Search and Destroy Vol. 1

by Atsushi Kaneko, Osamu Tezuka

Overview

From the cinematic mind of Atsushi Kaneko (Bambi and Her Pink Gun) comes a contemporary reimagining of the timeless, Eisner Award–winning Dororo, by "God of Manga" Osamu Tezuka (Buddha, Astro Boy).

This is a tale of rage. Rage against hypocrisy, injustice, exploitation, and the wrongs done to a child who grew into a righteous killer….Complete in three volumes, Search and Destroy transplants the vengeful action of Dororo from feudal Japan into a dystopian future where mercenary robots known as "creatures" serve the human elite and victimize the city's scrabbling, desperate masses. The violent death of one of these creatures connects an orphaned thief named Doro with a mysterious girl in a stinking animal hide that conceals deadly cybernetic implants. Who is this mysterious girl? How is she killing, one by one, the city's most twisted and powerful creatures?

Originally serialized from 2019–2021 in the Japanese manga monthly TezuComi, Search and Destroy is a brilliantly-crafted thriller about an outsider looking for meaning and vengeance in the unjust world that took everything away from her. Kaneko populates a stunning, high-contrast setting that echoes postwar Cuba as much as Tokyo with an unforgettable cast of scrappy heroes and skin-crawling monsters on a nonstop ride full of action and suspense. This authorized retelling updates the rebellious '60s spirit of the original Dororo to the equally tumultuous 2020s, mixing Tezuka's signature dark yet playful storytelling sense with Kaneko's own wide range of influences which include Western cartoonists like Daniel Clowes and Charles Burns as well as filmmakers like David Lynch. The result is not only one of the best sci-fi manga of recent years but also one of the most visually rich and distinctive works of graphic storytelling in any genre or language.

Please note: This book is a traditional work of manga and reads back to front and right to left.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683969327
Publisher:	Fantagraphics Books
Publication date:	07/23/2024
Series:	Search and Destroy Manga , #1
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	48,492
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 5.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Atsushi Kaneko is a Japanese manga artist from Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture. His two books, Bambi and Her Pink Gun and Soil, have both been published in France. Bambi has also been published in English and Soil has been adapted into a television drama series.

Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovations in genre storytelling earned him such titles as "the Father of Manga," "the Godfather of Manga," and "the God of Manga.”

Editorial Reviews

★ 07/08/2024

Kaneko (Bambi and Her Pink Gun) outdoes himself with this gonzo sci-fi reimagining of Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga series Dororo. In Kaneko’s hands, the feudal Japanese setting of Tezuka’s original becomes a futuristic dystopia with a Soviet brutalist aesthetic. In the aftermath of a war between humans and androids known as Kreachers, Doro, a snarky child thief, runs afoul of the gang lords who rule a snowbound city. He falls in with Hyaku, a young woman dressed in animal hides who’s out to retrieve body parts she believes were stolen from her by Kreachers. The story is packed with wall-to-wall action, stunningly and gruesomely rendered: explosions, bloody assassinations, wild animal attacks, underground cyborg surgery, a fight on top of a speeding semitruck. But beneath the bloodshed is a deceptively well-structured story about injustice, revenge, and the blurred lines between organic life and technology. Kaneko is heavily influenced by American artists like Coop, Frank Kozik, and Charles Burns, as Frederico Anzalone notes in his introduction, and there are even elements of Will Eisner in the book’s rambling cityscapes. It’s a blast of pure cyberpunk energy. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Search and Destroy grabs you by the throat with its opening chapter and never lets go."

Multiversity Comics

★ 04/01/2024

Kaneko (Bambi and Her Pink Gun) reimagines Tezuka's 1960s epic fantasy saga Dororo, which followed the exploits of a warrior quest to rid feudal Japan of supernatural demons, as a gritty, fast-paced cyberpunk thriller set in a dystopian city held in the grip of vile mechanical crime lords. Years ago, a brilliant inventor saved a grievously injured young girl from certain death by replacing her damaged or missing flesh with cybernetic enhancements. Now the girl is on a hyperviolent quest for revenge against the monsters who deprived her of her humanity, starting with a corpulent thug in possession of her tongue and a sadistic art collector who counts her preserved eyeballs among his prized possessions. But is it really possible to regain one's humanity through violence and vengeance, or will the hero end up even worse off than if she'd never been kept alive years earlier? VERDICT Kaneko retains Tezuka's relentless pacing, flair for melodrama, and thematic focus on justice, corruption, and individuality within an oppressive society, while integrating elements of body horror and an increased focus on the unsustainability of societies where vital resources are controlled by a thriving minority, to the detriment of the masses.

Library Journal