Phoenix: Dawn

Somehow when I was younger I missed the manga boat. Phoenix: Dawn is so different from what I thought manga to be, though it clearly has major differences with western comics. One of the main differences is the lack of fuss about death. In western comics and fiction people hardly ever die and if they do a big fuss is made about it. In this people and children where getting shot dead with arrows, babies were being dropped down volcanoes all with very little fanfare. I noticed this while watching Barefoot Gen as well. Though it seemed particularly appropriate to see so much death in this because so much of the story is about the search for immortality and it solidifies the urgent need for that since it is clearly so easy to die. Though clearly one of the main themes is that death is not so much the problem as is dying unhappy and not taking joy in the life you are given.

Phoenix: Dawn seems to be playing off of old Japanese tales and history, though I do not know enough about it and the history that it says it is referring so it could also be fiction. Either way the sections that refer to these past times make the story seem much more real and as if it is a retelling of an event that happened in the past. It's feels like a very personal retelling of a point in history from a human perspective and instead of being from the perspective of the victors, like history is often told, it is told from the perspective of the victims. I find it interesting that the author makes a point to tell the reader that certain characters were thought to be gods, but were only captains or that certain information was made up, but never says anything about the phoenix being part of myth. It's almost like he is encouraging the reader to believe that it is real by never having a side note about it's origins as a part of the myth. By doing this he is able to have a character that is very influential on the world, characters, and the readers that makes them question and serve as a device to really communicate the authors message.

At points Phoenix: Dawn can seem like a very serious story, and it certainly is, but the author does somethings that are purposefully jarring which are quite experimental and humorous that you don't see often and some you just can't do in other mediums besides. Often he calls attention to the fact that it is a comic, for example one of the characters say something about how skipping so many frames in between might have been pushing it a bit. Another example of the author experimenting is the wolf scene where is draws a few different panels of the wolves coming to attack and they are all in different styles with notes underneath them saying 'disney style', 'movie style', 'grand-prix style', etc. bringing attention to the medium and style. It seems like he was simply experimenting to see what he could do in comics and do them because he could. He used the uniqueness of the medium to create humor and innovate the story and really pushed the way the form was used to communicate his message rather than through a really crazy story. I'd say I'm definitely intrigued by this and glad it's my first manga and will definitely be trying out more.