Astral Project 4

marginal / Syuji Takeya – CMX – 2009 – 4 volumes

I did love this series, and its semi-pretentious plot and philosophical ramblings clicked with me in a way that such things rarely do, but the fourth volume was the weakest of the four.

Unfortunately, the weakest link turns out to be Masahiko’s sister, the initial mystery and the hook that started everything off in the series.  It’s appropriate that things come full circle and end with her, but the explanation of her role in the government research of astral projection just isn’t a very satisfying one, and in the end, it doesn’t matter much since the research can only be done on willing subjects.  Her reasons for doing what she did are also ultimately unsatisfying, given the care for the justification of cultural problems given elsewhere in the series.

Speaking of the justification of cultural problems, the philosophy got away from me a little bit here, too.  Francis Bacon’s painting and Slimy-kun have a conversation about how computers in the life of modern man act as a replacement for real experiences, and are what is causing the sharp increase in astral projection.  They touched on this last volume (blaming otaku for bad astral projection that they’ve been witnessing), but they go into more detail here.  Topics include how consumerism replaced belief in religion in the US when all the immigrants left their holy lands behind and felt alienated, and how materialism replaced religion in Japan after WWII when the emperor was no longer divine.  Actually, they don’t cite materialsm at first, they cite professional wrestling, which I thought was awesome.

The government conspiracy parts are what they are, and function as they should in the story, but I was left feeling like something was missing from that part, or like I was given too much information.  The government officials get really preachy in the last pages, and it didn’t feel like they needed to be developed as much as that.  Faceless officials with no opinions would have been fine.

The situations with Misa and Zampano work themselves out.  Admittedly, I was a little disappointed with the ending since it took out several elements of the series I really liked, mostly involving activities Masahiko gets up to.

Yeah, all around this volume was a bit of a disappointment, but I don’t think that takes away from the series as a whole.  It’s definitely not for everyone, and it can be preachy and hard to follow and really out there, but if it hooks you, it’s going to be one of the more unique manga you can read.  Thank you, CMX.