Seraphim 266613336 Wings (75 Books - XLII)

There are three notable things about Seraphim 266613336 Wings. One is that it has the most unwieldy three-word title I’ve ever encountered. The second is that it’s another Kon Satoshi comic, but one he did with Oshii Mamoru (of Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor fame). The third is that, like the other Kon comic I’ve read this year, it’s unfinished.

Now, the story is an interesting one - the premise is that the world is plagued by a disease called “seraphim,” which causes its victims to hallucinate and to gradually grow wings out of their back. Much of the world is already dead (and Japan was apparently wiped out entirely), so the WHO sends out two men and a dog called the Magi to escort a girl, Sera, who seems to be immune to the disease and possibly the key to finding a cure, back to her homeland in central Asia. It’s fairly wordy, which is something that Oshii is known for, but everything does move at a quick pace with some action thrown in.

The main problem, of course, is that the comic just stops halfway through. In Opus, we at least have some idea of how the story was going to end, since it was almost done. Here, I have no idea, and that’s why I’m not going into a lot of depth here - I could only really recommend Seraphim to people who are big fans of the authors. Otherwise, you’re in for the frustrating experience of half of a story. A very good story, admittedly, but it’s not a satisfying experience.

Dark Horse’s edition does include two essays at the end of the book. One is just a page by Watanabe Takashi, editor at Animage when that magazine originally serialised Seraphim in 1994 and 1995, which gives some background on how the comic was originally conceived and why it was discontinued. The other is by Carl Gustav Horn, editor of the English edition, which is just under thirty pages and gives a lot of background on the creators, the publisher, the setting, and so on. It’s well-written and certainly interesting to anyone who’d like to know about the manga publishing industry, Oshii and Kon, or some points about the work itself, but it feels like overkill for a half-finished graphic novel.

In any case, if you’re a Kon or Oshii completist or just don’t mind never finishing a story, Seraphim is worth checking out. Otherwise, you’re perfectly safe sticking to their better-known, finished works.