What are dreams? To many, they are something to strive for. To others, they are forgotten relics of the past. They can keep someone motivated in times of duress, or become a fatal reminder of what could have been. "Mujirushi: A Sign of Dreams," sets out to give us a taste of how several people live with regards to their dreams. Hey guys, it's Marion and today I'm here talk about Naoki Urasawa's latest English release. Originally published in Big Comic Original from October 20, 2017, to February 20, 2018, this Shogakukan original has made its way stateside thanks to Viz Media in the form of a single collected volume.
Mujirushi starts off incredibly bleak, as a family hits hard times due to a father named Kamoda making repeatedly terrible financial decisions. His wife runs off with the man who runs the cleaner's after winning a luxury cruise, and before long is unable to hide his weariness and suicidal thoughts from even his own daughter. Frankly, Kamoda's character was very grating to read. He's gullible, gutless, and almost incapable of making his own informed decisions. Every misfortune that befalls him is the result of wanting the easiest possible solution to his problems. It's far from noble, and I would have been less harsh on him if at any point he said that he just wanted to make things better for his daughter Kasumi, or the family as a whole, but his choices only seem to come from desperation. It was incredibly disappointing and sad to see him not rise up to the task of making the morally right choices right in front of his grade school daughter. Luckily, Kasumi has a functioning moral compass, so it wasn't as if he was a particularly disastrous influence on her. Unfortunately, without this blundering buffoon of a parental figure, we wouldn't have much of a story, so it was very much necessary to move the narrative forward.
The story follows the Father-Daughter duo as they encounter a peculiar sign, which is labeled with the eponymous kanji that make up "Sign of Dreams," or "夢印." It leads them to one certain Fujio Akatsuka character many of us may recognize from Osomatsu-kun, who remains unnamed within the story--Iyami. He stands out among the cast for being someone clearly not originally created by Urasawa, with his accentuated features like an overbite, slicked hair, and tiny eyeballs. But, much like in Pluto, Urasawa gives his own flair to make the style not clash with his own. Iyami is known in other works to be a scheming Francophile, who swindles and purports to have visited France many times, without any actual proof. In this story, that comes into play with the scheme that ultimately wraps up Kamoda and Kasumi into traveling to the Louvre. I found Iyami's inclusion to be fairly interesting, with Kasumi repeatedly pointing out contradictions in his story and just his general appearance in such a serious looking manga being humorous. What helps is the fact that Kasumi, while wise for her age, still acts like a believable child while interacting with him. She is suspicious of a stranger like Iyami, but also tries drinking his cafe au lait with the croissant how she was shown. She also doesn't want her dad to steal, and calls out Iyami when she thinks that's exactly what Iyami did.
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| But soft! What light through yonder painting breaks? It is the West, and The Lacemaker is Iyami's Sun. |
Like most Urasawa manga, Mujirushi has multiple concurrent threads that begin to weave into a vibrant tapestry of events. Iyami's scheme to get Kamoda out of debt is sniffed out by an investigator in Japan who has connected the dots and realized that several pieces of art have been stolen from the Louvre by a ring of French smugglers with a Japanese ringleader. As this detective goes out of his way to inform police in France, Kamoda and Kasumi make contact with a former songstress named Sylvie and a fireman raised by a Japanese woman named Kyoko, who has a mysterious connection to Iyami. On top of that, we also have a caricature stand-in for Donald Trump in Beverly Duncan, a business mogul who is running for President of the United States. All of these elements come to a clean conclusion by the end, and I'd be lying if I didn't say I was impressed. Everyone who gets to have their own conversation and isn't just mentioned in passing manages to convey their personal motivation and moral standing, which made for believable characters. In a plot-centric story, like most Urasawa manga, it's easy for a lesser writer to neglect their cast in the pursuit of making the narrative as tight as possible. Thankfully, the cast of Mujirushi act like real people, and tend to have their own desires and wants, and even dreams.
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| Definitely a Bruh Moment if I'd ever seen one |
What ultimately makes Mujirushi satisfying, aside from the typical hallmarks of an Urasawa manga, is the motif of dreams. It comes up multiple times from different characters, and with different spins on what it means to them. Iyami first brings up dreams after talking about how France seized his heart. His convoluted story and plan for getting Kamoda out of debt is ultimately for the sake of returning the stone with the Sign of Dreams on it back to the museum. Kyoko's dream was provide humanitarian relief to African children through food, water, and schools. Michel the Fireman was inspired by Kyoko, who also asked him to return the stone with the Sign of Dreams to the Louvre, should any Japanese person arrive with that same motive. While the operation is underway, Kasumi looks at the stone and feels that things will turn out alright. The stone itself is what saves Kamoda from being spotted by a policeman, and Iyami's words about "Doubting until you see for yourself" is what gets Kasumi to action after being detained. She remembers him saying "Visualize your dreams!" and that "Only the dreams you wish for will come true!" I really loved that line. Kasumi repeats that line as she stacks boxes so that she can escape from a room through a window. The added implication that the actions you take are what lead dreams to come true is the intratextual link elevate "dreams" as a vague concept into being something attainable. I think it would have worked fine normally, if this was a novel. But the visual image of Kasumi physically acting in order to escape the room, because she wanted to save her father, is emotionally moving! I also find it appropriate that while the adults philosophize or reminisce about dreams, the sole youth in the story is the one with the gumption and drive to realistically act towards actually achieving their goals.
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| Dreams are only unattainable when you don't put in the effort! |
Mujirushi may have started off bleak, but eventually it connects the threads to lead Kamoda and Kasumi getting their happy ending. It was very amusing seeing the Beverly Duncan plotline converge with the welfare of Kamoda's family. Iyami's connection to Kyoko, too, ended up being a slight surprise. It flips our already met expectation of him being a no-good schemer into a lovesick soul who uses sycophancy for the sake of memorializing his feelings in a palpable way. If you have no idea what this means, you should probably read the book. Mujirushi is out now in print as of July 21st, 2020. I am a fan of Naoki Urasawa's works, but I wouldn't say I'm a diehard fan. I started off a bit cold due to Kamoda's character, but after the pieces on the metaphorical chessboard started moving, I was content to let the story play out before my eyes. If you're a fan of 20th Century Boys, you might enjoy this, but just be aware that because it's a single volume, you should temper your expectations for the stakes accordingly.
This review was possible thanks to Viz Media and Netgalley for providing a review copy.
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