Asadora! vol. 1
Getting new manga from Naoki Urasawa after years of nothing over here should’ve been a reason to celebrate. Except that “Mujirushi” was a flawed attempt at telling a heist story with some nods to other media and politics that fell flat. His short story collection “Sneeze!” was par for the course for these kinds of things: It had some good ones, some okay ones, and some bad ones too. Were these things proof that the master who gave us works like “Monster” and “20th Century Boys” (along with “Pluto” and “Master Keaton”) had lost his touch? I certainly didn’t want to believe it.
Then the first volume of his newest ongoing series, “Asadora!” arrived. It’s not the return to the form that I was expecting, but it still leaves me hopeful. Maybe it’s because you can see him laying down the blocks upon which something big and weird is going to be built. Maybe it’s the way his skill with characterization helps propel the story of the volume forward in an effortless fashion. Or maybe it’s because the relentless determination which radiates from the title character. Even if that may wind up being a dealbreaker for some.
Asa is the youngest girl in a very large family that’s about to get even larger. We’re introduced to her as she’s running through a coastal town to get the doctor because her mother is in labor again. Mind you, she’s doing this as a typhoon is bearing down on the town. This leads to her getting stuck with a former fighter pilot turned burglar as the town is turned into a disaster area by the storm. Where others would be left dumbstruck by the devastation, Asa makes it her mission to see that those in the most need get some help.
What I’m leaving out of that summary of the first volume is a bit at the beginning and a bit at the end what the larger story of “Asadora!” will be about. Respectively, these bits are meant to make you go, “Oh, is Urasawa really going to go there with this story?” before you go, “Oh, he really is going to go there.” They’re really at odds with the grounded nature of the story and overall tone, and the way they’re placed in the first volume is certainly reminiscent of how “21st Century Boys” started off. Not that he’s repeating himself here as the subject of this story hinted at here is set to make “Asadora!” a very different kind of tale.
Assuming you can get behind Asa and her relentless determination. She’s a sixth-grader, but she radiates the confidence of someone twice her age. I can understand that some kids are like that, but there are some times early on when it almost feels like too much. Especially when the reader can recognize that everything she’s saying is the right thing to say in a given situation. This is somewhat believable when she’s telling the doctor that her mother has gone into labor and he needs to get his ass over there. Less so when she argues back-and-forth with the would-be burglar who kidnaps her.
What kept her characterization from crossing over into annoying was that Urasawa was able to come up with situations where her personality feels believable more often than not. That conversation with the kidnapper? We get to find out that he’s kind of at the end of his rope after a string of bad luck after the war and his kidnapping of her was actually a slight case of mistaken identity. Even if it strains credibility that Asa would have the presence of mind to really talk back to him, it does make sense that this screw-up would be swayed by her confidence.
Since the kidnapper, Kasuga, does listen to her, we get to see them work together in order to get some relief to the people in the town after the typhoon lays waste to it. It’s this emergency situation that also lends itself to Asa’s personality, as it demands a can-do type to try and bring some relief to the townsfolk. Yes, it’s an 11-year-old who’s doing so, but what winds up happening feels within the bounds of reality, as well as what she looks to be capable of. Your mileage may vary, but all this ultimately worked for me.
Helping things along is the fact that Urasawa hasn’t lost his knack for creating believable and memorable characters. Kasuga gets the most time here and it’s well spent. We get a nice little redemption arc in learning his backstory and seeing him working with Asa as the story goes on. There’s even a little drama to be mined from his story as it’s not immediately clear as to whether he’ll be sticking around. Kinuyo, the stern restaurant owner who organizes the rice-ball making, and Shota, Asa’s Olympic-sprinter-in-training friend, also make strong impressions too. While the former’s no-nonsense vibe is tempered by her practicality, the impression is that Shota will have the more interesting storyline in the long run. People chosen by God often do.
In writing this review, it occurred to me that “Asadora!” may be better received by readers who are more in tune with YA fiction than the mangaka’s previous works. I imagine that the younger you are, the less skeptical you’ll be in regards to how well the title character’s personality works within the material. That said, it’s working well enough for me so far, and I’m intrigued by the sci-fi direction this story is looking to take based on the hints we get at its beginning and end. Maybe it won’t lead to somewhere as interesting as “20th Century Boys,” but my hope is that it’ll lead someplace good as opposed to being the long-form version of “Kaiju Kingdom.”