Manga that defies categorization

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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’