JapanNewbie

Manga with Soul, Blues

Posted on 01. Jul, 2006 @ 11:54 pm by harvey in Media

I must admit, I don’t read much Manga. I can read Japanese well, but it still takes me around 4-5 hours of focused attention to read through one manga that would take a native Japanese less than an hour to read.

I’ve heard that native speakers who read manga regularly can get through one book in 20 minutes! I’m jealous.

A friend recommended this new manga called 「俺の悪魔のブルーズ」(ore no akuma no blues) or, “My Devil Blues”. I had previously let him borrow one of my Son House CD’s, to give him an intro to Blues music, and he said, “Hey! Son House appeared in a Manga I’m reading now!”

And so he let me borrow the first two books.

To summarize, and hide any plot spoilers for those who may want to read this later…

Basically this book is about a newbie blues kid in the deep south. He doesn’t know the true spirit of blues, thinks it’s just a guitar technique, and doesn’t understand that it is much deeper.

Nevertheless, he continues to hang out at the local blues house and asks the players to teach him a bit. Eventually he is told that blues cannot be taught so simply. He gets frustrated, and one night finds himself at a creepy crossroads with no one around.

After strumming a bit at the crossroads, the next day he finds he suddenly has incredible new-found guitar technique. He can’t understand why. Then, he realizes from the people around him that actually months have passed since that night, and he can’t remember a thing. Apparently he sold his soul to the devil that night to get his skills.

The plot gets weirder from there.

On another note, this book has a cover price of six hundred and sixty-six yen. Nice touch.

- Harvey

PS: Thanks for answering the poll so far, I really enjoy the feedback! It looks like people want more information about Japanese society, and also more pictures of Japan. Surprisingly few people seem to care about Japanese language here! I’ll take the feedback and adjust the content in the future accordingly!

Thanks all ~