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September 26, 2007
by: Serdar Yegulalp
Enter "Alias Dojima", Goto's tormentor of ten years ... but why he's done this remains a mystery.
Manga Description: Goto's search to unearth the identity of his mysterious tormentor has led to one dead end after another, until he receives a tip that an old high school classmate may have orchestrated the kidnapping that began Goto's ten years of isolation and imprisonment. But many years have passed since Goto's seen his schoolmate, and he looks much different than Goto remembers. Has Goto found the true path to his final vengeance, or has he swallowed another piece of poisoned bait?
Manga Review
Content: (This section may contain spoilers.)
So why would someone kidnap a total stranger off the street, lock him in a custom prison cell for ten years for no apparent reason, and then just as blithely let him back out again? The fourth volume of Oldboy begins with the first real hint as to why all this happened to Goto, the Everyman hero of the story whose life as a cipher in urban Japan ended when he was spirited away a decade ago. “Look into your childhood,” a woman moans to him after she agrees to trade sex for secrets, and Goto soon begins digging into everything from his high school yearbooks to his estranged family members.
In an attempt to determine if something in his past led him here, Goto reaches into his own history and excavates an unexpected amount of unease. He wanted to be as unextraordinary as possible, he confesses to his girlfriend Eri (his sole confidant for now), and he eventually slid into gambling and alcoholism—and then one day he ended up in that little cell. Was it something he did in a fit of drunken rage, or something deeper — something that he hasn’t been able to unearth yet?
Not long after this, Goto’s tormentor—who thus far has been watching silently from a distance—takes the unprecedented step of coming forward and introducing himself. Goto’s first response is to grab the guy by the lapels of his suit and slam him against a wall. Unfortunately, killing this man—who calls himself “’Alias’ Dojima”—will accomplish nothing. “If only you hadn’t existed,” “Dojima” tells him, and drops a slew of other hints as to why this has happened. The game between them has finally been started in earnest. If Goto remembers what specifically happened that caused all this to unfold, “Dojima” will gladly end his own life.
Part of what makes Oldboy distinctive is also what makes it insufferable for some audiences. It’s slow—deliberately slow, in every sense of the term “deliberate.” It’s not about the actual discovery of the answers, but the process—about how Goto and “Dojima” bluff, mislead and misdirect each other through every step of their perverse relationship.
One other thing about Oldboy that will either infuriate or enthrall you is how the story does not hint at what (if any) of Goto’s theories actually hold water. Some mysteries, you’re given enough clues early on to fit it together yourself; that doesn’t happen here. Goto follows any clue that seems likely, and we follow right along with him, even if it leads to a complete dead end. In some ways this is a good thing, because you’re forced to think about what goes on for yourself—even if most of the time you’re as much in the dark as Goto himself is.
 Click on the image for more examples of Oldboy's art, courtesy of Dark Horse Manga.
(C) 1997 by Garon Tsuchiya and Nobuaki Minegishi. English translation (C) 2007 by Dark Horse Comics, Inc. All rights reserved.
A dispirited Goto, hunkering down in the maze of modern-day Tokyo, tries to remember what part of his past could have led him to be locked up for ten years by person or persons unknown.
Art: Nobuaki Minegishi’s art is basic and serviceable—nicely detailed for the most part, if not groundbreaking. I do like the way he evokes the crowded mess of Tokyo urban life, and many of the chapter-opener full-page panels are wonderfully done.
Translation: Dark Horse also did a fairly straightforward, no-distractions job with the translation work. FX are annotated in the margins, and there’s no glossary of untranslated terms or anything like that—this is meant to simply be picked up and read without stopping.
The Bottom Line: Once again, Oldboy isn’t for the impatient. It also doesn’t measure up to the film, if that’s what you went in looking for—but then again, what could? That and the manga has a perversely fascinating mood of its own, one I’m finding myself growing accustomed to and even savoring with each passing volume. That doesn’t mean I think everyone else will, though.
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