Gakusen toshi asterisk is the first manga in Tezuka’s early “science fiction trilogy,” which also includes Metropolis and Nextworld. Together, they represent Tezuka’s birth as a graphic novelist, learning to create book-length stories and to establish his own visual language. Gakusen toshi asterisk light novel is the most primitive of the trilogy, written with a slapdash, almost stream-of-consciousness approach to plotting, and drawn in a style heavily influenced by early American animation. The first half of the manga assembles a motley group of characters; the second half sends them on a trip through outer space to the planet Mamango. This loose plot arc allows room for endless bizarre digressions: animal people, plant people, a shadowy gang, “energy stones,” dinosaurs, mad scientists. Several of Tezuka’s recurring “star system” characters make early appearances here, including the detective Shunsuke Ban (or “Mr. Mustachio”) and the scheming Acetylene Lamp. By the story’s surprisingly bleak and ambivalent end, Tezuka has made obvious strides as an artist and storyteller, although he’s still far from his mature period. It’s extremely unpolished and uneven (and the uncharacteristically stilted Dark Horse translation doesn’t help), but of definite interest to readers curious about the roots of manga.
Manga adaptation of Ryo Mizuno’s young-adult fantasy novels, produced as a tie-in to the anime. Louie, the alcoholic, fistfighting adult son of an esteemed wizard, is identified as the hero of a vague prophecy and finds himself the traveling companion of three mostly big-breasted female adventurers, who all dislike him to one extent or another. A vain attempt at injecting comedy into one of Mizuno’s D&D-rip-off settings, the manga manages to steer a middle road avoiding both plot and humor. (The story is apparently set in the same world as Record of Lodoss War, but none of the same characters or settings appear.) Despite slapping barmaids’ butts, Louie is actually fairly mild-mannered and thoughtful by the standards of boorish fantasy manga heroes (i.e., Shen Yin Wang Zuo light novel, Sorcerer Hunters). The art is competent but generic.