 Hey everybody, welcome back to a week in Geekdom, Gio here, and no, I did not get my cooking utensil, I meant this Asadota. Welcome back to the channel everybody, and yeah, I had to beef up my Urusawa collection if you will, and Asadota is a brand new series. Although currently, I just read that it's on a hiatus, which is unfortunate, but still, we got a few volumes coming out. I believe the last one was volume 4 in Japan, and we already have volume 3 solicited stateside, so that is really exciting. I'm very much looking forward to continuing reading this series, but nonetheless, it's not a formal review because it's only just beginning. This is more of a first impressions on what I thought of Asadota volume 1 from Naoki Urusawa. Now, Urusawa, I mean, there is this expectation when it comes to his books. You've read 20th Century Boys, Billy Bat, Monster, there's a quality there that you expect, art-wise and story-wise as well. So, what the heck is Asadota all about? Now, there are some mild spoilers here because they literally happened in the first two pages of the book, so I'm not really spoiling what the big twist of it all is because they give it away right at the beginning. The opening pages is in an alternate version of 2020 in Tokyo. Let me show you right there real-time, hope that looks great because it does look awesome to me. So, there's this monster attack happening, or a kaiju attack, and then we go back in time to the port of Nagoya in 1959 as we follow this rungbunksious, really awesome character, Asa. She is the youngest in a family of many siblings. Her mother is giving birth to the latest member of the family, and she's, Asa is tasked in getting the local doctor to help with the procedure and all that stuff. At the same time, there's a typhoon or massive storm hitting Nagoya in Japan, and that is sort of the basis right out of the gate. And we follow Asa through her point of view as she's going, running through the town, through the port, and trying to locate the doctor. She does, the doctor is on his way to check on her mother. And while she's also leaving, we get a chance to see the world around her and the different characters in this story. Now, one of the tropey complaints I see a lot on the internet when it comes to Naokirusawa is that, oh, yeah, the stories are great, but the art always kind of looks the same with the same character models. I mean, that's not really a complaint, that's his art style, but I can understand where people are coming from when you're used to seeing these books and everybody starts looking alike. You do a massive Urusawa marathon, I guess that could be a problem, but nonetheless, the art is so great and the character models are so fantastic. You're not going to have this issue right here. They're all, all these characters, regardless of the book that you're reading from the author, they all have great character facial features and personalities where you don't mind that they may look alike. I certainly don't. But nonetheless, continuing on with my brief plot description, as Asa is on her way home, she passes by a friend, a childhood friend, who is training to be in the Olympics. The family, his family were athletes and he, unfortunately, they had to participate in World War II and all that stuff, so the kid is sort of the future for that family and representing Japan and all that stuff. You see, the 50s is a very transformative period in Japanese history. We are just coming off of World War II and the country is starting to be reborn, if you will, into the mega house that it is today. His friend is practicing for that and Asa is still faster than him, which is hilarious, and as she's turning the corner, when he turns as well, she's disappeared. Turns out that this guy that you're seeing right here, this bum-looking dude, kidnaps her thinking that she's the daughter of the doctor, so she's got to be worth ransom money, right? And this is the heart and soul at least of the first volume. I can't go into detail about the series itself because I've only read the first eight chapters of this story, but this is the heart and soul of the series because here we have what Asa is really made of and how she reacts to what is happening. The storm is brewing outside, it's nightfall already, and the kidnapper, you think, oh, this is just some bad guy, but there's more to the story, there's more to this character. Asa, on the other hand, you think, oh, she's going to react in a certain way, yes, she's angry, upset at what happened and at him for kidnapping her, but she shows a quality that is so lost in today's time and it's empathy. She's able to sympathize with the kidnapper into, like, why he may have committed what he did. You know what I mean? And in a world like today's time where everybody's obsessed with that first impression and not really talking things out, things just get lost in the shuffle, I appreciated the scenario and Asa is willing to hear this guy out and why he's desperate, because he's not just a face, there is a story there. He was a former World War II pilot and you would think there would be glory in that and there isn't and, you know, society all but abandoned a character like this and he has to resort to what he's doing in order to keep going and surviving and all that. Their talk keeps growing as you're reading the story and as it intensifies, so does the storm and all freaking hell breaks loose. The storm may be something else, however, I do appreciate the aftermath. You see the storm is so intense, they have to leave that abandoned warehouse that they're sitting in alone in the dark that when the typhoon hits, they go to one of the huge containers, transport containers and when the day breaks and we find out what really happened in this amazing splash page, which I really enjoyed. I mean, it's pretty tragic. Here we have the storm brewing right there with the characters running for their dear lives and some of the sound effects right there to let your imagination go wild. The aftermath, oh, and here is what I'm talking about. Look at how amazing those portraits are for those characters. I mean, Bodhisattva is just a master for a reason, right? So when they find out in this great reveal right here, as you can see, it's all pretty much flooded and this part rang a little bit close to home because if you've ever been in a storm or a tornado or a hurricane or something, a natural disaster like that, there's so much chaos and confusion after the storm because the storm has a pattern. It's going to do its thing and you can't do anything about it. The chaos and confusion is what happens afterwards. Not the eye of the storm, none of that stuff. It's the immediate days, hours and seconds after the storm passes, after this great upheaval of the status quo. How do you react? What do you do? How do you move forward from that? And the book goes into that and the story goes into that with Asa wondering, is my family safe? What's going to happen? I have to look for them and the old man, there's more to the story and how they're going to interact and help each other out and it just keeps going from there. So I'm not going to ruin all the surprises. I think I already talked a little bit too much and I do apologize for that, but I just wanted to geek out a little bit about it and this is a really fun series, man. I really enjoyed this first book and the build of the actual manga is awesome. It's a biz signature size, so it's oversized artwork. So yeah, overall, on a first impressions basis, this is another solid hit in the making. It's unfortunate that we've hit a little hiatus, but I am looking forward to volume two and three when those come out and continuing my adventure with Asadora. What about you guys? Have you read the first volume? Have you read everything released so far? Let me know in the comment section down below. And if you haven't, let me know what are some of your favorite Naokiru Sabo books. Very interested in finding out. As always, guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for liking, commenting, subscribing, and being a part of A Week in Geekdom. Again, it truly does mean the whole world to me. Be sure to hit the notification bell so you know when new videos pop up and if you're not subscribed, please consider doing so. I do content like this where I talk about anime, comics, manga, all that fun stuff. Alright, that's it for me, guys. Thank you so much. God bless. Stay safe out there. I will catch all of you on our next video.