Adabana: Vol. 1 is the first volume of the seinen series from Grand Jump Magazine by NON of the same name. The book, published by Dark Horse, was translated by Caleb Cook.
徒花 (adabana) – a sterile or non-fruit bearing flower, something flashy but vacuous.
Adabana was published in Grand Jump Magazine in Japan, one of Shueisha’s many manga magazines, before its cancellation in 2021. With Volume 1, the seinen series sees its English language debut from accomplished translator Caleb Cook (Dr. Stone, My Hero Academia, Kuroko’s Basketball).
‘Seinen’ is a somewhat difficult genre to define for western audiences. While ostensibly the word ‘seinen’ translates to ‘young man,’ or more broadly ‘youth,’ the genre doesn’t reflect a typical American teen drama. Instead, it’s much darker, often depicting the cruelty or violence of modern life in stark contrast to the shonen or shojo genre, which are targeted towards young boys and girls and are more concerned with flowery romance (Fruits Basket) and heroic action (Naruto).
Adabana falls very much in the seinen tradition, challenging typical idyllic imagery of youth. The story follows Mizuki, a high school cram student with an overbearing, borderline abusive mother who pressures her to constantly study in order to make it into the best university possible. We’re thrust into Mizuki’s story when she confesses to murdering her best friend and dismembering the body. We come to better understand both the everyday pressures that some teens face in modern Japan (albeit turned up to eleven), along with the much darker mystery of a murder.
NON’s art is well-suited to Adabana. She balances a cute, shojo, and chibi-adjacent figure drawing style for smaller, less-impactful panels, while using stylized, realistic panels for grotesque scenes and splash pages. It’s impossible to forget that the people you’re reading about are teen girls, emphasizing the horrors of harassment, assault, and misogyny without sensationalizing them or losing itself in a goofy whodunnit mystery.
The often exaggerated violence and horror of seinen series are toned down for a more naturalistic, psychological tone. NON’s writing strays from the gore and focuses more on characters’ inferiority. The cast expands slowly to include Mizuki’s lawyers and a psychopathic stalker as the details of Mizuki’s case and her relationship with her murdered friend are developed. Despite not being a whodunnit, the psychological tone of the story makes Vol. 1 a gripping page turner.
Most of the first volume flows together seamlessly until the end, when the book wraps up abruptly before you realize it’s ending. It doesn’t end on a cliffhanger so much as an unintended blackout, but the body of the work is compelling enough to hope Dark Horse and Cook will publish the two remaining volumes.
Creative Team: NON (writer/artist)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
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