Maoh: Juvenile Remix, Vol. 1 [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

"Maoh: Juvenile Remix" is an interesting comic in that it comes from popular novelist Kotaro Isaka (Golden Slumbers). Kotaro is known in Japan as "Haruki's child" after novelist Murakami Haruki (Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World). Like Murakami, Kotaro has that ability to bridge the gap between serious and popular literature, between complex social ideas and outlandish genre imagery.

Megumi Osuga has brilliantly adapted Kotaro's style and story for the manga "Maoh: Juvenile Remix," bringing together heady concepts of social justice, of corporations and politicians vs the rights of citizens, of the sins of progress, and the nobility of action vs inaction. All of these ideas have been presented in a comic that is also beautifully drawn and highly entertaining.

The story presents 11th grade student Ando, a perpetual bystander in life who harbors a secret. From a young age, he has had the psychic ability to put words in other people's mouths, to be a ventriloquist as he calls it. The power is innately passive; he cannot influence their thoughts or actions, only their words. Ando himself does not necessarily believe in his own power, and thinks that these instances might be more coincidence than anything else.

Ando lives in the fictional city of Nekota, a small town on the cusp of modernization, where the City Councilor Miyuki Yamamoto is attempting to bring in corporate money with the creation of a new Urban Center. Many residents oppose this, feeling that the corporate money will only drive out local businesses leaving the current residents of Nekota jobless and hopeless. Presenting a shining light to the populace is a charismatic young leader named Inukai who leads a vigilante groups known as the Grasshoppers. Inukai and his Grasshoppers have dedicated themselves to ending crime and corruption at all costs and by any means necessary in Nekota, and while most hail them as local heroes Ando discovers that the group might be hiding a dark secret. Slowly, he is forced to re-evaluate his position of merely "staying out of everyone's way" and taking a more active role in his life and the lives of others, and possibly taking control of his own mysterious power.

I was impressed with "Maoh: Juvenile Remix." There is a lot more going on here than I originally suspected from the cover, and this is a heavier series with more depth and character than a typical manga. I am used to unconfident, passive heroes in Japanese comics, but Ando's particular psychic ability gives him an excuse to be passive, and to stay behind the front line. He is a manipulator, as opposed to Inukai who is a leader and a doer. The two make for a nice opposition.

Stylistically, the book could be compared to Death Note or Deadman Wonderland, with a somewhat dystopian environment that is an alternate Earth more than a future. The masked image of the Grasshoppers also brings to mind Pink Floyd - The Wall, and the frightening nature of Gestapo "liberators." How much freedom are you willing to sacrifice in order to live in peace?

Megumi Osuga's art is splendid, realistic at times and cartoony at others. Dirty at times and clean at others. Horrific at times and inspiring at others. Ando has the typical "any man" look about him, while Inukai plays with the "beautiful boy" look that exemplifies a hero. Megumi drops some light fan service here and there, but in interesting ways such as Ando's brother's girlfriend Shiori who is so tomboyish she doesn't even bother to button up her shirt correctly, or the girl Machiko who is almost comically large-breasted and works to shake Ando out of his lethargy.

Clearly, there is a lot going on in "Maoh: Juvenile Remix," more than this first volume can contain. We are only given glimpses behind the curtain here, but what we are shown is more than enough to hook us for the next. I am very much looking forward to the next volume.

I initially wanted to read this manga as it touched on bullying which is a real hot topic these days. Many of us can identify with Andou in that we want to help others who are getting picked on, but can't really find the courage or strength to do anything, so we don't. That is, until Andou starts manifesting his ventriloquism power again and feels he could use it to make a difference. In the meantime, a vigilante patrol called Grasshoppers is roaming the city keeping the peace but Andou isn't so sure about them, especially after seeing how folks somehow end up dead after crossing them.

This is a great start to this manga's story. I was expecting a less emotionally deep manga and more psychic fighting so the fact that it was the opposite was a very pleasant surprise. Andou is an ingriguing protagonist and one I want to follow to see where he goes. Definitely worth your time to pick up and give a chance.

There is a little fanservice in here (mostly big breasts and a panty shot) as well as some really over the top emotional moments by one of the bullying victims which keep it from being perfect in my opinion. However, this should not keep you from trying this one.

Maoh is another series I discovered with my Utopian Studies glasses on, something which I am quite pleased about. Of the three manga titles I picked up at MegaCon (Utopia's Avenger and Library Wars are the others), Maoh is the most complex and interesting, delving deep into the dark recesses of citizen-based justice, bullying, and self-identity, all within the first volume.

Maoh takes place in Nekota, a city that is rapidly modernizing, taking with it the world its residents have come to love. Gangs roam the streets, crime is on the rise, and greedy businessmen are trying to take everything they can while the city falls apart around them. But a vigilante group -- known as Grasshopper and led by the charming and beautiful Inukai -- has risen
up to restore "peace" and "prosperity" while opposing the New World's "progress." Caught in the middle is Ando, a high schooler who has done everything he can to conform and hide his real self. But Ando's discovery of the dark side of Grasshopper -- deadly beatings and psychotic murder attempts -- forces him to change, to think about who he is and who he wants to be in a city creeping closer to the edge of sanity...

If one were to focus on the strongest aspect of Osuga's adaptation of Isaka's story, it would have to be characterization. Ando is both a sympathetic character and an intriguing one. Seeing the changing city of Nekota through his eyes provides a unique, almost anti-heroic perspective through which the major developments of the book can be consumed (M.A.O.H., as it turns out, stands for "minor acts of heroism"). It is through that perspective that one begins to understand the intricacies of what is going on and its implications. As Inukai gains more power, Ando grows more weary and concerned, both about his wellbeing and the wellbeing of the city and its citizens, both of which force him to reevaluate his world view and his rules for engagement (i.e. rules that he has written to keep his "weirdness" away from prying eyes).

The development of Ando's character, as such, presents itself in a kind of complex of character interactions. Instead of reducing Maoh to a simple-minded and overly direct narrative of self-discovery (such as one which hinges on increasing a character's power), Osuga has created a narrative which plays out through numerous subplots. Ando's interactions with a fellow classmate (who has become a member of Grasshopper and begun beating or attempting to kill off the bullies in their school), for example, direct him to consider how he has contributed to the conditions of a hierarchical class system in their high school and the morality of vigilante justice. Both weigh heavily on his conscience, but the storyline isn't resolved in the first volume precisely because this is tied into the larger narrative of Inukai's rise to power, which Ando knows is based on a morally ambiguous set of violent actions.

A similar activity is present in Ando's attempts to understand his relatively low-key magic. While Ando does have the ability to make others say what he is thinking, it is not a skill he is particular good at (having just discovered it), nor a skill which he is inclined to let others know about. His ability, then, plays an active role in his development as a character, forcing him to reshape his perspective on his life and consider the ramifications of his attempts to build an unexceptional persona for himself, in much the same way as his murderous classmate has raised similar questions. His use of his ability also escalates as he becomes more confident, acting as a kind of barometer.

Ando's magic and interactions with classmates are only two of the many ways Osuga sets up a multi-volume journey through a dislocated youth's self-discovery. These narrative strands present themselves in Ando's relationship with his brother, his interactions with seemingly random characters in the city (who might make appearances later), and even in his disconnected interactions with Inukai (whom he never meets, but sees in action on a number of occasions, good and bad). I think it is fair to remark that Inukai's increased authority in the story is a little rushed, but pacing in manga is sometimes faster than in other forms of literature, in part because manga is often serialized by chapter. Regardless, the treatment of Ando's character makes for a story that is gripping and challenging.

The only serious flaw in Maoh, however, is in its out-of-place family-based humor. In any other narrative, I might have found the silliness of Ando's brother and his brother's girlfriend amusing; many jokes are had at their expense (the brother because he can't cook and is somewhat lazy, and the girlfriend because she is portrayed as exceptionally dimwitted). But the serious tone of Maoh means that such moments are always sucking something away from a tension that needs to be there for the darker aspects of the narrative to hit their stride. I hope that future volumes either pull back on this kind of humor or find more appropriate ways to insert humor into the story. There is always room for humor in a serious tale, but it always comes down to timing. Here, I think the silliness of the humor detracts from an intense narrative, though only slightly, since such moments were few and far between.

Despite the above flaw, I think the first volume is a fantastic read. Fans of Anthony Burgess might find Osuga's story intriguing, while manga readers may be drawn to the subtlety of the narrative. If you're not a manga fan, you might give this one a shot. If not, then you're missing out. Maoh is complex and a tad sadistic, which all the best manga and anime always are.