From the Creator Wild beast A series of creatures about mythical creatures are called Santa. I don’t know what to expect when I read aloud, but it’s as weird and Zany as you’d expect. Paru Itagaki. We have some social commentary, we have some very expressive character designs, and we have quirky characters that cross the boundaries of cute or creepy. Many of her staples are here, and while there must be a whimsical feeling, volume one is an incredible rock beginning.
This is a story about children. Or more specifically, it’s a thing of how innocence of a child becomes so coveted, so what better person to set things on the right path than Santa himself? But we can’t have any Santa, he must be some deeply established curse of family blood, and can only be unlocked like a certain specific requirement in the secret identity of a superhero! There is a lot of time to establish this role. There are rules and unlocking powers. If I had no idea, I would have thought it was some kind of twist to a typical superhero story like Superman. In fact, even the whole idea of Santa being used as a fictional legend, the innocent idea that aims to protect children is strange.
The problem is that while Kazushige is fun as a character, and his Santa form performance leads to some outstanding scenes from a comedy and philosophical perspective, world architecture suffers from the influence. There are a lot of contextual clues that give us some idea of the type of this world type. Children are placed in schools that behave almost like mini-sanctuaries, and their relationship with adults is doubtful at best. There are a lot of cult analogies here, and it’s creepy when we’re indeed introduced to one of the few adults in the actual series. There is a feeling that adults are jealous of young people that kids can still experience, so an adult tries to keep their youthful appearance with dangerous surgery/chemicals, but the disconnect between their appearance and behavior can make things incredible. It’s arguably my favorite idea of playing comics and I want to see more adults in this world. What we see is good, but requires more, especially when Itagaki tries to determine that Santa is a character that almost needs to exist, in order to face a problem I can’t see, it almost needs to exist.
After completing the first volume, I couldn’t help feeling that there were many moments to shorten. The establishment of some characters may have been tightened, and some gags have lasted for too long, just like Kazushige keeps misreading the situation in order to make him feel sad. Actually, it took a long time to build certain characters, but it was strange that I found myself not attached except for Kazushige. Their involvement ranged from being too sporadic to the extent that I couldn’t grasp their role firmly. Shiites, especially, stood out in her despair. She needed Santa’s help so much that she was willing to even kill him, but she also ignored him as a human being that it was hard for me to see her get what she wanted. Her “gunning” is not really about treating him and forcing him into comedy dangers, just to test his age very quickly, especially when there is no source.
Sadly, this is more than just a narrative issue, as it also translates it into speech. Santa’s design has attracted a lot of attention. It’s a very simple design, but through Itagaki’s striking expression and exaggerated angles, his presence is huge when he finally makes his way to the stage. I really like it, but when it comes to panel-to-panel storytelling, things are a bit difficult. Sometimes the book will jump to another scene before you can feel that the last one is actually done. I can’t tell how much time has passed sometimes between position changes, and although there aren’t many movements here, the current movement feels weightless. Probably one or two impact frames really impress, but beyond that, it does feel like the character bounces up from the wall both literally and symbolically without much coherent direction.
Until the end of Volume 1, it feels like things start to focus on narrative and statement. Overall, Itagaki once again takes a very conceptual concept and tries to tell a super-implemented story on a very rooted theme. However, unlike other works I read from them, the execution is not that strong. In some ways, unfortunately, it’s like a first draft of a better story, and I feel sad about it in the current form. I hope I’m proven wrong in reading the subsequent volumes and the upcoming anime adaptation focuses on these benefits rather than exacerbating the bad guy’s point of view.
