Noe’s Comics Nook: Cagaster Volume 1

Review

When I came across the premise for Kachou Hashimoto’s Cagaster I couldn’t be of two minds. On the one hand, a plague-ridden, dystopian world with outlandish characters is right up my reading interests and could present a chance to discuss plagues with students at the perfect moment. On the other hand, that “perfect moment” has colored everything in 2020 with a shade of grief and despair. Ultimately, it is because of that shade of grief that insisted writing about the book. If I’m feeling it, students are feeling it, and we should talk about it.

We enter the story 30 years after the emergence of a plague called Cagaster, which turns humans into huge, human-eating insects. While only one-in-a-thousand people are infected, the casualties rapidly decimate two-thirds of the human population. In the time since, a profession known as exterminators – those who hunt and eliminate these bugs – comes to exist and so we meet Kidow. In chapter one Kidow, while on a different job, finds and rescues Ilie, promising to reunite her with her missing mother and leading us to the rest of this first of six volumes.

Each chapter of volume 1 introduces us to more of the world of Cagaster, with a wide range of colorful characters and subplots – including a great deal of foreshadowing of what’s to come (pay close attention to the history that Nagy shares). This is decidedly a title for teens, as there are some moments of intense violence, including violent deaths. The very nature of the plague means some serious body horror of the Junji Ito variety (though not as detailed in its execution) and could make an interesting pairing for one of his books to discuss the horror genre in manga.

Readers who enjoy this first volume should consider watching the Netflix anime adaptation, which as of this writing has one season consisting of 12 episodes. While showing Netflix exclusive content in the classroom is difficult, another possible avenue for student work would be to compare and contrast the storytelling of the anime with that of the source manga. For now, I’m looking forward to picking up volume 2 so I can find out what is going on with THAT mysterious character!

Elements of Story

• Plot: 30 years into a devastating plague called Cagaster that transforms humans into monstrous, cannibalistic insects, young exterminator and mercenary Kidow rescues Ilie and vows to her dying father to find her mother. This first volume introduces us to trade city E-05, the cast of characters living there, and the harsh realities of a cagaster-infected world.
• Characters: Kidow, Jin, Ilie’s Father, Ilie, Tania, Tank Core Members, Nagy, Ms. Mario, Unnamed Exterminators, Unnamed Serial Killer, Field Mouse Brigade, Lygi, Hadi, Qasim Various Minor Characters (named/unnamed)
• Major Settings: E-05 outskirts, E-05, Garden Mario, West Gate, Market District, Ilie’s countryside homeland, E-03
• Themes: Plague, dystopia, morality, grief, friendship

Lesson Plan Idea Using Common Core Standards (CCS)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3 – Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

Directions: Volume 1 of Cagaster focuses most of its pages on developing the dystopian world and its many characters’ lives in a world devastated by disease. While obviously a fantastical and dramatically different world than the one we find ourselves in with COVID-19, both worlds make decisions about what counts as “essential” to the continued functioning of society.

Pick three characters or settings from the manga and describe them in 2 or 3 sentences. Then, discuss in a full paragraph the relationship between that character or setting and the plague-ridden world they exist in, in terms of essentiality. For example, in our daily life during COVID-19, one setting deemed essential is the grocery store. Using that setting, you would describe what the store’s purpose is, how it looks, how common it is, who uses it, and so on. From there, you would discuss what about the setting makes it “essential” to continue operating during a pandemic and how the relationship between people and setting changes during this extraordinary circumstance.