Kiichi

キーチ

• by Arai Hideki
• runs in Big Comic Superior

This is to manga what Watchmen was to US comics, what The Wire is to television. Layered storytelling, characters that are complex to begin with and grow as the story moves on, art that reflects the range of human faces and behavior, and a storyline that amounts to a howl of social/political rage.

It starts with Kiichi aged three, and shifts genres several times over the first few books as he is forged into the kind of man who can turn the world upside down -- in fifth grade. Homelessness, bullying, child prostitution, police corruption, media in bed with the government -- in eight volumes he's banged his head into all of these.

With "Part One" ending in next week's Big Comic Superior, it looks like Kiichi has been guaranteed a "Part Two" and a further arc or two, but this book is not a chart topping seller the way 20th Century Boys or Vagabond are...and it really should be. Does it make you think too much? It is too much for people to take? One person I lent it to returned it largely unread with the comment that it was "too heavy." I think the fact that it rattles people like that is a testament to the book's power, and exactly the reason why everyone should be reading it.