Asadora! — Naoki Urasawa's Latest Masterpiece

Considering how much people like to talk about Monster, 20th Century Boys, Pluto, and Billy Bat, it baffles me how few people are talking about Naoki Urasawa's Asadora! This series is nothing short of incredible and I firmly believe that it's on track to become another one of Urasawa's masterpieces. And depending on how the rest of the series goes, it could very well turn out to be his best work of all time.

The general story of Asadora follows a series of kaiju attacks from the postwar period all the way to 2020. The story itself begins in 1959, following the perspective of 12-year old Asa Asada, a girl who hardly anybody realizes exists due to her unremarkable name and the sheer number of sibligns she has. One day, as Asa’s mother is giving birth to her twelfth child, Asa runs off to fetch a gynaecologist to help deliver the baby. But as she does so, she catches a burglar in the act and gets kidnapped for ransom in retaliation. As time continues to pass and nobody notices Asa’s disappearance, they suddenly get hit by the Isewan Typhoon. But as they emerge once the storm has passed, the two of them find that almost the entirety of Nagoya has been submerged, with Asa having no idea where on Earth her home or her family are. With there being much more to this typhoon than meets the eye, it’s up to Asa and the kidnapper to work together to survive.

Asadora has been serializing in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits on an irregular basis since 2018. Nowadays, Urasawa has been releasing roughly 1 volume per year due to his research and health needs. November 2024 marks the English release of volume 8 and the Japanese release of volume 9 of Asadora. So I figured now would be as perfect of a time as any to make a video regarding the series.

Asadora uniquely combines elements from Urasawa's earlier sports romance series with his later, darker mystery series. And I'd especially recommend Asadora to people who are big into tokusatsu franchises as well as social and political history. If you take a look at the credits page for each volume, Urasawa has collaborated with a variety of museums and organizations to ensure historical accuracy, which I'm sure many of you will find interesting!

Time Stamps:
00:00 Introduction
03:29 The Cast
05:35 Thematic Ideas