Customer Reviews

GoGo Monster

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yuki Tachibana is an outcast at Asahi Elementary School. He sits alone, drawing on his desk and occasionally shouting out weird exclamations. If he talks to the other children, it is only to warn them about the "others," beings kept in check only by the power of Super Star, the boss of the other side. Yuki's only friend is the school's caretaker, Ganz, though he sometimes talks to IQ, an older student who is academically gifted but interacts with people only through the box he wears over his head. When Makoto Suzuki's school is shut down for mysterious reasons, he is sent to Asahi Elementary and placed in the desk next to Yuki. Despite the other students' warnings about Yuki's strange behavior, Makoto befriends the boy and soon finds himself wondering how much of Yuki's tales are true.

Matsumoto, manga-ka of Tekkonkinkreet, offers a tale that is part fantasy, part horror, and part mind-trip. On the one hand, it can be read as an exploration into the thought process of a child with autism or a similar disorder, a child who does not see or react to the world the way the rest of humanity does. But on the other hand, Yuki Tachibana might be right and Super Star may be the only thing keeping the beings of the other side from riling the children of Asahi Elementary School to rebel against their teachers, do poorly in class, and be mean to one another. However, it may be that GoGo Monster is neither of those things, or both at the same time.

Matsumoto doesn't offer an easy read. His plot twists and turns. The dialogue is spare and often consists just of overheard comments that are not necessarily relevant. The characters are mostly inscrutable. And frankly, that is much of the fun of reading GoGo Monster. It is a story to dive into, allowing it to wash over you, and then, later, after it has swirled around in your brain for a time, to dive into again.

The art is as off-kilter as the plot, keeping you searching the panels for hidden details and meanings that may or may not be there, not allowing you to turn the page immediately. Matsumoto's style is rough, purposefully sloppy. Some characters are realistically portrayed, while others have a messy, cartoonish quality. The drawings within the panels do not always correspond with the dialogue going on at the same time, forcing readers to look deeper for the connection and the meaning. As Yuki is drawn further into the world he sees, the images are terrifyingly subtle. The monsters are never obvious, which heightens the sense of a young boy caught by unimaginable and unseen forces. There is also a lot of beauty in the United States edition of GoGo Monster because of VIZ's high-quality printing job. The book is hardcover, with the story starting right on the endpages of the front cover. Bright, colorful monsters cover the outside of the book, even overlapping onto the edges of the pages, which are tipped in red and burgundy. A slipcase completes the package.

Readers looking for an artistic read, one that requires that the brain be fully engaged, will find much to appreciate here, as long as they don't mind taking their time. Other than the typical comments on poop and sex that fourth-grade boys make, there is little to keep this out of the hands of readers old enough to appreciate the strange story. It's not for every reader, but devoted comics fans should not pass this one by.

-- Snow Wildsmith

But this manga needs more fans, and with people like the negative reviewer below, who probably didn't even give it a chance, I'm here to say that you should. This is more from the great underground comix of Japan, though this one is about 10 years old (though just now hitting US shores thanks to Viz Sig.) but shows no signs of aging. It's a blend of childhood imagination/nightmare dichotomies told from a very subjective point of view, allowing the reader to get sucked into these tales of metaphysical pre-pubescent strife. It comes across like David Lynch, Satoshi Kon and John Hughes. I use film directors because this is largely visual and takes cues from gekiga and 'alternative' comix from all over.

It's obviously not for everyone. But give it a shot.
Oh, and on a side note, this is absolutely the best comic packaging of '09. Taking the slip cover off for the first time may cause you to blush. Now enjoy the story within.

In it's year end wrap up for 2009, 11 O'Clock Comics gave a very favorable review of Gogo Monster and based upon that I dropped it into my cart here. Thanks guys, I owe you one. Judging from the volume of reviews on Amazon, I would never have seen this otherwise and would have been sorely deprived of a piece of work that has stunned me aesthetically and engaged me on multiple literary levels. (Yes, literary levels in a manga.)

I've owned this book for about ten days and am about to start my third reread. Once is not enough to catch the nuances of the story and the detail of the art. After the second reading, I literally dreamed of this book. The last book that I can remember dreaming of was Charlotte's Web and that was 30+ years ago.

You'll need to look at the other reviews (or better yet) buy and read the book yourself, to get details regarding the plot. I want to share the pure experience of this book. What 11 O'Clock did not mention was the sheer tactile pleasure of opening and reading this work. The image above is actually a slip cover. The outside cover of the work is a colourful splash of imagination. More interesting, however, is the imprint on the outside edges of the pages. While initially, this looks like it is a red dye only, there is actually a subtle print within the reds that ties to the overall design. More than that, the edge of the pages are stuck together slightly and you have to pay attention to each page as you turn them.

The overall experience of reading this work (or mine at least) was a rememberance of things past: childhood dreams, the life altering moments of small experiences, the texture and touch of a long lost classic, and the joy of having to think of more than the words on the page to gain the most of the work. In this sense, Gogo Monster ranks in my list of some of the best literature that I read in college (thank you again Dean Grissom A Novel Approach to Life) and works of art that I have traveled thousand of miles to see and enjoy.

Take you time with this one. Every square inch of it is worth savoring.

Yuki is in third grade. He has no friends, other kids think he is bizarre and rarely talk to him. This is not surprising as he talks to "imaginary" beings like Superstar.

Superstar is a being who lives on the third floor of his school, off limits to students due to some unspoken danger. Occasionally he (or other beings) coming down to create havoc, steal things, and generally stir up trouble. the closer that Yuki gets to the world that Superstar rules, the hard it is for him to differentiate our reality from this other one.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel. It is presented fully translated, but in classic manga format ( read from right to left). It comes with a corrugated cardboard sleeve protecting the book itself. The art work is very European with multiple interpretations to the meanings of various panels. text is sparse throughout the story, relying on various obscure and dark story elements presented in the images.

The Graphic Novel is presented by VIZ Media, almost entirely in black and white, and totals 464 pages.

I do not know that this graphic novel is really geared to most readers. if you avoid art house films, dislike subtitles, and prefer a story that is hand fed to you, avoid this.

This is more for those who like dark introspective genres, multiple possible interpretations, beautiful artwork.

For anyone looking for a more technical review, just drop gogo monster in google and you will find a ton of info. I will leave the discussion of allegory and societal comparisons to those who are more fluent in manga. I am just a tourist in the genre...

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i dunno about the story.
the pictures are so bad it is hard to follow what is actually going on.
it looks like it was drawn by a 2 years old kid with no talent.
i started to read this book a couple of times but couldnt finish it.
it proves even manga can be drawn very bad.
what a dissapointment.