original manga as well.

MISC. MANGA, *Gatchaman

It's been a good hot minute since Gatchaman had been seen on the American comic book racks. There had been two different comic book outings under the English version of the TV show by Sandy Frank, Battle Of The Planets, one in the 70s by Gold Key Comics, and one by Top Cow Productions in the early 2000s which included two separate Thundercats crossovers and one with Witchblade. This however is the first time that there has been an American publication sharing the original Japanese title of the Bronze Age superhero anime from Tatsunoko Productions. The original Gatchaman is a sentai series that began the tradition of "five teenagers with attitude", but instead of clunky robot dinosaurs, they were able to take down giant robots with ninja skills and sleek space age super-vehicles. Mad Cave Studios not only has picked up the anime plot for modern day while still keeping its counterculture esthetics in a regular series, but there are several mini-series that help fill out the Gatchaman universe.

In this new adaptation of the Japanese franchise, the Earth is being bombarded with attacks by a criminal organization known as the Galactor whose advanced technology has been cause acts of terrorism. Mankind's biggest hope is a quintet of young warriors in bird costumes who go by the codename Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. This team consists of their leader Ken, the hothead loner Joe, the token female Jun, the bulky pilot Ryu, and the youngest Jinpei. They each have their own sweet rides that hook up with the larger Phoenix ship flown by Ryu, and they can work as a team or just as effectively as individuals. There have so far been solo adventures of Ken, Jun, and Ryu. Mad Cave even went as far as to do a rare look into the point of view of the villains in a Galactor mini-series with their leader Berg Katse trying to root out some underminers within his own ranks.

Mad Cave Studios has done a pretty good job expanding the lore of the 70s anime for modern audiences. Their version of Gatchaman is tight, diverse, and got great superhero action. There is some real talent behind the various artists and authors with their own take on each character as well as their uniting as a team. Aside from the main title and the solo adventures, there's also a spinoff title Only One Earth where Gatchaman's mettle is tested in Galactor's latest scheme. Mad Cave was also clever enough to make a solid mint by offering several variant covers for each issue for collectors. Gatchaman is a fine enough carrier of the classic anime's legacy and worth it for any die-hard sentai fans.

MISC. MANGA, *Wicked: The Graphic Novel-Part 1

With the hit musical finally getting a film adaptation, that still left the original book to receive any kind of adaptation as the musical greatly diverges from the source material. Wicked: The Graphic Novel is a planned duology by William Morrow Paperback taking Gregory Macguire's first volume of what was called The Wicked Years series that is being illustrated by Scott Hampton who has worked on such mainstream titles as Hellblazer, Batman, and Star Trek as well as his own series of Simon Dark. Gregory Maguire's take on The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz by L. Frank Baum which started the entire Oz phenomenon shows an alternate history from the point of view of The Wicked Witch Of The West which champions the antagonist in place of the main protagonist. This began Maguire's askew take on various other children's books like Snow White, Alice In Wonderland, and Cinderella. The concept of the villain's origin really caught on from the Wicked musical and brought it more to the surface of pop culture. This caught on with creators like Disney releasing several fairy tale movies redone from the point of view of the villain such as Cruella and Maleificent. When Winnie Holzman rewrote the original Wicked novel for Stephen Schwartz's Broadway musical in 2003, this brought further attention to Macguire's book which to anyone that's read it is starkly contrast to the stage play. Both the book and the musical incorporate elements from the Wizard Of Oz book from 1900 as well as the 1939 MGM live-action film famously starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. The movie brought more attention to the character of the Wicked Witch of the West who is turned from being a mild villain from halfway through the original book as the film's overarching villain constantly trying to foil the heroes' plans. Maguire's true take on the Wicked Witch's origin is truly a work on its own and the graphic novel modifies that as best it can.

The main plot of the Wicked book shows about the earlier life of Elphaba, the green-skinned girl who would eventually become the Wicked Witch of the West. The reader first gets a slightly out of canon prologue with the Witch trailing Dorothy and her friends as they first make their way to her castle after seeing the Wizard. The book then opens up on Elphaba's early years in Munchkin Country where she was the probable daughter of a religious leader and his less than faithful wife just as the royal family of Oz falls to the arrival of the Wizard in his balloon. Cut ahead a few years to Elphaba's teenage years at Shiz University where she first meets Galinda who is not as egotistical as her musical counterpart. The two of them befriend one of the college's few remaining Animal teachers, Dr. Dillamond, who is fighting for the rights of "Animals" which area animals in Oz still capable of speaking because the Wizard's rule seems to be outing all the talking critters. Dillamond dies, and Elphaba believes it is the fault of Shiz head Madame Morrible, so she travels with Galinda to the Emerald City to report their findings directly to the Wizard himself which ends in failure. Elphaba sends Galinda back to Shiz on her own and decides to stay in the Emerald City to join an underground movement. A while afterwards, Elphaba in hiding comes across her old schoolmate Fiyero, a prince from the western country of the Vinkus who had already married with three children but still decided to engage in a love affair with his green-skinned friend. Elphaba then fails an assassination attempt on Morrible which leads to Fiyero getting captured by the Wizard's secret police and her grieving her loss in a convent where she is taken in by the mysterious Mother Yackle. The second volume will cover the latter half of Macguire's novel much of which is never covered in the musical.

Wicked: The Graphic Novel-Part 1 adapts the majority of the first act of the Wicked book, but there is a great deal that is left out of it if you've read the original novel. There is a controversial segment involving some of Elphaba's schoolmates at an adult club which has no real bearing on the main story at all and was mainly added either for shock value or to pad out the story. Much character development is also not included, specifically Elphaba's sister Nessarose, her Nanny, and Galinda's chaperone Clutch. With Scott Hampton's illustrations, a fair deal of the narration has been excluded as well, so if you haven't read Maguire's book prior to the graphic novel then you're missing quite a bit of backstory. Hampton's realistic artwork is vivid but doesn't really bring out the color most people are used to in an Oz story, although not to the point of making the fairy land look like a dystopia. It is highly recommended that fans of the original book should check this out, but for fans of musical and movies might not be satisfied.

MISC. MANGA, *Spy x Family

Being the basis for the hit anime TV series, Spy x Family was written and drawn by Tatsuya Endo who had previously created Blade Of The Moon Princess based on the legendary Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter. His next title was a one-shot titled I Spy which was not as deep in Japanese folklore, and this led into expanding the idea by turning it into an action sitcom. Spy x Family has a man, a woman, and a little girl all pretending to be a family to complete a secret mission, and while this is the main goal of the series, the thing that got fans hooked was the chemistry between the main characters. Endo illustrates this with some swinging action and sincere but stern facial expressions as each of them deal with their own personal conflicts and motivations.

The bordering nations of Ostania and Westalis are constantly at odds, and the secret agent Loid Forger known as Twilight is given a special assignment to investigate the enigmatic chairman of a government party who only makes appearances at the private school of Eden Academy where his son goes to. The only way to get close to his target is for Loid to put together his own family within the span of a week to get his new foster child admitted into Eden, so he first gets the darling little Anya from a local orphanage. What Loid doesn't know is that his adopted daughter is actually telepathic as the result of a science experiment that she managed to get free of, and she knows that Loid is really a spy from reading his mind, so she sets out to help him in his endeavor. To fill the role of the mother, Loid happens to come across the lovely Yor who has a job at City Hall but is really a highly trained assassin codenamed Thorn Princess that agrees to pretend to be Loid's wife when the academy enrollment tests begin. From this point on, Loid and Yor are totally unaware of the other's background, even though Anya knows all about them and strives to keep her new family together no matter the social or domestic struggles they have to go through.

Spy x Family has gained more progress as an anime, especially with their first movie in 2023. The manga however should not be overlooked, even for otaku who mainly only sample the anime adaptations and don't bother with the original source material. Viz has done an exemplary job translating this series and if the TV series caught your eye, then give the manga a look as well. It's the right blend of action, comedy, and romance that people have been looking for in a mature series.

MISC. MANGA, *Unico: Awakening

So confident was Scholastic in this Americanized reimagining of Osamu Tezuka's Unico manga that they rolled out the cash for a full-animated trailer, the publisher's Graphix line of graphic novels for youngsters took the first volume of this ongoing franchise very seriously. The original manga was created by the God of Manga back in the mid-70s and received two hit anime movies released through Sanrio. Scholastic wanted to do a modern-day adaptation of the hit manga, so writer Samuel Sattin who had penned the Cartoon Saloon's graphic novels based on their animated films, and artist Gurihiru who drew the Avatar comic book sequels got together to make the new project which was initially financed through a Kickstarter campaign. Unico: Awakening is a colorful romp that covers the origin of the little unicorn and his first story arc.

If you've seen The Fantastic Adventures Of Unico, then you basically get the same tale here minus the segment where a little demon is part of the show. Unico is born from a unicorn that was just birthed by a space anomaly, and the adorable little equine becomes so adored by mortals that it starts to rile up the envy of the goddess Venus who bids the elemental Zephyrus to take the one-horned critter to the Hill of Oblivion for banishment. Zephyrus instead takes pity on Unico and continuously takes him from one part of space and time to another to hide him. Venus hears about this and sends her minion Night Wind to fetch Unico, so Zephyrus fights back by getting the last of a batch of magic flowers to free Unico from Venus' grasp which leaves the goddess in a weakened state plotting revenge. During all this, Unico is helping a cat become human to act as the stand-in daughter for a lonely old woman which ends in an epic fantasy battle right out of a JRPG with a giant monster.

Unico: Awakening is set to have a follow-up coming out soon titled Unico: Hunted which continues the reboot story, although whether or not there is going to be any other volumes after that is yet to be seen. This first graphic novel does have stunning visuals and dynamic color reaching back to the retro designs that made Osamu Tezuka an international icon. The book is very kid-friendly and enjoyable for all ages, even though there are some scary visual, especially the Lovecraftian final boss that an adult form Unico must battle which includes getting one of his wings get torn off. Scholastic's take on an anime classic is a welcome addition today's market which is so determined of bringing people from the real world into a fantasy realm instead of the other way around where mythical creatures roam the mortal plane.

MISC. MANGA, *Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre

Tom Sciolo has done his own Jack Kirby-inspired takes on franchises like G.I. Joe, Gobots, and Transformers, so when it came to the King of Monsters, he borrowed a title from Sesame Street and made the 3-issue mini-series Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre. Each issue was doubled the size of your average comic book, so IDW Publishing put this out in prestige format where we get to see Sciolo's bright colors and thick character outlines. This is one of the first times that we get to see Godzilla take on various literary figures making this as tale of the colossal kaiju mixing it up with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. "Godzilla vs. Public Domain Characters" is the best way to sum this up without giving too much away.

Starting out in the middle of The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby himself pulls together his own team of monster hunters called G-Force to destroy the rampaging giant lizard. They get help from brilliant minds like Jules Verne and Thomas Edison(although he probably ripped off most of the gear he claimed to have made)and chase the monster from America to England when they get help from an elderly Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson's niece who is also a doctor. Godzilla's rampage through London gets the attention of a certain vampire who is currently held up in Carfax Abbey. Dracula kidnaps Gatsby's wouldbe love interest Daisy in an attempt to get Godzilla to follow them to Transylvania, however the Time Machinist from H.G. Wells' story shows up to help G-Force. Dracula hypnotizes the Time Machinist and has him hand over a magical ring that he uses to turn Frankenstein's monster, a wolfman, and a mummy into giants to fight Godzilla. Gatsby himself has the ring used on him and helps defeat the other monsters including Dracula, then the two remaining titans battle it out. Godzilla returns to the ocean while Gatsby returns to his normal size and returns to his lavish lifestyle after Daisy turns him down as she's already married.

The artwork Scioli created for this comic is reminiscent of Hanna-Barbera cartoons and shows like Thundarr The Barbarian which Jack Kirby worked on. The gritty figure designs look like its right out of the Bronze Age of comics and really works for this outlandish premise. Godzilla himself here is more of a plot device in this story than an actual character, but that's nothing new as the monster is usually personified as a force of nature than an actual living creature. Tokusatsu fans should find this as being a different but refreshing change of pace from the regular Godzilla beat-em-up monster bashes, and hardcore comic fans will love the blending of kaiju and steampunk genres.