▪	RELEASED BY:		DIGITAL MANGA PUBLSIHING
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		OSAMU TEZUKA
		▪	FORMAT:		JAPANESE / B&W
		▪	PAGES:		514
		▪	RATING:		16+
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		06/23/2009
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		07/09/2009
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		HOLLY ELLINGWOOD

The late Tezuka first published this epic in 1968, the year Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, Kennedy was assassinated, and the Vietnam War bean to take shape. The hippy movement was gaining ground and the world was changing forever. In Swallowing the Earth, Tezuka begins with two mediocre soldiers on a South Pacific island during WWII. They hear incredible stories about a woman so beautiful she’s believed to be inhuman. A goddess named Zephyrus who lures men to their doom.

Flash forward twenty years later and the son of one of those soldiers, Gohonmatsu Seki, is a drunkard and dockworker with no ambition except to drink all the liquor he can. He’s taken in by the lure of money to buy more alcohol. In exchange he has to investigate the appearance of the woman Zephyrus in Japan. She has not aged a day from the photo the father had and she has been using her charms for ominous needs. Reluctantly, except for the promise of money to gain hooch, Gohonmatsu agrees and soon finds himself in way, way over his head. His first encounter with Zephyrus results in a duel to the death with a frightening fellow. His second encounter sees him drugged by her and having a trippy time that is psychedelic yet enlightening. He may not be the brightest man and he holds no ambition, but he has one characteristic that makes him wholly unique and the only man for this job – he can resist Zephyrus’ charms, a thing no other male can accomplish. He quickly finds out part of her plan and the truth behind the synthetic skins, at least part of the truth. The mission to end Mankind by destroying economy, law, and order is underway and has been planned for over twenty years. Now humanity’s only hope may be the often drunk and laissez-faire Gohonmatsu.

The hero attempts to shirk his duty and walk away, not knowing that he has already captured the heart of one of Zephyrus’ daughters, Milda. He is soon kidnapped by the billionaire Breed, who brings him to the US and entreats him to work for Breed.  Shortly after he agrees, Breed is abducted by Zephyrus’ cohorts and Gohonmatsu is captured by the seven sisters. He manages to escape by sheer luck and discovers a plot to kill the tycoon Breed and have an imposter take his place using the synthetic skin.  The wider implications of the synthetic skin is revealed and its use to create lawlessness in society globally.

Gohonmatsu finds Breed too late and is at the mercy of his captors. At that point, the story goes off on interesting tangents that speak more about the effects and long reach of Zephyrus’ schemes and unveils her background. The reason for her hatred for humanity is learned as is the tragedy that it instills in the future. One particularly moving tale about a young man named Ryoji, is a lesson about the tragedy of revenge and its ultimate futility even as it parallels closely the life of one of those closest to the sisters. A second notable offside is about a penniless young man who has fought to find oil, his father’s legacy. When a gold rush occurs, one of the seven sisters crosses paths with him only for the two to share a sorrowful fate and an end that outlines that true wealth is in the heart, not the hand.

Meanwhile the plan to create chaos has succeeded all to well.  The synthetic skins have been used by criminals to escape capture while ethnic minorities use the skin to pass as Caucasian. It brings to a harsh light the way race was used for stratification, segregation and prejudicial practices in society and without it, being unable to tell a person’s true ethnicity, brings that same oppressive racial order to chaos and violence and ruin.  Curiously enough it also shows the breakdown of family when Gohonmatsu comes across family that have all been replaced by fakes, people wanting a second chance using synthetic skins to pretend to be the family. In truth, they make more of what a real family is about than the actual family that abandoned each other.

A third notable tangent is about a girl mute and amnesiac after a terrible trauma. A doctor goes to risky lengths using an experimental procedure to save her. It leads to an unusual triumph in otherwise tragic results while at the same time challenging our notion of belonging, intimacy, and relations.

The chaos that has spread across the world has led to catastrophic results and the instillation of martial law around the world. Futaro, the half-brother of Nana, daughter of one of the two soldiers from the beginning of the story, leads a military coup in Japan. He demands a terrible price from Nana who comes to a horrible end and Gohonmatsu is left in military hands where he is tortured for information on Zephyrus and Milda.

To save him, Milda and her cohort and rival for his affections, Chritos, band together on a dangerous plan to save the man they both love and to end the horrors of a tyrant. In the aftermath that follows, Gohonmatsu and Milda have found a small bit of happiness in a world struggling to remake itself. Borders, family, law is all gone, yet these two have found a measure of bliss at the end of the world. However it is a bittersweet one that proves to be far too fleeting as the cycle of revenge comes not to a close, but a new beginning. The epilogue sees the world twenty years later and a certain young man with a huge appetite for drinking roams the new world. Yet still the cycle of revenge follows and comes full circle these many years later, leaving the reader to ponder the cost of such actions and the possibility of a new start even while the world burns on the page.

Swallowing the Earth is a deeply affecting saga that speculates in its story on the nature of society, on what keeps it together and what could happen to break it apart. How would humanity react? In Tezuka’s tale, it appears that few humans rise above and those that do so are the underdogs, the unlikely, yet it is they who manage to find some small bit of joy in an otherwise troubling existence. It should also be noted that this manga was done in the late sixties and the illustration style is classic Osamu Tezuka. He satirized the American art style, and in so doing, many people might find the imagery in regards to the race relations and how different ethnicities and nationalities are depicted to be offensive. The book provides a disclaimer in regards to this, remarking on it being a piece done at a time when that art style was depicted and it was during a time when the US was facing the civil rights movement. As such, the manga is a fascinating study on the era and its societal framework, reflected not only in the story but also in the illustrative style. Although Astro Boy was a sci-fi adventure geared towards younger readers (and later viewers as it became an anime), Swallowing the Earth is something adults can enjoy and appreciate in its full measure.

IN SUMMARY:
Swallowing the Earth is an evocative, at times provocative, science fiction story that wrestles with human nature in its tragedies and triumphs.