Welcome back to Creator Highlights, where I go over the strengths of creators and how they develop their stories. A more recent mangaka, Satoshi Mizukami really stands out to me given the amount of content he brings out. In just about a decade, he puts out quality character driven stories. Each offer a deep introspection of everyday life in the bizarre circumstances his works take place in. An assortment of diverse colorful characters often complement the weird stories and grim situations they face. All of them are certainly the heroes of their own story; but they almost always have ulterior motives that complicate their main mission.
Spoilers ahead for people who wanted to read about his series.
Satoshi Mizukami: Changing the Oversaturation
Mizukami’s first major work Sengoku Youko is about two yokai step-siblings traveling during the most famous period in Japan’s history. Hint, it’s in the name of the title. But perhaps to its benefit it never leans much into the battles between the many daimyo. You have a pacifistic fox girl with an on-the-nose name like Youko Tama who vows to bring peace. It’s rather ironic considering that her inspiration is the nine-tailed fox creature that makes an attempt to take over Japan. Accompanying her is human-hating human Yamato Jinka who does not believe in Tama’s ideals and only wants to protect her.
The most major hook is how the characters present themselves. Tama despite her great power can easily ends conflicts by force. Instead she only relies on her illusions to quell conflicts when words don’t work. Often she lends her power to Jinka and making him a demi-fox yokai. Jinka wants nothing to do with humanity; but when you’re a demon magnet and the yokai treat you better, you can’t blame him. As a matter of fact, the first time he awakens his spiritual powers, Jinka wants to purge any humanity he has.
Subverting the Setups
The first part of the series details how they travel to spread Tama’s message of peace. Accompanying them is a cowardly ronin who much like many others during this era loses his chance to be an officer; he finds a purpose with Tama, despite Jinka’s annoyance. All considerations it is a typical shonen set-up. Eventually they come into conflict with a group of yokai and mad gods known as the Dangaishu. Unlike typical villain groups whose views are meant to drive an agenda; they really have no motivations other than causing conflicts for the sake of it.
In effect they’re the perfect antagonists for this first half. Waywards are often the most dangerous kind of people since they practically have nothing to live for. Wars aren’t just about the battles, people want to make something out of it until agreements can be made. The heroes however can’t come to an agreement with this group as they are agents of chaos. In a great hard battle, unnecessary sacrifices are made. Jinka in particular believes he’s found what he wanted in combating the Dangaishu but becomes a puppet for a new group of villains.
Representing a Change
The new villainous group, the Tribe of the Void are an ancient human tribe who try to alter their fate. They go against the gods to strip them of their authority. Who hasn’t dreamed of taking fate into their own hands? But the void tribes are not heroes of their own stories, instead they manipulate heroes to meet their ends.
Mizukami essentially shows a period of growth that he needs in the real world. Unlike his previous work, Psycho Staff, Mizukami knew he was just retreading old grounds. With most series of his era just repeating the same routine and more lackluster characters, things needed to change. Ever watch videos that critique the Bleach franchise? No one wants more derivatives of that and Naruto and Satoshi Mizukami wants his work to reflect that.
Bring Back the Human Element!
Tama’s peace talks couldn’t keep the action going in the short run. And with Jinka’s arc essentially going nowhere they stick to the side. Even the ronin Shinsuke would just be a typical seinen protagonist; a lot of heart that drains overtime. So Mizukami decides to take a risk by mainly focusing on a former minor villain in the form of Senya. It’s a strange course considering Senya’s not a fox. Thankfully, Mizukami gives Senya a compelling history and complements the background conflict between Jinka and Tama.
The new protagonist Senya presents a new direction that rather than just trying to tell people that they did the wrong thing; Senya’s story is about forgiveness and accepting things the way they are no matter how bad they can get. For Senya, he is a product of his father trying to make him strong enough to live with his mother’s death. However Jinun’s method of sealing a thousand demons in Senya drives his son insane. Senya even ends up killing his love interest’s father. Wracked with guilt, Senya joined the Dangaishu because he had nowhere else to go. But by the time Jinka became a mad god, Senya had to make changes. In contrast to Jinka, Senya wants to become human again so that he can live a peaceful life.
The Focus of the Message
As for why the Void Tribe is doing their actions; it turns out they messed with fate too much and put so many problems to the side. The negligence comes back to bite them in the form of a meteor destroying their nation. Desperate to change the fate of their nation; they manipulate events like driving the gods mad to send the already chaotic war times into pandemonium. Their entire plan is to amass enough conflict to steal the power of manga protagonists to change fate; in the form of Senya’s power source.
The Void Tribe can be seen as the editorial staff at Shonen Ganosha; business people repeating past successes to sell more products to get themselves out of a slump. When Tama confronts the Void Tribe and delivers the best peace talk; everyone finally stops all the fights. All because violence and conflicts in the worlds can’t erase wrongs. No longer able to rely on determinators, the Void Tribe decides to lessen their losses instead of avoid responsibility. For the editorial staff, this means taking more chances and encourage more diverse work. Satoshi Mizukami had done his part at the time, especially with his other works.
Why Would Satoshi Mizukami Stop There?
His second major series The Lucifer and The Biscuit Hammer features a shut-in who was traumatized by his overprotective grandfather; and a high schooler who is the hero but wants to keep the entire world to herself by destroying it. So what makes them the heroes? Well an evil wizard is trying to destroy the Earth with a gigantic hammer; but he has to beat them and a few other fighters who have animal companions. So Pokemon mixed with Final Fantasy?
Yeah, the conflict isn’t the real appeal. Like most of Mizukami’s works, it’s about the diverse lively cast of unusual characters. Including the two primary characters Yuuhi Asamiya and Samidere Asahina, every cast member has a fleshed out stake in the conflict. Comparing it to most ensemble series from Shonen Jump is a disservice because of how thought out they are. For example a neglected kid who through the other ‘Knights’ finds out he likes ramen more than expensive meals.
Self-Reflection at its Finest
Still most of the other characters don’t have a lot of development; but the more time spent on them shows how people develop to do away with preconceived notions about themselves. Despite Samidare and Yuuhi’s plans, the reader goes along their journey. It allows the audience to question Sami’s plan to destroy the Earth. It also brings meaning into the decisions they make; there are no world shattering events just mundane but meaningful interactions.
Satoshi Mizukami revisits some of his other works’ tropes like the concerned relative in Yuuhi’s grandfather. He wants Yuuhi to be strong after the death of Yuuhi’s detective father via backstabbing; but this only traumatizes Yuuhi who becomes isolated. As a result, Yuuhi began to hate the world after everything his grandfather put him through. Yuuhi would’ve ended up like Senya had he not met the lizard knight Neu and Samidare. Initially joining Samidare’s quest to destroy the world; he finally comes out of his shell to accept the world for what it is. It’s at that point where the audience questions if the world destroying plot is worth it.
Villainous Foils
Which brings me to the villainous world destroying plot. The evil wizard Animus isn’t a misanthrope like Jinka; he’s little more than a spoiled child in an immortal man’s body. He was originally an avid reader eager to learn. But he and his sister Anima get caught in the accident that reveal their god-level psychic powers; Animus went mad creating the Biscuit Hammer to destroy Earth time and time again by going back in time out of curiosity. The only way Anima was able to deter him was a game where Anima’s Beast Knights fought against Animus’ golems.
In contrast is Samidare. Sami doesn’t want to destroy the world out of a power fantasy, she wants to make something out of her life. Samidare’s soap opera illness turns off her feeling of pain and pleasure, essentially making her feel dull and isolated. Anyone who tries to encourage her to live on just felt like an insult to her. The power she receives from Anima is like a child living their imagination. It’s a dream that she will have to wake up from eventually. So before anything happens, Sami wants to destroy the world so she can have it to herself. Ultimately what puts everything together is how Sami values her time with the Beast Knights.
The Purpose of Coming-of-Age
Animus and Samidare show not how absolute power corrupts absolutely; but how dangerous that power is in the hands of a child (or the mind of a child). What originally starts as innocent desires becomes destructive obsessions for both of these characters. Animus, drunk on all of his success felt like he could get away with anything; since no one could stop him. His sister learns from her mistakes and matures after interacting with her host and Beast Knights; Animus still remains the nine-year old from his initial run. Even his more intelligent golems don’t think much of him.
This is actually what Anima indirectly does with Sami, to give her a full life by bonding with the Beast Knights. Because while living in your fantasies can be fun, it cuts people off from crucial connections. All the power in the world means nothing if it means losing everything. Something a man-child will never be able to understand because they neglect personal responsibility.
The last chapters bring up something that I believe lead into another work of Satoshi Mizukami, Spirit Circle.
What’s Your Unfinished Business
Spirit Circle at first glance seems like a typical “I see dead people” situation. But unfinished business this time comes in the form of reincarnation and identity. The two main characters are in a feud that goes throughout time and space.
Futa Okeya and Kouko Ishigami share lifetimes of different conflicts. A shoemaker’s ghost-seeing son vs a high class priest, middle age European knight vs. witch (healer), and samurai vs. assassin. Not all of them are battles; some are just unsatisfying lives they are unable to cope with.
Are You Even You?
Kouko having been the victim of some of Futa’s past lives wants to kill him body and soul; but it’s not simply revenge, some of Futa’s lives became genuine threats. However it becomes apparent that Kouko lost part of her sense of identity to one of her own past lives. Yet Kouko still wants to live her own life, all the while taking advantage of murdering someone as a minor in Japan.
Futa’s past lives each had their own variety of love, loss, heartbreak, and uncertainties that needed to be remedied. Despite that, Futa’s lives begin to find meaning by continuing to meet good people throughout their lives. Some of them even get closure in their present incarnation. As a result of their conflicts and needs however, Futa begins to lose his sense of self.
Wasted Lives Need Closure
This results in the rise of Futa’s first past life, Fortuna. Fortuna was an immoral scientist with a childish glee similar to Animus; he wanted to be special to the point of becoming an entire universe. Unlike Animus though, Fortuna realizes he did something wrong. The only reason he doesn’t feel regret is because he believes that there is no going back. For Fortuna that means that everything he sacrificed was for nothing. Seeing his incarnations practically waste their lives drives him over the edge. In reality though, he just gave up trying to understand people.
It’s Okay to Stray
What ultimately stops Fortuna isn’t an epic battle but what Fortuna wanted all along; a reality where the possibility for improvement existed. A lot of people don’t know what they really want out of life. Readers, audiences, or manga publishers, it takes a long time for people to realize they’re not happy. But maybe it’s from those repetitions that people begin to make improvements on themselves. By the end it looks like Mizukami got what he wanted in the form of four god-like beings.
The Multi-Universal Truth of Satoshi Mizukami
Now here is where I think Mizukami is tying together everything he worked on. He’s tying science fiction and supernatural powers together with a multiverse and Spirit Circle really displays how in detail. The white spirit that is mentioned along with the world destroyer by the four gods describes Senya and Samidare. The Reincarnation Circle that Anima mentioned at the end of Biscuit Hammer also comes into full focus. Best of all, it didn’t feel like an info dump or a crossover crisis.
Given how some of these manga were made in tandem with one another; it’s almost as though Mizukami is telling the story of how universes influence one another. In fact it comes to the moral of all the stories. Nothing is set in stone, the possibilities are endless, even if it’s not always what you want; sometimes it’s more important to cut your losses than try to prevent them.
As Big As the Rest
Because of all three of those series Satoshi Mizukami gets a major step in his career, Planet With. Unlike the other works, this is Mizukami’s first collaboration on a project; to the point it of having a TV show and manga around the same time. Planet With is certainly something I wanted when it came to the mecha genre. Whenever I find something in that category; it’s usually just an uninspired take on Mobile Suit Gundam or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Planet With however brings out a much more serious but lighthearted take.
It presents a compelling story about an alien boy fighting against well meaning but misguided mecha pilots; they themselves being manipulated by higher forces in turn. With an entire multiverse at his back, Mizukami brings in an original humanizing story. Because much like in Mizukami’s manga career, relying purely on past success holds everything back. In this series, it’s about how justice means little when it’s imposing. If justice is little more than a means to sell merchandise, it makes the concept look cheap. But the genre still has a long way to go.
Overall Success
I have seen a lot of manga artists just come and go; and more-so artists who only get recognition because they appeared in popular magazines. Satoshi Mizukami however is an example of someone not only with ambition; but willing to change plans to better suit those situations. In just around a decade, he goes from being a good mangaka to someone who cements himself in history.
But the ink’s not dry yet so there is more to come. Thanks for coming and remember to look to between the panels.