12 Feb / Asadora! (vol. 1) by Naoki Urasawa, translated by John Werry [in Booklist]
Once upon a 1960s screentime, Japan’s NHK broadcast serial dramas in the mornings, a genre called “renzoku terebi shōsetsu,” literally “continuing TV novel,” shortened to “asadora,” meaning “morning drama.” Legendary Naoki Urasawa ingeniously riffs on the bygone genre, replacing “terebi” with “manga” to create Renzoku manga shōsetsu Asadora!, truncated Stateside as Asadora! – a nod to “morning drama,” but also Asa-drama, after his titular protagonist, Asa Asada.
Following a foreshadowing preface of disaster, the first volume opens in 1959 Nagoya, just before what will be Japan’s deadliest typhoon catastrophe. Asa runs through the streets to summon the doctor for her mother, who’s in labor with the family’s twelfth child. No one seems to remember the elementary schooler’s name: “It’s like I barely exist. All because I’ve got so many siblings.”
When she’s grabbed by a panicked burglar mid-crime, her disappearance goes unnoticed. Holed up in an abandoned building, the unlikely pair stay remarkably safe. Amid the unfathomable destruction that follows, Asa and her would-be kidnapper become local heroes.
Replete with Urasawa’s signature details – spunky youth, mysterious old man, catchy tunes, monstrous fears – Asadora! debuts with promising spectacle.
Review: “Graphic Novels,” Booklist, February 1, 2021
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2019 (Japan), 2021 (United States)