Manga Review: Asadora! Volume 8 by Naoki Urasawa
Note: There will be SPOILERS for earlier volumes of this series. If you don’t want to be spoiled, read those earlier volumes before reading this review.
Quick recap: Asa Asada was kidnapped as a child, but a typhoon and a mysterious monster forced her and her kidnapper, World War Two veteran Haruo Kasugo to work together to survive. They became friends and now run a small aviation company together, even though Asa is still in high school. The creature, usually referred to as “that thing”, resurfaced in 1968, just in time for the Tokyo Olympics. Asa and her faithful Piper Cub were able to drive it off with the help of college student Keiichi Nakaido, who inherited the research of the deceased Professor Yodogawa. Things are quiet for now, but that just means everyone’s got to get on with their ordinary lives.
Asa’s classmate Yone is working on having her professional debut as a singer, so she’s going to be singing in front of some recording agency scouts. She’s nervous, so asks Asa and their other friend Miyako (who’s in training to become a wrestler) to come to the audition for moral support.
Over at the tabloid paper Daily Every Sports, reporter Kamakura stands by his article on an alleged kaiju sighting. Sure, the witness recanted, but there’s enough wiggle room to justify printing the story. And Kamakura isn’t sure if there’s a real monster, but people are seeing something, and his instincts tell him this is worth investigating.
Asa’s childhood friend, Sho, a marathon runner who didn’t quite make the Olympics, has been given a stash of drugs by a shady acquaintance. They made him hallucinate that he became a giant that fought a monster…or was it a hallucination at all?
As it happens, Yone’s manager, Noro, is a relative of Nakaido, so the audition is happening at the same building Nakaido is doing his research in. Asa and Keiichi get in some discussion of the documents and photos, including one of a tribesman in East Timor wearing a mask that resembles “that thing.”
And all through this, Asa has to keep checking her radio from time to time just in case “that thing” shows up again and she has to deal with it.
Yone’s audition has a bit of a hiccup, but her professional singing career has begun!
Skip ahead a few months. Keiichi has gone to East Timor to do further research on “that thing.” Asa is now the face of her aviation company, using professional clothing and makeup to look a bit more grownup so that customers will trust her. Mr. Kasugo has hired a mechanic who’s also a veteran to help refurbish the Piper Cub for battle.
In the news, the anti-Vietnam War protests are heating up, and it mentions that the student activist groups are doing things like sheltering American deserters. Less importantly but more relevant to our protagonists, a former pop star and an assistant movie director have run off together. They’re currently holed up above Kinuyo’s restaurant, where Asa and her younger siblings live.
Turns out Yone was a one-hit wonder, though assistant director Terao collected all her records. Since her career had hit the skids, Noro found her a part in a movie. The crux of the problem is that no one had told Yone there’d be nudity, and the scene was written ambiguously enough that she thought she could shield herself. The skilled but dirty director insisted that she needed not to do that, and had the cameras running while they did the scene his way.
She felt defiled at the thought of all Japan seeing her lady bits, and Terao was so moved by her distraughtness that he filched the reel with the day’s rushes on it. That film is now in his apartment, and needs to be extracted before the director or his henchman break in and reclaim it.
Naturally, Asa is the only one who can be trusted with this mission. Except the other people who have injuries or otherwise are unavailable. So yes, Asa. (Amusingly, the cloth she brings to carry the reel in is the pattern used in Japanese pop culture for a thief’s bag.)
After a suspenseful infiltration and scary chase, Asa is thoroughly lost and shoeless. She’s distracted by someone singing her favorite American song from the radio. It turns out to be the writer/performer of that song, River Etheridge. Good thing Asa’s been keeping up with her English lessons! However, this doesn’t mean she’s out of the woods dark alley just yet. You see, he got drafted and is now a deserter from the American army.
This series continues to be the “human plotlines” from a kaiju movie extended out to novel length. Fortunately Mr. Urasawa is a very good writer, so makes the long periods when “that thing” is off camera interesting. (Good because it’s not even clear whether some turbulence offshore is “that thing” or not, and that’s the closest we get to an appearance this volume.)
And it’s fun seeing all the little bits of 1960s Japanese culture mixed in, like a mention of Chiemi Eri’s cover of “The Tennessee Waltz” (I’ve heard it, it’s very good, but a little too close to the Patti Page version to be an independent hit in America.)
The art is also excellent.
Content note: Yone is subjected to the expectations of “sex appeal” demanded of female entertainers, having her skirt blown upwards and later filmed partially nude (we don’t see any naughty bits.) Illegal drug use.
This continues to be an interesting series, but if you’re the sort of person who only cares about the giant monster action, you’ll probably lose patience.
