Manga Review: New Engineering Flies Over My Head

The voting period for the 2008 Eisner Awards ends on Friday, June 13, so I thought I'd give this year's manga nominees a once-over.

One of the more unusual manga nominees is New Engineering by Yuichi Yokoyama. Just flipping through this book, you can tell that this is work by creator with a distinctive style and vision. But the one thing that kept running through my head as I read this was, "It must be art, because I just don't get it."

Kudos to Brooklyn-based PictureBox Inc. for taking a chance and putting out possibly one of the most avant garde, least commercial manga releases I've seen in years. While the rest of the manga publishing world delivers endless variations on the same similar-looking shonen and shojo manga stories, New Engineering is the work of an creator who is deep into his own vision and philosophy. So deep, he's really not too concerned about things like a traditional linear narrative or even making things "pretty." You either get it and appreciate it, or you don't.

As for the Eisners, well, I can see why they want to reward this risk-taking here; kind of like how the Academy Awards nominates obscure foreign films once in a while to show that they get the 'arty' stuff. Call me hopelessly mainstream, but I would have given the nod to the lyrical, haunting and original Mushishi instead of giving New Engineering TWO nominations -- for Best Short Story (for "Book") and Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan. But that's just my two cents.

Anyhow, take a look at my review of New Engineering, and feel free to chime in with your comments about this decidedly different manga below. Also, if you're an eligible Eisner Awards voter who hasn't submitted your ballot -- vote for more manga in '08!

Image credit: © Yoichi Yokoyama / PictureBox Inc.