Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke

Not only has an English edition of Sugiura Shigeru’s Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke been a long time coming, it almost didn’t happen at all. It has been almost forty years since the 1985 release of issue seven of Art Spiegleman and Françoise Mouly’s legendary anthology series RAW, which contained a featurette on alternative manga artists - at a time when mainstream manga was itself still very niche outside of Japan. A then-77-year-old Sugiura produced five new pages of abstract ninjitsu-themed glory for his English language premier, capturing the attention of many hip 1980s comic readers. And then… nothing. For years.

Even following Sugiura’s death in 2000, the manga legend’s work would see only a small handful of anthology reprints in English. But in 2013 that changed when Dan Nadel, one of those readers impressed by Sugiura’s debut in RAW, corroborated with then-up-and-coming translator and manga historian Ryan Holmberg, to release The Last of the Mohicans. Printed by Nadel’s publishing outfit Picturebox, The Last of the Mohicans was the first full length Sugiura work printed in English.

Unfortunately, it sold notoriously poorly. It’s worth noting that the second release in the vintage manga series from Nadel and Holmberg, Tezuka Osamu’s Mysterious Underground Men, did rather well - all with similar design and press (Eisner award win notwithstanding). Currently, as a barometer of desirability, the average price you’d pay to pick up a second hand copy of either book in the series will have an extra zero in Tezuka’s favour.

I’d venture to guess that for many modern readers of comics who are unfamiliar with Sugiura, just the title itself - The Last of the Mohicans - conjures visions of eighth grade English class. The hyper-masculine glorifications of westward expansion inherent in the historical myth were, no doubt, considerably detrimental to the sales appeal of Sugiura’s version. Nonetheless, the damage was done to Sugiura’s eligibility as an option for would-be publishers. And so, when New York Review Comics announced in 2023 that they would be releasing a new Sugiura translation, it came as a pleasant surprise.

This particular version of Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke shares a similar history to Mohicans in that they both originate from what would be considered the artist's mid-late career. Both are also reinventions of comics that Sugiura initially drew in his period of peak popularity. Between the 1930s and 1950s, he progressed from struggling amateur painter, to assisting Tagawa Suihō (pre-war manga pioneer best known for Norakuro), and ultimately to a very prominent career in the burgeoning post-war shonen (young boys) manga scene of comics anthologies and furoku (supplemental insert comics). Sugiura's work features gag-heavy stories about ninjas, cowboys, robots, boy inventors, and space explorers. He garnered a lot of popularity because of - or possibly in spite of - his strange drawing style. By 1958, having exhausted himself with an extremely demanding schedule, Sugiura entered a sort of semi-retirement.

It wasn’t until 1969 that Shigeru Sugiura was entreated by the newer generation of editors and artsy manga makers, who remembered him fondly, to create new works by revisiting his previous popular titles. The resulting comic version of Sarutobi is therefore a late 1960s reinvention of an early 1950s manga. Further adding to the textual tapestry, Sugiura’s 1953 original itself drew upon a wealth of paperbacks, films, and earlier manga interpretations from the 1910s onward - which themselves date back to the kōdan form of narrative storytelling in which the folklore character Sarutobi first appeared! The line between Sugiura’s 1974 Mohicans and James Fenimore Cooper’s novel is similarly convoluted, but the intertextual history of these books is only one facet of the cultural melange.

Sugiura always loved a pop culture gag, but now free from the yoke of “children’s comics”, he was able to really indulge and include any reference that tickled his fancy at the moment. In fact, this autonomy of choice regarding his references, coupled with a liberty to venture into even more surreal imagery, may be the primary indicator that this latter version of Sarutobi was created for an adult audience. The mood is quite similar to Sugiura’s output for children. He clearly ran wild with such freedom, as I tallied approximately sixty cultural allusions of some form or another peppered throughout Sarutobi’s 236 pages. Sugiura’s eponymous ninja Sarutobi abruptly pivots from spouting leftist anti-military slogans to vaguely informative diatribes on Jules Verne and nuclear submarines in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Sugiura takes the familiar trope of “ninja magic” to the extreme, facilitating Sarutobi’s corporeal transformations. From a silver screen-accurate Frankenstein’s monster, to a 1930s Rolls Royce, Sarutobi’s metamorphoses are as surprising as they are bizarre. Randomness and contradiction can be found in the background details: a Lautrec painting hung in a dishevelled hovel, and historical samurai Lord Yukimura Sanada's bookshelf features the likes of Camus and Marx. There is a distinct impression that if Wuthering Heights had sat upon Sugiura’s night stand while penning this manga, he would have seen fit to drop it into the hands of a bystanding character, for them to enjoy as well.

Sugiura Shigeru didn’t seem to intend any particular interconnectedness with such diverse inclusions. And thankfully so, because his kaleidoscope of references is all the more bewildering in the presence of the cultural substitutions necessitated by an English edition. Ryan Holmberg - returning as translator on this project - has taken many randomly sung songs or dated referential jokes and replaced them with modern Western versions that work for readability and comprehension. Most feel very on-brand for Sugiura’s lowbrow and unpretentious sense of humour. The fact that the allusions aren’t in keeping with the time period depicted in the story is, in and of itself, very fittingly Sugiura-esque. Even in his work for children, Sugiura saw no trouble with inserting an abundance of modern anachronisms into a setting that is technically early-1600s Japan. It is therefore quite reasonable that Holmberg would follow suit. That being said, some purists may find some of the localizations' modern references too far removed from the original 1969 publication date of Sarutobi to be appropriate. The notoriously abrasive 2015 children’s song Baby Shark, or the lyrics of Micheal Jackson, while serving tonal accuracy, may still give some pause. Localization is ultimately a subjective effort, and in a few cases, the jokes inevitably feel as though they belong more to Holmberg than Sugiura. I may have taken issue with this myself, but frankly, the pun that played on the lyrics of Smooth Criminal was one of my favourite goofy quips in the book. And I believe that a dry, literal, footnoted translation of the dated Japanese children’s songs and commercial jingles that appeared in Sugiura’s original would have blended poorly with the light and irreverent flow of the dialogue.

Were I to choose a singular phrase to exemplify the success of the translation of Shigeru Sugiura's Sarutobi, it would indubitably be the sublime use of “Barfaroni!”. It wasn’t a term I realised I needed in a localization until I encountered it on page 189, where it so perfectly captures that quality of timeless juvenility, and works so well within a comic that seeks to evoke nostalgic, childlike glee in artistically-minded adults. Barfaroni, indeed!

Holmberg’s translations are generally anticipated to be accompanied by his noteworthy essays, and Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is no exception. Not unlike the incredibly thorough and impressively researched document accompanying The Last of the Mohicans, the piece of writing in Sarutobi is substantially informative. Those who have read the Mohicans essay will recognize some text of Sugiura’s biography, but much new content on the topic of the Sarutobi character and its broader history in different forms of Japanese media will be fascinating to those interested in the annals of manga. (And hey, I certainly didn’t pull the reference to kōdan storytelling from my own pool of knowledge!) Non-Japanese amateur manga historians are quite lucky that these essays are part and parcel of Holmberg’s output. He has also contributed writing regarding manga history to tcj.com and one of his earliest articles pertains to Sugiura and can be found here.

It’s likely fair to say that the primary allure in Sugiura Shigeru’s work is his visual artistry. Much of the appeal is found in the ease with which he blends charmingly simplistic primary character designs with detailed surrealistic oddities. Neither the narrative nor the historic inspiration are of much importance here. When other characters from the traditional stories of Sarutobi Sasuke appear - such as his folklore fellows the Sanada Ten Braves - they feel more out of place than whatever amorphous five-eyed creature into which Sarutobi has most recently transformed!

The plot loosely follows Sarutobi as he, rather effortlessly, becomes a master of the ninja arts and travels in the service of Lord Sanada. This means being endlessly challenged by lesser ninjas and random tricksters in battles that are invariably decided by whoever can adopt the most disorienting physical form. Sarutobi is never for a moment in danger of losing the upper hand, tentacle, or whatever appendage he happens to possess at the moment. He deftly warps entire landscapes into Dali-esque deserts, alien worlds, or dioramas of the American West. Some of the contests of supposed “ninja skill” become multi-page absurdist tableaus, wherein recognizing each of the varied ninjas as they change form, becoming misshapen creatures sprung from the unconscious mind, is a dizzying endeavour.

The likelihood that a new reader will enjoy Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke probably hinges on how enthralled they are with the interplay between the willfully immature tone of the gag-oriented dialogue, and the recurrent ventures into unreal or iconographic art that Sarutobi exists to facilitate. The process is sometimes formulaic in its repetition, but the results are always aesthetically surprising. Vignettes frequently begin with a slapstick brawl, a few pun names, and a fart joke, before evolving into wild transformation-based ninja battles. If unsophisticated humour is not to your liking, you may find many portions of Sarutobi off-putting.

At one point, Sugiura breaks the fourth wall to self-effacingly joke that “crazy monsters” are what Sarutobi is “good for”. Those looking for deeper commentary in its comedy or plot may agree. I, however, feel that he is selling himself short on multiple fronts. Firstly, the sequences of more conventional cartooning still pop with a great deal of charm (kudos to Vikki Chu’s abundant hand lettering for aiding this endeavour). Secondly, the fart jokes do work for me. And thirdly, I find the term “crazy monsters” to be very inadequate in describing the wealth of creatures and images that populate the more abstract panels of Sarutobi.

Frankly, I have struggled repeatedly while writing this to be more specific with examples of Sugiuras’ pictorial curiosities. They are sometimes bacterial, sometimes Cubist. Sometimes they’re humanoid in shape, and sometimes they’re a cluster of human eyes. Perhaps lizard-like? Mechanical? Slimy? Post-impressionistic? Geologic? Occasionally they are all of the above, simultaneously. How can I choose one instance to exemplify the lot? And once I have, am I confident that I’ll be able to do it justice with words? As a reviewer, Sugiura’s creative breadth has left me linguistically stymied. But as a reader… As a reader, I am free to internalise and mentally free associate with the multitude of feelings and impressions that are evoked by his “crazy monsters” and the strange vistas they inhabit. For me, this is such a joyful and engaging process, that I find Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke to be a perfect comic in terms of what it is trying to achieve. The manifestations of Sugiura’s stream of consciousness narrative never cease to amaze me.

Ninja Sarutobi Sasuke is weird and silly, and even a little stupid. It’s also masterfully illustrated and dreamlike, and a piece of heavily-cultured pop art.

However - full disclosure - I am a long standing Sugiura Shigeru devotee. Few have cheered (or begged) louder for another entry into his English catalogue than yours truly. So I must express my profound appreciation to NYR Comics and Ryan Holmberg for giving Shigeru Sugiura another much-deserved chance.

I am finally sated.

(... for now!)