What do you think?
Rate this book
The Box Man
THE FIRST STORY TO BE TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH FROM THE SURREALIST AND ALTERNATIVE MANGA-KA
Enter the strange world of Imiri Sakabashira, whose denizens are zoomorphic creatures that emerge from one another as well as their equally bizarre environs. The Box Man follows its protagonists along a scooter trip through a complex landscape that oscillates between a dense city, a countryside simplified to near abstraction, and hybrids of the two; the theme of hybridity permeates throughout. One is unsurprised to encounter a creature that is half elderly man, half crab, or a flying frog in this world where our guide apparent is an anthropomorphic, mollusk-like cat. Sakabashira weaves this absurdist tale into a seamless tapestry constructed of elements as seemingly disparate as Japanese folklore, pop culture, and surrealism.Within these panels, it becomes difficult to distinguish between the animate and the inanimate, the real and the imagined—a tension that adds a layer of complexity to this near-wordless psychedelic travelogue.
Imiri Sakabashira (real name Mochizuki Katsuhiro) was born in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1964, the same year that Garo, the influential manga anthology in which he would first be published, was founded.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2009
2 people are currently reading
357 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
January 21, 2012
A man on a moped with a box on the back and an odd Pokemon-type creature at his side cruises past an alien landscape alongside typical Japanese architecture. Except things are a bit off - monsters and half-man creatures are everywhere, the police are after him for harbouring a lobster-type creature in his box, and a disturbing-looking little bald dude with sunglasses is voyeuristically watching as monsters wrestle with humans.
What the hell is going on? I don't know, but it's an interesting little book. It's mostly wordless and there are loads of psychedelic scenes which reminded me of Jim Woodring's work, and some of the monster/human scenes looked like straight out of a Charles Burns book.
But besides a few well-drawn pages and a feeling of unreality throughout, I didn't get much out of the book. It's too weird, too all over the place, to really make much of an impression and the lack of coherent storytelling made it less interesting to read rather than more. I appreciate Drawn & Quarterly putting out alternative comics from Japan but I wouldn't say this was the best pick as it raises too many questions without answering any, so it's frustrating to read rather than enjoyable.
What the hell is going on? I don't know, but it's an interesting little book. It's mostly wordless and there are loads of psychedelic scenes which reminded me of Jim Woodring's work, and some of the monster/human scenes looked like straight out of a Charles Burns book.
But besides a few well-drawn pages and a feeling of unreality throughout, I didn't get much out of the book. It's too weird, too all over the place, to really make much of an impression and the lack of coherent storytelling made it less interesting to read rather than more. I appreciate Drawn & Quarterly putting out alternative comics from Japan but I wouldn't say this was the best pick as it raises too many questions without answering any, so it's frustrating to read rather than enjoyable.
May 11, 2015
This is the first manga to be published in English of this influential manga-ka, Imiri Sakabashira, who first published in Garo. It's a sort of dream story or story of the subconscious, with surreal and other influences, maybe psychedelic. Wordless. There is a narrative, a guy who is part lobster taking us through some town. Wild ride, sometimes disturbing, concluding in the "sea of decadence." Has a closing photo of the author with ray gun and cape and dark glasses and goofy uniform such as his main character. Made me think go Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in… what? But there's (maybe) a kind of critique of modern consumption/culture in it, too, as popular culture, a lot of junk, floats through everything. The nature of reality…. I dunno. He may not want us to take this all too seriously. I don't know what it is trying to say but it might be amusing for a lot readers.
March 22, 2010
Once again I misunderestimated the difference between the unconventional and the avant-garde. This, if you didn't know, fits into the second category. It's interesting, because I don't think I read that many comics that really fall outside the realm of the more traditional literary form, narratives that cohere around some sort of forward plot movement and that are structured around characters with consistent personalities, desires that are the motive engine of the plot. Interesting because, comics with their visual make-up, it seems like could do so much more-- not that language doesn't have its own potential to go off those well-worn rails, but the visual element of comics seems to allow so much more.
Which is, essentially, what happens here: the plot is that the bike rider wants to take a box someplace, but we really don't know why, till the end, when it's revealed that its his dad in the box, and his dad has the lower body of a crab, and well, that 's not much help. Really, the story, to the degree that it has a center, or is focalized in the way Genette would suggest, it's not the driver, but the weird cat that rides on the back of the bike, who seems otherwise unrelated to the action.
In the absence, though, of narrative trappings we might recognize as normal, we get a really bravura visual sequence of driving-- I mean it when I say I was incredibly moved by the way the race develops, especially the "chase scene" toward the end, across shingled roofs. Paul Greengrass has nothing on this stuff, it's pure amazing stuff.
And aside from that? Well, almost immediately before that sequence, there are a group of full-page voyeuristic scenes that are gross and horrifying and incredibly accomplished, even though they seem to come from a totally different visual zone than the chase that will follow them-- I think there's a risk with this kind of book in reading too much into the visuals, but I feel like the way the voyeurism is so icky, and some of the tentacle-rape overtones of some of it, along with some of the faces on the voyeurs, makes me think this is a critique of traditional comics, or at least its tendency towards fan service.
Of course, it's not a critique that's developed or followed through with, at least not in any way I could make out. It's not that kind of book, really. Instead, the book is a collection of such weird improvisations, and I think to the degree that the book succeeds, and it does, brilliantly, it's the skill with which individual moments come to life, not the way they string themselves together.
Awesome and challenging, something I've very grateful to have read, and excited creatively to have seen.
Which is, essentially, what happens here: the plot is that the bike rider wants to take a box someplace, but we really don't know why, till the end, when it's revealed that its his dad in the box, and his dad has the lower body of a crab, and well, that 's not much help. Really, the story, to the degree that it has a center, or is focalized in the way Genette would suggest, it's not the driver, but the weird cat that rides on the back of the bike, who seems otherwise unrelated to the action.
In the absence, though, of narrative trappings we might recognize as normal, we get a really bravura visual sequence of driving-- I mean it when I say I was incredibly moved by the way the race develops, especially the "chase scene" toward the end, across shingled roofs. Paul Greengrass has nothing on this stuff, it's pure amazing stuff.
And aside from that? Well, almost immediately before that sequence, there are a group of full-page voyeuristic scenes that are gross and horrifying and incredibly accomplished, even though they seem to come from a totally different visual zone than the chase that will follow them-- I think there's a risk with this kind of book in reading too much into the visuals, but I feel like the way the voyeurism is so icky, and some of the tentacle-rape overtones of some of it, along with some of the faces on the voyeurs, makes me think this is a critique of traditional comics, or at least its tendency towards fan service.
Of course, it's not a critique that's developed or followed through with, at least not in any way I could make out. It's not that kind of book, really. Instead, the book is a collection of such weird improvisations, and I think to the degree that the book succeeds, and it does, brilliantly, it's the skill with which individual moments come to life, not the way they string themselves together.
Awesome and challenging, something I've very grateful to have read, and excited creatively to have seen.
June 5, 2015
Determinedly headed outside the normal paths charted by its manga contemporaries, while riffing off of and channeling certain aspects for strange and eerie power. There are a few threads here -- a kind of adventure story of cryptic travel through a labyrinthine cityscape that gives way to a multilayer voyeurism (and autocritique), then an extended chase. The art has a looseness at odds with the architectural density but it works and gives the the images a kind of murky depth. And then an ending explaining everything and nothing.
January 28, 2021
A random pick up at the library, I am extremely blessed to have found this delightful little book.
Perhaps the most adult wordless comic I have ever read, Sakabashira toes the line between conventional story telling and abstract craziness quite deftly. He goes in so many interesting directions, but they are all tied together with an incredibly strong sense of narrative. I'm sure that more than a few cultural and pop cultural references went completely over my head, but I never felt like it. Knowing and not knowing, the world and its story never seems shallow.
Perhaps the most adult wordless comic I have ever read, Sakabashira toes the line between conventional story telling and abstract craziness quite deftly. He goes in so many interesting directions, but they are all tied together with an incredibly strong sense of narrative. I'm sure that more than a few cultural and pop cultural references went completely over my head, but I never felt like it. Knowing and not knowing, the world and its story never seems shallow.
May 22, 2021
Nearly wordless (aside from some signage, fake hieroglyphs, some possibly fake Thai, and the epilogue), so it doesn’t make sense to judge it by novelistic standards. Not much plot either, just an image stream: one long chase sequence. These are heavy constraints to work within, harder than say free verse (which gets to silently import nearly all of the sense from whatever language it chooses to wear), and it is amazing how much meaning he manages to convey. Still less than you probably need.
We cross an invisible boundary twice. We move from a Kowloon recursive shanty, chased by cops, to an eldritch snuff brothel, chased by monsters, with hallucinogens along the way muzzing reality. Horrible creatures seem to do terrible things to children, women, a scuba diver, in beautiful surroundings. The orchestrator of the monsters is beaten to death, and rises in death to violate his killer. The box man watches in horror, but can’t stop to help, has to keep moving. Then we're back in the shanty, pursued by monsters and cops and then just cops. Somehow this doesn’t feel cheap like say Maruo or most guro stylists. The Asia Extreme pervertedness is not the point here, and most of the surreal touches are not sexed or violent (florist with a perch-fish face, frog playing the koto), and we run past them to the sea.
Why be grotesque? And why am I asking that instead of “why be beautiful?” Maybe: Creating beauty is its own justification; making something ugly means you need to compensate us, either in virtuosity (Nabokov’s prose, or Penderecki’s harmonics, or Ito’s linework) or in access to otherwise inaccessible thoughts or feelings. (Novelty is a common justification but I don't think it works alone.) Sakabashira pays both taxes, just about. About a third of the book is impressive double-page single panels, and the visual perspective of these big detailed places is one of the few continuities among the obscure fantasy squibs.
You can see Box Man as the negation of Seth, where words take half of every panel, characters meet just to allow more words to come out, all value is held captive in the bubbles. It’s fair to view either extreme (wordlessness or actionlessness) as squandering the dual possibilities of comics, but in fact Seth and Sakabashira are both fine, both fleshing out parts of artistic space that don’t have to appeal to everyone, or anyone, if only they do it well.
We cross an invisible boundary twice. We move from a Kowloon recursive shanty, chased by cops, to an eldritch snuff brothel, chased by monsters, with hallucinogens along the way muzzing reality. Horrible creatures seem to do terrible things to children, women, a scuba diver, in beautiful surroundings. The orchestrator of the monsters is beaten to death, and rises in death to violate his killer. The box man watches in horror, but can’t stop to help, has to keep moving. Then we're back in the shanty, pursued by monsters and cops and then just cops. Somehow this doesn’t feel cheap like say Maruo or most guro stylists. The Asia Extreme pervertedness is not the point here, and most of the surreal touches are not sexed or violent (florist with a perch-fish face, frog playing the koto), and we run past them to the sea.
Why be grotesque? And why am I asking that instead of “why be beautiful?” Maybe: Creating beauty is its own justification; making something ugly means you need to compensate us, either in virtuosity (Nabokov’s prose, or Penderecki’s harmonics, or Ito’s linework) or in access to otherwise inaccessible thoughts or feelings. (Novelty is a common justification but I don't think it works alone.) Sakabashira pays both taxes, just about. About a third of the book is impressive double-page single panels, and the visual perspective of these big detailed places is one of the few continuities among the obscure fantasy squibs.
You can see Box Man as the negation of Seth, where words take half of every panel, characters meet just to allow more words to come out, all value is held captive in the bubbles. It’s fair to view either extreme (wordlessness or actionlessness) as squandering the dual possibilities of comics, but in fact Seth and Sakabashira are both fine, both fleshing out parts of artistic space that don’t have to appeal to everyone, or anyone, if only they do it well.
February 16, 2024
Sam do końca nie wiem, gdzie mnie właśnie Sakabshira zabrał. Odjechany, surrealistyczny komiks o gościu, który podróżuje z Kappą (wnioskuję po skorupie na plecach) po mieście. To miasto ma trochę cech slumsowych, a jednocześnie jest splątaną masą kabli, połączeń i rozpadających się przestrzeni. Generalnie panuje atmosfera ucieczki przed czymś, co potęguje tajemnicza paczka, zawierająca śmiercionośne szczypce. Wiem, że brzmi dziwnie, ale ten komiks lepiej czytać (a raczej obejrzeć, bo w przeważającej części jest niemy), niż o nim pisać. Dochodzi do brutalnych scen, które przypominają udergroundowe komiksy robione dla czystego funu. Dość wspomnieć, że przez kilkanaście stron autor ciągnie temat dosyć obleśnych zapasów z wyczuwalnym napięciem seksualnym w tle. Kontekstem całości są również mityczne japońskie stwory i demony.
Wędrówka kończy się symbolicznym zerwaniem więzów z ojcem, choć żaden to spoiler, bo ten, kto odkryje prawdziwy sens opowieści, powinien dostać nagrodę w dziedzinie interpretacji, jeśli ktoś gdziekolwiek takie przyznaje. Dodam, że w przeciwieństwie do sztuki choćby Ebisu Yoshikzu, trudno tu mówić o jakiejś czytelnej krytyce stosunków społecznych czy ośmieszaniu pewnych zjawisk przez pokazywanie okropności. Twórczość Sakabashiry jest zagadką, która czeka na swojego odkrywcę, a jednocześnie kolejnym dowodem na ogromne bogactwo i różnorodność treści z obszarów alternatywnej mangi poprzednich dekad.
Wędrówka kończy się symbolicznym zerwaniem więzów z ojcem, choć żaden to spoiler, bo ten, kto odkryje prawdziwy sens opowieści, powinien dostać nagrodę w dziedzinie interpretacji, jeśli ktoś gdziekolwiek takie przyznaje. Dodam, że w przeciwieństwie do sztuki choćby Ebisu Yoshikzu, trudno tu mówić o jakiejś czytelnej krytyce stosunków społecznych czy ośmieszaniu pewnych zjawisk przez pokazywanie okropności. Twórczość Sakabashiry jest zagadką, która czeka na swojego odkrywcę, a jednocześnie kolejnym dowodem na ogromne bogactwo i różnorodność treści z obszarów alternatywnej mangi poprzednich dekad.
January 20, 2020
Whatever your perceptive definition of bizarre entails- double or triple it.
Too "out there" for understandable story purposes- this is simply creator imagination indulgence with no regard for reader comprehension.
Sometimes it's funny but the desire for shock-value leads to a vast majority of grotesque psychedelia with uncomfortable sexual meanderings and outre disquiet-violence.
Too "out there" for understandable story purposes- this is simply creator imagination indulgence with no regard for reader comprehension.
Sometimes it's funny but the desire for shock-value leads to a vast majority of grotesque psychedelia with uncomfortable sexual meanderings and outre disquiet-violence.
December 28, 2011
A quick, bizarre read. Nice dark black ink, heavy brushstrokes, with a nod to experimental and traditional Japanese style. A hooded scooter pilot and a tag-a-long street cat struggle throughout the book to an unknown destination with a mysterious box. Inside is some form of clawed crustacean whose strange purpose is later revealed. Through the journey, the pilot is chased by monsters, police cars, and other such troubles. A pretty cool little book.
June 1, 2015
y media...
Creo que todo va muy rápido, pero el arte le hizo ganarse esa media estrellita.
Creo que todo va muy rápido, pero el arte le hizo ganarse esa media estrellita.
December 29, 2015
Le entendí, pero hubo una parte que me p uso medio incómodo.
September 13, 2023
A man traverses a variety of landscapes on a scooter with a strange little anthropomorphic character in tow. There isn't a narrative really - we're just following this scooter ride starting from a highly urban center to a more abstract countryside while encountering an absurd myriad of creatures along the way. The Box Man is mostly wordless, so it seems like Imiri Sakabashira is interesting in conveying atmosphere above all. It does have a bit of a Jim Woodring vibe to it, but without the seamleass storytelling to really make it all come together. Still an enjoyable bit of psychedelia and a great insight into the works of one of Garo's eminent mangaka.
February 22, 2020
The Box Man is the best philosophy book I've ever read. It distills just about every thinker worth their salt into a phantasmagoric stew. It's the "Sophia's World" of a new generation. In fact, every cent spent on this book turns into five pence. Mike Pence, ladies, and gentlemen. But ok, nevermind, bleach, in utero, this is the sh******et. But be warned, it totally
January 6, 2020
A monstrous ride on a scooter through hellish scenes. Super fun.
October 25, 2022
Not my cup of tea, dont like this much grotesque and randomness in a comic.
July 21, 2024
Huh 😀
August 2, 2024
Pointless
March 23, 2024
An exhilarating ride through a surreal world where the bizarre becomes the norm. The Box Man delivers a captivating blend of Japanese culture, fantastical creatures, and unexpected twists that will leave you hooked from start to finish
June 21, 2020
This is mostly made up of beautiful scenes of travelling through a dream city in decline (cables + broken down shop signs everywhere) with lots of monsters in the middle, ending with a chase scene. What I really loved was the ambience throughout with it feeling constantly fantastical – balancing the absurd and the sincere well.
August 30, 2020
Un’opera indescrivibile e unica nel suo genere; il volume racchiude tre storie, delle quali solo l’ultima contiene qualche dialogo. Le scene sono surreali ed apparentemente sconnesse tra loro, con uno stile horror ed erotico che mi ha ricordato molto i lavori di Toshio Saeki e Junji Ito.
Sono rimasta piacevolmente sorpresa e spero di poter recuperare qualche altro titolo dello stesso autore.
Sono rimasta piacevolmente sorpresa e spero di poter recuperare qualche altro titolo dello stesso autore.
February 9, 2011
Jornada surreal de um sujeito levando uma caixa na garupa de uma mobilete, sem sabermos do que se trata e qual seu destino. Por entre cortiços empilhados desordenadamente, cortados por uma centena de túneis e fios, e em meio a perseguições de cadetes que só sabem apitar e monstros bizarros que só sabem ser muito, muito bizarros (em uma determinada e memorável cena, o ritmo de fuga da história é rompido por 16 páginas inteiras de uma mesma situação, mas encenada por criaturas diferentes aterrorizando sujeitos nos mais diversos lugares, porém sempre com o mesmo mote - um homem lunático se deliciando com a situação e o nosso protagonista bisbilhotando escondido a cena em todas as suas variantes). Enfim, é uma história muito peculiar, quase sem diálogos, mas com muitas onomatopéias, repetições, situações desconcertantes e um final bem irônico.
January 13, 2011
I saw Sakabashira's illustrations before I saw his comics, so when I got this book all I really knew was that I like the way he draws, and I like the weirdness of his subject matter. I had actually seen a number of images from this book without knowing they were part of a larger narrative, so it was interesting to see them in context (although I'm not sure how much context is worth in such a strange tale).
Anyway, "The Box Man" really keeps you guessing and wondering what the hell is going on. The ending is hilarious. Sakabashira's drawings are beautiful and full of details. Lots of grotesque, humorous imagery. Overall: Good stuff!
Anyway, "The Box Man" really keeps you guessing and wondering what the hell is going on. The ending is hilarious. Sakabashira's drawings are beautiful and full of details. Lots of grotesque, humorous imagery. Overall: Good stuff!
January 29, 2012
A strange animal hops a ride on a man's scooter and ends up on a surreal journey the man takes to deliver the box that is strapped to his back.
This book takes about 10 minutes to read. There is almost no dialogue or writing, but there are frequent sound effects. Sakabashira shows two different styles of drawing in this book. The animal is quite simple and cartoonish as are some of the figures. The backgrounds are much more detailed. In one scene the scooter glides across rickety rooftops into strangely deformed peril. Deformity is definitely a strong part of the story.
This book is strange, surreal, and a little unnerving.
This book takes about 10 minutes to read. There is almost no dialogue or writing, but there are frequent sound effects. Sakabashira shows two different styles of drawing in this book. The animal is quite simple and cartoonish as are some of the figures. The backgrounds are much more detailed. In one scene the scooter glides across rickety rooftops into strangely deformed peril. Deformity is definitely a strong part of the story.
This book is strange, surreal, and a little unnerving.
June 28, 2012
Culture shock. Well, maybe not culture, more like genre shock. Whoa, first time I read (can I say read? There are only 3 balloons there) "something" like this. Shocking. I went through it twice and it really gave me a chill. Both times, the second even more than the first. Whoa. I'll say it again, Whoa. This is an adventure nobody should miss out. The drawing of Sakabashira-san left a lot for imagination in some places, little in others. The fact that it is monochrome gave it more power. Churning my inside so bad, I craved for more. Whoa.
November 8, 2010
Oh holy holy crap this was weird.
It started out not so weird, and kind of quiet, and then it got nightmarishly horrifically awesomely insectile monster vignettes weird. And then it went back to a semi-quiet chase scene, and then back to monsters. And it was ultimately pretty sad, but as strange as it was, it all made far too much sense and flowed perfectly. Absolutely pick it up if you see it, but do not read it right before bed, or while on drugs. Please. Crazy stuff, man.
It started out not so weird, and kind of quiet, and then it got nightmarishly horrifically awesomely insectile monster vignettes weird. And then it went back to a semi-quiet chase scene, and then back to monsters. And it was ultimately pretty sad, but as strange as it was, it all made far too much sense and flowed perfectly. Absolutely pick it up if you see it, but do not read it right before bed, or while on drugs. Please. Crazy stuff, man.
November 16, 2022
(Дуже) альтернативна доросла манга від сюреаліста, що любить шокувати. Грубий абсурдний гумор, німий малюнок аж до останньої сторінки, де одна-єдина за всю книжку фраза змусила мене гомерично гоготати. Так незвично, що аж цінно.
January 9, 2010
I have no idea what I just read, but I couldn't stop turning the pages. Cool and weird and kind of creepy.
April 4, 2011
I almost feel like I'm doing something wrong by owning this book.
December 31, 2011
"Since getting this crab-like lower body, your behaviour has become far too decadent."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews