It's the bane of our society: how many show you love that has been destroyed?
Be it by dragging it for too long, like in Dexter, X Files, Will & Grace, Weeds. Strong start but as it went on & on & on... it lost all interest, story lines get dragged for too long, or they simply don't know what else to do.
Or could be by cancellations. SO. MANY. SHOWS!!! Dead like me, Do Over, Firefly, Arrested Development (the last season, made by Netflix was good...but not as good as it was) and John Doe... HOW DO YOU CANCEL A SHOW THAT ENDED WITH A CLIFFHANGER??? Lots of series are cancelled and leaves us sad and/or angry.
There are shows based on existing materials, that destroy themselves by going against the original material (Game of Thrones anyone? The shitty 6th season? Worse season ever? Anyone? No? Then fuck you), be it by stretching WAY over the point of interest (Smallvile and the case of the Superman that's not Superman for 10 fucking seasons) that even tho are destroying/damaging the original material are still... palatable. DC in particular like this trend, like we are seeing with Arrow and Flash. Oh boy... how I want to watch Arrow without my love for Ollie. Probably I would enjoy it like other seems to.
Or simply by changing the tone of the show... Oh, that's not that common here in the West. Well... int he manga world, that's something that happens. A LOT. One good example of that is Katekyo Hitman Reborn or Reborn! It started as a gag manga (genre exclusively for gags and comic relief) and then, by some editor idea, it became a Shonen (genre of manga aimed at young audiences, focused on combat. The most notorious one is Dragon Ball). It generates a lot of problems, since the author wasn't all that keen of going in that direction. And oh boy, it started to show very quickly. I'll review it sometime in the future.
It's also very common in the manga world the cancellation of a manga. At least they treat their fans with honesty & respect: they usually just cut it short and finish it. Very rarely they just cancel it without an ending. Japanese people have a lot of problems, but at least respect is a very ingrained tradition. If a manga is cancelled, they inform the author so that he/she can wrap it all up. Sometimes, they achieve it. Other times, they just finish the main story line and leaves the rest unsolved or ignored. And sometimes... it's done in a really shitty way.
Like Glaucos.
Okay. I admit: I started to read it because the art is fantastic. Also, the premise of the manga is curious: a manga about free/skin diving. Yeah, diving in great profundity without the use of accessories. Strange right? Specially since it doesn't follow the traditional pattern of Sports Manga, but went into seinen territory. It started in a beautiful water colour depicting the born of Cisse in the ocean, as his mother dies. What happened? Who cares. That's no the point of the manga. Cisse born in the sea & was carried to safety by dolphins. He's delivered to a fisherman, that was terrified, and as soon as he looked at Cisse, he thinks he is the kid from a legend...
OK, let's clarify: not the weirdest opening for a manga that I have read. Maybe to you, but as the great Sage said: One you go to Violence Jack territory, nothing can shock you for real. If you don't have the guts to watch/read Violence Jack, which I strongly recommend some thinking about before you do, let's say that in the manga world, this is not a shocking opening. Yeah, seriously.
 |
| Violence Jack definitely is not for the faint of heart |
Time skip. We met Claude, a legend on the skin diving community, the man that kept the record for deepest dive for the longest time. He's broken inside, drinking a lot and reminiscing of his past glory. Yeah, it follows the pattern: he met Cisse, saw his amazing diving capabilities and goes after him. Cisse's father is against it: the legend says that Cisse would die if the world knows of his abilities. But Cisse press on and goes with Claude. He starts to learn the real techniques of skin diving and discovered that his spleen is not an useless thing like inmost of us, it evolved/mutated by his birth in the sea and he can store blood on it, which in cases of high stress, can release blood full of oxygen, like a reserve battery. Of course it opens huge possibilities. There's also a doctor to study it: Haruka, a woman. Yeah, your first guess is right. She will fall for Cisse. But in a hurried & horrible development. Oh! And I almost forget: when Cisse is in a deep state of oxygen deprivation, he has some strange hallucinations/visions. The deeper he goes into oxygen deprivation, the more he unveils of this mystery.
It goes the long way, in a very delicate setting with only this three characters for a bit, while Cisse is learning to skin dive& about how to use his ability. On the way, we see that Haruka, a traditional cold-heart scientist, you know the type, is starting to mellow with Cisse's naivety & Claude's drunkard philosophy. Cisse also start to learn a little bit of zen from Claude. The pace of this manga is slow, focusing on the characters, his iterations & conflicts.
It keeps going, slow & steady, going thru the traditional competition, Cisse's failure that lead to a better understanding of his abilities and all that traditional sports representation. All is good till the meeting with an old disciple of Claude: Petite. Yes, he overthrown Claude's record & is now the biggest one in the world, with various contracts with sports brands. Cisse, with his obsession of going deeper & deeper to understand his visions, became enthralled by Petite. Obsessed. Then he goes on more training, more iterations between the cast and finally the meeting with Petite, which defied Cisse to a diving competition.
Pause.
Till now, it looks like a traditional sports manga, but there are differences. First is the small cast and the focus on their relationship.It's way unusual in the genre. Second, is the way and the maturity of the discussions. Third, it has a very science-based theme, of studying why Cisse's body is different & the health problems that occurs from the practice of skin diving. It takes pains to show that it really studied this effects and what transpires from it. It really is different from the norm.
Ok. So he met Petite and they compete. Petite wins, but has problems after, suffering a embolism. And that's the point when the shit hits the fan. First: the sports company discovered Cisse & decided that he's perfect to be exploited by then. Second: the editors informed that Glaucos wasn't doing good on the popularity pools and was to be cancelled.
And it's all downhill from this point on. We have a tie skip. Haruka finished & presented her thesis, with good results. Claude simply went insane. And Cisse is bat shit insane from deep diving after his visions. He met Haruka & out of nowhere remembers a bit of her & they have sex. Don't get me wrong: it was predictable that it would happens. But Haruko was a good character, very well represented. There were signs that she fell for Cisse, but the way the manga went after the information of cancellation simply destroyed all the character development from before. Claude stopped drinking, but why? Because he lost Cisse?
All in all, what I get from this ending is that it was all planned, probably in a longer run (Glaucos only get 4 tomes. I guess it would be around 6 or 7 by the way it was going. And you can feel it), the way Haruka & Cisse feel in love would be better. What we get is the shitty "I love you 'coz I do!" like in Jurassic World. It contributes nothing to the plot. Or does it?
We go for the deep dive that Cisse has been preparing himself for: going to where no man has gone before without equipment. And obviously Cisse is draw by his visions and disappears, as the man from the legends. Nobody knows where he went, no body washed ashore. Cisse is gone.
We cut back to the island Cisse is from. Haruka is talking to Cisse's father, since she is pregnant from Cisse. The manga ended with she reading the legend and the new part a boy discovered: the legendary man left progeny and that progeny went to the world bringing new light...
Yeah. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. A manga with a slow pace but good dynamic was simply destroyed by the lack of interest from the readers. It is something that A LOT of manga suffers. I could list here a bunch of interesting manga that went downhill by the pressure of editors, fans and etc. It is something that, together with other aspects, is heavily damaging the world of manga. Which is bad on one side, but good on other: nowadays people that used to read manga, is reading manhua (from Korea) or chinese manga, or even going to wuxia and light novels. I can't condemn. The internet let authors go free from editorial & fandom influences and create webcomics or light novels pure to his ideas & intents. It's great!
Glaucos is a great manga. Unfortunately, was destroyed by the lack of interest. Not a shame, but kinda sad.
Give it a read. It's really short. Just be warned that the ending was very badly done.
Next week: as a fan of George R. R. Martin. I felt compelled to analyze what he thinks as one of the best sci-fi novels of all time: The Lord of Light. I really hope to be on time with this one.
See ya
No comments:
Post a Comment