Thanks

Part 1 of a 2 part thing by friend Connor Shea over at NOVI. Real hype for this series.

novicomics:

FREED FROM THE EARTH: POSTHUMANISM & POSTMODERNISM IN THE MANGA OF HITOSHI TOMIZAWA (PART ONE OF TWO)

“When you start getting used to it… that’s when things get scary.” – Kumi (Alien Nine)

FIRST CONTACT

It was a few years ago that I first encountered the comics of Hitoshi Tomizawa online. After downloading and reading his series Milk Closet from a popular scanlation site, I was blown away – not by his artwork, characterization or storytelling ability (all of which I found off-putting, if not outright bad) but by how fucking weird the whole thing was.

And so, despite my misgivings about Tomizawa’s formal chops as a manga artist, I found myself hooked. I wanted to read more, of course, but mostly I just wanted someone to explain to me what the hell was going on. Unfortunately (but perhaps understandably), his work is not very popular here in the States, and the most I could find online at the time was a short Wikipedia article. It provided a list of his works and connected him to the Japanese art movement self-branded as “Superflat,” but little other information was available. Critical discussion of the artist or his manga (in either comics or fine art spheres) was practically nonexistent. This remains much the case today (with one notable exception) and is why I felt compelled to write about the reasons his comics are so fascinating.

In October 2011, Jason Thompson published an article in his column “House of 1000 Manga” on the website Anime News Network discussing Tomizawa’s series Alien Nine. This article (in addition to providing additional background information on Tomizawa) is an intelligent and succinct examination of both the manga and a few of the fan theories which have cropped up around it. And while the whole article is worth reading (and I might suggest you do so before continuing), I am going to focus on the final idea he brings up: “the metamorphosis of humans into another form of life” or posthumanism and how this rather optimistic idea is related to the darker theme of body-horror (e.g. many of Cronenberg’s films or Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte) (Thompson). In an interview, Tomizawa describes this as “the theme of symbiosis [which] appears in all of my work, regardless of genre” but in a more generalized form, the common theme of his work can be described as the integration of individual humans into some outside system: biological, societal, political or all three (Tomizawa). Specifically, this integration results in a trade-off between the power gained from the transformation and the confusion and horror which results from the loss of identity that this change necessitates.

HOW TO COLONIZE SPACE

In this way, the story “How to Colonize Space” is an excellent introduction to Tomizawa’s work. At 24 pages, it’s a short read, and is available online. In it, a space transport vessel is terrorized by a string of mysterious murders. The culprit is revealed to be a former human, whose current alien body was forced onto her for the purpose of space colonization (hence the title). As a caption box explains on page 14, “humans have to evolve if they want to live permanently outside Earth” and in this story, the evolution was deliberately effected by humans themselves. However, the space colonist is resentful of the change forced upon her. While it was necessary for these colonists to “give up their human form” in order to adapt to a system naturally inhospitable to humans (i.e. space), in this process she lost her original identity: both her human body and the prospect of a life involved in something other than space exploration (Space 14).

HOW TO COLONIZE SPACE PAGE 20 

Thus she begins to prey upon normal humans, having become more powerful than them and no longer feeling obliged to follow standard human morality. The story ends with her death at the hands of another modified space colonist who, in contrast, retains some aspect of his humanity through a continued loyalty to the human race.

OTHER WORKS

Only two of Tomizawa’s six series have been published in English (Alien Nine and his short, early work Treasure Hunter Jubei) and the publisher of both, Central Park Media, stopped publishing manga in 2009, leaving the titles out of print. In addition to Milk Closet and “How to Colonize Space”, a scanlation of Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale, Tomizawa’s commissioned sequel to the popular Battle Royale manga, can be found online. Untranslated pages from his remaining two series Propeller Heaven and Tokumu Hokokan Yumihari (or “Special Task Force, the Battleship Yumihari”) are also available online, but since I cannot read these I won’t be discussing them.

In some form, the conflict found in “How to Colonize Space” is at the core of all of Tomizawa’s works. It is central to both Alien Nine and Milk Closet and can be subtly read into Blitz Royale. In Alien Nine, three children are forced to join a school organization called the “Alien Party” and form symbiotic connections to aliens called “Borgs” which protect but also slowly and irrevocably alter them.

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 1 PAGE 15 

In Milk Closet, children mysteriously start warping to parallel universes. There, they come into contact with alien life-forms who consume and recreate them, destroying their original bodies and replacing them with more powerful alien duplicates (Milk Closet).

MILK CLOSET VOLUME 1 PAGE 77 

Just like the first manga, films and book to which it’s connected, Battle Royale II: Blitz Royale features a middle school class abducted and placed on an island by the military. There, these children also lose their original identities: trading their school uniforms for military fatigues, they are empowered by the guns and “combat drugs” given to them but also controlled by the collars placed around their necks and the threat of said collars exploding.

BLITZ ROYALE VOLUME 1 PAGE 66

VOLATILE REACTIONS             

Common to all these stories is that the characters are forced into their transformations by outside forces. And while characters’ reactions to their metamorphosis vary considerably, a recurring one is crippling terror.

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 1 PAGE 25 

Fear, of course, is a natural human response to both the unknown and the possibility of bodily harm. Body-horror has traditionally combined both of these fears along with confusion between mental and physical identity to produce emotional charge and Tomizawa’s manga run parallel to this tradition. While not following many of the genre tropes of horror, (Tomizawa has suggested that he would like Alien Nine to be considered a “legitimate science fiction story”) many readers still find Tomizawa’s comics to be disturbing (Tomizawa). The strange juxtaposition of cute, manga-style children and intense, alien violence almost seems calculated to provoke such a response from his audience.

            But horror is not the only possible response. The children in Milk Closet, for instance, express gratitude towards their alien symbiotes for “sav[ing] [their] lives”, although it is debatable how much of their consciousness survived the destruction of their original bodies (Milk Closet p.129).

MILK CLOSET VOLUME 1 PAGE 129 

And while the views of the humanist colonist from “How to Colonize Space” are never explicitly stated, he seems to have accepted the burden and duty placed upon him with the realization that “if it weren’t for people like [the modified colonists] mankind would’ve been sentenced to extinction” (Space p.21). Perhaps the most unfortunate reaction, but a realistic one, occurs in Blitz Royale when the children angrily turn against each other, unjustly placing the blame for their predicament amongst their own ranks.

BLITZ ROYALE VOLUME 2 PAGE 77 

           

Alien Nine, for all the problems related to the shallow characterization of its three leads, provides excellent contrasting examples of different possible reactions to confrontation with an alien system and loss of human identity.

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 1 PAGE 87 

Yuri’s reaction to alien contact is extremely negative; she considers aliens to be gross and “hate[s] looking at them and touching them and talking to them” (Alien Nine p.19).  She is comfortable and complacent in her traditional humanity, both with regard to her body and to her role in society (e.g. watching television in her free time, wanting to be a bride when she’s older). Out of the three members of her school’s “Alien Party”, she is the weakest, becoming paralyzed with fear during most of the fights.

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 1 PAGE 107  

She is also the only member of the Alien Party not to fuse with her “Borg”, thus retaining her humanity and never having to face the questions of identity the others characters do. This proves to be a liability however, as her lack of integration with her Borg causes it to lose control and attack her friends at the end of the first volume and, later in the series, allows her to be targeted and manipulated by a rival alien faction, the “Sunflower Clan”.

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 1 PAGE 79

Kasumi deals with her alien interaction in a neutral and mature way. Neither attracted to nor repulsed by aliens, she volunteers for the Alien Party because it exempts her from having to become Class President again, a duty she resents for its burdensome responsibility. She seems to value the power of the Borg, as well as her inclusion in the Alien Party, for the independence it grants her (although, ironically, these things eventually make her more dependent on others). Her approach to the challenges she faces is level-headed and logical, leaving most of the fighting up to her Borg but assisting where possible.

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 1 PAGE 116 

She fuses completely with her Borg midway through the series after being killed by an especially dangerous alien. After this point, she reveals that she had shared with Yuri an attachment to her identity as a human, staring at her new, alien form and lamenting that “[she’ll] never get a husband now” (Alien Nine vol.2 p.190). It’s also at this point that she decides that she must “protect Yuri” from becoming alien, not wanting Yuri to “feel the way [she and Kasumi] do” (Alien Nine vol.2 p208).

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 1 PAGE 83

It is not certain, however, that Kumi and Kasumi feel the same way. From the very beginning, Kasumi’s reaction to the aliens is positive to the point of being exuberant. Multi-talented and full of energy, Kasumi’s multiple hobbies evince a personality eager to plunge into uncharted territory with the self-provided assurance of not just success but excellence. With this adaptable attitude and the skill to support it, she is the most powerful member of the Alien Party, not only performing her required duties but also enjoying the performance.

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 1 PAGE 120 

It should be little surprise then that she is the first of the trio to compromise her original identity. Strangely attracted to an alien visitor known as a “Yellow Knife”, she is consumed by it and trapped in its body until being freed by Yuri and Kumi. Although she looks the same after coming out and is still able to work with her Borg, it is revealed that her body has become a host for the slain alien.

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 2 PAGE 83

Kasumi never seems to experience or express regret related to her symbiotic relationship with not just one but two different aliens and the fact that she has the abilities of both the Borg and the Yellow Knife proves itself useful. But her divided loyalties also complicate things, such as when she attacks Kumi for killing the original Yellow Knife.

            Across this spectrum, the risks of both accepting and refusing change are laid out. And they are both risks. Humans don’t really have anything to gain from their subsumption into the aliens’ systems. But neither do the humans have the option to not participate, to not make a choice. The alien presence changes the rules of the game and the humans are forced to either risk extinction through refusing to adapt to the new system and being unable to compete or risk extinction through changing so much they can no longer be considered humans.

THE POST-HUMAN

Of course, this is only how the situation would be viewed from a traditional humanist perspective, which is not how Tomizawa constructed his story. In interview, Tomizawa stated that, for him, Alien Nine is about “looking at things from an alien’s point of view, not a human’s point of view” (Tomizawa). His aliens have a “very uncomplicated logic” and, from their perspective, the Earth and its inhabitants are just another resource to be utilized (Tomizawa).

ALIEN  NINE VOLUME 3 PAGE 113 

Whether their presence is helpful or harmful to humanity is largely beside the point.

            As it would also be to a post-human fully integrated into an alien system. For most humans, loyalty is a virtue and betrayal is a sin, but what does it matter if you’re no longer human? Here, the horror of subjective immorality is contrasted with the power of freedom from that morality. Earlier, I brought up the question of whether the children in Milk Closet retain enough of their original identity to truly express an opinion on their symbiosis with the aliens. But it is just as debatable whether the question even holds relevance to them anymore, in their post-human state. In Milk Closet, Tomizawa’s answer seems to be ‘no’. The children don’t choose to be afflicted by the “Liesl Syndrome” which causes them to jump between the story’s multiple dimensions. But once they are, they make the choice to survive and help others survive by joining with the aliens they encounter, po-faced appendages known as “Tail Creatures”. And as the story progresses they don’t just absorb individual beings (both human and alien) into their system, but also entire dimensions.

MILK CLOSET VOLUME 3 PAGE 128 

This culminates in their creation of a “Grand Universe”, which does not have the risk of collapsing like the universes they originated in and thus ensures the future survival of those fortunate enough to be included within it. And while the characters do experience moments of doubt throughout the story (Milk Closet vol.2 p.162 & vol.4 p.9), overall, the process is portrayed positively. Rather than focus on the loss of the individual, Milk Closet glorifies the power the whole gains beyond that of its parts. The individual identity is not lost so much as transcended.

MILK CLOSET VOLUME 3 PAGE 5 

Individuality is even denigrated in both Milk Closet and Alien Nine as being a condition of loneliness, not independence.

MILK CLOSET VOLUME 1 PAGE 133

ALIEN NINE VOLUME 2 PAGE 37 

Even Alien Nine’s Yuri, who hates and fears aliens, is most terrified by the sensation of loneliness psychically imposed upon her by the Yellow Knife. Tomizawa suggests that the retention of individuality is not only a weakness but prevents the attainment of true happiness.

            On the other hand, Blitz Royale shows the influence of its outside system (i.e. the government) as an entirely negative influence. However, it also insists on the necessity of working within that system, even to rebel against it. The main character, Makoto, is kind-hearted and eager to help her classmates but her focus on herself as an individual prevents her from being able to do so.

BLITZ ROYALE VOLUME 2 PAGE 98 

It is only through her transcendence of self at the end that she has the chance to fight back against the military. And in order to enact this transcendence, Makoto must use the very power gained from her military transformation. Distraught by the deaths of her friends, Makoto begins ingesting heavy quantities of the “combat drugs” provided them, drugs which, in addition to preventing fatigue and pain, alter the mental state of the user. Then, as death closes in around her, she shoots herself, not in a selfish act of suicide, but in a selfless gambit to escape the control of the collar around her neck.

BLITZ ROYALE VOLUME 2 PAGE 185 

It is only by doing this that Makoto survives and is able to make her vow on the last page to “[not] let anybody else die” (Blitz Royale vol.2 p.199). It cannot be ignored that she is now fully part of the government’s system, with the military either accepting her rebellion or having planned for it from the beginning (calling it “Operation Antagonism”). But from both the perspective of her original identity’s desire to help others and a desire to survive regardless of form, Makoto made the only logical choice.

           

HORROR & ATTACHMENT

In all of Tomizawa’s work, normal humans are faced with the inevitability of change and must make decisions about how to act when their previously held conceptions about themselves and their environment no longer apply. The horror in Tomizawa’s manga is found in the presence of the unknown and death (whether literal or figurative, in loss of selfhood and identity). But the true source of that horror is the characters’ attachment to the past. The most successful characters in Tomizawa’s manga are those who abandon this attachment, accept the change forced upon them and utilize whatever ability they have within the new system. Of course, Tomizawa’s readers (myself included) may have trouble in completely accepting this post-humanist viewpoint, involved as we are in our present humanity. But when confronted with manga such as these, perhaps we too may be transformed.

            I’ll close this first essay with a quote from the film Jacob’s Ladder, itself quoting Meister Eckhart, a Christian mystic whose philosophy shares similarities with Buddhism:

“The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won’t let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they’re not punishing you, they’re freeing your soul. So, if you’re frightened of dying and you’re holding on, you’ll see devils tearing your life away. But if you’ve made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.”

by guest columnist Connor Shea.