Cloverfield/KISHIN

From Wikizilla, the kaiju encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search
Cloverfield/KISHIN
Cloverfield/KISHIN
Written by David Baronoff, Matthew Pitts,
Nicole Phillips
Art by Yoshiki Togawa
Publisher Kadokawa
Publish date August 26, 2008
Dimensions 7.1 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches[1]
Genre Manga
ISBN ISBN-10: 4047150592
ISBN-13: 978-4047150591

Cloverfield/KISHIN (クローバーフィールド/KISHIN,   Kurōbāfīrudo Kishin) is a 2008 Japan-only manga published by Kadokawa based on the film Cloverfield. It follows the story of Kishin Aiba, a Japanese teenager who has a secret connection to the giant monster that attacks Tokyo.

Information

A manga tie-in for Cloverfield, Cloverfield/KISHIN was originally released as a four-part ("episodes") web comic from Kadokawa Shoten. The 200-page manga was illustrated and realized by Yoshiki Togawa and written by Matthew Pitts, Nicole Phillips, and David Baronoff, who also did story editing. Issued by Shinichiro Inoue, it was also produced by J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk.

Cloverfield/KISHIN received a physical release exclusively in Japan on August 26, 2008, published by Kadokawa Publishing Group.

Plot

Episode 1

In a high school bathroom in Japan, a group of bullies are found harassing student Kishin Aiba. Aiko Sasahara, a classmate of his, comes to support him and is challenged by the bullies. However, a disaster alarm goes off, which is soon stated to be a malfunction. As everyone returns to their classrooms, the bullies grab Kishin and lock him inside a storage room. They mock Kishin and his dead mother before leaving. Meanwhile, a giant monster surfaces, transported by a Tagruato ship.

Episode 2

The Tagruato ship is destroyed by the giant monster after breaking free from its chains. Back in the school, Aiko finds Kishin in the storage room. They briefly talk about his mother and her father, both deceased, and her mother, whom she said she wasn't close to. Kishin admits he believes himself to be useless, and goes on to tell his classmate that he's envious of her strength and how she was able to cope with her loss. Aiko responds angrily, telling him that he needs to stop beating himself up and man up. The alarm goes off again, this time not a drill, and they head to the gym. On the way, Kishin spaces out and remembers his father, who was often too busy to pay attention to him. Kishin is then grabbed by the bullies, but runs away from them out of the school, where he sees jets flying past.

Inside, students watch the footage of the giant monster's attack on a fishing boat. Aiko sees this and decides she needs to head home. Kishin sees her leave on a bicycle and leaves as well. They run into each other, and she decides to go with him. Along the way, Kishin mentions that his father works as a researcher for Tagruato, and adds that many famous individuals worked with the company for TV advertisements among other things. She brings up Yuki, a famous singer who did a commercial for Slusho, and Kishin tells her he has an autograph that he could give her. They enter into an evacuated area to go to his house to get the autograph. Aiko stays in the living room as Kishin enters his father's room—which his father had told him to never enter. After looking inside a bit, he hears Aiko's screams and goes out to the living room to find her being held by a masked man, who hits her to the ground after she screams for help. Kishin runs toward the intruder in an attempt to do something, but is knocked out by a second intruder. Aiko manages to escape the house and finds a military captain, telling him about the robbers. They tell her that he'll take care of it, and sends her off to a shelter. The captain proceeds to report that the evacuation is complete, and that they are proceeding to the next area.

Sometime later, Kishin regains consciousness in an unfamiliar area, surrounded by people in strange costumes.

Episode 3

The giant monster lands in Japan and begins destroying Tokyo.

Kishin learns about the "Repose of the Earth" cult, a group his mother had been a part of which waited for "God" to purify the planet from the human race. He is told that his mother's death wasn't accidental and that the "Remnant of God" is inside of him. Kishin is almost killed by the cult leader before being rescued by a masked man with a leather jacket. Back at the school, giant parasites appear and begin feeding on students. Aiko lets the three bullies into a room she's hiding in, but they quickly kick her out and leave her to die.

The masked man takes his helmet off, revealing himself to be Kishin's father. He tells his son that fifteen years ago, a pod-like object which the religious sect had referred to as a "Remnant of God" had been discovered by the company Tagruato deep in the ocean and transported to Japan. The pod sent electromagnetic waves to "some thing," which was now known to be the monster currently attacking Japan. The cult knew about the pod, and sent a spy to try to obtain it: Yuko, who would later become Kishin's mother. Mr. Aiba, never realizing it was a trap, married her and had Kishin with her. For the sake of his family, he devoted himself to his work in researching the pod, which contained a tremendous power that if used correctly—he believed—could have made the world a better place. Being Aiba's wife, Yuko was able to enter his secretive work area on occasion. One day, the pod disappeared. Believing it was her who stole it, Tagruato had her killed. Mr. Aiba protested the assertion that his wife had stolen the pod all the way, and even after her death, the pod wasn't found in her belongings. He left the company as a result. While looking through her stuff, though, he found out that there had been a pod growing inside Kishin's body for years—completely unknown to the company and the cult.

Kishin refused the implication that his mother had only been using him as a vessel. After finding out about the pod inside his son, Mr. Aiba said that he looked for ways of removing the pod without it killing him for the last ten years, but was unsuccessful. The pod was the reason that the monster had begun acting violently and came to Tokyo. For the sake of the world, he told his son, he needed to die. Mr. Aiba took off his jacket and revealed explosives, then triggered an explosion which destroyed the room. At the same time, Aiko killed the parasite that attempted to eat her and looked out of the ruined school, thinking about Kishin.

In the smoldering remains of the lab, Kishin is alive. Mentally picturing both of his parents telling him that he is unneeded, he screams, enraged and torn up. Afterward, he walks toward the hole in the wall, with the newly-arrived monster standing outside. He walks up onto its head, his anger resonating with it, and they begin moving.

Episode 4

Kishin and the monster make their way to the school, where the bullies are surrounded by parasites. Kishin comes down from the motionless monster and has the parasites attack the bullies, knocking out two of them. The last bully, Kishin decides to leave to be tortured by the parasites, and one charges toward him. Just in time, however, Aiko arrives and kills the parasite. Annoyed, Kishin tries to convince his classmate that the bullies deserve to die. Aiko dismisses it however, and tells Kishin that he has no right to decide the fate of others. She punches him to the ground, telling him that she knows he isn't that type of person, and then tells them they should all get out of there together. After Kishin saves Aiko from falling rubble, he realizes that he can no longer control the parasites, which begin chasing them as the giant monster resumes activity as well. They then pick up the unconscious bullies and run from the creatures, taking refuge in the nurse's office. There, the two previously-knocked-out bullies express distrust toward Kishin, who had moments ago been in control of the monsters. Taking this to heart, Kishin decides to run out to the parasites and act as a decoy to let the four students escape. Soon, he encounters the giant monster and lets himself be consumed by it to stop its rampage. The beast, standing still, removes the Pod from inside of Kishin, and processes his memories and feelings. After the monster is snapped out of it from getting its left eye damaged by a rocket, it turns around and disappears into the ocean, undergoing a grotesque transformation.

Kishin is found floating in the ocean, and is retrieved. He and his fellow students rejoice.

Appearances

Characters

  • Kishin Aiba (相葉 キシン,   Aiba Kishin)
  • Aiko Sasahara (笹原 アイコ,   Sasahara Aiko)
  • Kishin's mother, Yuko Aiba (相葉 ユウコ,   Aiba Yūko) (flashback)
  • Kishin's father
  • Bully group

Monsters

Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizations

Gallery

Trivia

  • The display inside the box for the Hasbro Cloverfield Monster figure contains a subtle reference to one of the Repose of the Earth cultists featured in this manga: a horned figure standing at one of the windows of the building on the left.[2]

External links

References

This is a list of references for Cloverfield/KISHIN. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

  1. クローバーフィールド KISHIN - Amazon.co.jp
  2. 9PrincesinAmber (13 July 2018). "Undiscovered(?) Cloverfield toy / Kishin Manga Easter Egg!". r/Cloververse.

Comments

Showing 5 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators.

Loading comments...
Era Icon - Paramount.png
Kadokawa
Era Icon - Cloverfield.png
Book
Era Icon - Clover.png