Line #10 Manga/EagleTheMakingOfAnAsianAmericanPresident


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_eagle.jpg]]
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3	->"It's ''Literature/PrimaryColors'' in a really bad mood."
4	-->--Creator/WarrenEllis
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6	As mild-mannered Japanese newspaper reporter Takashi Jo is mourning his mother's untimely death, he receives an even more shocking announcement: his employer is transferring him to America to report on the presidential campaign of Japanese-American senator Kenneth Yamaoka. The one who requested the transfer? Yamaoka himself.
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8	So begins Takashi's journey into both the complicated and often dangerous world of American politics, and into the murky history of his own family, which may prove even more so...
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10	''Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President'' by Kaiji Kawaguchi, is both an informative and entertaining look at the American electoral process and a compelling human drama of lies, sex and above all, power. The manga ran in the {{Seinen}} magazine ''Big Comic'' from 1997 to 2001.
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12	----
13	!!''Eagle'' provides examples of:
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15	* DrivingQuestion: If Takashi's mother was murdered who was responsible? [[spoiler:Although Kenneth is the obvious suspect, it's eventually revealed the culprit was Patricia's father by way of his RedRightHand, who took it upon himself to clean up the loose end threatening his son-in-law's career. [[RevealingCoverup The revelation comes after the underling takes it upon himself to try to kill Takashi late in the story.]]]]
16	* FalseFlagOperation: Yamaoka [[spoiler:has been secretly funneling money to racist organizations in order to make the problem of racism in America impossible to ignore]].
17	* FunetikAksent: Senator Woodsman, a Southern Democrat who is also in the running to for the Democratic nomination until he backs out and turns over his delegates to Senator "Yam-May-Okee".
18	* IntrepidReporter: Takashi actually starts out pretty milquetoast, but gradually becomes one over the course of the series. The different attitudes between Japanese and American journalists is a major theme of the early chapters.
19	* LadyMacBeth: Patricia to her son Alex. Also First Lady [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Ellery]] to pretty much everyone.
20	* LukeIAmYourFather: Yamaoka owns up to being Takashi's dad surprisingly quick.
21	* MeaningfulName: Invoked in the climax of the story, [[spoiler:when Kenneth finally tells Takashi the story of how he met his mother, and [[DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou why he decided to leave her in order to pursue his political goals after being wounded]] during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. After hearing the story, Takashi [[CallingTheOldManOut calls Kenneth out]] and says that his mother had been [[YamatoNadeshiko quietly fighting alongside him all her life]]. To prove this, he explains the meaning of his name to Kenneth, who doesn't speak Japanese: "Takashi" -- "Will of the Eagle".]]
22	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The manga, set in a fictionalized version of the 2000 U.S. Presidential race, prominently features incumbent Vice President Al ''Noah'', along with the ambitious First Lady "Ellery" and her unnamed-yet-familiar-looking husband.
23	* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Yamaoka is (trying to be) both President Personable and President Scheming. The fun is in figuring out which persona is closer to his true self.
24	* SecretSecretKeeper: Patricia has used her own resources to discover Takashi's relationship to her husband, but feigns ignorance to both of them for her own reasons.
25	* SnowMeansLove: Takashi and Rachel's first kiss happens not long after a major blizzard.
26	* SurpriseIncest: Narrowly averted. Rachel spends a good chunk of the first volume flirting with Takashi, which freaks him the hell out. His relief when [[NotBloodSiblings she tells him she's adopted]] is palpable. [[spoiler:So is his fear when Rachel's birth mother surfaces to tell the press that she had Kenneth's child, after they'd slept together. When Takashi confronts him after this, Kenneth says that [[ThisIsSomethingHesGotToDoHimself Takashi will have to discover the truth for himself]], since he can't trust anything Kenneth would say at this point. Takashi then investigates the story by himself for an arc.]]
27	* TournamentArc: Essentially how the election is portrayed, especially the New Hampshire Primary arc. Amusingly, it's pretty easy to read ''Eagle'' as sort of a grownup version of a shonen fighting series.
28	* VomitDiscretionShot: Takashi first meets Yamaoka in person in a men's room after the latter is done puking his guts out in a stall as a result of being forced to eat everything at two back-to-back political luncheons.
29	* WellDoneSonGuy:
30	** Takashi frequently tries to meet the challenges that his long-lost father Kenneth, ZenSurvivor of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, poses to teach his illegitimate son the way of the MagnificentBastard. Takashi's attempts to understand Yamaoka conflict with his resentment over his mother being abandoned -- [[spoiler:and the suspicion that her recent, suspicious death was no accident...]]
31	** Alex Yamaoka, Kenneth's son by Patricia, has naturally been dealing with his father's head games for far longer, and shows more advanced symptoms of this trope.
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Context Manga / EagleTheMakingOfAnAsianAmericanPresident