20/07/2021: manga with distinctive art styles

Our last few articles did quite poorly so we thought we'd switch it up by offering some recommendations based on art style instead of plot or genre.

1) DEATHCO

This is an episodic series following the Guild, consisting of assassins who lead everyday lives when not “working” so they wear interesting costumes when undertaking their hits. The central character is this strange girl, known only as DEATHCO, who’s very good at killing but very little else. The artist is very famous – his previous works include SOIL, which won a lot of awards, was very popular in France and got adapted into a successful drama – and his art style is very special. It’s almost like one of the avant garde artists that doesn’t really get their own series but does special one-offs for other series. I think his style is very intense because the inks are extremely heavy, so it forces him to show all of the details. In this series, there’s a lot of action so you can appreciate the acrobatic moves and dynamic motion in a lot of the action sequences. There are also many distinctive designs for the costumes, such as a trio of cheerleader-themed killers who use acrobatics to deliver fatal strikes. The interesting thing is that there is such a crazy variety of designs because many of these characters are disposable, which means that the writer had to come up with so many designs. It’s pretty cool.

2) The Fable

This is a slice-of-life action comedy about a legendary hitman and his “sister” who’s his getaway driver. Their boss makes them take a year-long vacation in Osaka and they have to try to live like normal people, but they get into a lot of trouble when they’re dragged into yakuza conflicts and the complexities of everyday living like finding employment, making friends and raising a pet.

The art seems nice enough at first. It’s very realistic – not at all like a manga. It’s also not like a Western superhero comic either. It’s almost photographic in the sense that you feel like these are drawings of real people. More than the representations, which are already quite nice, I like how the artist shows movement. Whereas the previous entry displayed it with lots of detail, this one thrives in its simplicity. You can tell that the action is intense and the characters are doing really cool things like jumps and flips or lightning-fast martial arts moves or dodging skillfully, but the artist doesn’t really go overboard with the motion likes and doesn’t pose the characters dramatically. When you pick which frame to represent an event, you can depict the moments before, at or after the event (e.g., before/during/after a punch lands). In a lot of shots, he decides to show the moment before or after, which forces you to play a mental video of what happened instead of just looking at a paper depiction of it, which makes it much cooler. This is applied to a lot of things in the story and not just the action. It makes for a subtler experience that makes you feel relaxed and excited at the same time.

3) DRCL midnight children

I recommended this title recently. It’s basically a manga retelling of Dracula. The art is really detailed and exquisite. It’s a bit like the stereotypical 80s-90s shoujo manga with angelic faces and delicate features but with the level of detail upped to the max. This makes for nice, picturesque scenes but also terrifying gore/scare scenes.

4) Asobi Asobas

This is a slice-of-life comedy following three middle schoolers who are part of a club where they play Japanese games. It’s really funny because there’s a lot of absurd jokes and really exaggerated gags with painful jokes or crazy expressions. The way the girls are drawn is pretty unique. It feels like a very detailed pencil sketch?

5) Akebi-chan’s Sailor Suit

Last but not least, Akebi-chan! This series follows a girl from a small village who gets into a prestigious private middle school, which her mother attended years before, with the sole goal of wearing a sailor uniform. However, the school’s since changed its uniform policy to blazers. Luckily, the principal decides to let her be the only one wearing a sailor suit so it’s all OK. The series is just a slice of life with her and her new friends having fun!

The art here is really, really, really good. Every panel is pretty much a gorgeous opportunity for the artist to demonstrate his skills. While his drawings are super nice, he usually finds a chance to showcase the main character doing something cool like dancing or acrobatics and it’s really beautiful. That said, I don’t think this is a lolicon series! I think it’s more like she’s a little sister that a reader would feel affinity towards and not some perverse attraction.

That's it for today! In the last month of summer holidays, we'll try to post a little bit more. Hopefully, we'll get more views because it's really quite discouraging... Please share our posts if you can!