Lucas Blogs About Books

Oh, like you've never had to write a sutra all over your body to ward off monsters. So, what's this book's deal? Remember when we talked about Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths ?  I do, yes. So, this is another semi-autobiographical manga by Shigeru Mizuki   this one based on his experiences as a child in a pre-WWII Sakaiminato. Does it also overlap with material from Showa: A History of Japan ? It does, but at the same time its focus is different enough that it doesn't feel as repetitive. But both of of these manga were published before Showa , so isn't Showa   the repetitive work? Uh . . . But like, I read Showa fir. . . The deal is that Shigeru "Shige" Muraki (an extremely thinly veiled stand in for the author—whose birth name is Shigeru Mura) learns about yōkai from his elderly neighbor (and sometimes domestic servant) Nonnonba. Nonnonba is the wife of a Shinto priest and just so happens to be an expert on the various spirits, m...

Yes, in certain lighting conditions the title and author's name are difficult to read. So what's this book's de–Oh, hey! It's one of those mangaka you mentioned in our discussion of manga . So it is. And it's one of the manga that he's best known for in America. Anway, Shigeru Mizuki's Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths  is about a company in the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II and is based on Mizuki's own experiences as a soldier in the Pacific theater. This isn't one some kind of right-wing apologia  about the conduct of the Imperial Army in the period leading up to and including World War II? No, it is explicitly not that. In fact, it's pretty much just about one company in the army over the course of a few months. The manga itself is episodic with each chapter following a couple of members of the Baien Battalion as they go through the drudgery of daily life in the army. We see new recruits being beaten by their commanding office...