Michael's Long Box: Mai the Psychic Girl (1987, Viz Comics)

Nowadays every comic shop has a section devoted to manga. Heck, it isn't just comic shops any longer--you can find digest-sized compilations in regular bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million. They even have signs hanging from the ceiling, pointing them out. None of the clerks will so much as look at you sideways for expressing an interest in "those books".

Thirty years ago, it was a different story. Manga was the exclusive purview of comic book stores, and even then it was a rare beast. Most shop owners didn't carry it, and those who did often kept it locked away in their "adult" section because manga never received the Comics Code Authority stamp of approval, often due to depictions of violence and nudity. Anime was recognizable as "those Japanese cartoon things" by Western audiences, but it was typically plagued with issues of censorship, poor dubbing, and limited distribution. Carl Macek may have been responsible for introducing a generation of kids to anime via Robotech, but his English-language production of the show, promoted as a cartoon for children, differed greatly from its original form.

Into this brave new world strode Viz Comics, with an English-language adaptation of Mai the Psychic Girl, written by Kazuya Kudo (Pineapple Army) and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami (Crying Freeman, Sanctuary). The story of why Mai, along with Area 88 and The Legend of Kamui, was selected to be among the company's first publications is simple: Ikegami's art style was about as far from the traditional "big eyes and small mouths" manga trope one could get. Instead of googly-eyed, super-deformed, ridiculously-over-muscled caricatures, seen in Dragon Ball and Ranma 1/2, Ikegami's people looked like...well, like people. Real people with real portions as drawn by Western artists, but infused with a style that was unquestionably Asian. It helped too that Kudo's plot felt like something which could have come from the pages of Marvel's Uncanny X-Men: instead of the far-flung future or the distant past, Mai the Psychic Girl takes place in the present-day of the late 20th century. Shadowy multi-national organizations led by strange old men, the death of a parental figure, a girl who has mysterious powers but doesn't know how to control them and just wishes she felt like she belongs, Juggernaut-sized assassins, and copious amounts of hand-to-hand combat--Mai the Psychic Girl capitalized on everything Western readers were used to seeing in their funny books, then stripped out the four-color processing and added in a heaping helping of gore.

Viz knew they had one shot, one opportunity, to attract English readers to the title if it was going to survive its bi-weekly publication schedule. They also knew most comic book stores wouldn't have any idea how to market this book to readers. They decided on a simple six-word tagline printed on the cover of issue #1:

She's pretty. She's psychic. She's Japanese.

Apparently that was enough to convince readers to pick up the book, because the first two issues sold out so quickly Viz rushed out re-prints to satisfy demand, which remained high throughout the book's entire twenty-eight issue run. Mai was then republished in graphic novel format in four separate installments. A few years later, Viz reprinted it again as a three-volume "Perfect Collection" set. Viz wasn't just satisfying demand for new readers either, as the graphic novel reprints also restored some pages and artwork which had been cut from the original comic issue releases. Most of these changes are minor, with the biggest one appearing in the very first issue where the titular Mai is seen taking a bath and reflecting on the fact that her breasts aren't as big as she would like, but consoling herself by noting they're at least larger than those of her friend.

Mai Kuju, it should be noted, is fourteen years old.

It's understandable why Viz shed these pages initially, and they're far from the only manga publisher from its early days to do this only to reintroduce them in later compilations. Dark Horse, for instance, censored themselves in initial printings of Gunsmith Cats and Ghost in the Shell, trimming scenes and re-drawing artwork to avoid overt sexual displays they were concerned would get the books labeled "Adults Only", but restored them for subsequent graphic novel releases. Also, while Viz chopped out the bath scene in the first volume, this was a relatively easy cut to make as it amounted to only two pages. Subsequent chapters of the story weren't so simple to handle, and the book's insane release schedule left a very tight deadline for touch-up work. This resulted in several scenes toward the end of the third volume where Mai's clothing is damaged and torn as the result of a psychic battle with another kid, leaving one breast exposed through her ruined uniform as she fights. By this point, Viz either didn't have the time to have one of their artists re-draw a bra on a bunch of panels, or figured they had enough of the series out that this point that readers would stay despite any potentially objectionable material.

The weird thing is, despite how creepy this may sound in a blog post, Kudo and Ikegami's handling of the subject matter isn't pornographic in the slightest. Despite depicting nudity, it's never done in a manner meant to titillate or excite the reader. Rather, it's presented in a very matter-of-fact, this-is-what-you'd-expect fashion. After a while you don't even notice it, as Ikegami never takes pains to draw attention to it with his art, and Kudo doesn't dwell on it from a narrative perspective except once, when it takes a teenage male antagonist by surprise.

Contrast this to the way Western publishers handled things around this time. Bruce Banner's muscles rip through his clothing when he transforms into the Hulk...except for his jeans, which always magically stretch to accommodate thighs the size of bowling balls, calves which double in girth, and a waistline proportional to his shoulders. Gen 13 especially took no end of delight in poking fun at this trope with team leader Fairchild, whose invulnerability never extended to her clothes. Inevitably this led to her dressed in scraps after a knock-down, drag-out fight, with the material never failing to just barely cover the bits artists weren't allowed to illustrate.

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Perhaps Mai's greatest achievement (as well as Kudo's) is that it tells a very shonen story, involving motorcycle gangs, international conspiracy, bone-crunching martial arts fights, and head-bursting psychic combat, with a teenage girl as its protagonist. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of testosterone running through the pages, but the contrast with Mai's gentle, feminine sensibilities is part of what makes the story work so damn well. Mai begins as a regular teenage girl, worried about passing her next test and getting into a good school. Then, in a span of a few days, she's forced to uproot her life, go on the run, witness her father's death, and learn her life up to this point has been a lie. She's a classic reluctant hero, not wanting to fight, but pushed to the point where peace is no longer an option.

There are also plenty of reversals, reveals, and unexpected twists in the storyline. Some have to do with Mai's mother, deceased since before the story began. Some involve characters switching sides once the stakes are revealed. Sometimes it's as simple as humanizing a monstrous opponent. Sometimes it has to do with a girl and her puppy. No matter what happens, Kudo's story remains starkly human, focusing on a girl trying to grow up in a world that would just as soon see her broken and destroyed, and those who would risk everything to save her from this fate. Mai's world may be bleak, but the sun still pokes out from behind the clouds every once in a while, and the story isn't afraid to pause and allow us to revel in the joy with her.

Mai the Psychic Girl stands as a solid example of what the best manga sets out to achieve. Of course it's somewhat dated by now, having made its debut three decades previous, back during a time when the Iron Curtain still divided Germany in half, and the Soviet Union remained united, before GPS existed, the internet was government-use only, and car phones a relatively recent innovation. There are some ethnic stereotypes that feel uncomfortable by early 21st century sensibilities. The afore-mentioned nudity, though once again I need to stress that there's nothing sexual or erotic about it. But if you can look past those sorts of things and view the book in a proper historical context, there's a phenomenal story there. It makes a great first step for those looking to explore manga for the first time, with its gorgeous art style and character-driven, mature story. Its English adaptation was handled by James Hudnall, selected for the job not only because of his interest in manga, but also because he'd written Espers for Eclipse comics, a story featuring a team of psychic protagonists of differing abilities. Having never read the Japanese original, I can only judge Hudnall's work on its own merit, but I feel confident saying he was the perfect choice.

Mai the Psychic Girl is quite easy and inexpensive to add to your manga library, and you should be able to acquire all three volumes of the Perfect Collection for around $15. Finding all 28 issues may present a bigger challenge, since they're long out of print, but the collected edition takes up less space and restores the cuts made by Viz, so it's definitely the preferred way to enjoy the story. Either way, if you're a fan of manga but don't know Mai, you need to fix that ASAP. It's one of the reasons you're enjoying series like Bleach, One Piece, and Dragon Ball Z today. Pay it the proper respect.