With more people reading manga and Webtoons (aka vertical scroll comics) than ever before, Beat’s Bizarre Adventure gives three writers an opportunity each week to recommend some of their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea, and elsewhere. This week we have a dark fairy tale, a new work by a beloved Boy’s Love artist, and, once again, CLAMP!
The Promised Neverland
Writer: Kaiu Shirai
Artist: Posuka Demizu
Translation: Satsuki Yamashita
Touch-up Art and Lettering: Mark McMurray
Design: Julian [JR] Robinson
Editor: Alexis Kirsch
Publisher: VIZ
In the middle of thick forests stands Grace Field House, an orphanage like no other. Its children are cared for by their loving mother. But then three of them, Emma, Norman, and Ray, discover that their home hides a terrible secret: it raises orphans to be slaughtered as food for demons.
The Promised Neverland lulls you (and the orphans) into a false sense of security before hitting with its fantastical horror elements. Emma, Norman, Ray and their friends do not have the physical ability to fight their way out. Instead they must use their brains and rely on each other to escape their “Mother” Isabella. Posuka Demizu’s art conveys the thriller/psychological elements of the story brilliantly.
The first arc is one of the strongest in shonen manga. While the later arcs had ups and downs when they deviated from the initial thriller premise in favor of adventure and fantasy, I’d still recommend the whole series. It remains one of the most unique stories ever published by Shonen Jump and VIZ.
While the anime adaptation of The Promised Neverland is top-notch, I suggest you only watch Season 1. Season 2 was a miserable travesty by comparison. You’re better off reading the manga and basking in Demizu’s beautiful artwork. — Hilary Leung
Seven Sundays
Writer/Artist: Charyeok
Production: Se young
Platform: Tappytoon (All-Ages & Mature)
Taeyang is a young and dedicated firefighter, proud to have realized his childhood dream. After a heroic save, NBC offers to document his daily life at work. But upon arriving at the station, Taeyang is greeted by the documentary producer and a… T-Rex? Taeyang keeps his composure until the producer leaves the room for tea, only to explode at the man inside the costume. He knows it’s none other than Han Jihwan, another producer, whom Taeyang has known since childhood. Jihwan went radio silent for eight years, blocking all communication with Taeyang. As if this isn’t enough to light a flame under Taeyang’s resentment, he finds out that Jihwan has named his son after him. What does it all mean!?
As compensation for naming his little kid after him, Taeyang asks Jihwan out on seven dates. If he’s not interested in Taeyang even after those dates, the firefighter will stop trying to reach out to him. He throws in a little threat for good measure, and Jihwan has no other choice but to give in. He’s clearly still affected by the night they spent together. And by Taeyang himself, but we don’t talk about that.
Charyeok is a beloved artist in the Boys Love comics realm. Not long after their other works Dirty High and Switch Darling, Seven Sundays is now available in English, and there’s more to come. While the art could use polishing, and its explicit scenes could be improved pacing-wise, its real power is in its themes as well as Charyeok’s tender approach to the characters and their circumstances.
The main thread of Seven Sundays is Jihwan’s struggles as a gay person, a deeply hurt man and a single dad. It’s also about how Taeyang’s relentless love and protectiveness fits into the picture. The rest is for you to discover! I hope you give this series a read. Next week is the final chapter, so no better time than to invest in a completed series. The only downside is that new updates aren’t on Sundays, but on Mondays. A missed chance, I say! — Merve Giray
X
Writer/Artist: CLAMP
Translation: Lillian Olsen
Adaptation: Fred Burke
Cover Design: Hidemi Sahara
Lettering and Touch-up Art: Wayne Truman
Publisher: VIZ
CLAMP are the most frequently covered artist team on Beat’s Bizarre Adventure and it’s easy to see why. For a certain generation of readers, there are few other manga artists as successful or influential. CLAMP’s work ranges from sci-fi romance to fantasy adventure and, of course, magical girls. Their visual style blurs the lines between shojo and shonen, appealing to a wide range of young readers.
X, their unfinished magnum opus, could almost have been made by a different group of people. Its violence will shock fans of series like Chobits and Cardcaptor Sakura. The characters dismember each other and have unhealthy sexual attachments. Yet X in hindsight was a necessary step for the group. Aside from being the first series where they employed their version of Tezuka’s Star System, it’s also the story where they got all of their darkest impulses out of their system.
X follows the struggle between two groups; the Dragons of Heaven and the Dragons of Earth. The Dragons of Heaven wish to protect the planet. The Dragons of Earth seek to rid it of the plague of humankind. At the center of this conflict are former childhood friends Kamui and Fuma, destined to be each other’s opposite.
CLAMP writer Nanase Ohkawa named Devilman as an influence and it’s hard not to see it. From the two leads who want to fight each other as much as they’re attracted to each other, to the beautiful, violent visuals, this was an apocalyptic manga fit for the 90s. Ohkawa adds an environmental angle, suggesting that this fight may be the Earth’s way to fight back against humanity’s poor stewardship.
What truly sets X apart from Devilman is its fascination with duality. CLAMP portrays the battle between the two opposing groups not as wins and losses but as the upsetting of a balance. The members in each group have an opposite number. It’s epitomized by the conflict between Kamui and Fuma, who become each other’s dark side. In this fight to stop the end of the world, everyone loses. — D. Morris
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