Genre: Horror
Age Rating: Teen
Price: $15.95
How to review Junko Mizuno? I'll start with her style: zombie Hello Kitty burlesque. It's as close a description as I can get. Wait a second...I'll try again: Pour Precious Moments, the catalog of Harvey Comics from 1978, Rory Hayes's right arm, and George Romero's brain into a blender and force feed the mixture to the love child of Moto Hagio (or maybe more like Riyoko Ikeda) and Kazuo Umezu. Hand her a big fat sharpie and you've just invented Junko Mizuno! Maybe not.
So, Hansel & Gretel? Here's ten reasons to read this crazy thing:
1)Hansel has a voice that will destroy everything in his path, and he keeps it in check with a tuna can strapped to his face.
2)Gretel, red hair like flames around her head, fierce eyes on the attack, kicks ass with a wooden practice sword. In a Sailor Moon outfit turned up to 11.
3)The twins' parents run a grocery store and get their produce from daikon-esque fairies whose hair is spinach leaves, and get their pork from
4)an enormous pig who gleefully slices into its belly to produce the best cut of meat!
5)The villain casts a spell which seduces the entire town to eat dirt, so she can
6)fulfill her need to eat everything she can get her hands on.
7)REVENGE! It's all about the revenge!
8)Full Color!
9)Paper Dolls!
10)Stickers!
Too many exclamation points, I know, so I'll end on the caveat: This (and the other Viz translations of Mizuno's twisted fairy tales, Cinderalla and Princess Mermaid) is printed on pulpy paper, looks unlike any manga out there, and owes its sensibilities to a mashup of European and American culture filtered through J-pop sensibilities. Mizuno didn't want her books to resemble manga volumes, but instead hearken back to the throwaway American kids comics from decades ago--only with blood, zombies, and nudity thrown in for good measure. Like if Stephen Bissette or Brendan McCarthy were handed art duties on My Pretty Pony. Even that sounds pretty awesome to me.
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