Yusaku Kitano

Deceptively simple fable-like animal tale takes some mind-bending turns and leaves you wanting more.

Kame-kun aka Mr. Turtle is a cyborg anthropomorphic turtle who can only talk in grunts but has human-like hands and feet which allow him to type on a keyboard (and thus have a communication interface) and to walk upright. He spends a lot of time in the library and also eventually gets a job as a forklift operator. The job however seems to also entail battling some sort of monstrous crawfish that emerge from containers shipped via wormhole from Jupiter!

Yusaku Kitano makes the transition from a simple earthly life to a mind-bending interplanetary war in a very gradual way. Even in the end it wasn't at all clear to me what was a memory of the past, what was the present and what was a vision of the future but the Kame-kun character is more memorable and endearing than dozens of standard stereotypical heroes and protagonists whether fantasy, sci-fi or any fiction. As said by the translator Tyran Grillo in his excellent introduction: "This turtle has your back."

Stray Observation:
Yusaku Kitano isn't done with his turtleverse and has already issued a related book カメリ (Kamélie aka Ms. Turtle). Hopefully a translation will be made available.… (mais)