 Welcome back to the channel, Gio here, and today we're talking Mujirushi, the sign of dreams from Naoki Urusawa. So what is Mujirushi all about? Well, it's quite an interesting short story. I love Naoki Urusawa, his work is legendary, from Master Keaton to Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto, the list just goes on and on of the excellent material that this mangaka has created, and he is one of the masters of his craft, and to have a new work from him is always great. This came out in 2017, I believe, and it tells a Louvre manga story. Now what exactly does that mean? Well, the famous French museum commissioned, or I guess features manga or mangaka writing stories about the museum, and they've included it in their display of sequential art, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong? With all of that backstory, what the heck is Mujirushi about? Well, it tells the story of the character of Komoda, a man who will literally do anything to earn a quick buck. He has this rubber sandal making factory, if you will, and he has this insanely dumb idea to skip out on his taxes and not report them so he can take his wife on a luxury cruise. What's real about Urusawa's works is that his characters are flawed and have very realistic problems and features to them, and that is always appealing. You don't necessarily have to have a boy scout for your protagonist, and sometimes it's great to have a character that's flawed and you can poke at those holes and you can sort of see where the fault lies, examine them and yourself in the process of reading the story. So Komoda has the insanely dumb idea to skip out on taxes and as luck would have it, his business is subject to a random tax audit and it bankrupts their family. Now to add insult to injury, Komoda finds out that his wife actually took the cruise after all, only by herself and not with Komoda or their daughter, Kazumi, desperate to provide money to the household and pay off the debt and all that stuff. Komoda envisions this scheme after hearing some people talking at a pub and them wearing a political mask like the ones in real life, the Regan mask and all that stuff, based on a fictional, controversial American president named Beverly Duncan. It just so happens that Beverly Duncan is based off of Donald Trump. So I could immediately see what Utsuha was doing with him poking fun at American politics and the world stage in 2017 and the characters in the story, they have this idea since the character of Beverly is so controversial. The people at the pub, I should say their idea is to make these masks because if the character wins the election, it'll be a hot ticket item because it's such a controversial character. So Komoda volunteers his factory assembly place, if you will, and they start making large quantities of the mask and it just so happens that it turns out to be a very lackluster election and the character of the candidate, Beverly Duncan, wins but in the most mundane, boring way. So there's absolutely no hype for the mask or for any sort of memorabilia, I guess, and it just furthers that or deepens that mountain of debt for Komoda as his business partners quickly flee the scene and are nowhere to be found. At the end of the rope, basically, the character is going through some really tough times with his business and mental health and all that stuff. And when all hope seems lost, there's a sign, a very particular sign, on a crow that leads him to meet the director. Who's the director? Now he's an art fanatic who vows that he can make every single dream that Komoda and Kazumi, Komoda's daughter, have. And that is sort of in a nutshell the plot of this story and how it kicks off. It's only nine chapters, so it's a very tight, concise story to the point of there's not a whole lot of room for these characters to grow because in the first chapter you've already set up who they are and then what follows is the intriguing mystery of who this director character is, what he's trying to do, how it all sets up to this mystery and how it involves the Louvre Museum because that is an integral part of the book. Now if you're new to the world of anime and manga, there's something that you might not realize as you're reading the story. The director is this funky looking dude with these weird tuxedos and bow ties and buck teeth and he looks very comical. Now if you don't know about old school anime slash manga, you might not realize that this character is supposed to be sort of a fresh take or maybe it is the exact character. We're not sure, it's left ambiguous on purpose, but it's mostly out of just for comedic sake. This director is unmistakably Iyami from the series Mr. Osomatsu, a comedy manga that ran for many years and then it got rebooted. It has anime adaptations as well. So if you look Iyami and you look at the director from this story, they look extremely similar to the point where I'm like yeah this is done on purpose. The character is extremely obsessed with France and French culture, the arts and all that stuff, but at the same time he's trying to make some interesting moves that will hopefully benefit our main characters. But what follows is a very quick and to the point heist mystery story with some very charming individuals specifically Kasumi. The daughter of the main character steals the show in my honest opinion with her characterization, how she presents herself. She's very inquisitive, she's very wholesome and she cares deeply for her family but will quickly point out the faults in other people's stories or conversations and she's quick to react to that and almost always takes the lead in conversations that involve her, her father and you know other characters that might be involved and that was really awesome. I really enjoyed the story mostly for her and her journey throughout because the rest of the characters some are very trope heavy. They might be more comical like the director or there might be more gullible like our main character Kamota who is trying desperately to gain some money because he literally owes every single penny that he can think of to somebody. So this journey takes us from Japan all the way to France in a scheme that involves going to the famous museum for something in particular. Now the character of the director even though he's referenced as sort of a gag character the way he talks is very stereotypical of when you're trying to do a caricature of somebody trying to speak with a French accent so he obviously from the get go you know that this is some shady stuff with this guy but the character you don't really know about him there are several red herrings and several plot threads that go throughout the book you're given hints by other characters about who he might be and his origin story but I love the idea of leaving it ambiguous you don't really know if it's all true if it was just a massive joke or a story to fool people meanwhile you've got Japanese investigators looking into this guy and looking into what is happening with the museum plot and it all just coalesces together in a very interesting kind of bizarre heist story in France I'd love that you know it being commissioned for the museum itself I'd love that France is there it's not something of a backdrop other characters other stories I should say might do their tale almost exclusively in Japan and just feature one or two things about France instead you're given a lot of references to popular music from the 60s and all the way to the 70s if I remember correctly there are a couple name drops of famous singers and artists that if you don't know who they are it's just going to seem like oh just a random album LP reference but if you actually google the song that they're referring to you can find the tracks on youtube and stuff like that and I do recommend giving them a listen while you read the manga it certainly enhances the flavor of the story and makes it a little bit more enjoyable now with it just being nine chapters I do think some plot elements are rushed basically when you learn about what they're going to do to them actually doing the heist thing how they get through points A B and C doesn't really make a whole lot of sense or a couple plot holes that left me scratching my head like okay what's happening here who how did they get from here to there especially with the boxes and the french characters that become secondary protagonists how do they fit in it's all very loosely done and interwoven and a lot of I saw a lot of comments online that people didn't necessarily like that and they criticized the story as sort of a funny throw away and not really the best of urusawa's work and I can agree with that but I really enjoyed it I had a fun time reading Mujirushi and seeing something different obviously the art is impeccable and and fantastic urusawa is a master at his craft you recognize these characters immediately that you see that and you're like yep that is a now of urusawa work they are expressive cartoonish at times but real and the character of Kazumi is so expressive in the story that she really does steal the show whenever she's on panel you take notice of her and her expressions especially when she's questioning the director's faulty tales about meeting famous people and artists and diplomats and stuff like that I'd really enjoyed that and I paid close attention to her facial reactions and they were just golden and really well done so for it to be a short story for a very specific purpose I do think urusawa was just having fun creating something zany wacky with some heavy political undertones when you finish the story by the way there are a lot of things that relate to the uh you know the Beverly Duncan character that actually influences the whole plot of the manga and by the end you realize oh so that's what you wanted to set up and and how the character influences almost every major point of the short story I thought it was really cool I don't know I think yeah there are a lot of better works this is not one of his best materials obviously it's unfair to compare it to what I consider masterpieces like monster and Pluto where the tone is totally different and there's a purpose and intent to create a long story about a character's journey here you just have a bite-sized adventure about characters that are not necessarily the best exploding Kazumi but the rest of the cast they're not necessarily the best but they're trying their hardest to survive in a world that's very much like our own and very realistic and that it can oppress you and make you feel like you're suffocating that you're willing to do whatever it takes to come out on top it just so happens that they're making the wrong decisions so for that I enjoyed it have you read Mojirushi let me know in the comment section what you thought down below and what you thought of the whole sign of dreams because it's a very strong metaphor throughout the story and how basically there is a sign that whether you're interpreting it the right or wrong way can sometimes influence us into making the right decisions and can inspire us in our most dire circumstances and push us to our goals and beyond so I thought that was probably the heart and soul of that manga uh maybe I'm wrong but that's how I saw it guys as always thank you so much for liking commenting subscribing and being a part of a week and geek them it really does mean a whole lot follow me on social media of course you can check out my merch link down below but most importantly hit subscribe so you know when new videos pop up I've got to go I will catch all of you on our next episode