The first appearance of the gigantic, reclusive and yet endearing Korokke was in 2019, when he became known with the album Korokke and the girl who said no, with a script by Josep Busquet and drawings by Jonatan Cantero. It was published supported by a micro-patronage campaign –what is persistently called crowdfunding– and over time, the good reviews and the interest of the readers, the book has become part of the ECC Ediciones catalog after the agreement with the Spaceman Project platform to disseminate locally created comics.
Now, the second volume of this entertaining series, Korokke and the spirit under the mountain, has just received one of the Bronze awards of the XVI Japan International Manga Award and gives us the opportunity to talk about this work by Busquet and Cantero.
Korokke’s adventures are set in feudal Japan and his stories have a magical and fantastic component that makes them an ideal work for young readers as well. There are many references to Japanese mythology and manga aesthetics (Miyazaki, Toriyama, Mizuki) that enrich the reading experience but do not prevent those who do not master these references from enjoying them. Korokke is a being that in Japanese folklore is known as an oni and that would be something like a demon or an ogre, in Western culture.
In Korokke and the Girl Who Said No, a young woman from a famous samurai dynasty seeks to escape her destiny with the help of that imposing oni, a warrior with an ambivalent personality whose name –funny detail– refers to a typical kind of croquette of Japanese cuisine. After that first story Busquet and Cantero have continued telling new adventures of the character in this Korokke and the spirit under the mountain.
On his second journey, the colossal warrior is accompanied by little Fugo, another fantastic creature from Japanese folklore, in this case a kitsune, a fox-shaped spirit that protects forests and villages. Korokke and Fugu will help a young monk named Negi to defend an ancient temple that hides a mysterious secret. This second episode is based on a simpler approach than the first, but in return multiplies the action and battle scenes.
Consistent with the scriptwriter’s proposal, Jonatan Cantero’s drawing combines different comic references ranging from manga to Franco-Belgian comic books (authors such as Blain or Sfar from La Mazmorra come to mind). In any case, an agile and increasingly solid drawing that the author himself enhances with a successful use of watercolor in the colors.
