Reviews for Mujina into the Deep

The character art is some of his ugliest, aside from the moe being passable because at least he is trying to make his characters look appealing, like he would sometimes do in the past. Seriously, why is he reusing Yunbo, the fat prostitute, as if that scene from Reiraku was anything but garbage? Asano chub chaser achievement unlocked. This is one of the most repulsive manga I've seen from a mangaka I used to admire. What's with all the pointless sex scenes and nudity? It's strange because I don't tend to ask that or think that there necessarily has to be a "reason," but itfeels forced here: as if Asano realizes Mujina into the Deep is subpar and needs to distract from it by putting in lots of "mature" violence and sex.

A prime example of the vulgarity is when Main is sent on her first hit job; the mark, a fat, unattractive middle-aged woman, is introduced by having her hop out of a cab to drop her clothing down to where we see her bulging bare ass so she can relieve herself. When Main swoops in for the kill, the mark summons her own mujina, who is an obese naked man in bondage gear. It's unbelievable how trashy this manga is, even though Inio Asano is often assumed to be part of the 2deep4u teenage nihilism crowd.

This looks like a work from a first time author who spends too much time on Twitter, Live Leak, and Porn Hub rather than a seasoned mangaka, even if the art is quite proficient other than a few grotesque character designs. The dialogue is horrendous and would make even Tarantino at his most excessive blush. Imagine your final words being to call someone "cray cray" or to spout any of the Kill Bill-tier "tricks are for kids" lines coming from the mujina and influencer Tenko's filthy mouth. I doubt this is a case of unfaithful translation because the trashiness of the dialogue often matches the visuals to a tee.

It seems Terumi, who has European ancestry but was born in Japan, is a character who is simultaneously integrated into Japanese culture through his career but is wholly alien to it racially and somewhat of an outcast in his industry despite his successes. It's also pretty obvious he is meant to be the stand-in for Asano here, which clears up some of the political blather and indicates how estranged Asano feels, and there's plenty of overlap from his semi-autobiographical Reiraku. Terumi has a lot of the meandering "why do we live?" kind of monologues and is constantly in his head and critical of society.

Asano is looking at the generational divide, which is likely best emphasized by the bimbo with the "liberation" shirt and mushroom-cloud afro, who is unbearable in terms of behavior and appearance and louder than most comedy skits featured in shonen for elementary school kids. She seems like a poor attempt to lampoon an irritating type of political activist character. Asano can be burlesque and tacky when he gets into the political stuff, with this one being fairly explicit. Though she's meant to be the butt of many jokes, she does make one statement that seems to act as a kind of thesis for the work: the Mujina, which are basically ninjas, ronins, rebels, or general outcasts, hopping around on rooftops and often taking illegal jobs, like assassination, lack "human rights."

Understanding the ways of the mujina is a means of tapping into the feelings of the next generation, who are even more alienated from society than Terumi. Furthermore, the elderly, after 85, have their rights revoked and are moved into zones to reduce costs and save resources, perhaps functioning reminiscently to a more benign version of the tales of the past that had the elderly abandoned in the mountains when times were rough. Mujina are in the same boat as the 85+ crowd, except they're more so in a gray zone, where the government hasn't quite wormed its tentacles into.

There's at least one interesting idea: It's revealed how much the lines are blurred when it comes to the mujina operating illegally and on the fringes and how much they have to gain from left-wing lobbyists who are concerned with the expansion of human rights to the mujina. Human rights can be exploited for gain, with it even being valuable to sacrifice one's rights or the alternative possibility of scamming one to give them up, presenting the issue of rights as more like another part of the consumerism that Asano is critiquing. Thankfully, he goes beyond basic bitch oppressor/oppressed narratives, though the story does return to this being exploitation and a partial explanation for the young girls wandering the streets aimlessly. Additionally, the manga is also exploring the media industry and the way it shapes child stars, treating it as a kind of Stockholm syndrome and brainwashing, which would apply to the model of consumption as well. The story is consumed by a fixation on human rights or a lack thereof and consumption culture, without many intriguing developments as of yet.

The critiques from Asano in this manga are mostly valid but delivered in a shallow "rule of cool" kind of way. A lot of his perspective feels outdated as well, only focusing on capitalism and people being fashioned into consumers, reminiscent of an entertaining but inaccurate dystopic vision like John Carpenter's They Live. If everything were about consumption, then increasing the birth rate would be desirable. The idea is actually closer to using consumer society (amongst other things) to numb the masses and gradually reduce or shrink the population so as to preserve a greater number of resources for the ultra-wealthy. The global population is shrinking, and, yes, that applies even to Africa, which is set to see a decline in the population over time. Asano probably chooses this hill to die on because it's safe and easy, and we all know Asano is a whiny bitch boy who's probably 100% accurately represented by the MC in his vile Reiraku, who is obsessed with sales. With how often his characters are shown jerking off, I'll bet Asano jerks off anytime his manga sells more. Number go up--UOOOOOOOH! 😫😫😫😭😭😭🍆🍆🍆💦💦💦.

Even when I agree with Asano in some respect, it's still easy to become repulsed by his caricatures because they feel too over the top, and it seems he's mocking everyone with "hip" dialogue. Honestly, this kind of satirical approach isn't Asano's forte, and he's even less proficient at crafting an action series. The characters are one-dimensional garbage with poor dynamics and the final nail in the ghastly coffin: Ubume is a stoic cardboard-cutout female assassin. Juno is a dull damsel in distress to be saved from a fate similar to the mujina. Tenko is the kind of character the word "degenerate" was made for. No one else is even all that notable, though the detectives might have a more compelling dynamic than Ubume and Tenko, who mirror them in the sense that they are also opposites. Although not a likable character, Terumi is one of the few who is even remotely interesting thus far. Whereas Punpun and other works from Asano at least had some degree of character depth with functioning relationships and scenarios, Mujina into the Deep only offers meh politics, oodles of naked females done up in Asano's vaguely derpy style, and goofy action scenes.

It feels so natural for Inio Asano to make an action manga! His last works (like Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction) already contained some action scenes, and here they have a really nice pacing. Also, the art style is still very detailed for the backgrounds, plus some unique character designs. However, so far there's no meaning behind all the sex scenes this manga has. I mean, unlike Punpun, it doesn't look like anything else but an edgy manga for teenagers. That's very unlike him, so I guess this time he really needs some time to develop the reasons behind it (well, I hope so). Also, whileAsano certainly has the ability to create much more interesting characters (especially Ubume and Tenko), he seems to recycle some character designs for everyone else. They resemble some of DDDD's characters so much that it almost looks like they've been reincarnated in this universe lol

It's recommended to wait a few more chapters to see how it will develop, as there were some themes to discuss so far; probably more criticism of Japanese society, although none has been clearly established yet.

Narrative and Production style: Just like any Asano work, this one is a wild, complex, intriguing and thought provoking art piece. But unlike the others, until now, the narrative is mostly straight forward. When the story starts to branch in new directions, instead of creating a new plot point, it just introduces to the reader new characters that follow the main story and helps the writer to define a stronger sense of development to the manga. It's A LOT more action packed than his other works, but the action is so well paced in each panel, it's almost like it's being animated or that youare reading some sort of extremelly detailed storyboard for an action sequence, which it's just as brilliant as it's captivating since it reproduces the essence of action in a couple of still images.

Story/Plot: It's deep, as always really creative and original concept into play with all the social dilemmas with it. You can feel that it's building up to some really emotional and enlightened arc. I won't say much because I don't want to ruin the experience, just go read the first to second chapter and you will be hooked.

Art Style: You can tell it's an Asano manga, but at the same time you can also notice how his art style has developed over the years and is now peaking. Stronger, more defined and chunky lines help to create a sense of movement for the amazing action panels while the more dark and gruesome choices of full black come into play to present a darker tone as if it's own narrative it's now reflecting in it's own art.

As of this is written there's only 12 chapters, I shall improve this review as it goes. But you should read it, RIGHT NOW.

Asano Inio is a very difficult author to write/critique about. You'd THINK you know what he's talking about, but every single time you think about his works, they're so vivid, so lucid, so epic, so chaotic, so tragic, so orgasmic. You look at his past works and it's nothing but sentimental stuff. With his earlier works, he tried his hardest to expose the deepest parts of our vulnurabilities! You read critiques about his stuff and it's always a glaze of depression. Yet... for what it's worth... he's always striking exponentially deeper than before. Admittedly, I haven't read all of his works... but that's the sinking feeling Igot.

From "What a Wonderful World!" (didn't finish, because it was boring), to "Solanin" (Asano's classiq SoL anime/manga vibe), to "Goodnight Punpun" (I need to reread), to "Girl on the Shore" ("Girl on the Shore"), to "Downfall" ("Downfall"), to DDD (i really need to see the anime)... all I can say is that his most impressive works are definitely ones with scale.

That being said, all Asano's doing with Mujina in the Deep is absolutely nothing special. He's creating orchestras of chaos, no more no less. All it needs is a story and a place.

Firstly, the sense of place and perspective is something he never shys away from because it's his stylistic choice. This is one of the things I distinctly feel and remember when I think about the trio of giga-projects and their setpieces. I don't need to remember the specifics, but senses of place are what I recall first.

Secondly, the story. Oh god.

Asano is first and foremost telling a story. His stories are beyond morals. They are too complicated for a peabrain analysis of "who good, who bad, who fad, who sad".

And even if you peabrain analysis it out, you won't get anything! You'd be those worthless extra critical goobers who failed to realize what the story was about! You wouldn't be any different than the otakus Miyazaki hated. You wouldn't have fun with any of Asano Inio's works, I'm very sorry to say. My condolences.

What Asano is doing is telling a deeply personal story within a deeply political situation. One where you could sell your humanity status for cash and live with the consequences by becoming a katana blasting junkie.

The politics are so wicked that it seeps into the portrayal of the characters itself. It's why Asano is the only man who can portray a 4channer taking over the world in one story, and turning him into the big bad P word in the next.

To overcomplicate his characters (like questioning continuity between works) would be like criticizing an inescapable trope for simply existing. A worthless critique. The same thing goes for his action scenes, which don't need to be a masterpiece, only flashy enough.

And the politics... OH MY FUCKING GOD.

You really do need to have a fundamental understanding of reality before you read this one. Just saying the shockingly obvious... is obvious. It's just how it compounds into the place (where they live, eat, and operate)... and then the characters (their job, socio-economical status, how they fit into the world and unto the story).

In that sense, Asano is legend UNIQUE among legends. He understands war and humanity itself just enough to tell and sell a gripping masterpiece of a story. He is once again the maestro of his personal brand of madness, using modernity and its technologies as a simple and relatable background and backdrop.

How his characters navigate through such atrocities and tragedies... the stakes and pressures placed on his characters are just as personally high as they were in Goodnight Punpun! The complexity of it all is what makes Mujina in the Deep crazier than DDD!

Chapter 7.4 (27 chapters in) is the ultimate litmus test. An inflection point. If you understand the feelings and situations of the characters right then and there... If you can place yourself right there, immersing yourself alongside them and their adventures...

Then I'm going to call it. It's an absolute pleasure to read Mujina in the Deep chapter by chapter, in my pathetic lifetime. I can't wait to see how this plays and ends! I'm just as hyped for it as the next Black Lagoon chapters!!! Specifically, because...

Mujina in the Deep really questions how well you understand maturity and life itself... before letting you have fun with cute anime girls. Only the brave and true can see how fun and wickedly funny his writing is. 10/10.

Until next time.