Story and Art by Yoshihisa Tagami
Originally published in Japan by Tokuma Shoten Publishing Company, 1985-1987.
English adaptation by Gerard Jones and Satoru Fujii.
English publication by Viz Comics, 1988-1989.
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SERVICE GUARANTEES CITIZENSHIP.
-propaganda slogan from the movie Starship Troopers (1997)
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Review by William D. Tucker.
Are you worried about the future, Dear Reader?
If you are not worried, if you’re the easygoing type-hey, good for you. Things probably just run down your back. Nothing gets you down. You may even think the worriers in this world are keeping you down, man! People just need more positive thinking! Stop feeling sorry for yourself! We just gotta get our act together and bootstrap ourselves into a better tomorrow! Change comes from the bottom up, you know! Elbow grease! Gumption! Optimism! It’s gonna be alright. What’s that thing Matthew McConaughey likes to say? J.K.E.- Just Keep Existing? Something like that?
If you are worried . . . then you are spoiled for choice when it comes to things to worry about in this world. White supremacist terrorism. Authoritarian governments. COVID-19. Nominally democratic governments engaging in all manner of secret surveillance of their populations. Religious fundamentalist terrorism. Gender-based oppression based on false binaries. Nominally democratic governments engaging in all manner of secret military actions with no congressional or other legislative oversight. Eroding civil liberties. Political conservatives whittling away at voting rights and ballot access- some are born to rule, and some are born to be ruled, doncha’ know?
I could go on with the reasons to worry. I guess I could be a worrier. I prefer to think of myself as a pessimist. I take it as a given that shit is perma-fucked. So, actually, I don’t spend much time worrying. I expect the worst, and the world lives down to my expectations more often than not. But sometimes I get worried.
Dystopian science fiction appeals to me, obviously, because it speaks to my pessimism. I don’t believe in the power of positive thinking or obsessive optimism or what have you. Actions matter. Thoughts have an influence on our actions, of course, so you could say that pessimism gives people an excuse to take no action. Perhaps it does. But, conversely, you could say that pessimism drives people to take action to prevent the worst possible outcomes, whereas optimism anesthetizes people to reality. In my experience, despite my personal lack of hope in the future, worthwhile actions grow out of both pessimistic and optimistic perspectives-it takes all kinds, in other words. But many feel pressure to put on a kind of performative positivity in order to ward off criticism about bad attitudes or accusations about lack of commitment.
The manga Grey appeals to me because it is a very cleverly done dystopian meritocracy where only the strongest survive and everyone else dies horribly. It is a system implemented by an intelligent computer system that uses robotic weapons systems to enforce a Forever War of All Against All, pitting human communities against one another for turf and points. The more you kill, the more points you get, and the closer you get to becoming a person of status within this ultraviolent system.
You start out as one of the People-poor, desperate, no rights, no luxuries, no climate control, no healthcare, scavenging for food, and forever suffering the contempt and the abuse of the Troopers-the militarized striver class that fights the absurd computer-mandated wars.
Troopers kill. The more they kill, the more points they rack up and the closer they get to becoming Citizens.
Citizens get to live in the City-a fabled metropolis where you’ll have every comfort and every kind of gadget and toy and pleasure available to you. No voting rights, of course. It’s not that kind of Citizenship. This is the Consumer’s Paradise where you get to glut yourself for the rest of your days, no longer concerned with the struggles of the People. You got yours. Fuck the rest.
Our hero in this nightmare world is Death. Grey Death. Uh, that’s, like, the dude’s actual name. First name Grey. Last name Death. And when we first meet Grey, he’s living in a bare room with the love of his life, a woman named Lips. Uh, that’s, like, her actual name. Lips is tired of scavenging for scraps and being brutalized by Troopers who love to bully the People, so she decides to sign up for the Big Win and become a Trooper herself. When Lips is killed-as most Troopers are-her superior officer brings her helmet to Grey as a memento. Grey dons the helmet-printed with the word Lips and a cartoon image of kissy lips and adorned with a couple of bullet holes-and decides that it’s time to kick maximum ass all over the eternal battlefield that is now Planet Earth.
Grey, as it turns out, is the Ultimate Trooper. He kills. He is grievously wounded. He is often the lone survivor of military operations. He heals. He kills again.
Grey’s killing prowess comes not from hatred, but from cool. Grey’s superpower is his preternatural ability to keep his head under fire. He gets frustrated now and again. But he’s not a scoretaker, he’s not a grudge-keeper. Grey allies himself with whoever will get him closer to the fabled City. Today’s enemies are tomorrow’s comrades.
As Grey’s war grinds on, he takes on allies, who often die. He upgrades his weaponry and his body like he sees his own body as an endlessly malleable video game avatar. Whatever parts need replacing, replace ‘em. New varieties of mecha vehicles and exotic beam weaponry coming down the pipe? Time to re-skill. Whatever he needs to do to dominate, Grey does it-to himself, to others, it’s all one to the Ultimate Trooper.
Grey is the most magnificent product of a mad system that seeks to eliminate all human qualities save murderous competence.
And, despite his coolness, a calm fire burns inside Grey. You see, he has to get to the City, because the City must be destroyed. Grey’s just the one to wreck all the shit, is all. If the system didn’t want someone like Grey to exist, then it should’ve figured out a different operational basis. G.I.G.O.-Garbage In Garbage Out, doncha’ know.
This is a tale told in black and white, stripped-down line work-as per usual in old school manga. The action is fast, cinematic, it all happens-as Scott McCloud would have it-in the gutters between panels. Or, in movie terms, in the cut. We Readers are just not quite fast enough to keep up, and so we see the moment before-enemies closing in on each other-and the moment after-the kill, the explosion, the shockwave of a Krag Shot or other exotic energy manipulation weapon unleashed.
Grey seems to detach from himself, and ironically regard himself as the hero of a fictional story. He almost seems to have become aware of his status as a 1980s manga badass. He doesn’t quite go full Animal Man. It’s more like a weird by-product of the system of dehumanization implemented by the computer overlords. If you give people a whacked-out video game nightmare reality, then most will be destroyed by it, and you get to maintain control. But if someone gets it-if they manage to grok the overall game-then that’s your digital ass.
Or could it be that such a system is the output of a deeply dysfunctional computer mind?
Could it be that Grey Death is the manifestation of the system’s inherent self-loathing and desire to self-terminate?
If that’s the case, it’s a helluva way to go . . .
