Atsushi Kaneko’s ‘Search And Destroy’ Coming To Fantagraphics
by Tito W. James
Search and Destroy by Atsushi Kaneko is a Sci-Fi reinterpretation of the classic manga Dororo by Osamu Tezuka. The three volume series will be available in English for the first time from Fantagraphics.
“This is a tale of rage. Rage against hypocrisy, injustice, exploitation, and the wrongs done to a child who grew into a righteous killer….Complete in three volumes, Search and Destroy transplants the vengeful action of Dororo from feudal Japan into a dystopian future where mercenary robots known as “creatures” serve the human elite and victimize the city’s scrabbling, desperate masses. The violent death of one of these creatures connects an orphaned thief named Doro with a mysterious girl in a stinking animal hide that conceals deadly cybernetic implants. Who is this mysterious girl? How is she killing, one by one, the city’s most twisted and powerful creatures? And why is she so angry?”
Atsushi Kaneko is one of Japan’s most unique manga creators who’s still relatively obscure. Much like Shintaro Kago, Q Hayashida, and Taiyo Matsumoto— Kaneko has a non-commercial art style and pulls more from the American underground comix movement. If Search and Destroy proves successful we could see more of his work (like Deathco) find a cult readership in America.
