sometimes I’m taken by madness divine

The growth of Japanese comics (aka manga) in Western markets the past few years has been nothing short of phenomenal. So much so, in fact, that based on sales figures, manga books have supplanted superheroic fare as the “new mainstream” (or a parallel mainstream, depending how holistic – or myopic -- one’s view of these things is), built largely on a reader base outside the traditional comics reader demographic. These days one can enter a bookstore or decent comics shop (accent on decent) and find hundreds of manga titles covering a broad range of genres (horror, teen romance, martial arts, competitive cookery), but two decades ago, when the translated manga trend was in its infancy, one could count the number of titles being released on the fingers of one hand.

Back then, the two publishers with their hands in the game were Dark Horse, with their squarebound Lone Wolf and Cub reprints, and the late (and sort of lamented) Eclipse, which published a small number of biweekly titles in the traditional pamphlet format through an arrangement with Viz (before Viz began publishing their own titles a short while later). Eclipse’s initial roster of manga offerings included the Marxist ninja story Kamui, the gory teen hijinxs of Mai the Psychic Girl, the fighter pilot soap opera Area 88, and the subject of today’s post, Xenon: Heavy Metal Warrior. (I guess “Noble Gas Warrior,” though scientifically correct, didn’t sound as cool.)

Xenon tells the story of a high school “bad boy” (with the obligatory tender side), Asuka Kano, who finds himself with a cybernetic body and a bad case of amnesia following a horrific plane crash. It’s all part of a grand new product rollout by The Bloody Sea, an international arms cartel seeking to perfect the next generation of cyborg super-soldiers. Askua’s efforts to come to grips with his new abilities are consistently interrupted by Bloody Sea retrieval teams, real go-getter types who aren’t above using rocket launchers or industry-standard killer cyborg biker monkeys to achieve their goals.

The twenty-three issues of the series fall into a predictable series of arcs, where Asuka, along with the crusty scientist who originally developed the project, a high school rival-turned-friend, and a female track star (and Bloody Sea prototype effort) with cybernetic legs attempt to thwart the organization’s plans thusly:

- “I can’t win against this cyborg/super-mercenary/killer monster!”
- “You must win against this cyborg/super-mercenary/killer monster!”
- “With this new secret data/add-on/weapon I can now defeat this cyborg/super-mercenary/killer monster!”
- Rinse, repeat

It’s not the most sophisticated plotline, but the hyper-frenetic pacing pushes things along nicely and keeps the reader from noticing some of the more problematic parts of the narrative. (It helps to read the entire series in a single setting, something that will take the average reader, oh, an hour and a half, tops.) The early issues of Xenon featured articles about manga and mecha culture in lieu of letter pages, and one of these refers to the series as being part of a “new wave” of manga. I’m still unclear of what that appellation is supposed to mean, except that the narrative is sparser and anticipated the Hollywood blockbuster formula (lots of flashy “wow”, lean on substance) by ten years, but the same qualities can been seen in plenty of older manga and anime series. Xenon, to me, reads like the marriage of the classic Marvel superhero template (a conflicted hero thrown into a world he didn’t want to be a part of) to the highly-stylized aesthetics of manga. Kano’s cyborg form is a slick blend of sentai, giant robo, and American superhero designs.

There’s also plenty of dramatic shouting and big dollops of ultraviolence to keep things from getting boring. Fred Burke commented on his experiences translating the series as “the book in which I had to decide what it would sound like to shove a woman's heart out of her rib cage, and then recreate the comic-booky dialogue she will spurt with her blood.” There were ample amounts of fan service, as well; featuring both Yoko (the woman with the cyber legs) and Sonoko, a high school girl with a crush on Asuka. (Burke also mentions that the comic received a considerable number of fan letters from female readers – more evidence that pat judgments linking gender to genre tastes are nonsensical and reductive.) The depiction of women in the book can be a little off-putting, and in one case downright icky. (I could have done without the scene where Sonoko is taken hostage. It’s not hentai, but in some ways, it’s even more disturbing.)

Even with the occasionally skeevy moment (and the nonsensical conclusion of the series), Xenon is a wildly entertaining read, and was perfectly suited for my tastes as a fifteen year old fanboy beginning to feel jaded by American superhero fare. (Secret Wars II and Millennium damn near did in my interest in the Big Two’s offerings a while.) It’s a shame my efforts to adopt its style of dialogue into everyday life went so poorly. Maybe I should have picked another time and place besides at church on Easter Sunday to inaugurate the change.

AHHH! DAMN IT! HERE IS THE MUSIC! FOR TODAY!!!! (Feel free to add in your own speed lines and fist-through-the-rib-cage sound effects.)

Nitzer Ebb – Kick It (from Big Hit, 1995) – Also sold under the “I Can’t Believe It’s Not NIN” brand name.

Judas Priest – Turbo Lover (from Turbo, 1986) – Turbo Lover = a 1982 Camaro Z28, Part-Time Lover = a 1983 Chrysler Cordoba, Easy Lover = a 1976 Chevy Vega with a leaking head gasket

Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Teenage Thunder (from Flaunt It, 1986) – SSS were a one-trick-pony, but what a delightful trick and colorfully clad pony…