Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (Japanese: 総å"¡çŽ‰ç •ã›ã‚ˆ!, Hepburn: Sōin Gyokusai Seyo!, lit. "Let us all die honorably!") is a one-shot manga written and illustrated by Shigeru Mizuki. In it, Mizuki describes his experiences as a soldier participating in the New Guinea campaign during World War II. He portrays the final weeks of his infantry service as the soldiers were instructed to die for their country to avoid the dishonor of survival.

The manga was first published in Kodansha magazine Shūkan Gendai in 1973, based on Mizuki's work of 1970. After being translated and published by Drawn and Quarterly in 2011, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths has been well received by English-speaking critics. It also received awards in France and in the United States, and was adapted into a television drama in 2007 by Japanese brodcaster NHK.

Overview

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Shigeru Mizuki is a Japanese manga artist who is best-known for his yōkai (Japanese folklore monsters)-themed manga, especially GeGeGe no Kitarō. Mizuki enjoyed writing about the monsters' histories, which a local woman related to him. In 1942, at the age of 21, Mizuki was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army. He was sent to Rabaul, a city on New Britain island in Papua New Guinea, where his comrades died and Mizuki lost his left arm. Based on these experiences, Mizuki wrote Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, containing "90 percent fact". Fictionalizing himself as private Maruyama, Mizuki tells the story by combining drawings with photographs.

Release

Shigeru Mizuki wrote and illustrated Sōin Gyokusai Seyo!, which was first published in the August 1973 issue of ShÅ«kan Gendai. In the same year, Kodansha released it in tankōbon format with the subtitle Sento Jōji Misaki Aika (聖ジョージ岬・å"€æ­Œ, "Cape St. George Lamentations"). In July 1985, Holp Shuppan published the work, and Kodansha re-released it on June 15, 1995. Ohzora Publishing released the manga on August 9, 2007, as Ä€ Gyokusai: Mizuki Shigeru Senki SenshÅ« (ああ玉砕～水木しã'る戦記選集～), and on July 30, 2010, as Mizuki Shigeru no Senki SenshÅ« (水木しã'るの戦記選集). It was released under the konbini comic format by Shueisha on August 11, 2007, and on August 16, 2008.

At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International, comic book publisher Drawn and Quarterly announced it had acquired the manga's publishing rights and would release it in North America under the title Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths. The company released the manga in May 2011; it was the first manga by Mizuki published in English. The publisher chose the work because they thought it was "an excellent introduction" to Mizuki's work, and because "readers have knowledge of and thus can relate to on a certain level".

Reception

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths has been critically acclaimed. At the 2009 Angoulême International Comics Festival, the manga won the Prize for Inheritance. In 2012, it was nominated for a Harvey Award in the Best American Edition of Foreign Material category. It was selected for the Eisner Award in the categories Best U.S. Edition of International Materialâ€"Asia and Best Reality-Based Work, winning the former at the Comic-Con.

According to a compilation by Deb Aoki of About.com, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths was the best new manga of 2011 because it was included in 18 lists of best comics/graphic novels. Aoki said the manga is "dense with details, and filled with pathos, humor and horror". Paste‍ '​s Garrett Martin wrote that the "realistic depictions of normal men trapped in a horrible situation" makes Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths "brutally honest". Brigid Alverson of MTV Geek said, "this is not an easy story to read, but its historical importance and the lessons it holds for the future are undeniable". Noel Murray writing in The A.V. Club said the manga's artwork is "detailed, often beautiful illustrations of small Pacific islands with characters rendered far less elaborately". Among others, Library Journal, Dan Kois and Glen Weldon of NPR, Comic Book Resources, Ed Sizemore of Manga Worth Reading, and Publishers Weekly included it on their lists of best comic books of 2011.

David Maine wrote for PopMatters that "there is little here to criticize. Perhaps some of the transitions are a bit abrupt, [and] maybe some of the characterization could be sharper." Similarly, Sean Michael Robinson of The Comics Journal said Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths for its theme "as well as its many strengths and virtues, it is a very difficult book to criticize". Robinson's critics was that it has "loosely characterized" characters and that its art "can also be a stumbling block". He said the art is "problematic", is "the hand-offâ€"when characters suddenly leap modes, bouncy and expressive one moment, and photo-rendered and flat the next". Tom Spurgeon, writing for The Comics Reporter, said he had difficulty "in not being able to easily track which soldiers are which at any one point in the book".

Television adaptation

On August 12, 2007, NHK General TV broadcast Kitarō ga Mita Gyokusai: Mizuki Shigeru no Sensō (鬼太郎が見た玉砕 〜水木しã'るの戦争〜), a Japanese television drama based on Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths. It was written by Takuya Nishioka and produced by Tsuyoshi Yanagawa, and starred Teruyuki Kagawa as Shigeru Mizuki. On July 16, 2008, Pony Canyon released the drama in DVD format. The Agency for Cultural Affairs awarded it the Excellence Prize for a television drama during the National Arts Festival. The drama was awarded the Excellence Prize for television program at the 45th Galaxy Awards by the Japan Council for Better Television and Radio. At the 34th Hoso Bunka Foundation Awards, Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths won the awards for Best Television Drama, Best Actor (Kagawa), and Best Production (Yanagawa).

References