dragon head es una de las obra, no solo de manga sino de cualquier medio, mas impactantes y tensas a la hora de intentar representar como llegaria a actuar el ser humano frente a desastres ambientales. Lleno de escenas inquietantes y claustrofobicas que dejan en vergüenza a cualquier historia de junji ito
antes de empezar vamos a dar un poco de contexto (spoilers), la historia empieza con un accidente de tren dentro de un túnel en donde la basta mayoría de quienes estaban dentro de este acabaron pereciendo excepto tres chicos: teru, ako y nobou. Estos al enterarse de su situación intentan una forma de salir del túnel en el cual se dan indicios de que algo extraño ha pasado en el exterior. Dentro de ese túnel los chicos tendrán que poner toda su capacidad tanto física como mental para poder vivir en el tren entre decenas de cadáveres putrefactos, mientras ocurren fuertes terremotos que hacen muy inestable el lugar y al extraño aumento de la temperatura. Una vez que logran salir por medio de un sistema de tuberías se encuentran con algo incluso peor afuera. Un cataclismo de proporciones bíblicas que termino por destruir a toda la sociedad japonesa (fin del spoiler)
uno de los aspectos mas fuertes de dragon head es el arte, algo que hay que tomar muy en cuenta es la forma en como el escenario esta construido, gran parte de los fondos están compuestos por grandes edificios y carreteras en ruinas, todos con un gran trabajo puesto en detallar el daño que estos poseen, la gran presencia de estos causa una sensación de insignificancia en contraste con los personajes que son nada frente a estos así como el empleo de vastos escenarios donde están presentes da la idea muchas veces de reforzar un sentimiento de soledad y lugubridad.
Otro aspecto que me parece muy interesante es el uso del sombreado y el negro, los cielos están principalmente formados o por una inmensa y espesa nube de cenizas o por una capa grisácea que en ocasiones termina por tapar completamente el sol y mostrando una impactante mancha blanquesina y como si le hubieran hechado pintura con un areografo en el cielo , razón por la que siempre esta hay una enorme cantidad de escenas donde la oscuridad esta en las viñetas, este elemento se usa principalmente para dar la sensación de indefension y de paranoia, porque se quiere dar la idea de que hay cosas horribles entre estas tinieblas, y hacer que sea incluso mas tétrico el avance de los protagonistas por estos terrenos a la vez que se usa como metáfora para representar el lado mas monstruoso de los seres humanos, lo cual se refleja en como llegan a actuar muchos del cast al estar en presencia de este. El negro también es usado para 2 cosas: se usa como medio para plasmar los pensamientos de los personajes, algo así como con solanin (manga muy recomendado), razón por la que hay varios paneles conformados solo por color negro con globos de textos y hay veces donde solo hay una pagina en negro, esto se usa como transición de un momento a otro y poder cambiar el tono de la escena aunque no se siente abrupta
Si bien en gran parte hay escenarios donde como dije hay grandes edificios destruidos a la vez hay otros donde se están presentes diversos fenómenos climáticos, es aquí donde entra mas trabajo en la elaboración de estos.
En cuanto a los diseños de personajes diría que es el aspecto mas débil del arte, no son malos, el estilo que maneja es el realismo pero sin perder un cierto carácter caricaturesco, y hay una gran variedad de estos por lo que no todos tienen la misma cara y no cae en lo repetitivo. El problema viene en los gestos y la ilusión de movimiento que estos poseen, las expresiones faciales si bien son competentes a la hora de representar la angustia y desesperación de los personajes también hay partes donde sus expresiones se ven muy tiesas y con que le falta mas detalles en representar su estado emocional, a la vez que hay pocos efectos de movimiento por lo que a veces se ven algo estáticas las secuencias de acción donde los personajes pelean o son heridos
en general diría que el mangaka hizo un gran trabajo en la ambientación de los escenarios y el tipo de emociones que quiso evocar
a lo largo de todo el manga todos los personajes pasan por altos niveles de angustia, mostrando diversos tipos de comportamiento a la hora de confrontar los diversos obstáculos que se les presentan. Se muestra como estos llegan a estados de desesperanza, frustración, hambre, deseos auto destructivos, depresión, melancolía, etc.
Algunos personajes intentando sobrevivir a la catástrofe e intentando mantener su cordura, hay veces donde estos se dejan seducir por los recuerdos de sus vidas antes de la catástrofe, reflexionando la forma en como las vivieron y lo que harian para volver a tenerlas, algo que en muchas instancias sienten teru y ako, los cuales fueron algo problemáticos y desagradecidos cuando estos tuvieron vidas muy respetables y encantadoras, razón por la que ambos buscan volver a saber de sus familiares y tienen como objetivo volver a sus hogares. Otros como nobou en cambio se dejan llevar por su miedo y terminan cayendo en una espiral de desesperación que los terminan por transformar en gente sin ningún tipo de escrúpulo o raciocinio capaces de cometer actos de extrema violencia.
historia 5/10
dragon head desde un punto de vista superficial comparte muchas características con otras obras sobre catástrofes, como que personajes intenten sobrevivir de alguna manera a estos. Pero esta historia tiene algo que la hace mas aterradora y espectacular, el nivel de peligros y destrucción hacen palidecer a casi cualquier historia que maneje los mismos elementos, algo común es que solo haya un evento climáticos como eje central de la historia, dragon head tiene varios en su lugar. Estamos hablando de un cumulo de cataclismos gigantescos, hay enormes erupciones volcánicas del tamaño de ciudades enteras, monstruosos maremotos que cambian la forma de localizaciones, convirtiendo montañas en islas o todo lo contrario vaciándose al punto de desaparecer por completo, enormes terremotos que generan fallas en la corteza terrestre originan monstruosos cañones de varias millas, agujeros de varios kilómetros de diámetro con una profundidad incalculable, nubes de ceniza que convierten el día en la noche , fuertes inviernos nucleares, catacumbas formadas de la nada, tornados de ceniza y fuego, incendios forestales, chorros de fuego del tamaño de esos volcanes y con gran duracion. El solo hecho de pensar sobrevivir a todo eso le causaría repelús a cualquiera, cosa que los personajes tienen que pasar a lo largo de su odisea, el ver como intentan sobrevivir a estas situaciones mete tanta tensión que es casi imposible no leer cientos de paginas para ver como es que los personajes podrán salir de dichas situaciones. A esto se le debe sumar las veces en las que tienen que pelear contra otros sobrevivientes llenando de intensos momentos de acción. Cabe destacar que todos estos elementos se usan para catapultar el hecho de como en ausencia de la sociedad y por el miedo el hombre puede hacer cosas monstruosas razón por la que en el viaje se ven muchas veces como se cuestionan estas situaciones
Algo que caracteriza al terror de dragon head frente a otras historias de terror es que en este espectáculo el miedo tiene que ver mas con jugar con los miedos, razon por la que siempre se pone en duda que es lo que puede haber dentro de las abismales tinieblas en lugar mostrar la existencia de algún monstruo o algo, el manga prefiere que el mero hecho de pensar que hay en estas llene de pavor al lector, un uso muy sutil de manejar el terror que pocas veces he visto en muchas historias
Parece que estoy hablando de un manga con una gran historia, verdad? lamentablemente este posee problemas que hacen que el producto final deje mucho que desear, empezando por la narrativa si bien dije que era muy excitante por los distintos desastres que los personajes deben pasar tiene, esta resulta muy conveniente, no solo es difícil de creer sino que es hasta imposible que los personajes pasen por tanta mierda en tan cortos plazos de tiempo, es capaz de no pasar ni 100 paginas en las que no ocurra uno de estos eventos, es como si el destino dijera que estos deben sufrir, ademas que cada uno es incluso mas increíble y especifico que el otro, es por esto que muchas veces la forma en como se va revelando los secretos del mundo se sienta algo artificial
Otro gran problema es que el manga plantea muchas preguntas las cuales la mayoría ni siquiera son contestadas, como quienes son los chicos lobotomizados que mencione antes (los así llamados dragon heads), lo que ocasiono el desastre en primer lugar lo cual nunca se supo con certeza, el como es el mundo fuera de japón aunque se dan indicios de que no están tan afectados, así como los rescatistas que fueron a ayudar, etc
Y el peor de sus errores es su final el cual es muy decepcionante, por que? porque ni siquiera existe, el manga acabo en tokyo en pleno clímax con los protagonistas escapando de una enorme erupción mientras que las fuerzas de rescate luchaban con una manada de salvajes, con un pequeño comentario de que todo sera bello despues de todo ese horror, aunque cerro algunos arcos no es para nada suficiente tomando en cuenta todo el horror vivido en la historia
conclusión: 6/10
dragon head en cuanto a concepto diria que fue una lectura muy atrapante que aun con sus enormes fallos termino siendo un manga que disfrute bastante, una gran lastima que haya terminado asi, hubiera sido un solido 8/10 sino fuera por esto. Recomendado para todo aquel que guste de historias de supervivencias y busque nuevas experiencias en cuanto el terror se refiere, pero si lo que buscas en una obra en su totalidad diria que quedaras algo decepcionado
review in english
dragon head is one of the works, not only of manga but of any means, more shocking and tense when trying to represent how the human being would act in the face of environmental disasters. Full of disturbing and claustrophobic scenes that leave any history of junji to shame
Before we start we will give a bit of context (spoilers), the story begins with a train accident inside a tunnel where the vast majority of those who were inside this ended up dying except three guys: teru, ako and nobou. When they find out about their situation, they try to find a way out of the tunnel in which there are signs that something strange has happened outside. Inside that tunnel the boys will have to put all their physical and mental capacity to be able to live in the train among dozens of putrefying corpses, while strong earthquakes occur that make the place very unstable and the strange increase in temperature. Once they manage to get out through a pipe system they find something even worse outside. A cataclysm of biblical proportions that ended up destroying all Japanese society (end of the spoiler)
art 9/10
One of the strongest aspects of dragon head is the art, something that must be taken into account is the way in which the stage is built, much of the funds are composed of large buildings and roads in ruins, all with a large work put in detailing the damage they have, the great presence of these causes a sense of insignificance in contrast to the characters who are nothing compared to these as well as the use of vast scenarios where they are present gives the idea many times to reinforce a feeling of loneliness and lugubrity.
Another aspect that I find very interesting is the use of shading and black, the skies are mainly formed either by an immense and thick cloud of ash or by a grayish layer that sometimes ends up completely covering the sun and showing a striking whitish spot and as if they had made painting with an areograph in the sky, which is why there is always a huge amount of scenes where the darkness is in the vignettes, this element is used mainly to give the feeling of helplessness and paranoia, because we want to give the idea that there are horrible things in this darkness, and make even more gloomy the advancement of the protagonists in these areas while being used as a metaphor to represent the most monstrous side of human beings, which it is reflected in how many of the cast come to act when in presence of this. Black is also used for 2 things: it is used as a means to capture the thoughts of the characters, something like solanin (manga highly recommended), which is why there are several panels formed only by black color with text balloons and there are times where there is only one page in black, this is used as a transition from one moment to another and can change the tone of the scene although it does not feel abrupt
Although in large part there are scenarios where as I said there are large buildings destroyed at the same time there are others where different climatic phenomena are present, this is where more work goes into the elaboration of these.
As for the character designs I would say that it is the weakest aspect of art, they are not bad, the style that manages is realism but without losing a certain caricature character, and there is a great variety of these, so not everyone has the same face and does not fall into the repetitive. The problem comes in the gestures and the illusion of movement that these possess, the facial expressions although they are competent when representing the anguish and despair of the characters there are also parts where their expressions look very stiff and with which they lack more details in representing their emotional state, while there are few movement effects so that the action sequences where the characters fight or are hurt are somewhat static
In general I would say that the mangaka did a great job in setting the scenarios and the kind of emotions he wanted to evoke
characters 7/10
Throughout the manga all the characters go through high levels of anguish, showing different types of behavior when confronting the various obstacles that are presented. It shows how they arrive at states of despair, frustration, hunger, self destructive desires, depression, melancholy, etc.
Some characters trying to survive the catastrophe and trying to maintain their sanity, there are times where they are seduced by the memories of their lives before the catastrophe, reflecting how they lived and what they would do to have them again, something that many instances feel teru and ako, which were somewhat problematic and ungrateful when they had very respectable and charming lives, which is why both seek to return to know their relatives and aim to return home. Others like nobou instead let themselves be carried away by their fear and end up falling into a spiral of despair that ends up transforming them into people without any scruples or reasoning capable of committing acts of extreme violence.
In the journey of Teru and Ako, since Nobou stayed inside the tunnel for his madness and irrational adoration of the dark, they find different types of characters throughout his travels. As a humanitarian aid group that ends up dividing between those who still maintain a certain humanity and those who let themselves be led by the absence of rules and end up applying the law of the strongest, of which 2 of them join the protagonist group, iwada a boy with glasses that seems to be one of the few common sense in the cast and captain nimura, a subject who was previously part of the group that wanted to apply the law of the strongest but for certain circumstances had to join that group, or the lady, a woman whose family died during disasters trying to help anyone who still retains some trace of humanity.
There are times where the characters meet different survivors who fall like nobou and end up forming tribal groups, survivors killing others in cold blood to take away what they have or just for mere entertainment, sects that believe that cold-blooded killing Thousands of innocents will free them from their suffering and sins, rituals where people tear the corpses of humans and animals in decomposition or outright killing themselves in these, great suicidal pacts, people who take drugs and expose themselves to dangerous substances to lose their senses, others lobotomizing and losing their mentality completely, or flatly mutilating, etc. It is complete madness how they behave in dragon head, it is survival in its purest state, although it does not feel so out of tune if one takes into account the type of scenario where all this is developed and the things that led to the people to said state although if you can exaggerate moments
The problem of the drama that the characters generate comes more than anything from their despair, characters like teru are characterized by trying to return to how it was before, the drawback is that in some instances have a desire to die which is somewhat contradictory to the first point established, and that it seems that the characters are imbeciles when they go further into areas even more affected by what is very stupid if you take into account that they want to survive, ok their families live within those areas but even they should intuit that It is almost impossible for someone to stay alive in those parts. This is what makes several situations can be avoided only with a little common sense, which seems that the cast is lacking in many instances
story 5/10
Dragon head from a superficial point of view shares many characteristics with other works on catastrophes, as characters try to survive in some way to these. But this story has something that makes it more terrifying and spectacular, the level of danger and destruction make pale almost any story that manages the same elements, something common is that there is only one climatic event as the central axis of the story, dragon head has several instead. We are talking about a cluster of gigantic cataclysms, there are huge volcanic eruptions the size of entire cities, monstrous tidal waves that change the form of locations, turning mountains into islands or otherwise emptying to the point of disappearing completely, huge earthquakes that generate faults in the earth's crust originate monstrous canyons of several miles, holes several kilometers in diameter with an incalculable depth, clouds of ash that turn day into night, strong nuclear winters, catacombs formed from nothing, tornadoes of ash and fire, forest fires , jets of fire the size of those volcanoes and with great duration. The mere fact of thinking about surviving all that would cause repelus to anyone, something that the characters have to go through during their odyssey, the way they try to survive these situations puts so much tension that it is almost impossible not to read hundreds of pages to see how the characters can get out of these situations. To this must be added the times in which they have to fight against other survivors filled with intense moments of action. It should be noted that all these elements are used to catapult the fact that in the absence of society and because of fear, man can do monstrous things, which is why in the trip many times these situations are questioned
Something that characterizes the terror of dragon head in front of other horror stories is that in this show the fear has more to do with playing with fears, reason why there is always doubt that what can be inside the abysmal darkness instead show the existence of some monster or something, the manga prefers that the mere fact of thinking that there is in these fill the reader with terror, a very subtle use of handling the terror that I have rarely seen in many stories
It seems I'm talking about a manga with a great story, right? unfortunately this has problems that make the final product leave much to be desired, starting with the narrative although I said it was very exciting for the various disasters that the characters must pass has, this is very convenient, not only hard to believe but It is even impossible that the characters go through so much shit in such short periods of time, is able to not spend even 100 pages in which one of these events does not occur, it is as if the destination said that they must suffer, in addition to each It is even more incredible and specific than the other, that is why many times the way in which the secrets of the world are revealed is something artificial.
Another big problem is that the manga raises many questions which most are not even answered, as are the lobotomized guys I mentioned earlier (the so-called dragon heads), which caused the disaster in the first place which was never known with Certainty, the way the world is outside of Japan although there are indications that they are not as affected, as well as the rescuers who went to help, etc.
And the worst of its errors is its end which is very disappointing, why? because it does not even exist, the manga ended in Tokyo in full climax with the protagonists escaping from a huge eruption while the rescue forces fought with a herd of savages, with a small comment that everything will be beautiful after all that horror, although cerro some arcs is not at all enough taking into account all the horror lived in history
Overall: 6/10
dragon head as to concept would say that it was a very catchy reading that even with its huge failures ended up being a manga that I enjoy a lot, a great pity that has ended well, it would have been a solid 8/10 if not for this. Recommended for anyone who likes stories of survival and seek new experiences as soon as the terror is concerned, but if what you are looking for in a work in its entirety I would say that you would be somewhat disappointed