Dear Urasawa Naoki,
Thank you for dedicating your life towards the beautiful world of manga and bring forth great titles such as Master Keaton, 20th Century Boys, Monster, Pluto, Billy Bat and so on.
The way I see it, you truly are the master of Inception. Your stories defied boundaries, tickles our senses and made us reader half past crazy with the ambiguity of moral value.
My first manga from the many others that you drew was Master Keaton. You do remember that title, right? It was one of the best (pseudo) historical manga I’ve ever read. I learnt the nature of MAFIA, Belfast Bombing and a few historical event from this series. The Isis Statue arc was one of my favorite, the end twist was amazing and no one could have ever possibly guessed you’d killed the old professor straight away.
The next manga you drew which I read was Monster. You put me into a series of intense nightmare and slight insomniac thanks to the depiction of this book. Psychology thriller never felt this real before and I don’t think there’s any other manga that could match Monster, aside from Neon Genesis Evangelion of course.. You made me want to go to Dusseldorf and that slum city in Turkey! I want to see those places with my own eyes and imagine your character being alive on the spot. And that story about the Nameless Monster… Just remembering it brought shiver all down my spine.
After that I read 20th Century Boys, it’s pretty much the best all character manga I’ve read beside Full Metal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa. All of the characters are perfect, they are realistic in a scary way. Should it be a surprise if I told you that I can’t sleep for a few days thanks to this series? You brought light towards defining human obsession, loneliness and courage. Kenji and Tomodachi are probably the best hero and antagonist I’ve ever read. I’d put Tomodachi right beside Joker from Batman any other day.
And now I’m reading Pluto and a bit of Billy Bat.
You and Osamu Tezuka are two wondrous being. In Pluto you brought Atom in such ways that human morale are once again questioned. I may as well inform you that I almost cried on the last episode of Astro Boy (2003) anime, and the way you killed Atom in Pluto and unite him with Dr.Tenma was just….. I’m speechless. I’m really a closet Astro Boy fan after all.
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So really, thank you for such a great journey. I’m going to continue reading and hunting for the other Pluto series. So far I’ve only manage to read until book 5 and the only book I have is book 1. I wonder where can I found the rest of them here in Indonesia.
aquavintage 