Comics Underground -- Japan: A Manga Anthology Paperback – April 25, 1996

Wowzers

It put a smile on my face. (boing boing boing)

This review is a response to a previous review that blasted this book for its content. The reviewer was correct in that the chapter "Planet of The Jap" by Suehiro Maruo is very vile and even pornographic, (Check into his "Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show"--unnerving, but not quite so violent..). It is a very disturbing and sickening tale, and the fact that Books-A-Million would carry it is puzzling, but that does not mean that this book should be avoided entirely. It was never meant for children to see--the cover alone should tell you that. The name Comics UNDERGROUND Japan should also tell you that--it's not a collection of mainstream manga. If this book were a film it would be rated NC-17 or even X. Many of the tales are disturbing, especially "Planet of The Jap", but also "Future Sperm Brazil", "Bigger and Better", and the extremely dark "Laughing Ball." I tracked this book down in a privately owned comic shop, way on the top of a very high shelf, well out of the reach of children. Japanese culture has a very different take on sex and violence than ours. The level of these themes present in television series, even those directed at a younger audiences, is much higher than in the U.S....take Go Nagai's 70's DEVILMAN and CUTEY HONEY series for instance. The levels of violence and sexual content far exceed anything that could be shown on U.S. network television--even now. The accompanying manga series were even darker, but were aimed at older, more mature readers--much like this book. A broad range of underground manga is represented, with varying art and storytelling styles not present in many mainstream manga. I highly recommend it for those who would like to see a different side of manga--the very dark side. It's an interesting, if not frightening, look at the underbelly of another culture.

Comics Underground Japan is one of the comic collections i'll be dragging around with me for my whole life, wishing that there were about a hundred more of them so as to explore more of these crazy Japanese comics. As a comic artist myself, i can tell that the artists drawing these stories are doing what the want for the most part. It's a joy to see, especially in comparison to the very uniform mainstream manga that makes up the bulk of what is brought into the USA. The cover was the initial selling point, having grown up reading MAD magazine & collecting Garbage Pail Kids, & the inside just continued with the craziness.

Please read: Having gained some age and experience with manga since first reviewing this book, I decided to rewrite my review, and also be more clear about the violence in it.This is a fantastic book if you want manga. It shows several brief short manga stories. All of them are drawn from the Japanese manga magazine "Garo", which features underground, free-thinking manga. While not all of these stories are visually appealing (some can give the sensation of having acid splashed on your eyes), all are interesting and thought-provoking. My personal favorite is "Steel Pipe Melancholia" a simple but fascinating story of a man who is asked to guard a broken pipe. Other gems in this book are "Mercy Flesh" (with stunningly beautiful artwork) and "Laughing Ball" (with it's dark portrayal of the lives of members of a freak show).There are two problems with this book - one, the cover is foul. This book never leaves my home after one trip to the park where I recieved more than a few horrified looks. The other problem is the violence. Yes, some of these stories have horrific violence. A face being cut off and a child's head smashed against a wall are among such scenes. These are incredibly gruesome, even for one as hardened and desensitized as myself. It shouldn't be read by children. But this doesn't take the quality down any. If you are slightly put off by the violence, you can skip those stories. If you go sick at the sight of a drop of blood, then don't buy the book.But if you can look through the gore to the stories beneath, trust me when I say that you'll find pure gold.(One final thing. One other reviewer interpreted Planet of the Jap as being an attack on the American soldier's treatment of Japanese people after WWII. I disagree. Some of the american soldier's actions were regrettable, but not on the wide-scale ruthless violence that Planet of the Jap depicts. Instead, Maruo, who is often a critic of Japanese society, is showing the barbaric treatment americans would have recieved had we lost world war 2. Look into the Japanese's treatment of the Chinese and Koreans during ww2 and you'll see what I mean.)

This is a great book if you are interested in underground comics, or just tired of mainstream, teen-oriented manga.The art work in this book is personal,original, and provocative.Some of the art technique may look simple, but the rich content of it makes up for it."FUTURE SPERM BRAZIL" is HILARIOUS despite being offensive to some.The messy art work made it even funnier and more interesting.Also,Hanako Yamada's work makes you think of it long after you read it.COMICS UNDERGROUND JAPAN is a great anthology.

Arrived in pristine condition. There's not much in term of contents, but if you are into avant-garde, underground comic scene, it's worth adding to your collection.

Essa é a segunda coletânea de mangákas alternativos/independentes que eu compro e devo dizer que por mais que essa edição seja boa, ela é inferior à AX. Eu sei que a proposta é ser diferente, inusitado e não convencional, mas algumas histórias são rasas, curtas e não despertaram nenhum tipo de emoção (negativa ou positiva) em mim. Vale a pena ser lido, principalmente se você for um entusiasta do gênero, mas vá sem grandes expectativas.

Una gran colección de cómics del panorama underground japonés (aunque muchos de los autores ya consiguieron su hueco en el panorama occidental). Gran variedad con sus cómics para recordar y algunos que pasan totalmente desapercibidos, pero que en su totalidad deja muy buen sabor de boca.

Pequeña introducción

Not bad.