 We're back again, ladies and gentlemen, with another manga review. Gio here of Opeek and Geekdom, thank you so much for joining. So what the heck is Satoshi Kahn's opus all about? So here's the thing, Satoshi Kahn is one of my all-time favorite movie directors, and I kinda have to admit that I didn't really know much about his manga career when he first started out in the 80s and 90s before, you know, transitioning on to anime films such as Perfect Blue, Militium Actress, etc. etc. So here I am trying to rectify that on the channel by, of course, doing a review on opus, his last manga before switching over to anime films. The thing I really enjoyed about opus is that you really get to see a young Satoshi Kahn experimenting with what's to come. There's a lot of plot elements and story tropes that are used in opus, which you will see later on in all of the films that he's known for, which I thought was great. This is a metafictional story about a mangaka named Chikara Nagai, who is stressed out as he's writing the final chapters of his hit manga, Resonance. Resonance is this action spy sci-fi thriller story where you have the character of Satoko and Lin who are espers or have telepathic abilities and all that stuff as they fight a villainous character called the Mask. The Mask has these weird shaman-esque African inspired masks and he controls the population, you know, mind control abilities, all that stuff. And there's a lot of commentary here to be had, whether it's the characters themselves or the struggle, the mask controlling people and influencing the, you know, the population in that manga and just the fact that the biggest plot twist comes at the hands of Lin. Lin is the supporting character, he's helping out Satoko to defeat the mask and like I mentioned earlier and in a strange quirky turn of events he finds out what Chikara Nagai's big plot twist is for the end of Resonance. The character sort of becomes self aware and he spots this plot twist. Now before I do reveal it, which is not really a spoiler, that's the premise of the whole story, the guy decides to subvert expectations with his audience and I do feel like this is Khan doing the same for everybody else. He has, instead of him creating the beginning of the story, we're at the end where Nagai decides instead of having a cookie cutter ending with Satoko finishing off the mask, I guess. He has the character of Lin die in this final confrontation against the mask, the two of them kill each other off ending the story, however, the editor points out the people are not going to enjoy that because they're expecting something else and you've already let them onto something else, now you're just going to turn everything upside down at the last minute and it may not go over so well, however, creative freedom, I guess, or just the power of the creator itself, he wants to make this happen because he's satisfied with that decision, he wants his audience to experience that and he thinks that is the best ending for his hit series. So Lin comes alive and figures this out, finds this out and in a strange turn of events, sucks our main protagonist into the story as he steals that final draft splash page of the two of them fighting, and Nagai is confused, he thinks it's a dream at first and is doing everything possible to wake up until he realizes no, I'm inside of residence, I'm inside of this world, and he meets with the other characters. Lin escapes and he's trying to figure out how not to die because he's self-aware, he now knows his fate and tells the guy just if you're some kind of God or whatever you are, why are you deciding my fate and this is a really crappy way to go, I will make my own destiny, so he runs off and is trying to end the story, I guess, in a different way, ending the mask and saving his life and his friends and all that stuff. Meanwhile, Nagai meets up with Satoko, who doesn't believe that he is who he is, but slowly but surely starts to realize that this guy knows a lot more than he's letting on, he knows way too much about who I am, my past history and all the different characters and the world that she is inhabiting, and it's from there that we get a very interesting story from Kon that just, yeah, it kind of does that, like I said earlier, kind of separate expectations, you're expecting this epic manga and in turn it becomes this story about not only these characters defying fate and questioning themselves and the people that created this world, but also a sort of a fun jab and critique at the manga business and the process, if you will, of the actual manga making by different creators. There are some really awesome transitions that happen when you're reading this and it goes from the panels of resonance into rough sketches into Nagai's office as he's working on the manga and when he enters that world it's through sort of like the effect of a broken glass and you see that panel being shattered and everything that's inside while keeping us, you know, on the background looking at everything that's happening. It's kind of interesting that you have a story like this where you essentially have a creator phasing his creations while a writer writing about this thing for audiences to consume and sort of become the ultimate creators, if you will, because we're the ones reading and judging the story as the panels go on and on. Now the art of Opus is splendid. Satoshi Kan is a hell of an artist. I love his writing and I equally love his art and I am so happy that I read Opus and got to experience that. Even though it's the last manga that he wrote it's still really awesome. You may not know this but Satoshi Kan was great friends with Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of Akira and actually worked as an assistant in the manga and you definitely see a lot of influence in his style when you compare it to the manga of Akira. Now what is really interesting and the dates are a little bit fuzzy, I think this all starts back up in 2010, when you read in the 90s the story of Opus the manga doesn't have an ending. The story leaves off in the climax and you don't see the proper resolution for it. Han did not have time to finish off that manga because soon after he started to work on Perfect Blue and the manga unfortunately never got the ending it needed. Unfortunately with Kan's untimely passing they discovered the rough draft and notes for the ending of Opus and added it to the already published material creating the finale for it and in true spectacular fashion I'm not gonna spoil it but it is one of the most Satoshi Kan things I've ever experienced. If you enjoy his film works the ending of this manga it's something that should not be missed and I think you're gonna love it. It may not be the cookie cutter clean ending that people are experienced with when it comes to like shonen jump stuff or whatever but this is more than that. It's about having fun with the nature of the beast and by that I mean the manga creating process and the genre and the books and literature itself where you're able to take liberties with your stories and create magical elements and characters and situations and have an ending like that. It's awesome that they did that and they gave everybody a chance to see a completed work if you will. Obviously the final chapter is the art styles different because it wasn't a finished product but it's still good enough where you can admire and really enjoy the story of Opus and you see the characters like I mentioned before of Satoko Lin and all that stuff questioning their existence now that basically their world has been shattered and they're trying to figure out why how when just what are they going to do and meeting their God creator if you will questioning him about the decisions that he's made and how like to them this tragic epic life has gone by and now they're thinking great this was just amusement for you to entertain other people and I'd love that because after all when these creators write stories yeah it's for the enjoyment and entertainment of us all so I thought that was really cool obviously the art which I mentioned earlier looks fantastic very Akira-esque especially the character designs and obviously a work like this you know when you watch the movies the editing of Satoshi Kon movies is so on point and precise that is here as well there is the way the panels flow and the nature of the story just weaves in and out of real world and manga resonance back and forth like that and really making you question what exactly is going on because the mask also finds out and he wants he sort of wants to change things from his perspective not necessarily to save his own life but to destroy that world and be reborn and do all sorts of things that bad guys like to do so there's different perspectives on the whole finding out that your world is a fictional tale so yeah overall I think Opus is just that a fantastic Magnum Opus when it comes to Satoshi Kon I really enjoyed it I loved reading it obviously it's a different type of story compared to your typical action manga but that's just the nature of Satoshi Kon and his cerebral take on meta fiction and characters and the nature of the medium itself that I really enjoyed so how about yourselves let me know in the comment section down below if you've read Opus what were your thoughts on it and if you haven't and you enjoy Satoshi Kon tell me what is your favorite works of his whether it's the different films or the TV shows or the other manga that he's written thank you everybody for tuning in thank you for liking commenting subscribing if you want to see more content like this be sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell help a brother out we do content like this where we go over anime comics manga all that fun stuff thank you so much God bless stay safe out there I will catch all of you on our next video