Review: Tanpenshu Vol. 1

Tanpenshu Vol. 1
By Hiroki Endo
Published by Dark Horse Comics. $12.95 USD

I know nothing of Endo's popular sf manga, Eden, and came to this book blind. And I'm happy about that, as it was really a pleasant surprise. I may have ordered it based on little but a whiff of good word from someone online, but even those good words often turn out false when it comes to quality comics. A decent description of the three stories can be found here, but I'm not really interested in talking about the plots. As the cover, featuring a fetching girl amid dozens of stuffed pandas penetrated and disfigured by various swords, knives and other pointy items suggests, Endo brings a dark and violent humor to his work. He's also pretty pretentious, but in mostly a good, daring way, challenging the reader to call bullshit on the use of hoary old symbols like crows. His characters also often speak entirely too "on-the-nose," blatantly spelling out their psychological motivations and internal conflicts when actions, gesture, oblique dialogue and the rest of a manga-ka's bag of tricks would have better served. As these works are about nine years old now, I would give him the benefit of the doubt that he's more in command now.

But what I did really like is that each story was very well-drawn, without short cuts or "cool" tics but just a good grasp of composition and when to add lots of detail and when to be austere. I also thought it was funny at times, unpredictable most of the time, and even when it's "on-the-nose," the ideas on hand and the character development is better than average. For unpredictable dialogue and sudden shifts into violence, I find similarities to Tarantino, and while I don't find that level of accomplishment here, it's definitely good, admirable work.