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 ...

written and illustrated by

Taiyō Matsumoto is a Japanese manga artist from Tokyo. He has won several awards, including the Shogakukan Manga Award, the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and Eisner Award. ''Ping Pong'' and ''Blue Spring'' have been adapted into live-action feature films. Ani ...

Plot

In an elementary school, more and more unfortunate events accumulate. The third grader Yuki claims to have a connection with and visions about a parallel world and he claims that the unfortunate series of events are connected to this parallel world. Creatures form another world would live on the last floor of school. The fifth grader IQ, who is a prodigy in mathematics and wears a cardboard box over his head at all times, sees Yuki as a mentally ill and lonely person, but hangs out with him. Both IQ and Yuki are mostly excluded in their classes. Yuki's classmate Makoto is friends with him.

Publication

A ''seinen'' manga, ''GoGo Monster'' was published by

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hit ...

in a single ''

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 ...

'' volume on October 23, 2000. The release of an English-language version of ''GoGo Monster'' was announced 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 ...

in February 2009; the publisher released it on November 17 of that same year. In October 2023, Viz Media announced that they would reprint the manga. The manga was also translated into Spanish, French, and German.

Reception

''GoGo Monster'' won the Special Award at the 30th

Japan Cartoonists Association Award is an annual award for manga, sponsored by the Japan Cartoonists Association. The prize was first awarded in 1972. Prizes Recipients of the Grand Prize receive a gold plaque, a medal, and a cash prize of ¥500,000. Recipients of the Excellence P ...

in 2001. In 2006, the manga earned a nomination for

Angoulême International Comics Festival Prize for Artwork This Prize for Artwork is awarded to comics authors at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. As is the customary practice in Wikipedia for listing awards such as Oscar results, the winner of the award for that year is listed first, the othe ...

, which it lost to ''Le vol du corbeau'' by Jean-Pierre Gibrat. It was nominated to the 2009

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ( ...

for Best Graphic Novel but

David Mazzucchelli David John Mazzucchelli (; born September 21, 1960) is an American comics artist and writer, known for his work on seminal superhero comic book storylines '' Daredevil: Born Again'' and '' Batman: Year One'', as well as for graphic novels in other ...

's ''

Asterios Polyp ''Asterios Polyp'' is a 2009 graphic novel by American cartoonist David Mazzucchelli. Overview The title character, Asterios Polyp, is a professor and architect of Greek and Italian descent who teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. A ...

'' won it. The manga was generally received positively by critics, including Deb Aoki of

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly About.com) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, home, food, finance, tech, beauty, l ...

, Joseph Luster of ''

Otaku USA ''Otaku USA'' is a bimonthly magazine published by Sovereign Media, which covers various elements of the "otaku" lifestyle (such as anime, manga, video games, cosplay and Japanese popular music) from an American perspective. The issues were acc ...

'', Oliver Ho of ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...

'', ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'', and

Shaenon K. Garrity Shaenon K. Garrity is a webcomic creator and science-fiction author best known for her webcomics ''Narbonic'' and '' Skin Horse''. She collaborated with various artists to write webcomics for the Modern Tales-family of webcomic subscription serv ...

. Erin Finnegan 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 ...

called it "one of the best manga of 2009." ''

The Comics Reporter Thomas Martin Spurgeon (December 16, 1968 – November 13, 2019) was an American writer, historian, critic, and editor in the field of comics, notable for his five-year run as editor of ''The Comics Journal'' and his blog ''The Comics Reporter''. ...

'' staff elected it the 9th best comic of the year.

References

External links

* {{Taiyō Matsumoto Horror anime and manga Mystery anime and manga Seinen manga Shogakukan manga Supernatural anime and manga Taiyō Matsumoto Viz Media manga