Eradicate Villains With Love (BL)

I, like many people, picked up this manga because of my love for the movie and Tezuka's works in general. What I didn't realize was just how vastly different this manga is from the film. There's no Rock, no politically driven narrative or romance; there isn't even a "Tima."

The story centers on a gender-bending young robot named Michi, who is quite similar to Tima in almost every way. Both form friendships with Kenichi, encounter Duke Red—who lacks the charisma he has in the movie—and are, for the most part, embodiments of innocence. Many recurring characters from Tezuka's universe make appearances, and there are even some hilarious nods to Disney, whose style largely influenced Tezuka's, in the form of radioactive rats resembling Mickey Mouse.

The artwork, it must be admitted, isn't Tezuka's finest. The backgrounds, after the initially chaotic pages, are rather sparse. However, when he does create those expansive two-page panels, there's a lot happening. His old-school style, almost reminiscent of Steamboat Willie in its simplicity, makes for an entertaining read given the content of this manga, which includes blackmail, betrayal, and some brutal deaths towards the end—by brutal, I mean emotionally intense rather than gory.

The characters are kept straightforward. Duke Red is your archetypal intelligent gangster-scientist (if such a long string of descriptors can be called "simple"), Mustashio is the detective (joined by none other than Sherlock Holmes himself), and Lawton, who seemed insane and somewhat sinister in the movie, comes across as far more kind and respectful than I anticipated. Unlike the movie, which features so many characters it's hard to keep track, there are significantly fewer here—the absence of Pero, who apparently had no role in the manga, was a big loss for me.

Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. It's not the greatest manga out there, but when you're overwhelmed by the overly complex storylines of modern manga and endless arcs repeating the same themes, it's refreshing to step away from today's fast-paced narratives and return to a simpler era. This certainly won't appeal to everyone, but if you're looking for a short work by Tezuka to dive into, Metropolis is a solid choice.

This is a pretty good in-between read. Doesn't take itself too seriously.

One thing to note: the author starts to run out of new plot around chapter 1,000 (he says so himself).