Recommended Manga Reading: Buddha and Basilisk

I don't really read a whole lot of manga. I think it's just too great a culture gap for me to bridge; I have no interest in the teenage-audience targeted section of the market, which does seem to account for a large proportion of the material currently on offer, in the UK at least, and even the fantasy-themed stories seem just a bit too impenetrable.

Every so often Sarah Ash, who is a really big manga-fan, drops me a line to let me know which of the series currently in distribution are less... um... fixated on the pre-pubescent... and as a result, there are two series that I have actually been tempted to try, and I've enjoyed them both, in their own way (so maybe there's hope for me yet).

Buddha by Osama Tezuka

The eight volume Buddha series is, in essence, a re-telling of the entire life story of the holy man himself, from birth to death. Born a Prince of a small kingdom of the Indian sub-continent some time around the 5th century BCE, history tells us that Siddhartha turned his back on his royal heritage and became an itinerant monk, later achieving Enlightenment (Buddha means 'enlightened') and going on to bring his teachings of peaceful co-existence with all nature to a sect that eventually spread his words throughout the world. It's educational, interesting, based on stories that are over 2,500 years old that lie at the heart of one of the most widely respected and admired religions in the world.

Frankly, it's quite mad. In places it reads like a cross between Asterix and a Pokémon cartoon; all 'pow', 'blam' and 'AAARGH!' one minute, and a National Geographic documentary; complete with lessons on the ancient history and culture of the Indian sub-continent, the next.

If I remember the details aright, the series was originally written in the '60s, but it has been re-translated and brought bang up to date with a whole series of contextually rather bizarre cultural references. Which means that halfway through a particular chapter in the 2,500 year old life story of the Enlightened One, one of the minor characters might accuse another of watching too many sci-fi movies, or of eating too many burgers, or there's the bit where one peasant working in the fields pulls out a transistor radio and another one turns to them and calls him an "anachronist"... you get the idea, I'm sure; it's all very odd.

But oddly compelling at the same time. I had no trouble reading through all eight volumes, even if they did start to get a bit repetitive towards the sixth or seventh installment. So if you do fancy something a bit different - and definitely educational; I now know a lot more about the story of the Buddha than I did before I started - then it's worth giving this one a go. UK editions are distributed by HarperCollins and all eight are available from Amazon.co.uk and all good bookstores, etc.

Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls by Masaki Segawa (trans. David Ury)

Ninjas! What's more: Ninjas with superpowers! Yeah, that's more like it, eh?

In Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, two clans of ninja warriors go to war on the orders of the Shogun of Japan; the winning clan will decide which of two potential heirs gets to be the next Shogun, and so everything is at stake. Both clans - the Iga and the Kouga - have recently been forced into a truce, but this war offers the opportunity to resume four hundred years of hostilities, and so of course they go at it with a will.

The plot is fairly straightforward; ten Ninjas on either side, each with a particular special ability ('Ninja Technique') ranging from the ability to recover from any wound, to the ability to rob another Ninja of their power by gazing into their eyes, or even to force them to turn their own power upon themselves...

It's generally a cracking read, and so far (vols. #1 - #4) I only have one or two niggles: the first is that it's all just a bit predictable in places - for instance, at the start of the story the heirs-apparent to each clan are in love and due to marry; guess which two are going to be standing at the end for the final confrontation? And volume four was very slow. Mind you, the author had already killed off seven Ninjas on either side by that point; maybe he was worried he was going to run out before he filled his page-quota?

And a quick caveat emptor: it is a bit heavy on the gratuitous titillation in places, too. The (<ahem> quite well-endowed) lady Ninjas have a habit of losing most of their clothes; one instance involves a lady Ninja being captured, tied to a post and half-stripped (the whole Japanese cultural predilection for bondage thing there, obviously). So it's lucky for her that her Ninja Technique involves the use of flesh-contact... I won't spoil the effect, but suffice to say she doesn't turn out to be quite as helpless as you might have thought.

I'll leave you to decide for yourself whether the t&a element is generally a good thing or not; the cover of Basilisk does point that the series is suggested for mature readers, so just bear it in mind if you're thinking of picking this one up for your kids...

Again though, it's a series that's well worth checking out if you're tempted to try something manga, but the idea of catching up on the ins and outs of the Japanese teenage dating scene doesn't really float your boat. UK editions are being distributed and US import Del Rey editions are generally available as well.