Pretty Hate Machine - On Atsushi Kaneko's 'Search and Destroy'
Journalist Frederico Anzalone wrote the introduction for Search and Destroy volume 1, and we present it here for your enjoyment
Hi everyone! This week Mangasplaining Extra brings you the introduction to Search and Destroy Volume 1, by Atsushi Kaneko and based on Dororo by Osamu Tezuka. We commissioned Frederico to write this intro because, as a fan and friend of Kaneko-sensei, we knew he’d do a great job re-introducing this masterful cartoonist’s work to North America, more than 20 years since the first aborted attempt to bring his incredible comics to English-language readers with Bambi and Her Pink Gun. I’d say he knocked it out of the park, and we’ve received lots of great feedback that it brings out some of the depth of Kaneko’s work and oeuvre out into plain site, to accompany his phenomenal cartooning and story. He’s a truly incredible creator, and we feel fortunate to be able to re-introduce his work to North America. Thanks, Frederico!
PRETTY HATE MACHINE
By Frederico Anzalone
From the introduction to Search and Destroy Volume 1
“You’ll be the first ones to see this, apart from my publisher,” Kaneko says, as he turns on his tablet. The year is 2018 and we’re waiting for our drinks in a café. Outside, blazing rays of spring sunlight glide over the glass towers of Tokyo — the exact opposite of the wintry landscape now displayed on the LCD screen. We’re diving into Search and Destroy’s first chapter, to be published a few months later in the inaugural issue of Tezucomi magazine. I’m astonished by the level of detail unfolding before my eyes: this is undoubtedly the graphic pinnacle of Atsushi Kaneko’s work to date. In my opinion, this technical leap reflects a desire to feel worthy of adapting the “god of manga” Osamu Tezuka, as much as it shows Kaneko’s new mastery of the digital tool. It should be noted that Search and Destroy is the first comic he produced entirely on iPad using an Apple Pencil, after cutting his teeth on the last volumes of his previous series Deathco. This is a major change. After two decades, the artist left behind his faithful brush pen, his signature tool and a direct legacy of the alternative cultures that forged his unique manga artscape.
Kaneko didn’t follow the usual manga-ka path. Born in 1966 in the quiet rural area of Sakata, Yamagata prefecture, his worldview was turned upside down when he discovered the Sex Pistols as a teenager, and they were his entry-point into the underground culture surrounding the punk movement. His calling as a comics artist grew out of these new interests, with Suehiro Maruo’s cover illustration for the album Mushi by Japanese band The Stalin in the eighties being an inspiration. Fast forward. After studying economics, and then cinema, and various unsuccessful attempts at manga short stories, Atsushi Kaneko had his first success in 1997 with the manga series Bambi and Her Pink Gun (partially released in English by Digital Manga Publishing). Bambi found popularity among a certain Japanese audience eager for arty, deviant manga — people like musicians, art students and other hip outsiders: the subculture. For Bambi, Kaneko had adopted the brush pen as his illustrative tool of choice to get his manga closer to the look of lowbrow artists such as Coop and Frank Kozik, whose many gig posters he loved. He also made no secret of his admiration for the likes of Charles Burns and Daniel Clowes — American indie comics artists he discovered through their record covers for Iggy Pop and The Supersuckers. His subsequent manga SOIL (2003), Wet Moon (2011), and Deathco (2014) all carry this style, marked by bold brushstrokes in a full and loose fashion.
While Search and Destroy marks a shift towards a more elaborate linework, the result remains punk at heart — right down to the title, referencing the famous Stooges song. Or you could say cyberpunk, as this is the artist’s first science-fiction series. However it could have been a completely different manga. In October 2018, Micro Magazine launched the monthly manga anthology Tezucomi to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Osamu Tezuka’s birth. The concept was to ask current authors to remake one of the master’s works in their own style. Originally, Kaneko wanted to adapt the little-known short story The Euphrates Tree (1973), a supernatural thriller... but the publisher told him to pick a more famous piece. So he took on the challenge of adapting Dororo (1967), a historical fantasy series featuring the ronin Hyakkimaru, whose body parts were given to 48 demons at his birth and replaced by prosthesis. The stars aligned: Dororo was the perfect match for Kaneko, who was already planning an SF story featuring a character with a half-mechanical body. He thus delivered a fierce rereading of Tezuka’s classic, drawing on influences as diverse as the former USSR or avant-garde fashion, and anchored in a tech-noir setting where cybernetic implants have replaced samurai swords and social fractures echo today’s issues. Above all, he made Hyakkimaru a girl, which seemed more relevant given the character’s literal objectification. She’s a “pretty hate machine,” bursting with anger at the old bastards who stole her future. I find this wind of teenage riot to be the most Kaneko-esque element of the whole remake, even beyond the author’s aesthetic signature.
Over the past ten years, Kaneko has shown himself to be particularly sensitive to the younger generation’s angst, and has expressed it in an increasingly direct and emotional way, starting with the manic-depressive heroine of Deathco — a manga still very much imbued with a mischievous punk nihilism — and continuing with the much more disenchanted EVOL (2020), his current series, which takes teenage suicide as its starting point. Standing halfway between the two, Search and Destroy appears as a moment of possible hope. However dark and violent it may be, this story is about the importance of life. In spite of her flood of rage, Hyaku never gives up, fighting for her rights and autonomy and devoting every second of her existence to building a more liveable future for herself.
Ultimately, perhaps guided by the light of Osamu Tezuka, Atsushi Kaneko has delivered here his most optimistic and uplifting work.
Frederico Anzalone, October 2023
Frederico Anzalone is a manga specialist who works between Brussels, Paris, and Tokyo. He writes for leading French-language publications such as ATOM Magazine, curates exhibitions (“Tatsuki Fujimoto: Hero of Chaos” for Angouleme International Comics Festival) and hosts events. He also manages the Asia Prize of the ACBD — the French association of comics critics and journalists — and is a manga consultant for the Brussels Book Fair. You can find him on Twitter at @fureddo_a.
For more of Fredercio’s work, check out this French-language on-stage interview between Frederico and Atsushi Kaneko:
Search and Destroy Volume 1 is now available wherever books are sold!
Buy it: Amazon — Barnes & Noble — The Beguiling Toronto — Fantagraphics
Praise for Atsushi Kaneko’s Search and Destroy:
Atsushi Kaneko “has chosen to adapt Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga DORORO as SEARCH AND DESTROY with the same sense of mayhem he brought to BAMBI AND HER PINK GUN [with a] richly imagined future society and….the balletic choreography of his fight scenes.” — NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
“I really loved the character designs on this series. Making the main character, Hyaku, a girl, really felt like it brought out the anger against the world and her surrounding situations."—Peach Momoko
"SEARCH AND DESTROY feels like a landmark sci-fi story. Your next favorite manga is John Wick meets Bladerunner." — AIPT
"Search and Destroy grabs you by the throat with its opening chapter and never lets go."―Multiversity Comics
“The story is packed with wall-to-wall action, stunningly and gruesomely rendered: explosions, bloody assassinations, wild animal attacks, underground cyborg surgery, a fight on top of a speeding semitruck. …. It’s a blast of pure cyberpunk energy.”—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“A gritty, fast-paced cyberpunk thriller set in a dystopian city held in the grip of vile mechanical crime lords…. Kaneko retains Tezuka’s relentless pacing, flair for melodrama, and thematic focus on justice, corruption, and individuality within an oppressive society.”—LIBRARY JOURNAL
“Search and Destroy is a gritty science fiction work with quite a bit of action, some violence, and promises of plenty more action and violence in the future. … Ambitious.“—OTAKU USA
A heady dose of cyberpunk.”—VOL ONE BROOKLYN
“A bold adaptation of a classic Tezuka manga.”—COMICON.COM
“A dark, atmospheric take on Dororo, not losing sight of Tezuka's vision while showcasing intense writing and brilliant artwork by Atsushi Kaneko.”—SCREENRANT
“A revenge thriller you feel in your bones.”―FROM COVER TO COVER
"SEARCH AND DESTROY grabs you by the throat with its opening chapter and never lets go."―MULTIVERSITY COMICS
Christopher here. Just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you subscribing, especially our paid subscribers, for helping make Search and Destroy possible in English. Look for ward to Search and Destroy Volume 3 soon on Mangasplaining Extra, and Mangasplaining Season 5 coming any day now!