Although much of the conversation in the world of manga has been dominated by "Kimetsu no Yaiba" (Demon Slayer), which ended its magazine serialization in May, there is still so much more left to talk about. Many of the buzzworthy and ambitious works that symbolized the 2010s came to an end one after another. "Imuri" by Ranjo Miyake and "BEASTARS" by Paru Itagaki, just to name a couple. I think that 2020 has been quite a fertile harvest for manga lovers.
"Land" by Kazumi Yamashita is yet another bounty of this year's harvest. Chapters of the manga have been serialized since 2014 in Morning, a weekly manga magazine published by Kodansha, while the 11th and final volume of its book form was released this September.
The story is set in a village surrounded by mountains, in what looks like Japan's Edo period (1603-1867). Twins are considered an ill omen in the village, so according to local rules, every time a set of twins are born, one must be left to die in the mountains. Sutekichi is a villager whose job it is to carry out this task. One day, his wife gives birth to twin girls. Remaining dutiful to his job, Sutekichi takes one of his baby girls, whom he names An written in katakana, to the mountains. Out of remorse, he maims both of his eyes. An, however, survives and is taken in by mysterious mountain people who raise her as one of their own. The remaining twin, also named An though written in kanji, grows up happily in the village, while her sister grows up hating the world and acting like a wild beast. When the abandoned An attacks the village, the chief orders Sutekichi to kill her.
"Land" and "Kimetsu no Yaiba" are both told like cruel folk tales. "Land," however, sets itself apart from "Kimetsu" through its bizarre setting. The village is closed off from the outside world by the enormous figures of gods who stand among the distant mountains in each of the four cardinal directions. Beyond them lies a realm that is simply known as "anoyo" (other world), that is believed to be the gods' domain. When members of the village reach the age of 50, they die, regardless of their health. Upon their death, they are allowed to pass over into anoyo. Village officials all wear animal masks, and written language is strictly forbidden. What lies beyond the mountains? It's this simple question that village An secretly asks as she grows up, and both she and her abandoned sister An cross the boundary between their worlds.
I can assure you that the last few pages of the first volume will leave you speechless -- and that's only the beginning. The plot continues to twist and turn a number of times all the way up to the last volume.
"Land" is the creation of Kazumi Yamashita, a veteran manga author best known for "Tensai Yanagisawa Kyoju no Seikatsu" (The life of genius professor Yanagisawa). Apparently, Yamashita has said that the central theme of "Land" stems from an unease she feels toward Japan. You will find that her concern is well illustrated in the manga if you read until the very end. Just who was it that desired a community dominated by ignorance, fear and superstition? It's a world that we're already very familiar with. Even with the internet and its boundless access to all sorts of information, communities can easily become closed off from each other. Which just makes me wonder: In what way is our world different from village An's home?
Yamashita probably drew inspiration for this manga from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Toward the story's end, there are also a few scenes where the reader can draw parallels to this year's COVID-19 pandemic, which makes the work into a vivid allegory of the happenings of the 2010s. And it's not isolated to just this story. All of the manga masterpieces that came to an end this year had to share and carry the burden of the last decade, in one way or another. I might even dare say the deeper the state of bewilderment in the world, the richer and more abundant the artworks are that reflect it. A bitter discovery, no doubt, but I'd like to say that this is the grand mission of manga itself.
-- Kanta Ishida, Yomiuri Shimbun senior writer
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