Jan 20, 2022
Similar to Araki's Rohan one-shots, these are a fairly disturbing set of exaggerated stories. Unlike with Araki's Jojo work, however, these stories are pseudo-realistic based in part on various historical figures. Much of what makes these interesting is the part that is made up, often times betraying the source material drastically. Whether that makes for exactly interesting reading is likely personal, but for me I did not enjoy warping stories meant to be realistic to the point they no longer feel believable. In the context of Jojo, that exaggerated style works quite well, but displaced from that universe they tend to feel like bad fanfictions
...
of the relative figures. Many of these stories are well drawn, and the action is told quite well between panels, however the content of the story doesn't really line up with many of them due to Araki not actually drawing them himself; a criticism most duel-author manga I feel tend to reflect.
Let me address each story individually.
Ty Cobb is really nothing more than a violent, brute of a baseball player who there is quite little to say for beyond his talent as baseball, and temper. Some aspects of this story are fully exaggerated, while there may be far better modern examples to pull from such as Michael Jordan, Barry Bonds, or John McEnroe. The 1920s baseball angle really is lost on me, especailly because baseball in that era sucked.
Kou Yoshio is probably the most disturbing. It's basically just about a monkey having s*x with a woman. The monkey, Oliver, was a real monkey, but the relations with an actress part are totally fictional. To me it feels like Araki didn't even write this, as it reads more like Hirohisa Onikubo's doujin work.
Typhoid Mary is visually stronger than the others, being drawn by Araki himself, and as a result being more well told. The actual story of this is exaggerated far less than the others, and actually offers interesting moral questions during today's current health happening. However, ultimately I feel like this was a missed opportunity to explore some fairly interesting themes, and rather than give Ty Cobb two chapters, this could easily have used another.
Winchester Mystery House is incredibly well drawn, and is one of the main reasons the art in this story is 9, compared to the totality of the work. Many of the designs, patterns, and poses are things straight out of Jojo, and are indistinguishable from Stone Ocean, or Steel Ball Run's early phase. The writing in this however leaves much to be desired, as it reads like an extended Jojo oneliner reference to some obscure historical event. There is absolutely no conclusion here, and really beyond a short horror story, without any closure or explanation, there is little to chew on thematically.
The Collyer brothers is by far the most pointless of the bunch....nothing really happens, other than explaining the lives of two reclusive brothers, and adding some horror suspense moments. However, the end was quite meaningless, literally, where it switched to a different story that had nothing to do with the Collyer brothers? Unsure what was going on there....
The story about Nikola Tesla is by far the more normal, and almost a simple retelling of Tesla's life, with a little dramatization. Considering this is the one written in 1989, he would have the least amount of info available compared to the other stories from 2003. As a result, Araki doesn't really add to much additional info, or make this a horror story in the same way the others all end up. There is no death, not even big suspenseful moment. It's really just a telling of some of the, interestingly, more boring elements of Tesla's life considering all the other insane things Tesla accomplished. Araki only briefly mentions the strange conspiracies surrounding Tesla, which could have easily made for quite a bizarre story. However, potentially due to this being written before Stardust Crusaders, the really "Bizarre" elements of Araki's storytelling are not present.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all
.png)
