Manga that defies categorization

Sales of manga in print form may have peaked in Japan, but their influence on related arts continues to grow--including fiction, as this intriguing anthology demonstrates. The first collection in English of the "fighting illustory magazine" editor Katsushi Ota launched in 2003, "Faust: Fiction and Manga from the Cutting Edge of Japanese Pop Culture Volume 1" surveys material that defies neat categorization: The lines that separate prose, illustration and comics blur like water colors.

In "xxxHolic: Anotherholic," writer Nisiosin reworks an episode of the popular manga xxxHolic, the tale of Yuko, a witch who can grant any wish, and her put-upon human assistant Watanuki, into an eerie novel. A capable young woman engineers accidents and illnesses that enable her to live a life of carefully constructed mediocrity--until she visits Yuko's shop.

Novelist Otsuichi and illustrator Takeshi Obata evoke the long-running cartoon "Doraemon," the adventures of a robot-cat from the future, in "F-sensei's Pocket." Two high school girls learn that such marvelous inventions as the What-If Booth and Anywhere Door can backfire when they're transported to the real world. Collaborators Kinoko Nasu (prose) and Takashi Takeuchi (illustration) examine a rash of teenage suicides from shifting points of view in the unsettling story "Garden of Sinners."

The diversity of the material in "Faust" suggests the vibrancy and alienation of a culture in flux, and offers valuable insights into the attitudes of young Japanese writers and readers. Volume 2, due out in April, 2009, is something to look forward to.

-- Charles Solomon

Cover illustration from "Faust 1"