Paused after 4 chapters. Next Chapter 5 Revenge. Book is full of disturbing violence and sexual predation. Not a book I want to read or images I want to see and process at this time. Will need to consider if I want to revisit and continue in the future.

Good, kinda gay.
As in, look at me! I'm GAY!
instead of the inner workings of the modern Japanese homosexual male.
(but who wants to read that)
Very uh,
it's all a little much.
I'm trying to say, it's kinda loud.
FABBBBULOUS.
Like he really wants people to realize he's deeper than just Astro Boy,
but that's kinda hard to do when you draw them the EXACT SAME WAY.
I mean, seriously, speaking as an artist, why not just change the cutsey oversized eyes when writing about psychopathic killers.
It's good but eh,
kinda gay.
Plenty o buttsex.

( )

This dark thriller surprised me. Tezuka knows how to tell a story. Rather, he lets his characters tell the story. Somehow, no matter how ridiculously he draws the caricatures, the characters come to life. There is no way to fault the way he draws out their humanity, no matter how naked and embarrassing it is. This makes him one of the boldest creators in the medium. He can encapsulate a time and a place in a few frames, and can draw you in almost effortlessly. His sparse style seems well thought out but completely seamless. It doesn’t matter if he’s writing about unicorns of princesses or serial killers, his mastery is as clear as day. The villain at the center of this seminal masterwork is as evil as they come. He manipulates the men and women he comes into contact with at every turn, twisting them around his finger. When it comes to his ultimate goal one can only be horrified and enthralled. It’s not difficult to see how he came to be such a monster. The demon Tezuka makes him out to be is quintessentially human in his faults and dimensions, yet one cannot help but follow his every move with riveted curiosity. ( )

As a fan of the Japanese actor Tamaki Hiroshi, I ended up watching the tv special and movie version of MW before reading the book. Boy am I glad I did that -- had I read the book first, I probably would've hated the film adaptation, as it leaves a lot of things out (not necessarily major parts of the plot, but character development/personalities/etc that I found to be vital to the novel). This was only my second Tezuka graphic novel (the first being Metropolis), so I really had only the vaguest idea of what I was getting into. I had no idea, though, how good (though strange and dark) MW was going to be.

MW is about love (sort of) and it's about violence, but it's also about revenge, abuse, life and death. The movie only barely touched on these things (but I believe that Tamaki did a good job carrying the role of Michio Yuki (the main character), the same with Takayuki Yamada as Yutaro Garai (the priest). I had them in my mind while I was reading MW, which I think enhanced my reading instead of detracting from it. Obviously, the biggest thing missing from the movie is the love (if you can call it that) story between Michio and Yutaro (they have a very unhealthy relationship). I think the movie would've benefited from it, but upon reading (and completing) the book, I understand why they left it out.

I liked MW and I want to read more Tezuka at some point. It's hard to recommend this book (probably for similar reasons that it's hard for me to recommend 1Q84, even though I liked it quite a bit). But it's good, even while being dark and disturbing (as many revenge stories are). ( )

The face of evil has never been so feminine or sexy. Tezuka's [MW] is ruthless, explicit, and tragic. His plot twists are ironic. His need to violate norms, religion, and other boundaries are obsessive, if not necessary. For Tezuka to teach us the nature of human evil he must show us the source of the seed: indolent indiscretion, a lust for power by "great men," cowardice, and naked human ego.

I recommend this novel, but I don't like the star rating system.

[One thumb up!]

[MW] is the third of Tezuka's more serious graphic novels that I've read so far and I like his work well enough to disrupt my reading and writing schedule to quickly read his work. While I haven’t read all of his works, I'm slowly coming to the realization that he's a moralist at heart. That’s not a bad thing if the author is someone like Tezuka.