Fire! - Hideko Mizuno

Fire!

Aaron moves to Detroit’s gritty factories and underground scene, where he forms the band Fire! to channel his emotions, rebellion, and raw energy. As fame explodes, he plunges into the era’s excesses—sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, Vietnam-era shadows—embodying the intoxicating yet destructive pursuit of freedom.

Fire! immerses the reader in the turbulent late 1960s. A fascinating peek at the vibrant American rock music scene of the time. Aaron, inspired by Scott Walker, blazes across the pages, colliding with iconic personalities and legendary bands of the era. The collection also includes a short comic on Pink Floyd.

Created by Hideko Mizuno, a trailblazing shōjo pioneer mentored by Osamu Tezuka and a Tokiwa-sō resident, Fire! broke new ground: one of the first shōjo series with a male lead, featuring sex scenes that challenged post-WWII taboos and explored mature themes of desire, identity, and countercultural rebellion. Inspired by Scott Walker, Aaron is a flawed, hedonistic, and charismatic anti-hero.

Fire! in English is long overdue. Classic shōjo manga has been almost entirely absent from the English localization wave of the last two decades — a blind spot that has left anglophone readers without access to key works that shaped the medium. Mizuno is the acknowledged forerunner of the Year 24 Group. The artists — Moto Hagio, Keiko Takemiya, Riyoko Ikeda — are already familiar to all American Manga fans. Fire! is the missing ancestor: the work you need to understand later developments.