It’s a double whammy this month! May was tragically mangaless, so I of thought I’d marry a couple of my recommendations for June. You might be wondering why I chose to go with such seemingly disparate titles: a cosmic science fiction adventure and an examination of life’s everyday mundanities? Hardly naturally matched. But beyond any stylistic structure or plot element in these titles lies the timeless notion of the antihero.

I’m not talking sidekicks or snarky villains or regular heroes who make mistakes. This antihero outsider is the one we love to be skeptical of, all the time. He’s been forced into the game against his own will, hates most people and probably himself even more—a character who has few admirable qualities and yet somehow commands our admiration. It’s always been a compelling notion. Just look at HELLBLAZER’s John Constantine, IRON MAN’s Tony Stark, and TRANSMETROPOLITAN’s Spider Jerusalem. They’re assholes with substance abuse problems. So what makes us care?

Sometimes it’s a background story. At the start of Nobuaki Tadano’s 7 BILLION NEEDLES, Hikaru Takabe is cynical, antisocial, and downright unlikeable. She hates people—prefers music—and has no interest in her newfound alien-given powers. She remains adamantly defiant to the greater good, even when a possessed schoolmate suddenly sprouts veliceraptor feet. But as the series goes on, we become privy to the events that have molded her personality, and Hikaru, in turn, becomes emotionally involved in others’ lives, despite herself.

Sometimes it’s the attenuating hope that the antihero will fall victim to human emotion. An outsider in the extreme sense, Yozo Oba of Usamaru Furuya’s NO LONGER HUMAN repeatedly expresses his discomfort with regular people. His actions are dictated by convenience. He is so entirely empty of feeling that you’re given to cheer when he expresses the slightest affection for someone—although such affection leads to shame and selfishness, not heroics.

These are not your typical superhero story arcs, but the parallels run eerily clear. We cling to the possibility, in these comics, that our outsider will come to terms and make a stand—that their faults are circumstantial, after all, and underneath the visage is a heart of gold. There is something to be said for accomodating a main character without artificial sentimentality: as characters ourselves, we admire their conviction; but as humans, we hope for some vulnerability.

Japanese creators seem to have no loyalty towards the typical triumphant story arc, and as a result, these manga outsiders often falter, fail, and feign happiness in ways that are not satisfying. But we keep reading. We can’t stop. We want to see a hint of heroism, after all—a payoff for our investment. Sometimes it never comes, but the journey is enough.

Invest yourself. Buy any title featured in a MANGA DOESN’T SUCK blog and receive 10% off your entire Meltdown purchase.

Previously:
DOGS
UZUMAKI
GODCHILD
BIOMEGA
CLOVER

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