It Could Have Gone Worse

This afternoon my agent in Jakarta - who has weird tastes for entertainment to say the least - suggested me something to read: the manga Gyo by Ito Junji.

It starts as a weird horror story, but it progresses into a bizarre and disturbing apocalyptic nightmare. It's something that I'd recommend only to jaded horror fans.

However, one aspect of this manga impressed me favourably, and I'm now going to discuss it even if it's a bit of a spoiler - not a serious one.

The whole mess is not America's fault. In fact, it was Imperial Japan that started it all during WWII, albeit inadvertently.

Which is even more startling, because from what I gather the wrongdoings of those years don't get much of an open discussion in Japan - other works like the hugely disappointing Blood+ or Gasaraki (which I've not seen, but I trust Steven) instead are based around some silly conspiracy theory where America is naturally the bad guys.

Minna, that has gotten very old very fast.