manga talk: MW

To me, Tezuka Osamu is the father of manga. I’ve read plenty of his works and, even with the generational divide, many of his projects feel just as timeless as the mangaka himself. MW, while not exactly the first series to come to mind when one thinks of the man, is still a classic in its own right.

MW is basically the story of a serial killer, a conflicted priest, and the relationship between them. Yuki, the kidnapping murderer, maintains a well-kept persona he uses to mask his true self from co-workers and frequents a church to make confessions after his crimes. Garai, the Catholic priest, it tortured not only by the crimes Yuki commits, but also by the relationship that eats away at his soul because of his life as a man of the cloth. As the story goes on, the status of their relationship, their past, Yuki’s ambition, and more people come into play to up the drama to new levels.

Overall, I liked MW. I was fine with the story, but the dynamics behind the characters kept things really interesting to me. I originally thought that the shounen-ai would feel tacked on, but the way it factored in served to make things more engaging between Yuki and Garai. There were other characters that were well done also, especially Sumiko, but, one big thing about MW is that, like a lot of series at the time, it has a tendency to feel awkward with the delivery. It’s something I noted a long time ago, but a lot of manga from the period sacrifice the established flow of the story feeling that an abrupt change provides impact. MW didn’t do this too often, and, even when I managed to catch the times it did, I still felt like it was all good.