With Sidooh, Panini manga offers a new historical series by the author of NeuN. Two orphans try to survive as Japan suffers a political crisis and the arrival of an epidemic. Take your sword to accompany them on their dark journey. In the Japanese countryside of the nineteenth century, a single mother is swept away by the cholera epidemic that ravages the archipelago. His two boys – Shotaro, 14, and Gentaro, 10 – are left to fend for themselves with the only legacy: the sword of their samurai father and the last words of their mother: they must do everything to become strong because only the strong survive. 
The dark period of Sidooh
Before NeuN's Nazi Germany, Tsutomu Takahashi chose an older historical setting for Sidooh. The mid-nineteenth century was a pivotal period for Japan. The book opens with the earthquake in the capital of Edo in 1855 causing fires throughout the city. Political power was then weakened internally but also externally because Europeans pressured to have the free right to trade on the island but also to colonize. It is refreshing to see the European conquest of Asia through the eyes of threatened peoples. Rest assured, the reader who knows nothing about the history of Japan will not be lost. For example, a few historical pages make it possible to understand that cholera was brought by foreigners and feeds xenophobia. The countryside is then crisscrossed by isolated brigands, while the cities are full of brothels, but everywhere the swords come out at the slightest altercation. Honour, on the other hand, has disappeared to make way for survival. Times are dark in Sidooh and Tsutomu Takahashi's drawing is to match. Many scenes take place at night and even in broad daylight black is very present. The characters have faces grimacing in anger or taken aback. Takahashi also knows how to propose beautiful architectures hiding dark designs.
Two brothers in this turmoil
However, Sidooh is not content to stick to historical reality but it is above all a story of formation or rather of distortion … Two boys come to the temple hoping to save their dying mother. This is their last resort after the doctor's refusal. It is too late and the monk knows it. He lets himself be softened and goes to see her. The epidemic was so contagious that the monk died soon after. These pages are touching in the context of covid. The reader quickly understands that Shotaro and Gentaro no longer have any support and will have to forget all their education. They cannot count on anyone but themselves but remain very united in one goal. They decide to go looking for a master to become like their father, a samurai. The youngest is torn by hunger and mourning, but the elder Shotaro knows how to reassure and motivate him. In the second volume, it is he who will receive the first fencing lessons. 
These children will be confronted very young with a violent world and the cartoonist does not hesitate to show it: a is tied. Reading is therefore not recommended for the youngest. The dialogues are kept to a minimum because men are bullies and women objects of pleasure. Young people are initially naïve and want to help a woman in distress. Shotaro knows how to seize the opportunities that arise by joining Kiyozo Asakura's gang. However, neither child understands the Machiavellianism that surrounds them. No one acts pure kindness but every adult serves his interests. Indeed, while the two boys hope to survive, for others the world will collapse anyway and we just have to enjoy it in the meantime. Religion has become a powerful tool where violence reigns during twisted initiating trials. Love becomes a market of bodies. The reader becomes attached to this innocence and feels even more painfully what is happening to them. Especially since Tsutomu Takahashi knows how to alternate between action scenes and discussion between the two children. This is particularly the case in the second volume centered on the preparation and fight of the inexperienced Shotaro against a young faithful of a cult. Sidooh is a lesson in social Darwinism in the midst of a Japan in ashes. Shotaro and Gentaro have lost everything except their innocence but the confrontation with the soulless world of adults will take away this last part of childhood. Instead, the two children will have to survive and will learn to use all means for it. After two volumes so strong, the reader wonders with anguish what tests Tsutomu Takahashi will invent for these children? If you like combat worlds, we recommend our review of Ayanashi or the historical story of The Legend of the Eagle Hunter Hero.
