A review by davramlocke
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki

3.0

I hadn't expected Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths to be quite as manga-ish as it is. Yes, it reads back to front like manga, and boasts plenty of manga like accolades on its cover, but for whatever reason I have a hard time associating the genre of manga with a subject as serious as World War II. When I read descriptions of this book, it sounds like a dour, moving tale of a troupe of Japanese soliders, and in some ways it is, but the majority of the story is almost slapstick in nature. Even death is shown in a light-hearted manner in many cases, with comical looking heads flying around the screen and characters lamenting their friends' deaths with half-hearted jokes or strange comments. There are more serious aspects to the book, and the lion's share of them come in the last sixth of its pages, but their impact isn't as emotional as I was led to believe.

I liked the book, and there are some incredibly well-drawn scenes from Mizuki. He has a strange style where his backgrounds are incredibly detailed and complex, while the characters in the foreground are completely comical and cartoonish. And there is some emotional weight involved, as I said, particularly towards the back end.

I suppose in the end this is a little too 'manga' for me to really enjoy. Maybe for true manga readers this is some kind of holy grail, which would make sense. For me, it was mostly just silly, interesting, but silly. Then again, maybe there is some honesty in that.