About the Manga
- Genre(s): Action, Romance, Sci-Fi
- Demographic: Shonen
- Theme(s): Death; Humanity; Life; Love; Man vs Beast
- Trigger(s): coercion (in 2nd story), violence (in all)
This short anthology includes the following stories:
- “A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin’ in the Schoolyard”
- “Sasaki Stopped a Bullet”
- “Love is Blind”
- “Shikaku”
My Thoughts
“A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin’ in the Schoolyard”
This story takes place after humanity’s defeat from an alien invasion. The aliens have eaten people into near extinction, and two kids live in disguise as chickens at a school’s farm. After humanity’s defeat, the aliens have taken residency on Earth. Although chickens are a food staple for humans, the aliens find them disgusting. One day at the aforementioned school, the aliens take an interest in chicken meat and decide to eat the pair (of humans) that they have been caring for.
As the story progresses, we learn that the oldest child is actually an alien that had transformed himself into a human. He took pity in the surviving child and has since dedicated himself into protecting her. This alien boy attempts to save the human from a hunger-crazed alien. However, by the end of the story, we learn that his efforts were in vain: humanity has been completely wiped out from existence.
“A Couple Clucking Chickens” offers an insight into the futility of saving something that is already on the verge of collapsing. This story reminds me of the issues people have now with veganism and meat consumption, and mass animal extinctions. This story ends with existential dread; we don’t really know what we have until we lose it, and some things—like an entire species—are irreplaceable.
“Sasaki Stopped a Bullet”
This story takes place at a school. Our protagonist, Sasaki, has a huge crush on his teacher, Kawaguchi sensei. In the middle of their lessons, a man barges into the classroom and threatens to kill Kawaguchi for rejecting him many years ago. He also blames her for every bad thing that has happened in his life.
In short, the man shoots at Sasaki for standing up to him. However, Sasaki stuns the man and the classroom for being able to stop the bullet with his hand. Sasaki convinces the man that he is from the future and that the man has a promising life ahead of him after serving time in prison. Sasaki’s interference saves his teacher and the classroom. The story ends with Sasaki, now an astronaut, exploring the moon. He has fulfilled his dream of becoming the first Japanese man on the moon.
“Sasaki Stopped a Bullet” is a fast-paced story with an interesting view of one’s suspension of disbelief. Sasaki thinks that Kawaguchi is a god because she is beautiful and she radiates positive energy. The shooter thinks that Sasaki is a time-traveler because Sasaki confidently tells him that he will turn his life around in the future.
The finale pushes the idea that Kawaguchi really is a god because she and Sasaki have convinced themselves that her power allowed him to stop the bullet. However, as Sasaki looks down on Earth from the moon, he says: “Both then and now… I can stop bullets. That’s just common sense.”
I’m convinced that the bullet is a metaphor for confidence. It’s as if Fujimoto is saying, “You can do anything.” And that would make anyone less doubtful of their own abilities.
“Love is Blind”
Two school kids, Buki and Yuri, walk home together. Throughout the story, Buki attempts to confess his love to Yuri, but is interrupted multiple times by several individuals. These individuals include: a school teacher, an armed robber, and an alien. However Buki is so compelled to admit his feelings for Yuri that he ignores each individual because their interruptions are “the least of [his] priorities.”
The story ends with Yuri and Buki holding hands at the start of their new relationship.
“Love is Blind” is my favorite story out of the four in Fujimoto’s anthology. It is simple and absurd, but also heartwarming.
“Shikaku”
In this story, Shikaku is a female assassin who is hired to kill a vampire, an immortal being, named Mr. Yugeru. Although she fails, she brings him some humor.
Shikaku eventually learns that she has fallen in love with Yugeru. At a hospital, Shikaku is ambushed by the police and is nearly killed. Yugeru goes to retrieve her. While she’s on the verge of death, he immortalizes her by turning her into a vampire.
“Shikaku” is Fujimoto’s less ambitious story in the collection. It is a straight-forward story full of violence and edgy humor. Although the story has an ending, it makes me wish for more. We know that Yugeru is a vampire who desires what makes us human (mortality). In the story, we see that he regains bits of emotion through Shikaku. I wish that Fujimoto expanded on the pair in a series. But the story is fine on its own.
Tatsuki Fujimoto has become one of my favorite mangakas. Some of Fujimoto’s works can be outlandish, but my thoughts of his storytelling can be summarized by my review on Goodreads:
The best way I can summarize this collection of one shots is by stating that Tatsuki Fujimoto is a master of making absurd concepts into interesting works of art. The one-shots in this collection feature inhuman characters doing very human things.
From my Goodreads.com review.
Humanity is the central theme of most of Fujimoto’s work, so it’s no surprise finding that in his earlier works.
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