What do you think?
Rate this book
MW #1-3
MW
A secret U.S. chemical weapon called "MW" accidentally leaks and wipes out the population of a southern Japanese island. Though Michio Yuki survives, he emerges from the ordeal without a trace of conscience. MW is manga-god Osamu Tezuka's controversial testament to the Machiavellian character and features his most direct engagement of themes such as transvestism and homoeroticism.
MW is a chilling picaresque of evil. Steering clear of the supernatural as well as the cuddly designs and slapstick humor that enliven many of Tezuka's better-known works, MW explores a stark modern reality where neither drive nor secular justice seems to prevail. This willfully "anti-Tezuka" achievement from the master's own pen nevertheless pulsates with his unique genius.
MW is a chilling picaresque of evil. Steering clear of the supernatural as well as the cuddly designs and slapstick humor that enliven many of Tezuka's better-known works, MW explores a stark modern reality where neither drive nor secular justice seems to prevail. This willfully "anti-Tezuka" achievement from the master's own pen nevertheless pulsates with his unique genius.
582 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
74 people are currently reading
1796 people want to read
About the author
Osamu Tezuka
2,153 books1,291 followersDr. Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He is often credited as the "Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during his formative years. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga" and "the God of Manga."
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 262 reviews
July 4, 2015
Honestly, who hasn't talked about this? Any avid comic reader, especially the ones that pay attention to the older stuff or the rare stuff, know who Osamu Tezuka is. Need a refresher? Just look up Astro Boy, which is possibly his most internationally known manga, more known for the anime. It's pretty darn old, my mom saw the show as a kid in it's original black and white television form. So here's a listicle review instead:
All of the Hearts:
- The beautiful artwork. Lots of lines and detail, every little line in the buildings and the clouds and the skies. The good old looks.
- "Fate is a strange thing."
- "Embrace me, Father. For I have sinned."
- An anti-hero character.
- Isn't a horror manga, but it's pretty thrilling and hard to put down.
- A little comedic to me because the anti-hero is so careless in whoever he hurts and he's just pretty wild.
- For it's time, it's pretty deviant, not deviant anymore because time has changed a bit.
- There's a devil and a flawed angel duo. (the two main characters.)
- Science fiction, warfare stuff. A commentary on war and nuclear power. The main character is kind of like that "revenge for the past," type of message.
- But despite that Tezuka has had political manga in the past. I often wonder if he made this for a message or a social commentary or just entertainment. Because the ending kind of blurred everything.
All of the No:
- The ending was disappointing slightly. "THE EVIL WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL!"
- It made me sad that the priest went "poof."
- I wish Tezuka showed us more of the brother's side of the story. The good twin.
- The women in this story are weird. They are very easily controlled. Is that really how potent the pure evil of the main character is?
- His portrayal of gay men is typical. Maybe it's the time period of when it was published.
- The evil main character is very hypersexualized. He has sex with everyone. Which makes me question if he was also a victim of bisexual erasure because people call him gay, but he seems to like women too? (Am I mistaken here?)
Rating: 4.5/5
Originally posted here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot....
All of the Hearts:
- The beautiful artwork. Lots of lines and detail, every little line in the buildings and the clouds and the skies. The good old looks.
- "Fate is a strange thing."
- "Embrace me, Father. For I have sinned."
- An anti-hero character.
- Isn't a horror manga, but it's pretty thrilling and hard to put down.
- A little comedic to me because the anti-hero is so careless in whoever he hurts and he's just pretty wild.
- For it's time, it's pretty deviant, not deviant anymore because time has changed a bit.
- There's a devil and a flawed angel duo. (the two main characters.)
- Science fiction, warfare stuff. A commentary on war and nuclear power. The main character is kind of like that "revenge for the past," type of message.
- But despite that Tezuka has had political manga in the past. I often wonder if he made this for a message or a social commentary or just entertainment. Because the ending kind of blurred everything.
All of the No:
- The ending was disappointing slightly. "THE EVIL WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL!"
- It made me sad that the priest went "poof."
- I wish Tezuka showed us more of the brother's side of the story. The good twin.
- The women in this story are weird. They are very easily controlled. Is that really how potent the pure evil of the main character is?
- His portrayal of gay men is typical. Maybe it's the time period of when it was published.
- The evil main character is very hypersexualized. He has sex with everyone. Which makes me question if he was also a victim of bisexual erasure because people call him gay, but he seems to like women too? (Am I mistaken here?)
Rating: 4.5/5
Originally posted here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot....
February 18, 2008
Well first of all while reading this manga by Tezuka I thought of a young Alain Delon playing the lead character in a film version of this realistic horror story. The violence is pretty gruesome, yet I also think it's a classic work by Tezuka (after so many!)
The story is about a young man who comes from a family of Kabuki actors who as a young boy is exposed to a secret nerve gas produced by the 'X' Country that is stored on a Japanese island. Basically he turns into one of the worst serial killers in print. Sort of a combination of Ted Bundy and Tom Ripley. On top of that he has a life-long affair with a Priest (a sub-plot to the story), and the ability to portray females. He sort of cons various Govt. officials either sexually or just his ability to move onward and forward. In that sense he sort of resembles Bateman in American Psycho, but without the love of the brand names.
And it is amazing to think that it all started with the White Lion and Astro Boy! Tezuka wihout a doubt, was a genius who made comics into a different type of artform.
The story is about a young man who comes from a family of Kabuki actors who as a young boy is exposed to a secret nerve gas produced by the 'X' Country that is stored on a Japanese island. Basically he turns into one of the worst serial killers in print. Sort of a combination of Ted Bundy and Tom Ripley. On top of that he has a life-long affair with a Priest (a sub-plot to the story), and the ability to portray females. He sort of cons various Govt. officials either sexually or just his ability to move onward and forward. In that sense he sort of resembles Bateman in American Psycho, but without the love of the brand names.
And it is amazing to think that it all started with the White Lion and Astro Boy! Tezuka wihout a doubt, was a genius who made comics into a different type of artform.
October 6, 2013
Tezuka got famous in Japan and worldwide as the master of youth-oriented manga. He was the master of this, the godfather of manga... but then he decided to branch out, to create fundamentally different manga for adults with realist, often adult themes. There are spiritual/mystical manga such as Buddha, there's historical/political manga such as ones on Adolph Hitler, ones on racism.... and there are dark thrillers such as MW that are complicated, highly readable. This one has a homicidal maniac, Yuki, who became this way because of his exposure to a U.S.-backed chemical warfare test of a poison gas, MW, that killed all the people on one small Japanese island. So there's some stuff that resonates with the Sarin gas planned attack and the meltdown at Fukushima, and Hiroshima/Nagasaki... but at the time, Tezuka was particularly angry about the U.S. use of chemical weapons in Vietnam, our developing these weapons and doing terrible damage with them, on civilians, too (Syria resonance/irony, yep...Think: Napalm, Agent Orange, and our justification of these weapons as "humanitarian"). He thinks the use of chemical weapons is Evil, with permanent consequences, as happens to our Anti-Hero, who is murderously bitter, and the only other survivor, a priest... with whom he has a relationship. Yuki is bisexual, transvestite, a 'psychopathic" killer, and the question is whether he becomes all these things because of MW... which also would in part make this a homophobic document, which it could well be. . . So at the very least it is an odd story, certainly the darkest tale I have yet read from Tezuka... the author of decades of Astroboy! Unbelievable that it should be the same author! Clearly a master of storytelling in various genres and modes.
May 19, 2010
This is substantially darker than the other Tezuka books I have read--the Buddha series. Its a thriller about a bisexual cross-dressing sociopathic serial killer, so basically right up my alley. And the illustrations are nothing short of astonishingly good. There are a couple panels that are breathtaking--a couple that come to mind are one of a waterfall and one of a starry night sky. The details are expertly drawn, and its probably the prettiest graphic novels I've ever read.
I found Father Garai to be the most unredeemable character in the book--even more so than Yuki, since he seemingly serves as the book's moral compass (from his point of view). He is so self-righteous because he became a priest, but he is nothing more than a child molesting, murdering thug. He keeps making all sorts of excuses for himself, blaming all his problems on Yuki, but he willingly lets himself be completely manipulated by him and then has the gall to condemn Yuki's actions. He's deplorable. Yuki commits atrocious crimes, but at least you can respect his intelligence and frankness.
I found Father Garai to be the most unredeemable character in the book--even more so than Yuki, since he seemingly serves as the book's moral compass (from his point of view). He is so self-righteous because he became a priest, but he is nothing more than a child molesting, murdering thug. He keeps making all sorts of excuses for himself, blaming all his problems on Yuki, but he willingly lets himself be completely manipulated by him and then has the gall to condemn Yuki's actions. He's deplorable. Yuki commits atrocious crimes, but at least you can respect his intelligence and frankness.
November 18, 2023
By reputation the darkest and most twisted work of Tezuka’s difficult early 1970s, when he responded to the rise of alternative manga by consciously attempting to break open his style and craft far more adult, shocking work. MW succeeds - even now, bits of this are sincerely disturbing, though other parts seem more trashily exploitative. And even when he’s aiming to horrify, Tezuka’s skill shines through.
A priest, Garai, who as a young man ran with a delinquent gang, is haunted by three terrible secrets. The first is that an island his gang visited one summer was wiped out by an experimental chemical weapon, with him and a young boy the only survivors. The second is that Garai was sexually obsessed with the boy, Yuki, and they are still involved now Yuki is grown. And the third is that - perhaps because of the chemical - Yuki is a sociopath whose charm and mastery of disguise is allowing him to murder with impunity, something he taunts Garai with. All this is revealed in the dense, shocking opening chapters and the two men’s deadly relationship is the motor of the book.
MW’s treatment of LGBT characters was bold for 1971 but feels cliched in places - the tormented gay priest Garai in particular never rises above the limits of stereotype, and having introduced his abuse of Yuki as a boy Tezuka doesn’t really treat the idea with the seriousness or depth I think we’d demand of a creator who toyed with such explosive material now. But Yuki himself is an extraordinary character - a nihilistic, cross dressing bisexual who embodies a dozen cliches himself but slips free of them by being the most charismatic thing in the comic.
Tezuka is easily a good enough artist to make the adult Yuki immensely seductive even as he commits monstrous deeds, a creature of sinuous lines and taunting, quizzical expressions who the reader enjoys looking at as much as the other characters. An obvious later comparison point is Johan, the title character of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, a manga that owes a huge amount to MW. Johan ticks most of the same boxes as Yuki but while he’s drawn as beautiful Urasawa can never make him sensual in the way Tezuka does so easily.
MW is a three act story - the first being the psychological duel between Garai and Yuki. In the second, Tezuka starts to explore contemporary society and how it might be complicit in a crime as vast as the production and use of chemical weapons. This is the strongest section, full of compromise and increasing complexity, a crime story (as with Moore’s From Hell) which investigates the society the crime occurs in. As Yuki uses anyone from journalists to terrorists to corporate bigwigs as means to his dreadful ends, he also exposes the hypocrisies of each. It helps that Tezuka has the visual vibe and fashion of the early 70s down pat - it feels like you’re reading a New Hollywood type urban thriller, guys in camel coats and expansive sideburns maneouvering for advantage. The Paco Rabanne almost drips off the page.
The third act is more of a straightforward action thriller, full of twists (and splendidly drawn) but it feels like Tezuka is hurrying to finish, introducing contrivances like one character’s identical brother. It’s enjoyable, but feels a weak resolution to the widening scope of the second part. (Its ending is one area Monster improves on its inspiration). It’s like we’ve switched in the final reel from watching a gritty political thriller to a James Bond movie - exciting but not quite what we wanted. Overall, though, despite some dated characterisations and a less interesting finale, MW is more than just an experiment in nastiness; it’s a strong enough comic to stand up aside from its fascinating place in Tezuka’s career.
A priest, Garai, who as a young man ran with a delinquent gang, is haunted by three terrible secrets. The first is that an island his gang visited one summer was wiped out by an experimental chemical weapon, with him and a young boy the only survivors. The second is that Garai was sexually obsessed with the boy, Yuki, and they are still involved now Yuki is grown. And the third is that - perhaps because of the chemical - Yuki is a sociopath whose charm and mastery of disguise is allowing him to murder with impunity, something he taunts Garai with. All this is revealed in the dense, shocking opening chapters and the two men’s deadly relationship is the motor of the book.
MW’s treatment of LGBT characters was bold for 1971 but feels cliched in places - the tormented gay priest Garai in particular never rises above the limits of stereotype, and having introduced his abuse of Yuki as a boy Tezuka doesn’t really treat the idea with the seriousness or depth I think we’d demand of a creator who toyed with such explosive material now. But Yuki himself is an extraordinary character - a nihilistic, cross dressing bisexual who embodies a dozen cliches himself but slips free of them by being the most charismatic thing in the comic.
Tezuka is easily a good enough artist to make the adult Yuki immensely seductive even as he commits monstrous deeds, a creature of sinuous lines and taunting, quizzical expressions who the reader enjoys looking at as much as the other characters. An obvious later comparison point is Johan, the title character of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, a manga that owes a huge amount to MW. Johan ticks most of the same boxes as Yuki but while he’s drawn as beautiful Urasawa can never make him sensual in the way Tezuka does so easily.
MW is a three act story - the first being the psychological duel between Garai and Yuki. In the second, Tezuka starts to explore contemporary society and how it might be complicit in a crime as vast as the production and use of chemical weapons. This is the strongest section, full of compromise and increasing complexity, a crime story (as with Moore’s From Hell) which investigates the society the crime occurs in. As Yuki uses anyone from journalists to terrorists to corporate bigwigs as means to his dreadful ends, he also exposes the hypocrisies of each. It helps that Tezuka has the visual vibe and fashion of the early 70s down pat - it feels like you’re reading a New Hollywood type urban thriller, guys in camel coats and expansive sideburns maneouvering for advantage. The Paco Rabanne almost drips off the page.
The third act is more of a straightforward action thriller, full of twists (and splendidly drawn) but it feels like Tezuka is hurrying to finish, introducing contrivances like one character’s identical brother. It’s enjoyable, but feels a weak resolution to the widening scope of the second part. (Its ending is one area Monster improves on its inspiration). It’s like we’ve switched in the final reel from watching a gritty political thriller to a James Bond movie - exciting but not quite what we wanted. Overall, though, despite some dated characterisations and a less interesting finale, MW is more than just an experiment in nastiness; it’s a strong enough comic to stand up aside from its fascinating place in Tezuka’s career.
January 7, 2023
Moralmente transgressivo, psicologicamente denso e ainda assim altamente mirabolante na trama. MW abre muitas janelas de reflexão e não oferece respostas com facilidade. Uma obra desafiadora, mas recompensadora, que cumpre seu papel de thriller picaresco ao mesmo tempo que provoca a inquietação moral própria de obras subversivas de qualidade.
June 15, 2016
Whenever a former child star attempts to revise their public image into something more "adult", the results are often mixed, and sometimes disastrous. I still haven't determined if the transformation of Miley Cyrus from Hannah Montana into inflatable cock riding Molly queen is a witting parody of this pop maturation process or its victim. Fortunately she has vocal talent to spare, so she should pull through just fine.
I thought of this while reading Tezuka's brilliantly flawed attempt at mature material after making his name with the essential Astro Boy. I am not thoroughly familiar with Tezuka's oeuvre, so take my criticism with many bags of salt. Yet his handling of mature themes -- sexuality, rape, child molestation, murder, kidnapping, government conspiracy, US militarism, Japanese national pride, political corruption -- in MW is both compelling and off putting, brilliant and ham handed. As other reviewers have pointed out, the problem is the ending. There is so much buildup, so many balls juggled in the air, that it's disappointing that Tezuka chooses so many cheap ways to resolve (or avoid resolving) his conflicts.
Hence the three star rating. It is definitely a fun ride, if full of trigger-warning material, and his art work and mastery of the comics form is worth it.
I thought of this while reading Tezuka's brilliantly flawed attempt at mature material after making his name with the essential Astro Boy. I am not thoroughly familiar with Tezuka's oeuvre, so take my criticism with many bags of salt. Yet his handling of mature themes -- sexuality, rape, child molestation, murder, kidnapping, government conspiracy, US militarism, Japanese national pride, political corruption -- in MW is both compelling and off putting, brilliant and ham handed. As other reviewers have pointed out, the problem is the ending. There is so much buildup, so many balls juggled in the air, that it's disappointing that Tezuka chooses so many cheap ways to resolve (or avoid resolving) his conflicts.
Hence the three star rating. It is definitely a fun ride, if full of trigger-warning material, and his art work and mastery of the comics form is worth it.
July 23, 2021
MW is a story that tries to be so many things all at once. I get the sense that Osamu Tezuka is really playing (and enjoying) hybridizing genres in telling a really compelling story with themes that may be well ahead of its time when the manga was written during the 70s.
At its core, MW is about Michio Yuki, a cunning young man and his lover, a catholic priest named Father Garai. The story takes us readers and the characters on a rollercoaster story that juggles themes of homosexuality, deception, politics, government conspiracies, forbidden love that are sprinkled over the pages like all the vegetables you can mix in a chop suey.
The manga has everything - action, drama, erotica, spiritualism, mystery, history, thriller. I think this is both the best and the worst part of MW. It has many things to offer, yet fails to be great in a single one. This led to certain incoherent feeling I have felt while reading the book. MW may have a clear plot, yet the execution is clunky and has a certain improvisational feel in it.
I nonetheless appreciate the boldness in the themes that has been explored in this manga. More like a reference material than just an entertainment piece, MW may pique the interest of those who are really into reading manga of the past decades.
At its core, MW is about Michio Yuki, a cunning young man and his lover, a catholic priest named Father Garai. The story takes us readers and the characters on a rollercoaster story that juggles themes of homosexuality, deception, politics, government conspiracies, forbidden love that are sprinkled over the pages like all the vegetables you can mix in a chop suey.
The manga has everything - action, drama, erotica, spiritualism, mystery, history, thriller. I think this is both the best and the worst part of MW. It has many things to offer, yet fails to be great in a single one. This led to certain incoherent feeling I have felt while reading the book. MW may have a clear plot, yet the execution is clunky and has a certain improvisational feel in it.
I nonetheless appreciate the boldness in the themes that has been explored in this manga. More like a reference material than just an entertainment piece, MW may pique the interest of those who are really into reading manga of the past decades.
July 29, 2008
Maybe I expected more from Osamu Tezuka, but maybe this is why this is one of his lesser-known works. The story was over-the-top and the characters lacked any subtlety (the villain, I can see with his having been robbed of any empathy or compassion by his brush with this chemical weapon, but the protagonist, Father Garai (yes, a priest) was really hard to read and didn't make a lot of sense). Its portrayal of homosexuals seemed - while once progressive, I'm sure - really dated and almost patronizing. Not to mention an odd, slight misogynistic undertone. Add to this a resolution that even the characters in the book identify as cartoonish and you're left with a thoroughly unimpressive graphic novel.
January 7, 2024
Known to be Tezuka's darkest entry in his exhaustive bibliography, I'd have to say I agree. MW is a challenging read due to the heavily nihilistic themes involving a whole array of controversial topics. The story centers on Michio Yuki, a sadistic individual who readily murders and rapes for personal gain. It's established early on that Yuki's lack of a moral compass is due to his exposure to a biological nerve gas known as "MW" in his youth which has supposedly removed his ability to have empathy. As an adult, Yuki is a sociopath who seamlessly blends into his day job working at a financial institution and charms his superiors who are left completely unaware of Yuki's more malevolent tendencies. The other main character in MW is the Catholic priest, Father Garai, who tackles his own fair share of inner demons, the biggest of which being the fact that he sexually assaulted Yuki in his youth. There is a lot to be said about childhood trauma and confusion from repressed sexuality here, but Tezuka leaves a lot of this to the subtext and instead spins a thrilling tale of deception and revenge.
There is a lot going on in MW, but the story doesn't really feel the full length of the hefty 580+ page count. There is a decent amount of seriousness to which Tezuka employs themes of homosexuality, sexual assault, trauma, etc. that makes their inclusion in the story feel not completely exploitatively, though this has to be understood by modern readers that it was written in the '70s and hence may not have entirely aged well. That said, MW finds ways to be surprisingly progressive. One of the more enthralling beats in the story involves Tezuka's clear distaste for the use of biological weapons, with the narrative around "MW" feeling like a particularly potent jab at the United States for their use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. These sections were probably the strongest in the entire story, largely due this providing some interesting insights into how the geopolitics of a post-WWII world must have shaped Tezuka.
The final act of MW is where the story is at its weakest since it devolves into a standard fare thriller that just leans in on the action. It's a bit of a disappointing final stretch to an otherwise enthralling read. It's definitely heavy-handed with the use of cynical themes throughout, but overall I'd say MW is well worth reading simply due to how unique of an entry it is in Tezuka's diverse library of works.
There is a lot going on in MW, but the story doesn't really feel the full length of the hefty 580+ page count. There is a decent amount of seriousness to which Tezuka employs themes of homosexuality, sexual assault, trauma, etc. that makes their inclusion in the story feel not completely exploitatively, though this has to be understood by modern readers that it was written in the '70s and hence may not have entirely aged well. That said, MW finds ways to be surprisingly progressive. One of the more enthralling beats in the story involves Tezuka's clear distaste for the use of biological weapons, with the narrative around "MW" feeling like a particularly potent jab at the United States for their use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. These sections were probably the strongest in the entire story, largely due this providing some interesting insights into how the geopolitics of a post-WWII world must have shaped Tezuka.
The final act of MW is where the story is at its weakest since it devolves into a standard fare thriller that just leans in on the action. It's a bit of a disappointing final stretch to an otherwise enthralling read. It's definitely heavy-handed with the use of cynical themes throughout, but overall I'd say MW is well worth reading simply due to how unique of an entry it is in Tezuka's diverse library of works.
January 15, 2022
The story of a psychopath with the power to impersonate women?!?! and a priest who has a very long relationship with him is really a strange one. There are too many strange elements - it's a V for Vendetta mixed with a bit of Hollywood heist and 007 elements as well; the whole book focuses on the negative characters; in fact, there's no positive character, not even the investigator, who is quite naïve for the genius he is supposed to be.
Two things made me shake my head in disbelief. The motivation of Yuki is very strange, and not quite believable. The second one is his perfect planning ability, for which he employs his unbelievable skill at impersonating the very same women he's bedding. But the story still stands, up to its predictable end. But a truly strange and screwed up book, I admit it.
Two things made me shake my head in disbelief. The motivation of Yuki is very strange, and not quite believable. The second one is his perfect planning ability, for which he employs his unbelievable skill at impersonating the very same women he's bedding. But the story still stands, up to its predictable end. But a truly strange and screwed up book, I admit it.
April 27, 2012
Osamu Tezuka can be moralistic and preachy at times, as in Phoenix and Buddha. I suppose that's why many readers are pleasantly surprised at this violent, sinister masterpiece. However IMO his sermon just shifted its gear and took another form. This time the messages are:
Having said that, I love this manga. It has everything I am personally drawn into: gay villain, gay hero, Japan in 1970s (I have personal reasons to feel nostalgia for Japan's 1970s although I am not a Japanese person), soap-opera-esque tragic suspense, abused children (There is more than one in the manga, if you read carefully), and the titular chemical substance that can mysteriously transform an innocent boy into a demonic killer and a wandering delinquent into a noble-hearted priest -- almost a twisted modern version of alchemy!
The artwork is impressive, one of the best I've ever come across in manga. My favorite part is his homage to Aubrey Beardsley.
Having said that, I love this manga. It has everything I am personally drawn into: gay villain, gay hero, Japan in 1970s (I have personal reasons to feel nostalgia for Japan's 1970s although I am not a Japanese person), soap-opera-esque tragic suspense, abused children (There is more than one in the manga, if you read carefully), and the titular chemical substance that can mysteriously transform an innocent boy into a demonic killer and a wandering delinquent into a noble-hearted priest -- almost a twisted modern version of alchemy!
The artwork is impressive, one of the best I've ever come across in manga. My favorite part is his homage to Aubrey Beardsley.
July 30, 2016
This is the book that made me stop putting Tezuka as Disney's equal.
Because he's beyond that. Definitely.
Forget the cutesy of Atom or the wisdom of Buddha. Read MW and find Tezuka-esque gore, homoeroticism, homicide-for-fun, and mental rape. It's reading the map of a killing machine, who's still human somehow despite his fucked up, cold-blooded inhumanity.
See, I don't make a point. If you think A Clockwork Orange or Portnoy's Complaint makes you shiver, think again. When I read this book, I don't see a page after page. I see a noir movie reveals a scene after a scene, and I'm captivated. And I shivered worse.
Through MW, Tezuka doesn't need to do anything to prove that he's a god, the god of manga. He just is. The only thing that prevent me from giving this book a 5-star is my weak stomach. Oh femme!
Because he's beyond that. Definitely.
Forget the cutesy of Atom or the wisdom of Buddha. Read MW and find Tezuka-esque gore, homoeroticism, homicide-for-fun, and mental rape. It's reading the map of a killing machine, who's still human somehow despite his fucked up, cold-blooded inhumanity.
See, I don't make a point. If you think A Clockwork Orange or Portnoy's Complaint makes you shiver, think again. When I read this book, I don't see a page after page. I see a noir movie reveals a scene after a scene, and I'm captivated. And I shivered worse.
Through MW, Tezuka doesn't need to do anything to prove that he's a god, the god of manga. He just is. The only thing that prevent me from giving this book a 5-star is my weak stomach. Oh femme!
May 8, 2012
The ending truly sucked! Last 150 pages went down hill quick from a wild, strange 4 star read.
November 21, 2024
detective meguro wants to be l from death note so bad
too bad he and yuki have no sexual tension
i’ve only read two mangas by tezuka so far, but i can already see some of the themes that string them together — the main one being that of america fucking things up in japan and the government covering up big operations that would constitute as war crimes
i won’t lie, i kind of liked the senselessness of the violence as it drove in the point that it was just that, senseless and gratuitous as most violence is
did not like how it seemed to drive home the fact that homoeroticism and transvestitism is the seed of all evil, but at the same time most of the story is told by a priest lying to himself so i’m choosing to believe that’s not what the novel seems to be evangelising
one reviewer referred to the characters as cartoonish, and while i agree with them, i don’t agree on the fact that it is bad — the story becomes ridiculous and over the top in the best way, i feel like that was the only way such a gruesome thriller could be told without tripping on the pitfall of torture porn (which i personally find valid as a genre…. but i don’t think it would have worked for this particular story)
3.5
too bad he and yuki have no sexual tension
i’ve only read two mangas by tezuka so far, but i can already see some of the themes that string them together — the main one being that of america fucking things up in japan and the government covering up big operations that would constitute as war crimes
i won’t lie, i kind of liked the senselessness of the violence as it drove in the point that it was just that, senseless and gratuitous as most violence is
did not like how it seemed to drive home the fact that homoeroticism and transvestitism is the seed of all evil, but at the same time most of the story is told by a priest lying to himself so i’m choosing to believe that’s not what the novel seems to be evangelising
one reviewer referred to the characters as cartoonish, and while i agree with them, i don’t agree on the fact that it is bad — the story becomes ridiculous and over the top in the best way, i feel like that was the only way such a gruesome thriller could be told without tripping on the pitfall of torture porn (which i personally find valid as a genre…. but i don’t think it would have worked for this particular story)
3.5
February 20, 2024
Osamu Tezuka was still most famous for creating Astroboy when he decided to write this book, and the idea was that he would write the most disturbing capital-A adult graphic novel imaginable to shed that reputation. And mission accomplished!! This opens with kidnapping, murder, and gay sex with a priest/former sexual predator. It sort of runs out of ideas eventually and coasts on More Hostage Situations towards the end and is a little less edgy than it thinks it is (or maybe I am simply very jaded to upsetting books), but I cannot deny the simple pleasures of reading about an androgynous criminal who disguises himself as one million men and women on his journey to exterminate humanity with chemical weapons!
July 9, 2018
MW by Osamu Tezuka
Long-Winded Review #5 [Immoral Edition]
Series Overview:
Tezuka's 1976 manga MW follows the story of Yuki, a sadistic criminal mastermind, and Father Garai, a Japanese Catholic priest. They are the sole survivors of a poison gas leak that killed off an entire island's population. They also share a complicated relationship. They are lovers of sorts. Essentially, while hiding away during the MW gas leak incident, a 20-something Garai (not yet a priest) took advantage of a young Yuki thinking he looked quite gentle and feminine. After the incident, Yuki suffered some brain damage due to slight exposure to the MW gas that caused him to lose all sense of morality and started committing atrocious crimes. Garai, feeling guilt over the MW incident and what he had done, became a priest to repent for his sins and attempt to cleanse Yuki and redeem him. As adults, despite Father Garai's resistance, Yuki constantly seduces him and uses him, taking advantage of his good nature and guilt. Over the course of the story, Yuki commits a chain of seemingly unrelated crimes towards a specific goal, while Garai tries to keep him in check or stop him. This forms a very interesting dynamic, as they go back and forth between lovers, adversaries, and collaborators, usually all at once, all the while getting to the bottom of the MW conspiracy.
Writing:
Tezuka's writing here is more accessible than in Ayako, which is his only other work that I've read. In Ayako, the story developed on many fronts and spanned decades. In contrast, MW has a much more linear story focused on the two main characters. Much like Ayako, Tezuka touches on some important historical issues of the time, in this case the American military bases stationed in Japan at the time and the fear of weapons of mass destruction.
It also casually features many homosexual and bisexual characters, with Yuki himself constantly cross-dressing to commit crimes or seduce important people of both genders, and Father Garai liking both men and women despite his priesthood. I found this to be very progressive for the time, even by today's standards. Not much commentary is made about it, instead it's just casually there. Same goes for its depictions of sex, both hetero and homosexual. From what I understand, at the time, especially in Japan, sex in general was a point of controversy, in sequential comics or otherwise. In contrast, much like in Ayako, female characters are mostly there to be victims to be killed or used (not that the males in the story have it much better, but it's worth noting). Compared to Western Comics and other media in the '70s, I still feel Tezuka was way ahead of his time in both social issues and writing conventions.
The main appeal of the story is watching the dynamic between Yuki and Garai, and seeing Yuki's plans play out in clever and interesting ways, while Garai struggles with his faith and values. Sometimes there are cliches and contrivances, but for the most part it was satisfying to see the plot develop. It's also worth noting that Tezuka does this in only 26 chapters, all while not being reliant on heavy text like some other works of the time, manga or western.
Art:
The artwork in MW is quite good, and a slight but noticeable improvement from Ayako, which was released about 4 years prior. Tezuka's style is fairly simple, with clear line work and only a slight use of shading when necessary. Sometimes it can be a little cartoony, even cheesy, but that's a product of the time and it generally doesn't impair the serious tone of the story. His drawing prowess really comes out when he draws detailed cityscapes and natural landscapes. I was especially impressed by his various depictions of Yuki, who seamlessly transforms from a suave business guy at work to a convincing woman in disguise, or from a burly macho man in the streets to an effeminate sensual man in the sheets. He is a very well designed character whose appearance works for nearly any disguise without altering his body type or facial features, and it takes a real master to come up with and draw a character like that.
As for Tezuka's paneling style, it is very dense, usually having from 6 to 8 panels in a page. This allows him to meticulously pace the story, while showing more moment to moment actions and reactions than a modern manga might. Despite having so many panels per page, for the most part he goes light on the text, instead opting to depict characters' expressions, body language, actions, and reactions to get the point across. Very good use of "show, don't tell", which is refreshing especially when compared to Western Comics of the time. I find Tezuka to be a masterful sequential artist for these reasons, and along with his easy to parse style, it makes this a very smooth read.
As a word of warning: if violence, sex, emotional and sexual abuse, torture, manipulation, and various other despicable acts offend you, steer away from this book. This is a story about a man that embodies true evil, after all.
Conclusion:
All in all, this was a very enjoyable manga. It's not perfect, suffering from some cliches and contrivances and a few predictable twists. But regardless of that, the plot was interesting enough, the pacing was great, the art impressive, and the main characters absolutely incredible. I would highly recommend this if you're at all interested in '70s manga.
Final score: 9/10
Long-Winded Review #5 [Immoral Edition]
Series Overview:
Tezuka's 1976 manga MW follows the story of Yuki, a sadistic criminal mastermind, and Father Garai, a Japanese Catholic priest. They are the sole survivors of a poison gas leak that killed off an entire island's population. They also share a complicated relationship. They are lovers of sorts. Essentially, while hiding away during the MW gas leak incident, a 20-something Garai (not yet a priest) took advantage of a young Yuki thinking he looked quite gentle and feminine. After the incident, Yuki suffered some brain damage due to slight exposure to the MW gas that caused him to lose all sense of morality and started committing atrocious crimes. Garai, feeling guilt over the MW incident and what he had done, became a priest to repent for his sins and attempt to cleanse Yuki and redeem him. As adults, despite Father Garai's resistance, Yuki constantly seduces him and uses him, taking advantage of his good nature and guilt. Over the course of the story, Yuki commits a chain of seemingly unrelated crimes towards a specific goal, while Garai tries to keep him in check or stop him. This forms a very interesting dynamic, as they go back and forth between lovers, adversaries, and collaborators, usually all at once, all the while getting to the bottom of the MW conspiracy.
Writing:
Tezuka's writing here is more accessible than in Ayako, which is his only other work that I've read. In Ayako, the story developed on many fronts and spanned decades. In contrast, MW has a much more linear story focused on the two main characters. Much like Ayako, Tezuka touches on some important historical issues of the time, in this case the American military bases stationed in Japan at the time and the fear of weapons of mass destruction.
It also casually features many homosexual and bisexual characters, with Yuki himself constantly cross-dressing to commit crimes or seduce important people of both genders, and Father Garai liking both men and women despite his priesthood. I found this to be very progressive for the time, even by today's standards. Not much commentary is made about it, instead it's just casually there. Same goes for its depictions of sex, both hetero and homosexual. From what I understand, at the time, especially in Japan, sex in general was a point of controversy, in sequential comics or otherwise. In contrast, much like in Ayako, female characters are mostly there to be victims to be killed or used (not that the males in the story have it much better, but it's worth noting). Compared to Western Comics and other media in the '70s, I still feel Tezuka was way ahead of his time in both social issues and writing conventions.
The main appeal of the story is watching the dynamic between Yuki and Garai, and seeing Yuki's plans play out in clever and interesting ways, while Garai struggles with his faith and values. Sometimes there are cliches and contrivances, but for the most part it was satisfying to see the plot develop. It's also worth noting that Tezuka does this in only 26 chapters, all while not being reliant on heavy text like some other works of the time, manga or western.
Art:
The artwork in MW is quite good, and a slight but noticeable improvement from Ayako, which was released about 4 years prior. Tezuka's style is fairly simple, with clear line work and only a slight use of shading when necessary. Sometimes it can be a little cartoony, even cheesy, but that's a product of the time and it generally doesn't impair the serious tone of the story. His drawing prowess really comes out when he draws detailed cityscapes and natural landscapes. I was especially impressed by his various depictions of Yuki, who seamlessly transforms from a suave business guy at work to a convincing woman in disguise, or from a burly macho man in the streets to an effeminate sensual man in the sheets. He is a very well designed character whose appearance works for nearly any disguise without altering his body type or facial features, and it takes a real master to come up with and draw a character like that.
As for Tezuka's paneling style, it is very dense, usually having from 6 to 8 panels in a page. This allows him to meticulously pace the story, while showing more moment to moment actions and reactions than a modern manga might. Despite having so many panels per page, for the most part he goes light on the text, instead opting to depict characters' expressions, body language, actions, and reactions to get the point across. Very good use of "show, don't tell", which is refreshing especially when compared to Western Comics of the time. I find Tezuka to be a masterful sequential artist for these reasons, and along with his easy to parse style, it makes this a very smooth read.
As a word of warning: if violence, sex, emotional and sexual abuse, torture, manipulation, and various other despicable acts offend you, steer away from this book. This is a story about a man that embodies true evil, after all.
Conclusion:
All in all, this was a very enjoyable manga. It's not perfect, suffering from some cliches and contrivances and a few predictable twists. But regardless of that, the plot was interesting enough, the pacing was great, the art impressive, and the main characters absolutely incredible. I would highly recommend this if you're at all interested in '70s manga.
Final score: 9/10
February 1, 2018
This was just my second book by Osamu Tezuka. And like the first it's an absolutely excellent adult thriller.
July 16, 2023
Uma leitura sensacional!!!
January 3, 2017
Tezuka must have been watching Hitchcock when he began writing MW. Chronologically, it makes sense. MW began serialization in 1976, coinciding with the US release of Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot. Most of Hitchcock's major Hollywood films, the ones that MW is most akin to, we released in Japan shortly after their US release. For instance, Strangers on a Train was released in Japan in 1953, two years after its domestic debut. Rope, another major Hitchcock film, finally found an audience in Japan in 1962, after Strangers on a Train, despite Rope being released in the US in 1948. Rope and Strangers resonate strongly with MW, although other critics have compared MW to Hitchcock's I Confess, released domestically in 1953 and in Japan a year later.
More than anything MW is a synthesis of the near-perfect plotting and larger-than-life ideas of Hitchcock films like Rope and Strangers on a Train with Hitchcock's late style in Frenzy, released in 1972 in both the US and Japan (and earlier that year, still, in Hitchcock's native London). With this excessive framing in mind, readers are equipped with analytical tools for demystifying this wonderful text. Hitchcock's oeuvre and MW are largely concerned with many of the same issues, whether formal or philosophical.MW inserts the standard post-WWII anxiety that looms heavily over most anime and manga, whether classic or contemporary. The question of nuclear de-escalation and disarmament are what the circulation of the titular MW weapon alludes to. MW is a weapon of mass destruction that represents a higher level of warfare, something that modernizes the nuclear threat into the context of a world watching the Vietnam War unfold and the so-called "humanitarian weapons," chemical in nature. If WWII is the shadow looming over the manga, the Vietnam War is to MW as the Spanish Civil War is to Guernica. Readers are treated to a certain representation of the Vietnam War unfolding on the page despite distancing the manifest content of the narrative from a war story. Rather, this is a thriller, where Yuki's amorality stands in for the cruel logic of armed conflict and weapons development.
This is where Hitchcock becomes the crucial intertext. Yuki is a foreboding, terrifying, seductive, engaging character in the tradition of Bruno from Strangers on a Train, Leonard from North by Northwest or Brandon from Rope. Yuki seduces the reader as much as all those around him, particularly Father Garai. Garai is hardly a morally laudable protagonist. His turn to religion comes from his background as a hoodlum, and perhaps the one who set Yuki down his path of serial murder. Garai's sexual assault of Yuki as a child is one of the major plot revelations and casts serious doubt on the narrative's constant insistence that Yuki is suffering from mental deterioration because of exposure to MW.
Yuki has something else in common with these Hitchcockian villains — queerness. Yuki's sexuality and gender are both fluid, as he carries on a sexual relation with Garai (who is, if not a closeted gay man, is perhaps bisexual) and numerous other men and women throughout the story. The alignment of moral depravity and queer sexuality is nothing new, Tezuka clearly taking a leaf from Hitchcock's book to deliver something deeply unsettling to his audience whilst denaturalizing the trope. Yuki is clearly not a murderer because of his sexuality. Still, Garai is a queer character who committed a rape in his youth and the only other named queer man is Minch. Minch represents, like Yuki, a manifestation of the amorality of war. His difference from Yuki is only that he is legitimized under the law. It is no accident that the only queer character who is morally laudable through and through is the briefly-appearing Yanase, a lesbian woman and the city news editor of a Japanese newspaper. She delivers a didactic monolog clearly stating the text's (and likely Tezuka's) position on queer love — a position of endorsement. Still, taking Garai, Yuki, Minch, and Yanase into full account means that the manga may not live up to the stated position of Yanase, who serves as a mouthpiece for authorial intent.
What Tezuka learned from Hitchcock is a master-class on suspense, plotting, and symbolic resonance. MW is enjoyable on every level, and is a perfect love-letter to the thriller genre. A professor could likely spend an entire semester lecturing on MW, its historical context, and its intertexts. This is essential reading for anyone interested in graphic novels.
More than anything MW is a synthesis of the near-perfect plotting and larger-than-life ideas of Hitchcock films like Rope and Strangers on a Train with Hitchcock's late style in Frenzy, released in 1972 in both the US and Japan (and earlier that year, still, in Hitchcock's native London). With this excessive framing in mind, readers are equipped with analytical tools for demystifying this wonderful text. Hitchcock's oeuvre and MW are largely concerned with many of the same issues, whether formal or philosophical.MW inserts the standard post-WWII anxiety that looms heavily over most anime and manga, whether classic or contemporary. The question of nuclear de-escalation and disarmament are what the circulation of the titular MW weapon alludes to. MW is a weapon of mass destruction that represents a higher level of warfare, something that modernizes the nuclear threat into the context of a world watching the Vietnam War unfold and the so-called "humanitarian weapons," chemical in nature. If WWII is the shadow looming over the manga, the Vietnam War is to MW as the Spanish Civil War is to Guernica. Readers are treated to a certain representation of the Vietnam War unfolding on the page despite distancing the manifest content of the narrative from a war story. Rather, this is a thriller, where Yuki's amorality stands in for the cruel logic of armed conflict and weapons development.
This is where Hitchcock becomes the crucial intertext. Yuki is a foreboding, terrifying, seductive, engaging character in the tradition of Bruno from Strangers on a Train, Leonard from North by Northwest or Brandon from Rope. Yuki seduces the reader as much as all those around him, particularly Father Garai. Garai is hardly a morally laudable protagonist. His turn to religion comes from his background as a hoodlum, and perhaps the one who set Yuki down his path of serial murder. Garai's sexual assault of Yuki as a child is one of the major plot revelations and casts serious doubt on the narrative's constant insistence that Yuki is suffering from mental deterioration because of exposure to MW.
Yuki has something else in common with these Hitchcockian villains — queerness. Yuki's sexuality and gender are both fluid, as he carries on a sexual relation with Garai (who is, if not a closeted gay man, is perhaps bisexual) and numerous other men and women throughout the story. The alignment of moral depravity and queer sexuality is nothing new, Tezuka clearly taking a leaf from Hitchcock's book to deliver something deeply unsettling to his audience whilst denaturalizing the trope. Yuki is clearly not a murderer because of his sexuality. Still, Garai is a queer character who committed a rape in his youth and the only other named queer man is Minch. Minch represents, like Yuki, a manifestation of the amorality of war. His difference from Yuki is only that he is legitimized under the law. It is no accident that the only queer character who is morally laudable through and through is the briefly-appearing Yanase, a lesbian woman and the city news editor of a Japanese newspaper. She delivers a didactic monolog clearly stating the text's (and likely Tezuka's) position on queer love — a position of endorsement. Still, taking Garai, Yuki, Minch, and Yanase into full account means that the manga may not live up to the stated position of Yanase, who serves as a mouthpiece for authorial intent.
What Tezuka learned from Hitchcock is a master-class on suspense, plotting, and symbolic resonance. MW is enjoyable on every level, and is a perfect love-letter to the thriller genre. A professor could likely spend an entire semester lecturing on MW, its historical context, and its intertexts. This is essential reading for anyone interested in graphic novels.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 14, 2023
Até agora Tezuka não decepcionou
November 22, 2019
To be clear, this is really more of a 2.5, but I love Tezuka's art style so I figured I'd land on the upper bounds of Goodreads' no-decimals-allowed rating system.
So, what is there to say about MW, a gritty psychosexual thriller à la Polanski coming from the acclaimed creator of such cutesy, chibi icons as Astro Boy and Dr. Slump? Well, a lot actually. This is a really bizarre fusion of bouncy, well-rounded manga aesthetics with a plot that is far more sinister and adult than its art would suggest. In a nutshell, this is a story about a far-reaching governmental conspiracy to bury a traumatic event: the secret development of an experimental chemical weapon on a sequestered Japanese island, whose accidental containment breach resulted in mass extermination of the island's residents. The only survivors of the event go on to become the story's protagonists: Garai, a teenage hoodlum at the time who has since escaped into the spiritual reassurance of priesthood, and Yuki, who was only a child when the neurotoxin infected his system and has now become an extremely successful banker who leads a double life as a nefarious sociopath hell-bent on murder, extortion, and sadistic acts of vengeance. The two form a sort of twisted Bonnie and Clyde duo, as Garai unsuccessfuly strains to break away from the sinful temptation of a sexual and criminal coupling with Yuki, and Yuki plays the androgynous seducer. Garai has a complex love-hate relationship with Yuki, who represents to him a tainted innocence but also the essence of sin in all of its homosexual, violent depravity.
If the description of those relationship dynamics sound gay-panicky, well, they are. Very much so. This novel goes beyond the "product of its time" excuse for problematic gay representation; it actually thematizes homosexuality as a core part of its central tension between temptation and righteousness. Everything about Yuki's characterization is bafflingly homophobic, a bias that is so blatant it's sometimes inadvertently funny. It's strongly implied that his homosexuality (which is conflated with traits like hypersexuality, crossdressing, and even hints of bestiality) is a consequence of the neurotoxin poisoning and manifests as evidence of his corruption. At other points it is described as a demonic possession, or a consequence of Garai's shameful liaison with Yuki when he was only a boy. So, you know. Molestation, satanic influence, or chemical disorder - take your pick from the encyclopedia of familiar homophobic attributions.
Because Yuki is such a viciously sociopathic strawman, it's hard to read him with any kind of interiority. The same goes for Garai, who is the same guilt-racked priest archetype that we see handled with more nuance in movies like Doubt or even the Exorcist. With characters this flat and so obviously stand-ins for a ham-fisted social message, it's hard to care about the unfolding of the story, which plays out like a really long crime drama. At just shy of 600 pages, this was a slog to get through.
That being said, there is a certain pulpy charm to the story which makes the one-note characters feel more like overblown film noir types and alleviates the eye-rollyness of their exaggerated personalities. It's almost like watching an exploitation film at times, and the "shocking!" gloss of homosexuality-as-psychosexy makes it tempting to read this with an eye for camp reappropriation. Could the sadistic black widow Yuki be a repurposed gay icon?
Ultimately, this book is just kind of confusing and overlong, but the art style is extremely appealing and Tezuka really has an eye for the cinematic in laying out his scenarios and panels. I get the sense that I probably would have liked this more if it didn't feel like it took so long to get to a conclusion that was pretty predictable from the very beginning. This will remain on my bookshelf as a uniquely bizarre artifact, but I'm kind of glad to be done reading it.
So, what is there to say about MW, a gritty psychosexual thriller à la Polanski coming from the acclaimed creator of such cutesy, chibi icons as Astro Boy and Dr. Slump? Well, a lot actually. This is a really bizarre fusion of bouncy, well-rounded manga aesthetics with a plot that is far more sinister and adult than its art would suggest. In a nutshell, this is a story about a far-reaching governmental conspiracy to bury a traumatic event: the secret development of an experimental chemical weapon on a sequestered Japanese island, whose accidental containment breach resulted in mass extermination of the island's residents. The only survivors of the event go on to become the story's protagonists: Garai, a teenage hoodlum at the time who has since escaped into the spiritual reassurance of priesthood, and Yuki, who was only a child when the neurotoxin infected his system and has now become an extremely successful banker who leads a double life as a nefarious sociopath hell-bent on murder, extortion, and sadistic acts of vengeance. The two form a sort of twisted Bonnie and Clyde duo, as Garai unsuccessfuly strains to break away from the sinful temptation of a sexual and criminal coupling with Yuki, and Yuki plays the androgynous seducer. Garai has a complex love-hate relationship with Yuki, who represents to him a tainted innocence but also the essence of sin in all of its homosexual, violent depravity.
If the description of those relationship dynamics sound gay-panicky, well, they are. Very much so. This novel goes beyond the "product of its time" excuse for problematic gay representation; it actually thematizes homosexuality as a core part of its central tension between temptation and righteousness. Everything about Yuki's characterization is bafflingly homophobic, a bias that is so blatant it's sometimes inadvertently funny. It's strongly implied that his homosexuality (which is conflated with traits like hypersexuality, crossdressing, and even hints of bestiality) is a consequence of the neurotoxin poisoning and manifests as evidence of his corruption. At other points it is described as a demonic possession, or a consequence of Garai's shameful liaison with Yuki when he was only a boy. So, you know. Molestation, satanic influence, or chemical disorder - take your pick from the encyclopedia of familiar homophobic attributions.
Because Yuki is such a viciously sociopathic strawman, it's hard to read him with any kind of interiority. The same goes for Garai, who is the same guilt-racked priest archetype that we see handled with more nuance in movies like Doubt or even the Exorcist. With characters this flat and so obviously stand-ins for a ham-fisted social message, it's hard to care about the unfolding of the story, which plays out like a really long crime drama. At just shy of 600 pages, this was a slog to get through.
That being said, there is a certain pulpy charm to the story which makes the one-note characters feel more like overblown film noir types and alleviates the eye-rollyness of their exaggerated personalities. It's almost like watching an exploitation film at times, and the "shocking!" gloss of homosexuality-as-psychosexy makes it tempting to read this with an eye for camp reappropriation. Could the sadistic black widow Yuki be a repurposed gay icon?
Ultimately, this book is just kind of confusing and overlong, but the art style is extremely appealing and Tezuka really has an eye for the cinematic in laying out his scenarios and panels. I get the sense that I probably would have liked this more if it didn't feel like it took so long to get to a conclusion that was pretty predictable from the very beginning. This will remain on my bookshelf as a uniquely bizarre artifact, but I'm kind of glad to be done reading it.
August 24, 2022
Tezuka Osamu is often called the "God of Manga", because his gigantic output over the years (150,000 manga pages, according to the Tezuka Museum that I visited) as well as his influence on every single manga genre.
His most famous works are:
Astro Boy, Vol. 1 in the Shonen genre
Princess Knight, Vol. 1 in the Shoujo genre
Black Jack, Vol. 1 in the Seinen genre
as well as Buddha, Vol. 1: Kapilavastu and Phoenix: A Tale of the Future which are most often quoted as his masterpieces.
I have read numerous manga by Tezuka: my favorites are Unico and Black Jack, Vol. 1. Black Jack also has two anime adaption, the adult-centered OVA from the 90s and the 2005 child-geared 52-episode run. I enjoy both.
Tezuka, unlike newer manga artists, has a very cartoonish style. He was influenced by Walt Disney (especially the Mickey Mouse cartoons) in the way he portrays people in motion. The way he draws "running" is very reminiscent of Goofy or Donald Duck running, including the propelling legs.
My boyfriend finds the style unbearably hideous. I don't, but that's very subjective.
MW is a hard-boiled thriller about a sociopathic super villain who kills men, women and children indiscriminately and without remorse and who is planning a large-scale genocide of nothing less than the entire human population.
So, there are a lot of potential triggers: Rape, child abuse, murder, gore, violence by animals and to animals, suicide, and more.
Also, the not so triggering topics are all heavy: scheming, corrupt politicians, weapons of mass destruction, the silencing of whistle-blowers and witnesses to genocide, and more.
Unlike most of Tezuka's other works, MW has little humor in it. Basically it's just people being murdered or raped left and right, while the evil main character climbs the social and political ladder.
Another issue: the main characters of MW, including the evil murderer/rapist is a cross-dressing bisexual. He is portrayed as suave both in his male and female get-up, a born actor and backstabber. Unfortunately, in the manga, it appears as though his bisexuality, perceived genderfluidity and his murderous temperament are all a result of a toxic gas, as well as child sexual abuse.
Not great.
Besides the problematic content, MW is also not the most fun to read as a "thriller" genre piece. Most of the side characters are underdeveloped and lack depth, while the main character is a "harharhar"-type villain who just wants to see the world burn. A more complex set-up would have made this more interesting.
His most famous works are:
Astro Boy, Vol. 1 in the Shonen genre
Princess Knight, Vol. 1 in the Shoujo genre
Black Jack, Vol. 1 in the Seinen genre
as well as Buddha, Vol. 1: Kapilavastu and Phoenix: A Tale of the Future which are most often quoted as his masterpieces.
I have read numerous manga by Tezuka: my favorites are Unico and Black Jack, Vol. 1. Black Jack also has two anime adaption, the adult-centered OVA from the 90s and the 2005 child-geared 52-episode run. I enjoy both.
Tezuka, unlike newer manga artists, has a very cartoonish style. He was influenced by Walt Disney (especially the Mickey Mouse cartoons) in the way he portrays people in motion. The way he draws "running" is very reminiscent of Goofy or Donald Duck running, including the propelling legs.
My boyfriend finds the style unbearably hideous. I don't, but that's very subjective.
MW is a hard-boiled thriller about a sociopathic super villain who kills men, women and children indiscriminately and without remorse and who is planning a large-scale genocide of nothing less than the entire human population.
So, there are a lot of potential triggers: Rape, child abuse, murder, gore, violence by animals and to animals, suicide, and more.
Also, the not so triggering topics are all heavy: scheming, corrupt politicians, weapons of mass destruction, the silencing of whistle-blowers and witnesses to genocide, and more.
Unlike most of Tezuka's other works, MW has little humor in it. Basically it's just people being murdered or raped left and right, while the evil main character climbs the social and political ladder.
Another issue: the main characters of MW, including the evil murderer/rapist is a cross-dressing bisexual. He is portrayed as suave both in his male and female get-up, a born actor and backstabber. Unfortunately, in the manga, it appears as though his bisexuality, perceived genderfluidity and his murderous temperament are all a result of a toxic gas, as well as child sexual abuse.
Not great.
Besides the problematic content, MW is also not the most fun to read as a "thriller" genre piece. Most of the side characters are underdeveloped and lack depth, while the main character is a "harharhar"-type villain who just wants to see the world burn. A more complex set-up would have made this more interesting.
December 12, 2021
Wow.
This was pretty dark.
We have a priest and a murderer, who happen to be lovers.
They shared a traumatic experience in their youth.
The priest wants to save the murderer.
The murderer really likes to kill people.
There is government conspiracy, love triangles, cruel and calculating revenge, sociopathy, everything you need to make a gloriously messed up book.
But then there’s also a pedophilic element. They don’t show anything, but it is discussed about half way through the book, and it really renders one of the previously redeeming characters a scumbag, just like the rest of them. What makes it worse is that it seems to be somewhat normalized by the characters. It was almost too much.
But it is never discussed again, and the rest of the story is pretty solid . . . until the end. The end is conveniently predictable, and while it ends well enough, it felt a bit contrived. Characters that were previously cunning and on top of things suddenly drop the ball for the sake of a clean resolution. Meh.
Still, this was a solid and substantive graphic novel, one of the best I read this year. It made me feel a bit of everything.
This was pretty dark.
We have a priest and a murderer, who happen to be lovers.
They shared a traumatic experience in their youth.
The priest wants to save the murderer.
The murderer really likes to kill people.
There is government conspiracy, love triangles, cruel and calculating revenge, sociopathy, everything you need to make a gloriously messed up book.
But then there’s also a pedophilic element. They don’t show anything, but it is discussed about half way through the book, and it really renders one of the previously redeeming characters a scumbag, just like the rest of them. What makes it worse is that it seems to be somewhat normalized by the characters. It was almost too much.
But it is never discussed again, and the rest of the story is pretty solid . . . until the end. The end is conveniently predictable, and while it ends well enough, it felt a bit contrived. Characters that were previously cunning and on top of things suddenly drop the ball for the sake of a clean resolution. Meh.
Still, this was a solid and substantive graphic novel, one of the best I read this year. It made me feel a bit of everything.
February 20, 2014
Great art as ever by the master, the tale however was thoroughly disturbing; filled with human horrors. While this may be an expression on Tezuka's recurring theme of redemption the ending to MW still left me wondering ... The too-human dark undertones and that there was no subject left safe - lead me to my rating of 1.
June 1, 2023
Tezuka desatado. Una trama que lo tiene todo, una relación homosexual entre un cura y un villano sin escrupulos que siempre se las arregla para salir triunfante y que tiene un plan diablocio. Uno de los mejores personajes que he leido en un comic, un cabrón con todas las letras. Por si esto fuera poco, el final es de infarto. Imprescindible.
August 28, 2025
yeah we toxic and gay. keep scrolling
April 24, 2023
very stereotypical, discriminatory depiction of queer people. didn't finish it, wouldn't recommend!
December 31, 2017
It was interesting. I don't think the plot was excellent, but it did keep me reading without much difficulty, and I liked the character (although not the person) of Garai. The plot wasn't spectacular, but there were certain scenes I liked particularly, and while it was ostensibly more "adult-like" as Tezuka intended, it never really lost the feel of a Tezuka work that I like- it felt like it could have just been a particularly dark chapter of Black Jack (and that they were written at the same time shows, with the excess of medical terminology mentioned). I don't think it's unfair to mainly discuss the homosexuality in the book, because I think that was probably Tezuka's big "gimmick" (seeing as he rarely, if ever, covered the topic elsewhere).
From a single reading of the book, I get the impression that Tezuka was using homosexuality as a way to ramp up the taboo-ness (word? is there a word for what I want) of his subject material. While I think that a reader that wasn't informed by Tezuka's writing motivations might believe that, Frank Herbert style, he is conflating being gay with being a kidnapping rapist murderer, I don't get that impression in the end, although I think he does fall into some dated stereotypes. The characters seem to be bad people and also gay; there is never any indication that being gay is what makes them bad.
The scene that (mild spoilers ahead) makes me believe this especially is when Garai is about to be blackmailed for going to a gay club, but a lesbian reporter buys the photos to protect him, telling him that other places in the world are accepting of homosexuality, and goes home to her lover happy to tell her about the good deed she did for the day. That's it. There's no murder, no death, no secret bad ending for them. I wish Tezuka, my favorite mangaka of all time, had covered this topic in other places, because I would have liked to read more of what was, at the time, fairly revolutionary in mainstream manga, especially not in a text that seems dedicated to replicating a mediocre action film as closely as possible.
From a single reading of the book, I get the impression that Tezuka was using homosexuality as a way to ramp up the taboo-ness (word? is there a word for what I want) of his subject material. While I think that a reader that wasn't informed by Tezuka's writing motivations might believe that, Frank Herbert style, he is conflating being gay with being a kidnapping rapist murderer, I don't get that impression in the end, although I think he does fall into some dated stereotypes. The characters seem to be bad people and also gay; there is never any indication that being gay is what makes them bad.
The scene that (mild spoilers ahead) makes me believe this especially is when Garai is about to be blackmailed for going to a gay club, but a lesbian reporter buys the photos to protect him, telling him that other places in the world are accepting of homosexuality, and goes home to her lover happy to tell her about the good deed she did for the day. That's it. There's no murder, no death, no secret bad ending for them. I wish Tezuka, my favorite mangaka of all time, had covered this topic in other places, because I would have liked to read more of what was, at the time, fairly revolutionary in mainstream manga, especially not in a text that seems dedicated to replicating a mediocre action film as closely as possible.
February 27, 2017
I admire Tezuka's Buddha and Black Jack series and was eager to pick up this volume of the author's "darker" work. However, this story about two survivors of a devastating chemical weapon detonation left me with conflicted feelings. I was put off by the scenes of intense violence in the beginning but believe the later discussion about civilian deaths in WW2 and Vietnam put them in context. I was intrigued by the lead character's ambiguous sexuality but wonder if the point of the scenes of queer and interspecies love are included only to shock the audience and signal his moral deterioration. Anyway, the book handles heavy political questions with cutesy illustrations and surprising grace. It isn't something I would recommend as heartily as the other titles I mentioned above, but I do recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 262 reviews