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And now for something completely different…
This week I had two days off from work, so I took my kids to the public library. My kids love checking out books, and it’s cool to take them because all the best stuff is in the children’s and young adults sections anyway. Looking at the comic books I found a pretty cool author that is popular with the military junkies in Japan and Spain. And this is the perfect place for military junkies, isn’t it?
I’m talking about Japanese manga (comic book) author (artist and writer) Motofumi Kobayashi. This guy has made some sci-fi and stuff but he´s a specialist in military historical comics. Most of his work deals with WWII German themes. He also has several works on VietNam. He’s famous for the historical accuracy of his artwork. He tells his WWII stories from a German perspective, and that’s not usual in US comics (Enemy Ace is an exception). He’s got 15 WWII German stories translated into English including biographies of Rommel and Michael Wittman. He’s also got at least 1 comedy, a story on a Japanese SS unit! I read his Kampfgruppe Zbu, a 170 page graphic novel (a good thing is that he has series or novels that have reasonable lengths). It’s an early work from the start of he’s career. Not he’s best, but very interesting, specially for people not used to historical war comics. It was originally published as a series in a modeling magazine. As Japan is military scale model heaven it’s no wonder the art work is superb in relation to weapons, vehicles, aircraft and specially tanks and vehicles. You see spectacularly good T-34/85, T34/76, Stalin Tanks, Tigers and other vehicles. The art is very different from Kobayashi’s current art. The characters and story are not that good, and the lack of storytelling shows. Still it’s a good yarn and a fast read. It’s heavily influenced by the German novels of the “08/15” trilogy. I haven’t read it but it’s part of the German pessimistic war story genre, similar to Sven Hassel or Cross of Iron. But it’s not too original: the high command sacrifices the men, etc. Anyway it’s about a punishment battalion sent on near suicide missions in the Eastern Front. The ending is unsurprisingly pretty tragic. The story takes some historical liberties, the Kampfgruppe is actually a Panzer unit. Punishment battalions never were. And it’s too much of an elite unit. Zbu means special missions. Kampfgruppe of course means battle group (a combined arms unit), this one has 2 tank companies and 1 panzergrenadier (half track infantry). It’s got some pretty interesting, if not 100% realistic, concepts. The Kampfgruppe helps the Brandenburg division in a mission disguised as soviets on captured tanks. This could be done on theory, in practice it was much harder as Skorzeny found out in the Ardenes. Fun read, spectacular art.

(Don't know why this topic was repeated. I´ll try to fix it)
His other work I read is the 2 volume of the “Cat Sh*t One” trilogy, AKA Apocalypse Meow, an impressive Vietnam saga. Here the writing and historical accuracy are top notch. And the art is even better. The thing is that the art features the usual cartoon “furry animals” that talk. But the series is very adult. It has more humor than the pessimistic and uber tragic Kampfgruppe (but you can’t expect an Eastern Front story told by a Japanese to be funny).
Where Kampfgruppe’s characters were really archetypical and too basic, Cat Sh*t has great character development. The story has tragic moments, but also more light ones, so it’s more balanced.
The story is about a 3 man recon team during the Vietnam War. The team is Cat Sh*t One, a pun on Dog Sh*t One. I understand that is West Point slang for 1st year cadets, but I could be wrong. I does sound awfully like something out of Vargas Yosa. The team works for Charlie Beckwith and his Delta Proyect.
The thing is that the protagonists are drawn as rabbits. As in the Usagi Yojimbo Manga. Insidentally, Usagi (Rabbit in Japanese) sounds like USA GI, so that’s why the Americans are rabbits. The Vietnamese are cats, the Chinese Pandas, the Soviets Bears, French Pigs, etc. Similar to Spiegelman´s Maus. The art is superb and the historical detail excellent: uniforms (sans pants), weapons, aircraft, architecture (with cat Budda statues), jungle vegetation, armor, aircraft, etc. The Hueys, Broncos, M113, Pt-76 etc are all great.
Each chapter of the story is an individual mission. The war themes are very well developed: cowardice in combat, collateral damage, the peace movement, racial and social tensions. It’s a very adult series. And I mean adult in a positive way, today adult comics usually mean pornography.
I read the 2nd volume. Soon I’ll read the third and I will look for the first one. The volume has 4 missions and several extras. One mission features clandestine work with the JSDF (Japanese Self Defence Force), it’s a fictional account of the unproven rumors of active Japanese participation in the war. This one surprisingly has a lot of slapstick humor with a character that may or might not be the author’s alter ego. The Japanese are portrayed as monkeys.

The second mission is a reprisal. The target a French plantation owner that helps the Viet Cong and exterminated one of Beckwith’s recon teams. The third chapter is about war orphans and collateral damage. In the last mission, one of the protagonists goes back to the Bronx in a R&R trip only to face the scorn and incomprehension of family and friends. It’s very critical of the Peace Movement.
The extras include a short humorous strip on the authors life and another comical (but very informative and well researched) short piece on LRRP school. Another piece is on the Australian SAS in Vietnam (this one with very realistic artwork, no animals).
Excellent artwork, solid plot, great characters, good balance of tragic and human touches with lots of action. Highly detailed recon missions, historical accuracy. And 2 fuel air explosive bombs. Highly recommended.

Cat Sh*t had a spin off: Cat Sh*t 80s. After Beckwith loses his job after Eagle Claw, the team is separated. The leader goes on exchange with the British SAS in time for the Embassy siege and the Falklands. Another one fights in Afganistan during the Soviet invasion and the third one puts up a front company to help the CIA.
Now there is an animated series. The characters are now private military contractors in the middle east during the 90s. These rabbits age well and keep in shape! The first chapter can be seen for free in the Web. Here’s the link:
http://www.gogoanime.com/cat-****-one-episode-1
This is actually legal, you can see the first chapter free. It’s got American subtitles. There’s a dubbed version that can’t be seen from Chile.
Link:
http://www.youtube.com/IDAentertainment
I can only see the Gomera video. After that trailer you can see the Cat Sh*t trailer and a making off. It was made with motion capture, so you can see the actors get military close quarter battle training.
It’s about 22 minutes long (in the first link it’s on 2 parts, scroll down for part 2). The story is a rescue mission. It’s short so it´s a basic story but the characters relationship shines through. Lots of action and it’s very cool. If you like terrorists getting blown up, you’ll love this. The characters are American, but they are very Japanese in their outlook. The leader “humbly thanks” the air support pilot!
If you like this kind of comics, you´ll love this. If you are a military junkie, like me, you´ll love it even if you don’t have experience with comics. Don’t let the cute rabbits scare you off from this treat.