Search and Destroy Vol. 01

Search and Destroy Vol. 01

From the cinematic mind of Atsushi Kaneko (Bambi and Her Pink Gun) comes a contemporary reimagining of the timeless, Eisner Award–winning Dororo, by “God of Manga” Osamu Tezuka (Buddha, Astro Boy).

This is a tale of rage. Rage against hypocrisy, injustice, exploitation, and the wrongs done to a child who grew into a righteous killer….Complete in three volumes, 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 victimize the city’s scrabbling, desperate masses.

The violent death of one of these creatures connects an orphaned thief named Doro with a mysterious girl in a stinking animal hide that conceals deadly cybernetic implants. Who is this mysterious girl? How is she killing, one by one, the city’s most twisted and powerful creatures?

Originally serialized from 2019–2021 in the Japanese manga monthly TezuComi, Search and Destroy is a brilliantly-crafted thriller about an outsider looking for meaning and vengeance in the unjust world that took everything away from her. Kaneko populates a stunning, high-contrast setting that echoes postwar Cuba as much as Tokyo with an unforgettable cast of scrappy heroes and skin-crawling monsters on a nonstop ride full of action and suspense.

This authorized retelling updates the rebellious ’60s spirit of the original Dororo to the equally tumultuous 2020s, mixing Tezuka’s signature dark yet playful storytelling sense with Kaneko’s own wide range of influences which include Western cartoonists like Daniel Clowes and Charles Burns as well as filmmakers like David Lynch. The result is not only one of the best sci-fi manga of recent years but also one of the most visually rich and distinctive works of graphic storytelling in any genre or language.

Please note: This book is a traditional work of manga and reads back to front and right to left.

Biographical Notes:

Atsushi Kaneko is a Japanese manga artist from Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture. His two books, Bambi and Her Pink Gun and Soil, have both been published in France. Bambi has also been published in English and Soil has been adapted into a television drama series.

Osamu Tezuka (1928 – 1989) was a Japanese manga artist, cartoonist, and animator. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovations in genre storytelling earned him such titles as “the Father of Manga,” “the Godfather of Manga,” and “the God of Manga.”

Title Notes: 

Dororo has been an influential, touchstone manga for decades. It continues to be adapted into various media to this day. New editions in translation are currently available from Random House.

TezuComi is a contemporary, celebratory project where cartoonists from all over the world “remix” Tezuka’s comics. This is a perfect project for Kaneko, who is known for blending multicultural and multi genre aesthetics and storytelling. And by gender-swapping the protagonist, Kaneko subverts the Angry Young Man literary trope.

Kaneko has a cult following: If the early 2000s manga boom is analogous to the independent film explosion of the 1990s, the bombastic and transgressive Bambi and Her Pink Gun would be its Natural Born Killers.