I said last week that this week will have a fire-fighting manga, so here it is. I’m not as enamoured of this manga as I am of others (I prefer fantasy anyway), but it’s a cut above a lot of other similar manga.

 

Megumi no Daigo (Masahito Soda)
20 Volumes

Megumi no Daigo is actually available through Viz, though I’m not sure how popular the series is since I’ve only seen a few volumes on the shelves. The English name is “Firefighter! Daigo of Fire Company M”, which gives a better idea of what it’s about than just “Megumi no Daigo”.

 

Plot
“Me-gumi” means company “Me” (the Japanese phoenetic, not the English word), and it’s a fire department in a part of the city where there seldom are fires. As a result, it’s sometimes made fun of by the other fire departments. The story begins with the hero Daigo, a constantly spaced-out and seemingly clumsy new recruit starting his first day at Me-gumi. Daigo is barely trained and given to fits of temper, but soon his bosses notice something about him – he may not seem competent, but he has an uncanny ability to find people in danger that much more experienced firefighters will miss. Is it a sixth-sense, or just uncommonly sharp observation skills? The story never answers that, but provide plenty of interesting scenarios to explore this.

 

Why I recommend this
It’s not just for the novelty of the content. Firefighting may not be a common topic for manga, but considering there are political manga, salary man manga and manga about policeman, why not firefighters? What elevates this manga above others in the same field is the quality of the characterization. While there are some weird characters, not everyone is as they seem, and as Daigo finds out more about them (and also about himself), the characters become rich and three-dimensional. I also commend the amount of research done about firefighting, and while some of the situations are a tad over-the-top, they are always compelling and interesting. You can learn a great deal about firefighting and escaping from fires from this story!

While the drama and action is all good and dandy, I must point out that the approach of the manga is something I am bothered by. This manga, like nearly all sports manga (which I mostly dislike), subscribes to the Japanese “sports philosophy” of taking whatever it is the characters are obsessed by very seriously and personally. This means that the characters don’t have much life outside firefighting; they have “rivals”, and sometimes perform superhuman feats of endurance to prove the point. This can spoil it for people looking for a realistic peek into the life of a firefighter; this manga takes a mild superhero approach. However, it is only a small complaint, and this series is recommended to anyone who likes exciting and original situations with good action and drama.