License Request Day: Another Look At Medaka Box

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By NisiOisiN and Akira Akatsuki. Released in Japan by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump.

Back in 2010, I did a License Request post regarding a Shonen Jump manga called Medaka Box, and explained why I thought it was a great series, and also why I thought it was unlikely to get picked up. Well, it’s now almost two and a half years later, and the series is still running in Weekly Jump, and gotten two anime seasons (which, sadly, animated the least interesting part of the manga) and has more reasons I’d love to see it licensed… as well as even more reasons it won’t. So let’s discuss.

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Since my original post, the manga has kept going, and gotten even more ludicrous. It now projects to be over 20 volumes, and just began a new arc after faking readers into thinking it was ending – the 2nd time the authors have done that! It’s introduced even more overpowered characters, including Najimi Ajimu, who can seemingly control the narrative and utilizes her 12,858,051,967,633,865 skills to waltz around the story being smug. And it still has a small core of hardcore fans who enjoy discussing what it’s really trying to say – even if they all disagree with each other, and half of them are fans of the series but despise the lead.

So, why do I want to see this series over here? Let’s see…

1) Tons of strong female characters, including many leads, several of which have no romances whatsoever. Medaka Box sails through the Bechdel test, honestly. Medaka herself is currently one of two Jump series with a female lead (and the other, Novice Policewoman Kiruko-san, may not last long). We also meet characters such as the aforementioned Najimi Ajimu, Youka Naze (a genius mad scientist with a knife sticking out of her bandaged head), Hansode Shiranui (who is primarily comic relief in the anime-adapted shows, but proves to be far more dangerous – and far more broken – than everyone expected), and Mukae Emukae (who makes anything she touch rot and die, including animals and, presumably, people. )

Each arc has at least one or two major female antagonists or protagonists, and some are entirely female, such as the Jet Black Bride arc. Now yes, there is some romance, with some characters falling in love or obsessing over a person. But it’s not a requirement. More to the point, almost every single female in this series beyond about chapter 26 can kick anyone’s ass right ways from Sunday. I have never seen such a larger group of BAMFs. It’s pretty amazing.

2) Examination, parody, and deconstruction of shonen themes. Many series do this subtextually, but Medaka Box goes right ahead and makes this text. Misogi Kumagawa, who is easily the most popular character among Western fans of the series (and probably Japanese fans as well – the anime did a final episode just devoted to him as if to make up for its likely cancellation), often refers to events by saying “If this were in Weekly Shonen Jump”. Ajimu takes it one step further, and seems entirely aware that this is a serial – it’s made into a plot point, and once led to one of the greatest lines in the entire series, “Manga that go longer than 10 volumes just coast on their success, and this has already gone three volumes over that. So just watch… I’ll end this manga before the anime begins.” (Spoiler: she didn’t.)

But it’s not just pointing out the series is fictional. Medaka Box goes to great pains to mock and undercut many of Shonen Jump’s most treasured values, with several monologues noting that while Jump is supposedly about “Friendship, Training, Victory”, the reality is that the stronger characters defeat the weak ones, so more power always wins. And indeed that is the case throughout Medaka Box. Medaka is insanely powerful, so she wins despite everything. The only exceptions are characters who are (temporarily) stronger than she is. Kumagawa is set up to rebel against this – his entire purpose in life is to be the one representing the weak, loser characters whose only purpose is to fail.

But with all that said, the beauty of a series like Medaka Box – and something that a few of its fans don’t quite get – is that for all that it’s deconstructing Jump series, it also IS a Jump series, and thus in the end it serves what Jump strives for after all. This is not a series that will end with our heroes broken and Medaka humiliated and tarnished – that’s not its goal. Its goal is to show the wonders of humanity in all its forms, even when humans are equipped with various types of superhuman abilities. (Medaka Box sometimes seems like X-Men there’s so many people with insane superpowers.) It may say Jump is all about who is most powerful, but Medaka succeeds because of the bonds she has with Zenkichi – and his bonds with all the others.

3) It’s simply fun. Everyone acts gloriously over the top, almost in a Higurashi sort of way. The series is peopled with larger than life superheroes, so it’s only natural that they are larger than life. Kumagawa can be terrifying or hysterically funny, often in the same chapter, and his juvenile pursuit of seeing girls’ panties, girls in naked aprons, and girls in “hand-bra jeans” (don’t ask) is a nice reminder that all these superhuman geniuses really are teenagers after all. There’s fun wordplay, and later volumes introduce Nienami, who seems determined to be the ultimate boke just to have everyone scream at her. You’re never quite sure if the manga is a parody or not – which is the point, of course.

Now, I mentioned I don’t think this will be licensed. Why? I already discussed in my prior post that it starts off very slowly. In fact, it’s quite mediocre for the first few volumes. (You know, the ones they chose to animate). But let’s update things.

1) It’s now over 20 volumes and counting, and is not a huge hit the way Toriko or Bakuman were. This is reason #1 with a bullet.

2) It would make the translators cry. There is an entire ARC given over to battles using kanji and wordplay, culminating in a final confrontation involving the Japanese game where the next person starts a word with a syllable that the previous person ended with. Oh yes, and there’s a chapter where Ajimu tries to inspire Zenkichi by recalling about 25 old Shonen Jump heroes, many of whom never appeared over here and would require extensive translation notes – something which Viz has never used in its shonen series.

3) One character, Shori Wanizuka, walks around at times with a revolver sticking out of her mouth, sucking on the barrel. Oh, Viz would just LOVE that.

4) Medaka herself. Not since Ichigo Kurosaki has there been a more polarizing lead character in Shonen Jump. Medaka is meant to be a deconstruction of the “Mary Sue” sort of character – she is perfect at anything she tries, has a killer body, is genius level IQ, a physical powerhouse, etc. Despite this, Medaka throughout the series is shown to have difficulty with basic humanity. This is a thread that exists in a lot of NisiOisiN’s works, where he shows the basic disconnects anyone that far ahead of/in front of us would have with average people.

As such, a lot of the time, Medaka is unlikeable, particularly when dealing with Zenkichi, her childhood friend. Now, one of the main plots in the series is showing that she is gradually improving at human interaction, and is not a superhuman freak but merely a teenage girl like everyone else. Of course, character development is frequently not welcome by some fans, who form their opinions and then refuse to change them ever. I’d argue that a majority of the fans support Zenkichi or (especially) Kumagawa as a “main character”, seeing Medaka as an antagonist. In addition, a small minority of fans seem to suffer from “nice guy syndrome”, demanding that Medaka treat Zenkichi nicer because, well, he’s the male love interest and why won’t she learn her place?

5) For those who like Jump for its BL elements, you’ll find some of that here as well. (There’s a couple of yuri teases too.) That said, Medaka’s figure and habit of exhibitionism can also put off female readers who might see the title as pure fanservice.

With all that said, I remain fascinated by this series, one of the most addictive I’ve seen in Jump in years. Even with all the pitfalls, I’d still love to see someone take a chance on it. Hey, it’s licensed in France! Can North America be that far away?

Neon Genesis Evangelion Omnibus, Vols. 4-6

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By Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and GAINAX. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Shonen Ace. Released in North America by Viz Media.

These volumes of Evangelion were coming out just as the TV series was finishing, so by now readers had a general idea where things were going to go. And so that allows Sadamoto to start to mix things up and change what we expect to see. There’s no radical alterations here, but some introductions are different, and one character’s fate is changed – for the worse.

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Rei features on the cover, but really has very little to do in these three volumes. That said, her one major scene is quite good. Shinji is still angsting about his father, and how he hates him but knows he’d like that to change. Rei points out that being silent isn’t changing anything, and he should talk to his father. So he does! And he gets shut down cold, as it becomes clear that Gendo is never going to bond with Shinji in any parental way, or stop using him as a tool. (Ironically, telling Shinji to stop trying to get closer to him might be the nicest thing Gendo does for him.) Rei also realizes that for all that Gendo is supposedly closer to her, it’s merely a facade, and I think that bothers her, in her own Rei sort of way.

Of course, the majority of this omnibus is focused on the arrival of Asuka. As noted above, she gets a different and far cooler introduction to the story, taking out an Angel by herself and then beating up a group of street punks to save Shinji’s butt. That said, she’s as harsh and abrasive as ever – except around Kaji, of course. (Kaji shutting Asuka down towards the end of this volume is handled quite well – he clearly knows what is going on and has been ignoring the hell out of it, but Asuka stripping in front of him lets him know he can’t do that anymore. Actually, Kaji in general is handled really well in the manga.) Shinji’s scenes with Asuka are usually the funniest parts of the books, and they also get some sweet bonding moments, showing them starting to open up to each other a little bit.

Then there’s the last third of this omnibus. I wonder if Sadamoto had heard people talking about how the manga was a lighter, more optimistic take on the anime and said “Oh yeah? Well take this!” All of Vol. 6 is devoted to Toji being selected as the 4th pilot, and all that stems from that. And it’s horrible, in the best possible way. In particular, Hikari’s tsundere antics (genuine tsundere, as opposed to Asuka’s “I am at heart emotionally broken” tsundere) are simply impossible to read as anything but tragic, and the last scene of the volume is a perfect “OK, gonna go sob in the corner now” capper. I hated reading it, but it was handled in a fantastic way.

So with that cliffhanger, we’ve been shown that the happy fun times of Evangelion are over. How Shinji reacts to his role in all this – as well as what his father did – will no doubt take up part of the next book. In the meantime, if you never read this series, this oversize omnibus with color pages and detailed notes explaining the confusing backstory is a perfect introduction.

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Omnibus 1

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By Yukito Kishiro. Released originally in Japan as “Gunnm: Last Order” by Shueisha, serialized in the magazine Ultra Jump; currently owned by Kodansha and serialized in the magazine Evening. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

In the beginning, there was Gunnm, which ran in Shueisha’s Business Jump from 1990-1995, and told the story of Gally, a cyborg creation who was revived and had lots of awesome Rollerball-type adventures, killed bad guys, and battled the evil Desty Nova. Then in 1995 the series was wrapped up fast as the author was ill. Like “get your affairs in order” ill. Luckily, he got better, and 5 years later revived the series for new magazine Ultra Jump, retconning most of the last volume and restarting with Gally’s adventures in the sky. Viz Media licensed both series, renamed Gally to Alita, and released the first series as Battle Angela Alita and the second with the Last Order tag.

Then a few years ago, Shueisha was going to re-release the original Alita manga, but decided to remove the word “crazy” from the manga as it might upset the mentally ill. Kishiro was quite upset, and after a long, protracted battle, pulled his manga and moved to Kodansha, where it is currently running in Evening. Over here, the manga likewise leaped from Viz to Kodansha, who have started to put it out from where Viz left off (Vol. 16), but are also going back and re-releasing Last Order as large omnibuses, based off Kodansha’s bunko releases. The fate of the original series remains up in the air, but I suspect a re-release is unlikely.

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Which is a shame, as I think the omnibus would read much better if people could refresh their memories of the original. Kodansha Comics puts a 2-page “what has gone before” at the start, but despite trying to make Last Order as newbie-friendly as possible, every time Alita starts wondering about Figure Four, or obsessing over Lou, the reader is left thinking that they missed the first 20 minutes of this movie. Admittedly, if they did re-release the original people might be reminded that some characters who originally got happy endings now are suffering much more gruesome fates. Speaking of Lou.

With all that said, this is a really entertaining read once you get past starting in the middle. Alita’s a cute, sullen heroine who the author makes sure not to take seriously at times. Desty Nova reappears as a crazy awesome mad scientist, still amoral but no longer bwa-ha-ha evil, and now apparently mentoring her. We meet a few of her cyborg duplicates, like Sechs, who is obsessed with “defeating the original”, and Elf and Swolf, who I think are just there to be cute and snarky. And there are new characters, all of whom are dealing with a world that really, really seems to hate everyone. It’s a good thing that there’s elements of humor sprinkled throughout, as otherwise this would be the most depressing thing ever written.

There are also a lot of action sequences, which are equally excellent. James Cameron wants to turn this into a movie, and it’s not hard to see why. Not only does the artist draw a lot of fights, but you can actually tell how the characters are moving in those fights – a rarity with manga writers. Alita is amazing, of course, but still manages to get her ass kicked several times – which, given she’s a cyborg, usually involves her getting ripped in half. Indeed, she spends a good chunk of this book as only a top half. In amongst this action, there’s a whole lot of worldbuilding (I admit I skipped the textual diagrams, and don’t think I missed much), and hammering home the basic theme of the entire series, which is “what does it mean to be human” and “what makes humans different from others?” Having dreams, having goals, believing in yourself – there’s shiny shonen manga ideals buried under all this dystopia.

The omnibus is huge – 670 pages – and padded out even more by two early short stories Kishiro wrote about a year before starting Gunnm. The first is the better of the two, about a man trying to build his own plane meeting an Angel-like creature who has wings but hasn’t really had the gumption to use them. The other story, about a giant tank the size of a mountain that destroys towns and tends to mind control those who try to stop it, is less good. That said, both do continue the basic themes here – strive to survive, maintain your humanity, even if you’re a cyborg, an Angel, or a demon, and don’t let others dictate your goals.

There’s a lot going on in this volume. I didn’t even mention the Martian Queen (who appears to be Orihime Inoue’s descendant), or the obviously evil Venusian guy offering everyone roast babies just to be a dick; or my desire to see this cross over with A Certain Magical Index. But the basics of the series are laid out here, and there are a number of directions the series could go. Lots of politics, lots of action. Unless the author somehow gets distracted by writing 100+ chapters of a fighting tournament or something, I think he can’t possibly lose here.