MANGA AND SUPERMANGA: (Sorry.) Two quick reviews.

Junji Ito, Gyo, vol. 2: The conclusion of a horror story about these… well… they’re fish and sharks and suchlike, mounted on metal frameworks that allow them to walk about terrorizing people. The frameworks seem to have minds of their own: They capture helpless humans and infect them with a virus that makes them produce the flatulence that powers the frameworks.

Right. This was very much Not My Thing. I would have been able to ignore the gross-out element, though, if the story had been strong. But as with other Ito comics I’ve read, a strong initial concept just fizzles out into nothing-in-particular by the end. There’s a lot of random semi-creepiness, but no real point, and virtually no character development. The freakshow circus was a really standard horror cliche. The mad scientist’s assistant was quite pretty, but otherwise, there wasn’t much to stick around for.

Vol. 2 also includes two short pieces. One is just more hemi-demi-creepy randomness. The second, though, is an effective, “Twilight Zone”-ish tale of a cliffside pocked with holes shaped like human bodies. People are drawn to the mysterious cliffs, where each person finds a hole that perfectly fits his or her silhouette. One man tries to resist the holes’ allure, fearing that if he enters his hole he’ll be lost forever…. A very spooky image, some quiet suspense, and, I thought (though I could be overreaching), a nice visual way of representing the way solipsism and isolation warp the sense of self. So that story is worth reading in the comic shop; but then, if I were you, I would put the book back on the shelf.

Makato Yukimura, Planetes, vol. 1: This is a set of linked science fiction short stories about a crew who travels through space cleaning up debris left by human space exploration. I loved it. The pictures–though sometimes hard to follow in more action-heavy sequences–gave a real sense of the wonder of space. The main characters were sharply delineated and went through real, and realistic, changes in the course of the stories. The stories often had a theme of isolation (the isolation of grief, of illness, of fear of failure) but also shared a sweetness and an atmosphere of compassion that kept the stories from becoming depressing.

Oh, this was just a really nice, small, very human-scale treat. It captured all the sentimental dreaminess of old-school space stories. Highly recommended–and, too, this would be a great addition to school libraries. I’m definitely picking up further books–I think at least vol. 2 is out now.