Triton of the Sea vols. 1 & 2

It’s time to once again BEHOLD THE POWER OF KICKSTARTER with something that I contributed to.  This was a multi-book project that, in addition to the title of this post, also saw Osamu Tezuka’s “Unico” and “Atomcat” translated into English as well.  Of the three, “Unico” represents the most solid read as “Triton” goes on far too long for its simplistic brand of storytelling.  Clocking in at a little over 900 pages between these two volumes, this series tells the tale of the last scion of the Triton clan, a powerful race of undersea beings who were hunted almost to extinction by the members of Poseidon, their rivals.  After Triton is rescued as a baby by a family in a small coastal fishing village, he’s soon brought to the big city and grows up learning the ways of man before learning of his heritage and destiny.  That includes the aid of golden dolphin to aid him on his journey which includes fighting the thirty-four children of Poseidon’s leader to the death.

“Triton” hails from towards the end of Tezuka’s early period when his output was geared more towards kids.  Reading this I honestly felt like its steady stream of action simple, straightforward plotting, slapstick action, talking animals, and jokes about bodily functions would be better appreciated by a younger audience.  There are some elements which suggest greater depth than this, such as the great Ganomoth’s plea for Triton to forgive Poseidon and make peace with them, but they’re few and far between.  The same can be said of Tezuka’s art as it does energize the proceedings to a certain extent though it doesn’t offer enough visual panache to sustain the whole narrative.  “Triton” may not be terrible except that it only offers enough quality to be of real interest to people like me who will buy anything by Tezuka in print.  If nothing else, it does make me wish I knew kids old enough to read comics so I could offer this to them and see if they’d like it as much as I think they would.