Yukie Sakai is an energetic young woman who works for Green Net, a top private elder care service company. She’s one of the best home aides at the company, consistently ranking number 1 despite being one of the youngest. That factoid pisses off an older aide, who ends up asking the President of the company — whom by the way, she’s dating — to sabotage Yukie’s scores. After such sabotage occurs, the President then says Yukie can redeem herself by caring for a client that has had numerous freak accidents occur in their home.
What type of freak accidents? For Yukie, that’s hurting her hand after “somehow” dropping a tea cup, tripping on a bunch of bottles, and falling down the stairs mysteriously. But none of that deters her, because she wants to get a high score! And after the old lady she’s been trying to take care of ends up attacking her due to shenanigans, she ends up using the old lady’s condition to her advantage (she suddenly needs medicine and Yukie will give her it if she rates her highly). She gets a high score, the older aide gets mad, and that’s the end of that weirdness.
That’s only the start of Shintaro Kago’s extraordinary weird and trippy manga involving old people.
Dementia 21 has been released individually — volume 1 being released two years ago, volume 2 back in February this year. Fantagraphics, however, chose to put those together as a box set in May. If you do want to own this series, this is actually the way to go because the slipcase is gorgeous.
Between the feel of the box and Kago’s surreal designs of its main character, it’s gorgeous. The books themselves are nice, but the box set version is a worthy purchase while they’re still available. However, it seems it might be better to order it directly from Fantagraphics; according to reviews on Amazon, it doesn’t come with the slipcase. With it being priced at $60, that’s poor value without it. Not sure if this is a Fantagraphics issue or an Amazon issue, but it’s an issue, and should be rectified.
Kago ends up making Dementia 21 simple story-wise until the end. I only mean simple in that we don’t actually focus on any of the other aides at Green Net. We get the petty older aide in chapter 1, and from there, we can assume the President is sending Yukie to care for elders. Or what would be best to assume is Kago giving different elders with various needs to Yukie, and she needs to take care for them.
So what types of elders does Yukie take care of? Well, one has her in a house where the number of elders to care for went from three to enough to stuff a living room. She has to take care of an elder that can drive, he just…he just has to drive on the right road (which has roads for old folks, moving trucks, and drunk drivers. Yes, drunk drivers. You can start imagining the other types of roads from there). There’s also a chapter where Yukie helps an old man prepare for Comiket, and finds herself “immersed” in the experience.
So yes, there’s much variety in who she has to care for.
The main thing that takes place in every chapter of this manga is a complete out-of-body (actually, there is a chapter where this seriously happens) experience for not just Yukie, but for everybody. We get to see Yukie attempt to care for a old woman who makes someone disappear if she forgets them — family members, TV newscasters, the Prime Minister. We also see Yukie guide a elderly person on a wheelchair through a battlefield where elderly people battle each other to live in a free, high class nursing home. Yes, this manga is kinda insane. Might be a good time to mention this isn’t the first time the elderly have insane battles in this manga.
It’s not simply just things happening at random — it’s clear commentary at certain segments of bureaucracies, technology, and societal structures, while showing characters getting turned inside out. For example, there’s a chapter in this manga involving the police actually being told to ignore seemingly good people calling them to arrest elderly shoplifters (this manages to end with an elderly uprising). Some chapters will likely resonate strongly with one section of readers than others, but even if it’s not your jam, the humorous elements of each story make most of the chapters a thrill. The art is not only surreal, but just wild to look at. You might have to get used to seeing extremely detailed wrinkles in a chapter…ok, maybe more than one chapter.
The structure of Dementia 21 could be its only real flaw, aside from just not enjoying a chapter. Each one is 16 pages, and end inconclusively for most of them. As in, you’ll have to treat this as elderly-of-the-week stories, as there’s no real timeline in this manga. That is, until you get to the last three chapters of volume 2, where Yukie gets an arc involving everyone she’s dealt with, and yes, the ending is absurd. Simply put, assume some stuff’s connected, and that’ll be all.
If the story structure and social commentary doesn’t wear on you, Dementia 21 is a treat. Not all of the chapters resonated with me, but when they did, it’s unforgettable. Like, there’s a chapter where they have aides across Japan take part in a elder boot camp; somehow, it ends in world peace. The energy in this manga is great, where something weird takes place and you have to keep reading to find out what’s next. Simply put, if you’re up to trying something that’s fairly wild, and features Yukie attempting to take care of gigantic old superheroes and villains, you owe it to yourself to give this series a read.