Yakeppachi to Maria, arrived to us as Maria and the Doll as always thanks to J-POP who included it in the thriving necklace Osamushi Collection, is a very special manga of Osamu Tezuka, written in a turbulent period in the history of the medium we love so much, especially due to the strong social changes taking place in Japan in those years. It was a period of liberalization on various social issues, such as sexuality, that for the first time it could also be expressed in manga designed for a slightly smaller audience; but it was also the time when the current of Gekiga, or those authors who wanted to start drawing “committed” and mature manga for a more adult audience, led in a certain way by Yoshihiro Tatsumi And Takao Saito, had now been fully cleared through customs and accepted. Tezuka, still seen as a more prolific author with children’s stories, in 1970 he proposed Yakeppachi to Maria, a shining example of manga designed to educate as well as entertain.
- Original title: Yakeppachi to Maria
- English title: Maria and the Doll
- Japanese release: 1970
- Italian release: 6 October 2021
- Number of volumes: 1 (single volume)
- Publishing house: J-POP Manga
- Gender: action, shonen, educational, sexuality
- Drawings: Osamu Tezuka
- History: Osamu Tezuka
- Format: 15 × 21, paperback with dust jacket
- Number of pages: 450
We reviewed Maria and the Doll through a press volume provided to us by J-POP Manga.
This is not a JoJo reference
Yakeppachi, pseudonym of Yakeno Yahachi, is a teenage delinquent like the ones we have come to appreciate through years and years of stereotypical depictions in anime and manga. And yet, there is something strange about him: one day, in fact, he asks to be allowed to go to the school infirmary, because he feels … pregnant. There is something inside him, he doesn’t know if a body or an evil spirit. Obviously no one believes him, because no one sees anything, and some start to mock him, especially those of theAssociation of the Order and the Plot, another group of school offenders led by Midori, a beautiful girl who wants Yakeppachi all to herself, as the only boy she has never managed to conquer.
One day, having fallen victim to an ambush, Yakeppachi really understands that he has not invented everything: in his body there is actually a secondary entity, namely Maria, a spirit or ectoplasm capable of freely moving out and re-entering his body, but who tries to protect him in every way when he is in danger. Soon, however, Maria gets tired of this condition and begins to inhabit the “body” of a doll built for clear sexual use, made illegally by Yakeppachi’s father. Maria and Yakeppachi, now technically brother and sister but also father and daughter, slowly begin to establish a particular and ambiguous relationship, in which the two will discover all those issues related to adolescence and puberty that we too have gone through at some point. of our life, but without forgetting Tezuka’s focus on pure comic action and entertainment. Furthermore, the character of Maria perfectly embodies the feminist heroine seen in other works by the author such as The Sapphire Princess: rejects gender stereotypes and other characters’ invitations to be more feminine and graceful, and is as capable of defending herself as much as Yakeppachi from thugs who want to get her skin, especially thanks to her “fake” body.
Sex Education Made in Japan
Japan in the 1970s, albeit in great social turmoil, was certainly not the country it is today: issues related to the sexual and sentimental spheres were still repressed and considered socially unacceptable, so much that you have to wait for the year of publication of this manga to see the so-called Japanese cinema arrive pink film, the first films capable of showing even rather explicit scenes without creating total scandal. Feminism was still a very rare movement, and male abuse of women was a common occurrence. At the school level, the concept of sex ed didn’t even exist, and so on with Yakeppachi to Maria in some way Tezuka, who has always been a very acute intellectual as well as a prolific designer, has tried to make up for this lack in his own way.
The series intersperses moments of action in which the plot evolves and the adventures of Yakeppachi and Maria against the Association of the Odd and the Plot move throughout Japan, to real educational blurbs in which they are explained and graphically illustrated, in this case to the Japanese kids of the time, issues such as the change of the body during puberty, conception, the functioning of pregnancy. In this case, Tezuka put his medical degree to good use to fill the gaps in the Japanese retrograde educational system of the time, managing to pack a story equally compelling and educational, with actually several particularly sexy: one of the author’s first manga in which even frontal nude scenes are shown with an erotic as well as narrative intent.
The usual quality edition
From a graphic point of view, reading a Tezuka manga can be said to have read them almost all: in fact, the author has rarely had changes in the style of drawing in his artistic career, preferring instead to vary on genres, themes and messages proposed to the reader in his over 700 manga products. All the products of the Osamushi Collection have a certain charm when put on the shelf and a certain quality that we are used to expecting by now, and even in this case the expectations are not disappointed.
The quality of the printed images is excellent, as well as the materials used for this volume are also of good quality. The final chapter is also classic in which all the bars or asterisked terms are explained by the translators, although I still prefer a classic translator’s note inserted at the bottom of the page, rather than a single collection at the bottom of the book. Unfortunately, a common trend, but the only possible criticism is the price, even if due to the shortcomings that we know; manga, especially the more authorial one, is rapidly becoming “luxury”.
Everyone tells him it’s impossible, but Yakeppachi, the toughest hooligan in his school, is convinced… he’s pregnant! And in fact something strange is happening to his body: this is how Maria is born, a mysterious being who becomes the boy’s alter ego, an inseparable friend and soon something more. Together, the two will face the arduous challenges of adolescence, plus others that Osamu Tezuka throws against the two protagonists to dispel the taboos surrounding the relationships between males and females. As always, the God of Manga proves that he does not want to underestimate the intelligence of his younger readers, while concocting a story that can be as hilarious as it is touching.
Buy Maria and the Doll following this link at the special price of € 14.25 (instead of € 15.00). Release scheduled for October 21, 2021. Support Akiba Gamers by purchasing on Amazon through this box!
Who do we recommend Maria and the Doll to?
Maria and the Doll is a manga that succeeds in equal measure in entertain and educate on important issues such as sex education, adolescence and the changes it entails, as well as gender equality, with Osamu Tezuka a great precursor of these social justice movements. Being a single self-contained volume, I would also recommend it to those who may have little knowledge in manga and comics in general. It can be a good educational read for teenage girls and boys, as it is basically them that the manga was targeting in its original form.
- The manga carries an important message
- The usual quality and care of the J-POP edition
- Suitable for a huge audience
- Some stereotypes and jokes, children of their time, have not aged very well
Maria and the Doll
A powerful story of love and growth
Maria e la Bambola, collected in a single rather full-bodied volume, is certainly able to cling firmly to the reader’s heart with an ectoplasm, passionate and moved him at the right point. All the uniquenesses that make Tezuka such an appreciated author are present here: an action daughter of his time, and therefore so incredible as to be retroactively comic, but nevertheless compelling and exciting. However, Maria is the real star of the comic, able to move the viewer several times with her ambiguous but certainly genuine relationship with Yakeppachi; but at the same time an educational story that showcases the most reflective Tezuka, the one that wants to educate as well as entertain. A work not to be missed!
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