Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Most Emotional So Far
The Mysterious Underground Men is by far the most emotionally appealing work we have read this semester. From the opening sequence of Little John losing his father, which transitions into the experimentation on Mimio and his struggles with proving his humanity, I was instantly emotionally engaged in the text. My emotional investment in Mimio was far greater than in other characters we've encountered this semester. He's endearing, and his demise was heartbreaking. Tezuka did a wonderful job in drawing the reader in to his characters. The panels are also very artistically appealing, especially the plane and car crash sequences. Those two factors combined made for an enrapturing read for me. I never thought I could get "lost" in a graphic novel like I did with this one.
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The afterword notes that The Mysterious Underground Men was the first children's manga to incorporate tragic elements. Earlier manga had been intended to be humorous and steered clear of other emotions, especially negative ones. Mimio is a cute, engaging character, and his death happens when it looks like everything is going to be safe. Having a central character die was not something that happened before in manga - imagine how shocking it might have been to children reading it at the time.
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