Susano Oh

Susano Oh (Japanese: 凄ノ王, Hepburn: Susano Ō) is a Japanese manga created by Go Nagai. It is loosely based on the Shinto deity Susanoo.

This article is about the manga of Go Nagai. For the Shinto god, see Susanoo.
Susano Oh
Cover of Susano Oh #2 (2000 edition), showing the Susano Oh romanization
凄ノ王
(Susano Ō)
Manga
Written byGo Nagai
Published byKodansha
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Magazine
DemographicShōnen
Original runJuly 22, 1979 – April 8, 1981
Volumes9
Manga
Susano Oh Densetsu Hi Kami Ko
Written byGo Nagai
Published byKadokawa Shoten
MagazineVariety
Original runJune 1985 – March 1986
Volumes7
Manga
Shin Susano Oh
Written byGo Nagai
Published byNihonbungeisha
MagazineComic Hammer
DemographicSeinen
PublishedJuly 14, 1987
Volumes12
Manga
Susano Oh Densetsu Yami no Majin Hen
Written byGo Nagai
Published byKadokawa Shoten
MagazineYasei Jidai
Original runApril 1989 – April 1990
Volumes7
Manga
Susano Oh Densetsu Gaiden
Written byGo Nagai
Published byKadokawa Shoten
MagazineComic Comp
DemographicSeinen
Original runMay 1989 – June 1989
Volumes7

With this manga, Nagai won the Kodansha Manga Award in the Shōnen category. The original serialization of Kodansha was suspended in 1981, but the success of the novels written by Yasutaka Nagai, prompted Kadokawa Shoten to request Go to resume his work on Susano Oh. With this, the manga would be published for a period of ten years, from 1979 to 1989. Even so, the manga was left with an open ending for a possible next part.

An RPG video game adaption titled Susano Oh Densetsu was released in Japan by Hudson on April 27, 1989 on the PC Engine. A board game based on the series called Dreadful Susano Oh King Go Nagai was released by a company called Epoch.

Plot

Highschool freshman Shingo Susa follows his childhood friend and crush Sayuri Yukishiro to their school's ESP club, whose members attempt to research psychic powers. However, they later discover there are two real psychics in the school: Chigusa Mitsurugi, the beautiful president of the club, and Rei Uryu, a resident prodigy who opposes Chigusa and offers to enhance the psychic potential of anybody who follows him. Uryu tries to recruit Susa, whom he knows to have an immense power latent, in order to help him fight for justice, but Susa declines out of loyalty for Chigusa.

Eventually Shingo and Sayuri become a couple, but a savage gang of delinquents attack them and rape her. The trauma blows up Shingo's bottled psychic potential and creates a violent, powerful alternate personality bent on getting revenge. Now as a changed person, and having lost track of Sayuri, Shingo fights through yakuza, thugs and his school's corrupt club alliance until discovering that the attack was ordered by a sinister organization named Nosferatu. The latter plans for world domination and has its own team of psychics, led by a mysterious woman named Carmilla, who has influence over the club federation. Shingo leads a school revolution against them, helped by Chigusa, boxing club leader Goda, kendo genius Tatsuya Mido and other students, and eventually overthrows their regime.

It is then revealed that Carmilla is actually a disguised Uryu and that Sayuri worked for him all along. Uryu staged the entire plot in order to liberate Shingo's powers and use him, as an incarnation of the legendary Susanoo, to destroy human civilization, so he could rebuild the world with only psychic humans. However, his plan is too successful, as Shingo loses control of his powers: a part of his soul leaves his body, hijacks a coming star, and becomes a prophesied apocalyptic monster, the Yamata no Orochi. His influence causes demons from other dimensions to start sliding into the world, possessing humans and provoking disasters, while Shingo's body lies apparently dead.

Chigusa reveals herself as the heir of an ancient clan of descendants of Atlantis, as well as the incarnation of ancient goddess Marici, and commands an Atlantean space force formed by clones of her in an attempt to destroy Yamata no Orochi. Shingo's family is also revealed to know the prophecy regarding him, and they join the Atlanteans in their fight. At the same time, Sayuri (who really fell in love with Shingo despite her duplicity) convinces Uryu to try to redeem Shingo by playing the roles of Ame no Uzume and Ame no Tajikarao, respectively. The story of the manga ends in midst of the climax.

In an additional epilogue in the manga's 1996 revised re-edition, Chigusa manages to neutralize the Yamata no Orochi in a secret Atlantean outpost in the Face of Mars. In an Earth ravaged and in a postapocalyptic state, Uryu and Sayuri come out of their refuge and look for Shingo, while Goda has overcome the possession of a demon and is now hunting other monsters. Shingo then comes alive again under the form of Susanoo, apparently now in full control of his powers, and walks past Goda before stopping in front of Uryu and Sayuri. The outcome of their encounter is not revealed.

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