The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

Tista

What's It About? 

Tista leads a dual life as an assassin and a university student. What price will she pay to save the people she loves?

Tista has story and art by Tatsuya Endō, with English translation by Misa 'Japanese Ammo' with lettering and touch-up by Chi Wang. Viz has released its first volume both digitally and physically for $6.99 and $9.99 on April 4.

Is It Worth Reading?

Christopher Farris

Rating:

It can be fun to see how famous creators started out. On its own, Tista wouldn't be seen as all that special, but being the first serialized manga from SPY x FAMILY creator Tatsuya Endō, there's an inherent interest in seeing what his work was like 16 years ago. Unfortunately, on its own merits, the most generous takeaway from Tista is that Endō. definitely had room for improvement at the time. Some seeds of the storytelling style that would inform SPY x FAMILY are already here, with both stories focusing on characters in clandestine organizations. The titular Tista engages in subterfuge intercut with sitcom-like antics with an artist imaginatively named Arty Drawer. But thin as it is, that opening setup is still about as interesting as Tista gets.

After the first chapter, the story mostly meanders on the same ideas for the remaining chapters. Tista is withdrawn. Arty is looking for her. Police are investigating. Everyone's frustrated and emotionally constipated. Sure, Tista and Arty's interactions in the opening chapter were shallow, but now we're pointedly not watching them interact, with no chance of development, as things simply circle. The last chapter of the volume tries to sidestep to a different plot thread, as if Endō. realized he couldn't figure out a way to get things moving otherwise. But it still ultimately results in more go-nowhere misery. Given that there are apparently only two total volumes of this thing, I have to presume things finally get going in that second volume, but I'm not sticking around to find out.

The story is a frustratingly disappointment, but checking this out just to see how Endō.'s art has evolved might make it more worthwhile. He plays with extremely exaggerated, cartoonish characters sketched across impressively detailed New York backgrounds, with the sketchiness getting turned up further at particular points in the story. The action at the end of the first chapter is so visceral that it really didn't even need the repetitious dialogue to propel it. Obviously, the idea that Endō. simply wasn't at his most confident at this stage in his career is a given, and you can see that in the ways he indulges wild, previously unseen artistic indulgences later on. He was new at this, he was still trying stuff out, and at least it distracts from the circular sadness of the story. If you're enough of a fan of Endō. that the historical value sounds interesting to you, it might be worth a look. For everyone else, just stick with SPY x FAMILY.

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Before SPY x FAMILY, there was Tista. Tatsuya Endō's first serialized work shares some themes with his latest: heroine Tista Lone is an orphan who became an assassin after the Catholic Church experimented on her and transplanted her adoptive father's eye into her head. You might notice that really only the "Catholic Church sponsored assassinations" is missing from Yor and Anya's combined pasts. Tista operates under the code name “Sister Militia” and all of her guns and ammo are inscribed with Latin phrases with very clear religious links, so it's something of a mystery as to why the NYPD hasn't yet figured out that she's somehow involved with the church, but when the story opens, lead detective Macky remains baffled and the FBI is about to enter the hunt.

This likely sounds more absurd than the story actually is. Taking place in modern day New York City, the two-volume series follows Tista as she begins to have a dual crisis of faith/mental breakdown, both of which are 100% understandable in her situation. Taken in by the church when she was orphaned (something, a flashback implies, that she wasn't too heartbroken by), Tista was given to an adoptive father who was the previous incarnation of Sister Militia, although we don't know his code name. When he died, one of his eyes was given to her in a transplant, granting her his ability to see everything as if through a rifle's scope. As this volume goes on, we learn that it also seems to have given her a version of Dissociative Identity Disorder, making “Sister Militia” and “Tista” two largely separate people.

Tista is a difficult story, replete with a content warning for the explicit death of a child and themes of what we owe those who "save" us. It's only two volumes long, so it's not a huge commitment, but honestly, just because you enjoy the Forger family's escapades does not mean you'll like this—in fact, it may be the opposite.

Jean-Karlo Lemus

Rating:

Tista is a very stylized action drama. The heroine, our titular Tista, struggles much with trying to have some semblance of normal life in light of her moonlighting as the assassin Sister Militia. While a woman with her background never had a chance of normalcy, it's heartbreaking to see her soul shatter as she continuously takes on missions for her mysterious religious benefactors. Meanwhile, Arty Drawer (possibly one of the greatest attempts at an American name ever) gives us plenty of drama from the other end: even after getting mixed up with Tista's bloodshed, all he can do is try to appeal to her better nature. It's a good “star-crossed lovers” angle, and it's the cornerstone of the whole story. Can Tista ever have a normal life? Does she deserve one? Will the cops get to her first? Or will rival gangs get their revenge on her?

Tatsuya Endō's art style has a stylized, caricature look to it, with the people around Tista and Arty having their own bizarre silhouettes and facial structures. It's definitely appealing, especially when Endō. takes advantage of Tista's weakening grasp on reality to summon the specters of her guilt and self-loathing. Endō. also takes great care in the depiction of New York City, fantastical as it may be. This is definitely near the top of my list as far as this season's best manga are concerned. This is a strong recommendation from me.

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

The best way I can describe Tista is an adrenaline rush. From beginning to end, this volume does not stop with its high octane and chaotic momentum, almost as if it's trying to get us into the mindset of our main character. Our titular character Tista is someone who feels like she can't live a normal life and while most series would drag that premise out, this one actually attempts to get into the psyche of our lead, showing how her lifestyle really messes her up psychologically. I was actually surprised that this series didn't take a lot of typical storytelling routes given its premise. There's one character in particular who I thought would be killed or discarded almost immediately but so far, every character that gets introduced has some kind of purpose or perspective on the events that take place.

It feels like everything is constantly building towards something but the more the buildup, the more there is to juggle. Probably my biggest complaint about the book is that it continuously front-loads the reader with information and reveals to the point where I thought that the book was trying to wrap up a story all within a single volume. While I do think a lot of this was intentional in order to reflect the state of mind of our main character, I do think the story would've benefited from slower moments that gradually introduced some of its ideas, particularly when it came to the psychological elements as I do think that is the book's strongest feature. Despite that though, this volume definitely got me hooked on a premise that I was genuinely willing to dismiss after the first couple of pages so I will be checking out volume two in the future to see what awaits the fate of all of these characters who are trying to make do with the unfortunate circumstances of the world they live in.