Genre Drama
Age Rating Mature
Price #19.95

From hardcore fans of real politics to professional comic writers, Kaiji Kawaguchi's EAGLE: THE MAKING OF AN ASIAN-AMERICAN PRESIDENT is a manga attracting unusual attention. Ten years ago, the Los Angeles Times described Kawaguchi's best-selling graphic novel THE SILENT SERVICE as "reminiscient of Tom Clancy." Today, Kawaguchi turns his imagination on the U.S. presidential process in EAGLE--a story that combines an outsider's perspective with an insider's detail to make provocative parallels with the real Campaign 2000.

There's probably nothing more timely than reviewing a manga about politics and elections. I actually heard of Eagle years before but it was only lately that I stumbled onto it at my local comic shop. Eagle is easily a relic of its age, with its left-to-right orientation and $19.95 price tag. On the other hand, it's also very much worth it considering that it's more than 400 pages long and the esteemed Carl Gustav Horn is the editor. Anyway, the manga starts out in Japan where our protagonist--a reporter--identifies the body of his deceased mother. From there, strange events lead him to America where he covers the presidential election of Senator Kenneth Yamaoka.

Art-wise, Kawaguchi retains that particular manga look but the rest of his details are almost photo-realistic. The story is serious all throughout and Kawaguchi does a good job at maintaining the mood as well as portraying various characters and their ethnicities.

As for the narrative itself, there's nothing fantastical or supernatural here but this almost reads like a political thriller. The drama is quite compelling and there are various characters that are quite three-dimensional instead of being simple cardboard copies. Senator Yamaoka himself is an enigma and while for the most part the reader wants to root for him, one isn't quite sure whether his motives--or at least his methods--are quite noble. This is very much a manga that lives up to its title.

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