Gon, Vol. 5

By Masashi Tanaka
CMX, 96 pp.
Rating: Teen

Full disclosure: I’ve been a fan of Masashi Tanaka’s Gon since I read the original Paradox Press editions as a kid. And frankly, time has only made it more awesome.

Volume five of the new CMX edition, faithfully transferred over from the original Japanese, corresponds to the Paradox volume Gon Underground. In this volume, the pint-sized dinosaur Gon travels underground, encountering all sorts of fantastic creatures: a cruel giant spider, an enormous ant colony, a species of flying insects with a one-day life cycle. The results are gut-churning, enchanting, and beautiful all at once. Indeed, summarizing the plot of Gon is like describing international politics as good vs. evil: it means nothing in contrast to its true intricacy.

With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that Gon probably has the best art I’ve ever seen in manga. In all seriousness, Gon should be required reading for all visual artists. The expressions and emotions of the animals are shocking and immediately obvious. At the same time, Gon’s character is deeply portrayed through the action-heavy art. Gon is a wanderer and an unstoppable force of nature. Neither good nor evil, Gon simply does what he pleases with reckless abandon. He saves the meek, but doesn’t make value judgments on predators and prey. Musing aside, the scenes of the underground glowing dust, the molting insects, and the final scene of the African safari are epic high points in the series. But then again, what in Gon isn’t?

One thing I’m not sure I agree with is Gon’s reputation as a kid’s title. Sure kids love it, and the protagonist is a baby dinosaur, but this series is so chock full of existentialism that it would make even Nietzsche scream. And did I mention it’s violent with a capital V? Gon is crazy!!! This is not your cute cuddly kid’s comic with animals. This series features Gon doing a lot of very intense and very violent things that are appropriate for an audience older than that implied by the kid-friendly covers. (Try the similarly awesome What’s Michael for a animal-oriented series with multi-layered humor but immense kid-friendliness.) I repeat: despite how this series is and has been marketed, I would seriously discourage giving it to someone under the age of 12.

All-in-all, Gon is probably the most successful experimental manga I’ve ever seen. There’s a reason it was a smash-hit in Japan. Even Masashi Tanaka was shocked by its explosive popularity. But Gon truly has an energetic spark that other series don’t. This book is not a standard manga with perhaps an anomalous wordless two-page spread. No. This manga is visual storytelling at its finest: wielding the art so astoundingly so as to render words irrelevant. In other words, read these books. The order doesn’t matter. But I promise you, it’s worth it.

Volume five of Gon is available now.