Manga and Monsters

Published June 28, 2008 in the Manila Bulletin. Online on June 30.
Manga may appear to be literature for children yet they speak to us of change that is universal to many. No matter what shape or form, change will happen in our lives…

I hate monsters.

Ever since I was a kid, I abhorred the idea of Halloween because of the various monster specials shown on TV. They eat you, consume you, and even in your sleep, they haunt you. And for years I tried my best to evade these monsters the way you try to avoid bullies in your school. Don’t look at them straight in the eye. Keep calm, ignore them, and just walk away.

And yet here I am, years later, reading my manga, suddenly staring at one monster straight in the eye. Just like that high school bully, they’ll find their way to get back at you.

Finding a monster in a Japanese comic, most popularly known as manga, is like finding a cockroach on your cupboard. Having a monster in their manga is a natural occurrence and it revels at that moment when you scream on top of your lungs.

For a tight-lipped society like Japan, monsters not only spark interest because of their strange looks but also because of their ability to elicit change. This is why they’re called bakemono by the Japanese – things that can change. This ability to transform himself or his surroundings is the very heart of the Japanese bakemono. And in manga, we see these in various shapes and sizes that it’s interesting how even if I change the genre of comics I’m reading, one way or the other, I’ll end up facing a monster.

Children’s manga is bombarded with bakemonos. Instead of seeing drooling sharp-toothed beasts, they have talking trains, electric yellow kittens, and humanized bread.

Doraemon

The most famous of these monsters is Doraemon, a blue cat from the future who has a strange pocket filled with various toys and devices.

In this comic, Doraemon returns to the past to change the wayward ways of his creator, Nobita. In his youth, Nobita was a slacker and would rather play around than rather than do his homework. More than that, he was also spineless and was often bullied and taken advantage of by his friends. Doraemon’s arrival boosts the young Nobita’s spirit and helps him to change into a good boy.

Doraemon may not be the usual monster that you can imagine. He is more of a cat than the beast that we would usually attribute to a monster. However, by definition of the bakemono, Doraemon is no different than the threatening beast. Doraemon’s role becomes integral because Nobita needs him to change his bad habits.

This bakemono has a very simple role yet proves itself to be an important and crucial tool for change. Through monsters like Doraemon, children understand the importance of change and how they should be open to it. Change brings about new and interesting experience that can probably teach you a lesson or two in life. As the readers of mangas such as Doraemon grow older, a different kind of bakemono is introduced. One that most of us are familiar with.

Boy’s manga

The heart of bakemono in manga is in boys’ manga. Writers in boys’ manga are a little adventurous in terms of creating monsters. In stories like “Kekkaishi” and “Naruto,” bakemonos take the familiar shape of big beasts with scary faces.

Particularly in Kekkaishi, different types of bakemonos exist not only to change the people they’re with but also to exhaust a power that lies beneath the town.

The ayakashi, the name of the monsters in Kekkaishi, are examples of the traditional monsters that we see in our imagination. They can be wolverines, ghosts, or giant owls. In order to get the power beneath the town, the ayakashi wreaks havoc in the school. It is the duty of the kekkaishi to stop these ayakashi before they can even harm people outside the school. What is interesting is despite the destructive nature of the ayakashi, their presence also brought in a positive change to the main character, Yoshimori.

When Yoshimori was young, he was careless as a kekkaishi. He did not enjoy his job and often left it to his comrade, a fellow kekkaishi named Tokine. One night, a strong ayakashi arrived in school and tried to attack Yoshimori. Tokine came in to save him but severely injured her arm in the process. Yoshimori witnessed all of this and swore to himself that he will become a better kekkaishi so that no one will be hurt like Tokine did. Yoshimori’s story is a common example of how a bakemono’s presence can turn young boys to heroes. In boys’ manga, the monsters usually serve as triggers that riles up the heroes of that story to rise up to the challenge. They serve as tools to change boys to heroes.

But the bakemono in boys’ manga can also take a more familiar form – one which we’d least expect as a monster.

In Kazuo Umezu’s Drifting Classroom, it was the school that turned into the bakemono. One day, a great earthquake shook Tokyo and all of a sudden, the Yamato Elementary School disappeared into thin air. The students of the school were in deep shock to find themselves in a different world after the earthquake. There was nothing but sand outside their school. Students cried for their families while teachers held on to their sanity just to keep the kids calm. The school’s sudden disappearance triggered a change so drastic that many were pushed to kill and harm others in order to survive. The Drifting Classroom is a simple yet brilliant example of introducing young readers to another monster. It may appear that the school may be the bakemono, but in fact it gave birth to another bakemono, man’s inner demons.

The Drifting Classroom shows to readers how the bakemono need not be the giant monster from the future but the very teacher whom you trusted. The breakdown of the teachers and their sudden violent rage illustrates how a human can be corrupted when all hope is lost. It is scary to see how these individuals, whom these kids trusted a lot, suddenly start killing each other in frenzy.

For me, a man’s inner monster is more frightening than King Kong and Godzilla combined. I can forgive monstrous beasts because I can barely understand their consciousness, but I cannot seem to let ordinary humans turned killers slip away. Seeing them consciously decide to harm someone is frightening.

Monster

Such was the case in Naoki Urasawa’s work, Monster. In this story, a talented neurosurgeon named Kenzo Tenma was framed for a murder he did not commit. Years later, he realizes that one of his patients, Johann Liebert, was responsible in committing the crimes that Dr. Tenma was accused of. The story of the manga revolves on Tenma’s drive to clear his name as well as understand Liebert’s motivations in committing the crimes and framing him.

Monster is a great example of a story that actually explores the internal monster that lies within us. Not only do we see Liebert as the monster, but also how the people around him, particularly Dr. Tenma, have turned into a monster as well. It’s interesting how Urasawa built his characters to be innocent and kind-hearted in the beginning and eventually showing how they’re truly sinister after Liebert has affected their lives.

In this story, you have doctors choosing patients to save rather than treating them all equally for power. You have scientists manipulating minds of children to make them killing machines. You have sons and daughters killing their parents with no remorse. Even Tenma, the protagonist of this story, trades his scalpel for a gun. A person, who was once a savior, is now a killer. These bakemono that appeared in Monster is within our scope of reality. The comic illustrates how the bakemono is not only outside us, but within us as well. And as long as we know that it has the capability to exist, it remains a constant threat in our life.

From here, we learn that there are two faces to the bakemono in Japanese comics. There are monsters that exist outside of us and there are those that exist within us. Both have the ability to harm people and both also have the ability to teach people how to overcome it. And no matter which manga I’ll be reading, I will end up finding a monster there, not simply because the Japanese love it and it thrills them to see change in their supposedly conformist society, but because this is their way to show to people about the reality of change.

Manga may appear to be literature for children yet they speak to us of change that is universal to many. No matter what shape or form, change will happen in our lives. If I must say, the chronic presence of the bakemono in manga is only a reminder of that old scientific saying that the only thing constant in life is change.

And as long as this equation is true, then I’ll be expecting that monster in that manga I’m reading. I guess, that’s the cue for me to face my darkest fears.

Because of this, they are selling all of their mangas for the price of P50/tankoubon. Despite this, you can only buy the entire set of mangas and not by piece. If you buy a series with more than 30 volumes in it, you get a 20% discount. When I visited Kissa 10, a good number of the good mangas were already disappearing. Some of my favorites were still there, but Touch and Master Keaton were no longer there. I managed to get some but I had to stay within a particular budget. If only I can save all the mangas there, I would. ;A; So many mangas all gone.

I’ve had lots of great memories with Kissa10 and I really wished the cafe would last a longer. But life in this island is very difficult, and more often than not, people would rather spend their 500 pesos in a restaurant than in a manga shop where they can only read. I will miss Kissa 10 greatly. This would only mean losing access to some really great mangas.

The shop will no longer be in operation starting this week, but they are still open just so that people can buy the mangas off their shelves. Manga Kissa 10 will be open until June 30, from noon to 8 p.m. Their mangas are already P20-P30 per piece… so enjoy… those who can still enjoy it.

What did you eat for dinner last night?

Fish and chips? Chinese takeout? Pot Roast? How about a grilled fish, marinated in soy and miso, but not too long to save the sweetness of the fish, matched with a clear vegetable soup and red rice? And probably at the same price as your Chinese takeout. Yoshinaga Fumi returns to us with a very delectable treat, one that we have missed ever since Antique Bakery. We now have 2 guys in their 40s, sharing an apartment, and eating some of the yummiest dinners with ingredients bought in the best of seasons and on a budget. Yes, Fumi’s back in her element with a delightfully yummy manga serving where she asks us “Kinou, nani tabeta?”, what did you yesterday?

FOOD! FOOD! GLORIOUS FOOD!

Kinou Nani Tabeta, what did you eat yesterday, is a slice of life tale between a gay couple living together and trying to eat hearty meals under a budget. You have Shirou Kakei, a conservative gay lawyer who would rather think of how he can save 300 yen on a watermelon over confessing to his office that he’s gay. His partner, Kenji Yabuki is a flamboyantly gay hairdresser who would rather buy the newest Haagen Daaz in a convenience store than waiting for it to go on sale in the nearest grocery. The couple’s quite an odd pair, the kind that Yoshinaga-sensei loves to mess with in her mangas. But instead of getting the usual dose of scrotching,¹ she illustrates a more normal, less raunchy couple who seem to be more passionate about sharing dinners than letting Yoshinaga-sensei draw them doing the nasty. And it’s heart-warming to see how this series shows how important it is to share meals with other people. Really, this series is barely about the gay couple that stars in it. It is really more about the food and pleasure of saying how yummy it tastes!

It was in Manga Cast where I first heard of Yoshinaga Fumi’s seinen venture. Ed was oggling over some new series running in Morning and one of them was this said title. I’m not sure if that was Ed’s inner fujoshi that got him to talk about the series, but I’m sure his inner gourmet glossed over the supposed BL overtones and just pimped the series anyway because of the food. This series has more foodie elements than Antique. Yoshinaga-sensei goes deeper into her foodie element and dedicates chapters on the preparation of a dish or an entire menu. She thinks about costing, how to mix and match ingredients, and even how you can use the left overs for the next day. It’s amazing to read the dedication that Kakei puts in every meal. Occasionally, you get a tip or two about preparing dishes, like adding the mirin at the end of some dishes to make it sweeter. Yoshinaga-sensei encapsulates the love and art in food preparation in this manga and god, I do wonder what her Morning editor ate when she came up with this manga.

Okay, so I can’t disregard the fact that they’re both gay

Fine, I’m somewhat obliged to write it because as much as I love the food in this series, I am also amused with how Kakei and Yabuki get by with their relationship. I can’t help it, my fujoshi instincts cannot deny how amusing Kakei and Yabuki are. In between the food oggling, Kakei and Shirou would find themselves in situations wherein they would have to tackle their homosexuality. Unlike most BL which forgets the idea of homosexuality and just let them have it, this couple has to deal with their homosexual reality in conservative Japan. Of course, with Yoshinaga-sensei, she does this with great humor, often forcing Kakei to come out of the closet or getting into a jealous spazz because Yabuki can’t get his tongue tied when it comes to their relationship.

I cannot say if sensei is trying to do this in order to give voice to homosexuals in Japanese society, but either way, the manga does pleasantly represent a social stigma that most homosexuals of this day face. You have overly-concerned mothers, flamboyantly gay friends, suspicious women, and a slew of supporters. Of course, she does this in a very light-hearted fashion and more often than not, you gloss this over because of the food. Now that I think about it, maybe she’s using the food as an avenue to open awareness to homosexual issues to Morning readers. Perhaps, how normal most of them act despite being homosexual. In the end, despite the presence of the homosexual couple, I wouldn’t say that this title is her shot at getting back to BL though. This is closer to Antique than it is to Gerard and Jacques. More so, romance is barely the key in this manga. I seriously doubt you’ll be seeing some action in it too.

Whichever way I look at it, whether it’s the food or the gay, Kinou Nani Tabeta is a hearty manga that warms your heart with every story. It shows to us the joys of preparing food and the importance of sharing that meal with others.

On a side though, since this manga is still unlicensed and deserves some attention, my friends and I have scanlated the manga to share it to fellow fans of Fumi Yoshinaga’s works. You can download the first chapter of Kinou Nani Tabeta here.

1. I have to thank Dan for this term… even if it wasn’t for BL

Yuecchi gave a twit of Tamaki Hiroshi in eyeglasses, but I was more surprised when it said that he is acting for MW! Wow. That’s cool. It’s probably one of his more serious roles. He probably can handle it, then again, I haven’t really seen him in a serious role.

Sorry, fangirl post. :3 I can’t help it! I love Osamu Tezuka and Tamaki Hiroshi. Of course the latter has more… fangirling bearing. He’s… Chiaki-sama after all.

I always wondered why some mangas never see the light of licensing among the US publishers. For most, it’s whether it will make a sale. 20 or so manga bloggers who blog about Japanese titles wouldn’t probably make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Putting it into english and in a quality that readers like would mean costs. And I think most of us know that. Although fans would say they’ll buy it, more often than not, it’s only those who really can afford it do buy the manga the moment it comes out in the list. And they’re not a lot among manga fans. But sometimes, they do take a risk. Who knew Nodame would hit big when Del Rey got it? So there must be something other than costs on why they license and probably not license a title.

In a conversation with Ed, he told me how publishers in Japan sometimes push titles for licensing. He asked me about a particular title and what I thought of it since it was in consideration for licensing and I was thinking “Why not get Chi’s Sweet Home instead?” Ed enlightens me that even if english publishers want to get something more popular (e.g. Moyashimon), because they are already popular in Japan and probably earning a lot, publishers won’t push these titles for licensing and would probably place it at the end of their agenda. It’s not saying that they won’t be licensed, but instead, they just want to perhaps make up for the cost of a manga that was probably eating up their resources, hence the push for the obscure titles that are good but not exactly popular in the Japanese market.

To be honest, that’s rather upsetting because it only means that for some titles that we like, we’ve got to lobby for it to get it and that would take some time. A manga’s popularity sometimes ride on its popularity in Japan. When you hear the buzz about it from those who are in the scene, you wish that you can easily get it. Like I’m sure fans of Moyashimon who managed to see the anime want to get their hands on the manga. The manga’s richer in story compared to anime, but yes, it’s only in Japanese and quite difficult to read too (especially since it doesn’t have furiganas for those sc). When the hype for a series is gone and your patience has worn down, sometimes you lack interest in getting that said title to the point that you don’t wish to get it at all. And there is little market in nostalgia for mangas and this is probably why Slam Dunk never really got past the first two volumes in my country. We can at most, be really hopeful that eventually, it will come to our english-speaking shores. Hopefully not too late because we’re really missing out on a lot. Because there are lots of mangas that are left untranslated and they have stories that I’m sure we’ll learn and enjoy. Stories like St. Oniisan, Moyashimon, Detroit Metal City, Touch, H2, Cross Game, Rough, Himawari, Kimi ni Todoke, Arigatou, Zipang, Candy Candy, Kaze to Ki no Uta, Glass no Kamen (Glass Mask), Cat’s Eye, Tokimeki Tonight… As more time passes, more and more mangas are coming with great stories.

In this scenario, would our best bet to get these read in English would be those scanlating groups online? Scanlating’s a whole post altogether (and a lot of people have said a word or two about it) but although I see the convenience and accessibility of scanlations, it’s still nice to read a manga leisurely in your couch knowing that you fed your favorite mangaka and his assistants for at least a day.