PARCHED MEDITATION / 乾いた瞑想 - HARUMI SATO (1979)

 

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Harumi Sato is an incredible author and artist that remains relatively unknown, despite her large amount of works, unique storytelling and a sharp, recognizable style that retains a distinct balance between western animation and eastern comics. Browsing old manga magazines one evening, I was happy to catch a glimpse of this style for the first time. I assumed it might be an author without much other manga out there (Some one-shot artists will submit a few things to publications before promptly falling off the face of the earth - Or more realistically, seemingly realizing that the manga field was not for them) but to my surprise, Harumi Sato has a large number of works, many of them involving canids or other animals. (Obviously, right up my alley.)

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The glimpse of Harumi Sato's style I saw was in the 1979 October issue of Manga Shonen, so I promptly bought it:

October 1979 Manga Shonen cover.

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When I received it, I was so disappointed to see this one-shot fell into the unlucky and very dense pool of 'gorgeous one-shots printed on the worst quality paper imaginable.'

 

It was so disheartening to hold such pretty art in my hands and not be able to appreciate the delicate line art because it's just bleeding all over the place, and through every speck of the paper surface. Thousands of works fell to these insanely bad print jobs prior to the mid 80s. The print houses carefully gauge which works in each magazine are going to be popular based on initial feedback in their research, and condemn the less received works to what is essentially toilet paper.

For many, many one-shots, they meet their end here. They never get a nice reprint in a published book. The one-shot is never released on better paper. They go skipped in the magazines themselves because the print job has already signaled to the 1970s reader, "This is not the best our magazine has to offer. There's better content on the colour pages, and on the higher quality pages." It's been sentenced to boring status before most have offered it any semblance of a chance.

The best you can do in this scenario, if you want a nicer copy, is hope that you can snag a copy of the magazine with slightly less bleed, which is a huge gamble - Especially if the magazine the one-shot appears in is an expensive, rare one.

Some further examples of just how bad the bleed is, and how bad the quality of this paper is. If there's an atom of ink on the opposite side of the paper, it'll aggressively peer through at you. My phone camera is a bit forgiving with the bleed, but trust me, it looks ten times worse in person. A nightmare for anybody wanting to restore these for readers.

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The first time I received this magazine, I tried to read it but got disheartened quickly by how little of the art I could absorb. I googled further, unwilling to accept that this author's gorgeous artwork was limited to this terrible print job. Fortunately, I was happy to see that Harumi Sato has a few one-shot compilation books out there! One-shot compilation books are typically made with high quality paper, so I swiftly ordered that version instead.

The one-shot compilation book that Parched Meditation was reprinted in - This collection - "Winged Memories" - was published in 1981 and is relatively easy to find.

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Onto the story itself.

If you want to read Parched Meditation before progressing, you can read it in English on MangaDex.

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Sadly, the cover page is not in colour, though it still has gorgeous ink details. Animal one-shots with a few pages in colour were very rare around this time. They weren't a very popular genre, so manga magazines often saved these colour pages for premier series anticipated to be popular, or long-running series with an already proven fanbase. Luckily, thanks to the reprint, we can get all the pages in a very nice quality.

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The story begins with a painted dog that is struggling to hunt. Throughout the entire one-shot, it's left ambiguous as to whether this painted dog is male or female, and the character remains pretty androgynous throughout. I'm not sure if Harumi Sato's style is naturally androgynous or if it's an intentional part of her style, but I love that it's almost up to the reader to decide.

The painted dog is promptly kicked out of the pack, presumably for failing to help secure the prey. With just a few lines on the panel, the distance is poignant and painfully visible.

The painted dog begins to reflect on life in the pack. I adore the use of the other characters being plain outlines here, while our main character retains the artist's gorgeous detail lines. It really convinces you they're an alien among their own species that simply cannot fit in.

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The danger of the painted dog's situation becomes further apparent as pure, blistering heat is depicted on the following pages with amazing scope and painful, wavy lines that look like they might be a hundred degrees to the touch.

The imagery of this scolding heat is amplified by large, dead areas of pure black ink. The contrast is amazing on the above panel. Even if you're not in the middle of the Savannah, you can feel the pure misery the character is feeling from it.

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The painted dog wanders a bit, and ends up in a field of bones and skulls.

The shock in the initial page feels palpable. The bones are all wonderfully detailed, with some skulls being damaged and even missing teeth. Harumi Sato draws such incredible eyes on a shocked character, too. The detail in this fictional graveyard really sucks you in.

One of the skulls begins to speak to the main character, filling them with doubt regarding their ability to maintain a pack status, but also their ability to remain alive.

The skull goes a few layers deeper by trying to convince the painted dog to curl up and die.

The skull reveals itself to be that of a lion, and the other skulls in the mass grave join in on convincing the main character to give up on the burden that is their mortal life.

I love this panel. The painted dog still displays defiance, despite being surrounded by hundreds of spirits telling them to give up and submit to the easiness of death.

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The souls strengthen their presence and call louder and louder for the painted dog to give up and die. The detail here is incredible. So many creepy faces, so much amazing manual texturing, and scary looking sound effects litter the page with an aggressive font alluding to a terrifying noise the character is being flooded with.

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Prompted by the skulls, the painted dog begins to reflect on their past. The other pack members are still merely outlines in comparison - Still alien to the character. However, they are still memories and past that hold significant weight, regardless of whether or not their experiences were pleasant. It was still a learning experience and a part of the character's life.

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On the brink of death, an antelope runs into the path of the dying painted dog, offering them a life-saving kill and the faith that their time may not be up yet.

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Surprised, the skull of the lion tries to downplay the significance of this kill greatly - He wants the painted dog dead, to become as lost as miserable as he is, forever sitting in the pit of death where his remains now lay. The painted dog realizes the lion's trap and confronts him in this amazing panel. I love how half of the painted dog's face is straight black ink, as if they're realizing they can pull themselves free of the dark energy that is so desperately trying to catch and detain.

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The painted dog and the skull have another exchange, and the lion makes a last ditch attempt to persuade the painted dog to stay. However, the scent of rain soon comes, renewing hope for survival. I love how Harumi Sato depicted the rest of the Savannah here. Even with just a little bit of tone, it looks so vast and scary to cross when you're already a dehydrated wild animal.

The cross hatching used around the painted dog's face is such a cool technique too in comparison to how many mangaka will just slap tones on top for darker markings. While I have nothing against usage of tones, sometimes NOT using them can look so much more fantastic. It shows love of penwork and the dedication to getting down very specific details.

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The painted dog runs into the unknown, fueled by faith that a full stomach and the scent of rain has invoked. What happens from here? We'll never know, but it's an enjoyable open ending for a one-shot.

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When I first released the translation of this one-shot in English, I was really surprised by the positive reception. There were quite a few comments and threads on it at the time, discussing the philosophical values behind this one-shot. We'd done a few other more well known works - One by Tezuka, Sun Dog Zero, and a Hachiko manga in addition, and this one got more in the way of interest than all of those combined. It was unexpected, but still nice to see. I really enjoy the message, too. Don't let other people bring you down. Keep living for yourself, and don't throw in the towel until it's truly game over. Better things may be just around the bend, and you may never fully detect these positive changes until they're right upon you.

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There's virtually nothing to go with this manga and it's a shame because it's such a fun read. No additional promotional images, no colour pages, no merchandise, and somehow - No fanart at all that I could find. Usually even very obscure one-shots will have at least a little fanart out there. I'm not sure how this one has garnered seemingly none whatsoever.

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The only additional thing I could find at all, was a tiny little illustration in the mokuji (Contents page) of the 1979 manga magazine it was originally published in.

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Sadly, that's it for this one. It was vastly enjoyable and I hope to release some English translations of Harumi Sato's other one-shots. Her style is incredible and her storytelling reminds me of Aesop's fables in that they, so far, seem to have a deep lesson within each one.

SUN DOG ZERO / 太陽犬ゼロ - MOO NENPEI (1985)

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Sun Dog Zero, or Taiyo Ken Zero, was a nine-chapter one-shot created by author Moo Nenpei. It was first published in Monthly CoroCoro Comics from April 1985 to December 1985 across nine chapters. Sun Dog Zero was Moo Nenpei's first published manga, and seemingly his only that focuses on canine characters, or for that matter, any animal characters too.

The story focuses on a little stray mutt named Zero, who befriends a homeless boy named Taro. Together they cause trouble, until one day Zero is taken away by The Hound Master for training. After this, he's sets off on a mission to find his own "Sun" ... His own true power and happiness.

The style is vastly different from canines that you may see in mangas from the 60s and 70s, but still fairly different other dog mangas from the 80s. It's incredibly interesting to see how the styles of these mangaka evolve over the decades.

 

Sun Dog Zero's first publication in CoroCoro's April 1985 issue

First title page, with some additional text removed by myself

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Unfortunately, Zero's story abruptly comes to an end after nine chapters which leaves a lot of 'what if', especially with a few major plot points unresolved. It's unclear if Moo Nenpei lost interest in working on Zero, if reception to the series wasn't warm enough, or if CoroCoro wanted Moo Nenpei to work on other ventures. I personally lean more towards popularity being a factor - I found little about this manga prior to it being republished in 2021. If not for a republication announcement, I'm not sure I'd even have found it despite my 400+ collection of dog and animal manga. It was just that obscure.

Republication announcement

I saw the above announcement in 2020 and opted to wait for the new print to be available before collecting old CoroCoro magazines. While magazines had better quality paper in the 1980s, a nice book print is almost always vastly better.

The style immediately gripped me, though. There's so many expressions in this series that grab you, and the storytelling has a fun, lighthearted style. The chapters typically seem episodic in nature with new characters introduced in almost all of them.

The first page immediately slams you with which type of energy to expect throughout all nine chapters. The compositions are dramatic, the use of tones are impressively done for 1985, and the weighted ink lines show Moo Nenpei's confidence in what he is doing, even though this is apparently his very first venture into manga.

Moo fills every inch of the pages. The art goes right up to the corners of most pages (which provided a fan translation nightmare when it came to cleaning the pages, but it was ultimately so very worth it.)

The dramatic shots and fast energy lines make it fun to read this manga over and over, and it truly feels like there's new expressions and poses on each page here. I can easily get tired of many mangas after the mid 1980s - Many of them tend to look uniform and templated. Sometimes it can feel like authors are scared to try new things. That's why I love showa era manga so much. So many of these authors are pioneers and I don't see too much new, gripping style in animal manga that comes out of recent years. Meanwhile these dynamic, fun poses and expressions that flood these pages keep me coming back to the older stuff.

Here's what I'm talking about. Look at the sheer dynamic energy in these:

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I just adore these expressions and poses, too:

The big, heavy paw on Zero's back and its towering owner, present such different calibers between these two characters. Despite Zero's intense energy, he's just not enough to take on this mountain of a dog. 

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There's a mechanic in this world I found truly interesting. If you truly bond with a dog, you'll be able to hear each other's voices. I thought it was a cool little idea I'd not really seen before in any other work. Usually animals can outright speak from the beginning, or they have their own internal dialog that their owners will never understand. The fact in this manga that it has to be earned, I thought pretty interesting. Imagine walking your dog every day and suddenly, bam, they can convey their thoughts to you.

It'd be pretty cool.

I appreciate the overall message of this mechanic, too. Treat your animals well, bond with them, and listen to what they have to say. The language may not be the same, but the needs of the animal can at least be understood.

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This series only had two colour covers in the original publication - Usually, these get neglected during reprints. They're either downgraded to a greyscale image that screams, "I used to be in colour!" or is omitted altogether. I have many books that just simply don't have all of these beautiful title pages from their magazine publications.

Both of Zero's were included in the book, which was very surprising. All of the black and white title pages were also reprinted. They all have great art on them, so I'm glad the printing company opted to do that. Printing additional colour pages needs a higher budget and they went above and beyond to keep Moo's colour work out there.

Moo Nenpei's colour stuff is truly gorgeous. I love the use of markers and bright, bold palettes. Zero looks so colourful and detailed, despite being a white mutt. Moo isn't afraid to slap some white paint over his finished painting to show the light flare. I know that if I had a finished painting like the above, I'd be a little worried about slapping white paint over it, but Moo Nenpei is a bold illustrator and it works brilliantly.

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Potential Spoilers Ahead!

If you'd like to read Sun Dog Zero in English before proceeding,

you can do so on MangaDex!

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This manga shows some strong character development that was a joy to flick through. Zero starts out as a feisty but weak little stray, but under strict training and several life lessons in which he helps out other animals, he becomes more and more a likable, respectable character.

This makes it hurt even more when the manga suddenly stops when chapter nine concludes. You wonder what could have been. If it continued. Would Zero have found his "sun?" Would he have dueled King, and come out on top? Would a duel with King have even been necessary? Would he have seen Taro again? What other animals would he have ended up meeting?

We're certainly never going to see an official continuation of this manga given both its age and the age of the author now, but it leaves an opening for renditions of fan-made chapters which could very well be interesting. There's a lot to work with and I hope some day this manga generates enough interest for fanart, fan-comics, and generally more love for Moo Nenpei's style.

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The characters that Zero encounters are all just delightful.

The first is a Siamese cat that Zero encounters while searching for food. She's tall, lithe and elegant. She addresses herself as "The Queen of the Night" and there's no better title for a character that has these kind of fluid shapes and confidence:

Look how long she is. Perfect.

At first impression, she just straight up seems like a complete bitch. She steals Zero's food and mocks him. Zero learns that she's been terrorizing other cats in the area too, and they all want to teach her a lesson. When Zero sets off to do just that -

However, Zero discovers that she's responsible for four kittens and is causing so much trouble for their sake, putting herself at risk at the same time.

Shortly after this discovery, the Siamese cat is caught by two boys who take joy in abusing her. The other cats are happy to let her suffer while Zero, who knows what the Siamese cat is enduring behind the scenes, dives to her rescue.

(Initially I was a little confused when translating the above, but a quick Google search revealed it was lyrics from a very old Japanese song. I found the song old and eerie sounding, yet interesting. It's always awesome when you discover something curiously unique in the process of a translation! You can listen to the song here. 1930's Japanese music was an interest I didn't know I had prior to reading this manga, and since then I've listened to quite a few Japanese albums from that time.)

猫をかん袋に押し込んで
Neko wo kanbukuro ni oshikonde,
Stuff the cat in the paper bag,

ポンとけりゃニャンとなく

Pon to kerya, nyan to naku
kick it with a thump and it'll cry, meow!

Zero saves the cat who is exhausted from hunger, and unites the Siamese with the other cats. Feeling good about his good deed, he moves on to meet...

Alpha the Dalmatian dog, who is obsessed with his dog show trophies and his spotless, elite pedigree. These are Alpha's treasures, and he concludes that a little wild mutt like Zero must not have any treasure at all.

Alpha has some really fun expressions, too.

Despite his heritage and everything he has to show for it, he's a cowardly dog who doesn't know much about the outside world at all. This comes to a head when Alpha's young owner takes him for a walk into the mountains. The pair eventually get lost and the boy is bitten by a venomous snake. Zero dashes to their aid, and instructs Alpha as to how he can help. This leads Alpha to realize how little he knows, and how useless he truly is.

This panel just bleeds hopelessness and distrust in oneself.

The forest scenes in this chapter are lovely, too. Everything is drawn with such a wild thickness and it certainly resembles a place you wouldn't want to get lost in, especially during a heavy storm.

Zero helps Alpha learn to become a better dog and get his boy home to safety. In return, Zero learns that the only treasure he needs is his bandanna, which Taro gifted to him before Zero went on his journey.


Next we meet a hawk that is convinced that the ability to fly is all there is to life:

Moo Nenpei doesn't shy away from drawing all of the gorgeous feather detailing and stripey pen strokes in every panel where this character appears, which I really appreciate. Holy brush strokes, there's a lot of 'em... That'd certainly make me a little tired even after just one panel, but Moo's readily throwing this character into many panels with the full scope of his wings visible in most. That's admirable!

The way birdy claws are drawn too for this character. You can tell that natural birds of prey have been studied to pull off this character so well.

Next up is a cute little silky-furred pet dog named Cheese, who wants the same free existence that Zero experiences on a daily basis. However, she's cute and delicate and doesn't make much of a good candidate for the outside world.

The last two chapters deal with Zero's run-in with a circus after a man traps him and sells him to the ringleader. It's a rather fun little two-parter with some gorgeous panels, and some wonderfully drawn circus animals.

Moo Nenpei just proves that he can draw all manner of animals, each with a fun design and charisma to boot. I think the humans he draws are brilliant too, but it is an awful shame he stopped with animal manga so soon in his career.

And Zero in circus getup is simply precious.

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The fun circus chapters, and the entire tale, culminates with this panel:

If this one-shot had finished on a boring chapter or had somewhat concluded a major plot point, I'd certainly be a little less bitter at it ending here. It feels a little like someone ripped a rug out from under you when you're just getting settled into a good read.

Nonetheless, it's still a great read with some fantastic art!

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Despite leaving the manga unfinished, Moo Nenpei has done some amazing signature / Sign work over the years and has really acknowledged Zero:

"That's Zero, who ran one year before I did!" exclaims a character from a 1986 work by Moo!

I especially love this last one which includes the Siamese cat character. Such a pretty autograph / Sign! Prior to this I hadn't realized that part of her face had a blue marking. What a gorgeous piece of art! What an interesting style of clouds, too. Moo really rocks those marker pens. I really envy the owner of it!