The four-page sample of the award-nominated Search and Destroy manga, which launched on Tuesday from Fantagraphics, is exclusively available to Anime News Network.
In October 2018, Atsushi Kaneko (Bambi and her Pink Gun, SOIL, Wet Moon) started publishing his manga series Search and Destroy in TezuComi magazine published by Micro Magazine Publishing Company. The tale is a reworking of Tezuka’s well-known Dororo manga. A nomination for the cyberpunk thriller has been announced for the inaugural American Manga Awards. For his lettering and retouching on volume 1, manga letterer Phil Christie is up for a nomination.
In August of last year, Mangasplaining started serializing the manga in the Mangasplaining Extra (MSX) newsletter.
The manga is described by Fantagraphics:
This is an angry story. A three-volume work, Search and Destroy transplants the vengeful action of Dororo from feudal Japan into a dystopian future where mercenary robots known as “creatures” serve the human elite and prey on the city’s impoverished, desperate masses. Rage against hypocrisy, injustice, exploitation, and the wrongs done to a child who grew into a righteous killer. A mystery girl hiding a deadly cybernetic implant in an animal hide and an orphaned burglar named Doro are linked by the terrible death of one of these creatures. This girl seems strange; who is she? How is she eliminating the most formidable and depraved creatures in the city one by one? Why is she so enraged, too?
In addition to serving as the inspiration for Search and Destroy, Tezuka’s 1967 manga series was turned into an animated remake in 2019, a live-action movie in 2007, and a 1969 black-and-white anime series by Mushi Productions. The original manga series published by Vertical Inc. won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan.
