Velveteen & Mandala

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Sep 24, 2018
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211
Ah, this is a good one. If you like post-apo and unstable protagonist, read this. Still, it gets pretty explicit, so if that's a thing you wanna avoid, maybe keep your distance. I ended up reading this in one go, so it has a quality of sucking you in quickly. ;)

Thank you for the scanlations!
 
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Oct 21, 2020
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While reading this I thought "This looks and feels similarly fucked up as Jigoku no Alice" before realizing it's by the same mangaka. Gotta check out his other stuff. Really digging his insane twisted stories, worlds and characters. XD
 
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Feb 17, 2023
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Matsumoto Jiro's manga tends to feel Jiroish. Becchin & Mandala, for instance, seems like exactly the sort of thing a Matsumoto would do.

Bingo Card: guns, rape, fish, cruelty, surrealism, militarism, mental illness, social collapse, filthy & cluttered interiors, ruined & overgrown exteriors, fractured narrative, gallows humor, casual tragedy, futile struggle, otaku culture, and not the slightest trace of empathy, kindness, affection or warmth

This is brilliant work, and Matsumoto-sensei is a true master of his craft. The art is as gorgeous as it is distinctive, the narrative is enthralling despite the seemingly senseless procession of events, and every aspect of the whole communicates a singular vision. Despite my admiration, however, I find it very hard to like.

Becchin & Mandala, like everything I've read by Matsumoto, seems to ridicule sentiment and reject attachment. It paints the world in ash and acid, as the total failure of all human doing. While the approach suggests satire, the narrative offers no instruction, as no specific folly or sin is highlighted. It doesn't even seem to say anything about the demented carnage it observes in all directions.

Instead, it reifies a familiar adage: "life sucks, then you die." Perhaps so. But pure nihilism is oddly insubstantial. Little but bitterness (and brilliant draftsmanship) lingers in its wake.
 
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