MANGA: Search and Destroy Ch. 03

By Atsushi Kaneko

Hello everyone, welcome to chapter three of Atsushi Kaneko’s Search and Destroy, based on Dororo by Osamu Tezuka. This week’s chapter is paywalled for paid subscribers to MSX: Mangasplaining Extra. You can catch up with chapter one here and see the index for all of our manga series’ here. If you just want this week’s chapter of Search and Destroy and to skip the essay below, scroll down to the title.

Read Chapter: 00-01 | 02

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Working in North American manga publishing for a few years now, I can say with confidence that one of the rarest occurrences for translators, letterers, editors, etc., is actually getting to meet the manga creators that make the stories they work on. Oh, sure, you talk to a Japanese manga editor and they know everyone, have met everyone, have made artists come to the office to hand in their pages and explain why they are late. But the English-language team? Or the French-language team for that matter? Far, far rarer.

I’ve been lucky enough to see it happen a few times though. I got to be there at the first in-person meeting of translator extraordinaire Jocelyne Allen and the incredible Akane Torikai, the team behind Wandering Cat’s Cage (I talked about that last week). I’ve been fortunate enough to see hard-working editorial and production teams meet some big names at Shonen Jump. But more recently, I got to introduce Search and Destroy translator Ben Applegate to creator Atsushi Kaneko, over a really great dinner in Ebisu.

Christopher Woodrow-Butcher, Atsushi Kaneko, Ben Applegate. Photo by Frederic Toutlemonde.

I want to thank licensing agent Frederic Toutlemonde for helping set up this meeting, and Kaneko-sensei himself for taking the time in between deadlines. I don’t want to give away the private moments and discussions had here, but the short version is: We had a great dinner, and Ben got to meet one of his favourite manga creators, and I got to know Kaneko-sensei a little better, and we talked about Search and Destroy and many other great manga all night. It was really great, and far, far too rare.

Sometimes you get to meet your heroes, the people whose art really matters to you, and it’s the kind of thing you remember forever. I would hope that all the folks working in manga in North America get that same opportunity too, with their favourites, someday. I know I’m already trying to figure out another dinner in future, where letterer Phil Christie gets to come visit too. :)

• Christopher Woodrow-Butcher

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Search and Destroy - Chapter 03

By Atsushi Kaneko, based on the story by Osamu Tezuka
Translated by Ben Applegate. Lettered by Phil Christie.