Genkaku Picasso
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

is a Japanese
manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
series written and illustrated by
Usamaru Furuya is a Japanese manga artist. Biography During elementary school, Furuya enrolled in the Osamu Tezuka Manga Correspondence Course and by the time he reached high school he had discovered a darker, more underground style. He graduated from Tama A ...
. It was serialized in
Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...
's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''
Jump Square , also written as , is a Japanese monthly '' shōnen'' manga magazine. Published by Shueisha, the magazine premiered on November 2, 2007 as a replacement for '' Monthly Shōnen Jump'', another manga anthology that Shueisha discontinued in June of ...
'' from September 2008 to April 2010, with its chapters collected in three ''
tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...
'' volumes. The series was licensed for English release in North America by
Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
and published under its ''Shonen Jump'' manga division.


Plot

The protagonist is Hikari Hamura, a 16-year-old high school student known as "Picasso" because of his drawing ability. Hikari is an eccentric introvert with only one friend, Chiaki Yamamoto. One day while Hikari and Chiaki are at the river sketching, a malfunctioning helicopter crashes into their location, killing her, but leaving Hikari miraculously unscathed. After recovering from the accident, Hikari finds that Chikari has been transformed into a miniature, winged version of herself, who lives in his pocket. Chiaki tells him that when the helicopter crashed she prayed for his survival, however in return for his life he must use his skills to draw people's "hearts", otherwise he will rot away. Although Hikari is reluctant to involve himself with others, he is persuaded by signs of rot on his arm to help his classmates. Each story deals with a different classmate (eight in total, with a ninth in the younger sister of one) with a personal problem; Hikari's drawings of the subject's "heart" manifest their psychological troubles as surreal allegories, and in order to help them with their issues Hikari and Chiaki must enter into the drawings to explore the classmate's psyche and figure out what the images mean.


Publication

''Genkaku Picasso'', written and illustrated by
Usamaru Furuya is a Japanese manga artist. Biography During elementary school, Furuya enrolled in the Osamu Tezuka Manga Correspondence Course and by the time he reached high school he had discovered a darker, more underground style. He graduated from Tama A ...
, who based the main character on himself, was serialized in
Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...
's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''
Jump Square , also written as , is a Japanese monthly '' shōnen'' manga magazine. Published by Shueisha, the magazine premiered on November 2, 2007 as a replacement for '' Monthly Shōnen Jump'', another manga anthology that Shueisha discontinued in June of ...
'' from September 4, 2008, to April 3, 2010. Shueisha collected its chapters in three collected ''
tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...
'' volumes, published between February 4, 2009, and June 4, 2010.
Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...
translated the series into English and published its three volumes under the ''Shonen Jump'' imprint from November 2, 2010 to May 3, 2011. On March 27, 2012, Viz Media made the series available in digital format on its VizManga.com website and Viz Manga App for
iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
. The series was also published in English by Australian publisher
Madman Entertainment Madman Entertainment Pty. Ltd., also known as Madman Films, is an Australian distribution and rights management company headquartered in East Melbourne, Victoria, specialising in feature films, documentaries and television series across theatri ...
; in Italian by
Star Comics Star Comics was an imprint of Marvel Comics that began in 1984 and featured titles that were aimed at child readers and were often adaptations of children's television series, animated series or toys. The last comic published under the imprint f ...
, in French by
Tonkam Tonkam is a prominent French publisher of manga and was one of the first publishers of manga in French, issuing its first titles in 1994. It was founded by Sylvie Chang and Dominique Véret with the financial assistance of a Parisian bookseller, ...
, and in Taiwanese by
Tong Li Publishing Tongli Publishing Co. (Chinese: 東立出版社, Hanyu Pinyin: ''Dōng Lì Chūbǎnshè''), most known as Tong Li Comics, is a publishing company which distributes a variety of domestic and imported comics in Taiwan. History Tong Li was founded ...
.


Reception

''Genkaku Picasso'' was one of the four manga nominated by the
Young Adult Library Services Association The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...
for its list of 2012 Great Graphic Novels for Teens; however, it was not entered into the final list. Lissa Pattillo of
Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...
(ANN) found the design and visual presentation of the first volume impressive, but worried that the plot will become repetitive. Chris Kirby of Mania.com also praised the art and the allegorical depictions of inner states in the first volume but felt that Hikari and Chiaki are underdeveloped and "merely act as plot devices".
Ain't It Cool News Ain't It Cool News (AICN) is an entertainment news website founded by Harry Knowles and run by his sister Dannie Knowles since September 2017, dedicated to news, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and current films, television, and comic book proje ...
' Scott Green praised Furuya's "skill at rendering the surreal and transgressive", but felt that the characters' problems in the first volume are unrealistic but not strange enough to add to the surrealist nature of the work. Carlo Santos of ANN found the individual stories in the first volume gimmicky, but praised the different art-styles that Furuya uses and the series' surrealism and sense of humor; in his review of the second volume he continued to appreciate the art and the characters but found the stories "repetitive and trite". Santos nevertheless elected it one of the best manga published in the United States in 2011. Leroy Douresseaux concurred that the surreal drawings of the character's inner states are a highlight of the first volume; for the second volume he praised Furuya's "sharp" dialog and graphic storytelling.


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

* {{Jump Square 2008 manga Madman Entertainment manga Shōnen manga Shueisha manga Supernatural anime and manga Viz Media manga