Genkaku Picasso

Hallucinatory Picasso

The cover of the first volume of Genkaku Picasso
幻覚ピカソ （げんかくぴかそ）
(Genkaku Picasso)
Manga
Written by Usamaru Furuya
Published by Shueisha
English publisher
Magazine Jump Square
English magazine Shonen Jump (first chapter only)
Original run 2009 – 2010
Volumes 3

Genkaku Picasso (幻覚ピカソ（げんかくぴかそ） Hallucinatory Picasso) is a three-volume manga series by Usamaru Furuya (古屋兎丸 Furuya Usamaru). It was serialized in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine, with collected editions released in 2009–2010; an English edition was released by Viz Media in 2010–2011 in 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.

Reception

Lissa Pattillo finds the design and visual presentation of the first volume impressive, but worries that the plot will become repetitive.[1] Chris Kirby also praises the art and the allegorical depictions of inner states in the first volume but feels that Hikari and Chiaki are underdeveloped and "merely act as plot devices".[2] Ain't It Cool News praises Furuya's "skill at rendering the surreal and transgressive", but feels that the characters' problems in the first volume are unrealistic but not strange enough to add to the surrealist nature of the work.[3]

Carlo Santos finds the individual stories in the first volume gimmicky, but praises the different art-styles that Furuya uses and the series' surrealism and sense of humor;[4] in his review of the second volume he continues to appreciate the art and the characters but finds the stories "repetitive and trite".[5] Leroy Douresseaux concurs that the surreal drawings of the character's inner states are a highlight of the first volume;[6] for the second volume he praises Furuya's "sharp" dialog and graphic storytelling.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Pattillio, Lisa. "Genkaku Picasso GN 1". Anime News Network. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  2. ↑ Kirby, Chris. "Genkaku Picasso Vol. #01". Mania.com. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  3. ↑ "AICN Anime - Checking Out the Latest From Manga, Blade of the Immortal, Gantz, Horror, Absurdity, Feminism and More". Cool News. Ain't It Cool News. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  4. ↑ Santos, Carlo. "Exactly According to Genkaku". Right Turn Only. Anime News Network. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  5. ↑ Santos, Carlo. "Soul Feud". Right Turn Only. Anime News Network. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  6. ↑ Douresseaux, Leroy. "Genkaku Picasso: Volume 1". Comic Book Bin. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  7. ↑ Douresseaux, Leroy. "Genkaku Picasso: Volume 2". Comic Book Bin. Retrieved 4 October 2011.

External links

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