Takao makes a decision... he will try to win the affection of one of his muses. This will be no simple task, as the teens are all now damaged and warped. Takao is in search of a utopia, one that can only be shared with his only friend, that will sit just briefly among the rice paddies of his rural hometown. But then Takao and Nakamura are wrongly accused of a crime, and the local authorities want to pin all strange behavior this small town has seen recently on the two teens. Will being treated as outcasts in their own community keep these two from crossing over to the other side...?
“Shuzo Oshimi is a master of discomfiting manipulation himself. From panel to panel, his middle schoolers can instantly go from wide-eyed innocence to utterly creepy… Be warned: just like that inevitable train-wreck, you won’t be able to turn away.” —BookDragon (Smithsonian blog)
Only in his mid-thirties, Shuzo Oshima is already considered a seasoned veteran of the Japanese comics community. Winner of the most important comics awards for newcomers, the Tetsuya Chiba Award in 2001, Oshima has been penning quirky slice-of-life dramas now for over a decade for major manga publishers including Kodansha. After drawing nine series, Oshimi's star began to rise in 2008 with the release of his first hit, Drifting Net Cafe. This horror-themed homage to the legendary Kazu Umezzo work, Drifting Classroom, was adapted into a live-action series, and propelled Oshimi onto an international stage. He would soon reach new heights in 2009 with The Flowers of Evil. In 2010 and 2011, the property quietly landed on numerous must-read lists and helped revitalize the shonen genre.
Takao makes a decision... he will try to win the affection of one of his muses. This will be no simple task, as the teens are all now damaged and warped. Takao is in search of a utopia, one that can only be shared with his only friend, that will sit just briefly among the rice paddies of his rural hometown. But then Takao and Nakamura are wrongly accused of a crime, and the local authorities want to pin all strange behavior this small town has seen recently on the two teens. Will being treated as outcasts in their own community keep these two from crossing over to the other side...?
Praise
“Shuzo Oshimi is a master of discomfiting manipulation himself. From panel to panel, his middle schoolers can instantly go from wide-eyed innocence to utterly creepy… Be warned: just like that inevitable train-wreck, you won’t be able to turn away.” —BookDragon (Smithsonian blog)
Author
Only in his mid-thirties, Shuzo Oshima is already considered a seasoned veteran of the Japanese comics community. Winner of the most important comics awards for newcomers, the Tetsuya Chiba Award in 2001, Oshima has been penning quirky slice-of-life dramas now for over a decade for major manga publishers including Kodansha. After drawing nine series, Oshimi's star began to rise in 2008 with the release of his first hit, Drifting Net Cafe. This horror-themed homage to the legendary Kazu Umezzo work, Drifting Classroom, was adapted into a live-action series, and propelled Oshimi onto an international stage. He would soon reach new heights in 2009 with The Flowers of Evil. In 2010 and 2011, the property quietly landed on numerous must-read lists and helped revitalize the shonen genre.
