Yoshihiro TatsumiRezensionen

3.5. I really liked watching the development of the forms Tatsumi would eventually become famous for, especially the various arguments about the nature, future, and mechanics of manga the author has, mostly with his brother. That relationship, in fact, was the most compelling part of this memoir for me.

This is a collection of early Tatsumi short stories, and I found them a little disappointing. Too often there's a lot of set-up building to a one-line pay-off, which too often are not worth the wait. The stories themselves aren't bad (and some are good), it's just most of them fizzle out so abruptly, and read in collection it becomes a bit too much. I'd suggest this is mostly of interest to Tatsumi completists (which I'm not, yet). 2 stars is a bit harsh, but 3 suggests an indifference which I don't feel.

Lúgubre

Indubbiamente, un'opera monumentale e magistrale, anche se alla lunga la sua struttura ripetitiva dà alla noia. È una summa della storia del fumetto giapponese, che si intreccia con le vicende personali del protagonista (a dire il vero piuttosto ripetitive, appunto) e con la storia del Giappone (davvero tratteggiata alla lontana, peccato). Di nuovo: al di là della noia va riscontrata la maestria dell'autore, che si vede in tanti dettagli fra cui per esempio la riproduzione maniacale delle copertina dei manga citati o il progressivo invecchiamento dei tratti fisici dei protagonisti.

The book certainly drifted alright. While I enjoy Tatsumi's work a considerable degree, reading his autobiography was more like reading a slideshow of events that mattered to the author. There was no thematic thread that kept everything together and made the book feel... meaningless.

While there are intriguing moments where the author slowly beings to conceptualize his concept of "Gekiga" throughout his professional career, these trace moments of insight are few and far between. Along with it, Tatsumi simply hasn't lived that interesting of a life to acquire 800 pages. While his artistic style may carry his work (I've always been a sucker for it), again, what there is to look forward to in this book is few and far between.

The ending where he understands that Gekiga only works under the rumbling rungs of anger, not simply grit, and, spoiler, along with the epilogue where he describes attending Osamu Tezuka's 7th annual funerary ceremony, were both incredibly touching and sweet.

Overall, the book is left a bloated mess that, while stylistically softens my heart, has too little to say.

Urban, sexual, raw, modern critique! My only problem (and it's with the whole series) is how impotent, edgy, and spiteful the main characters are. Not a big deal for me, but it does make some of the prose feel a bit cringe.

Darkest and most politically-conscious yet! "Hell" is a little offensive though, and it does suffer from the same pitfalls as the previous books, but I do love seeing how Tatsumi evolves as an artist. His panels are so gorgeous now!

La presente antología recoge nueve historias escritas entre 1972 y 1973 y seleccionadas por el mismo Tatsumi, maestro y fundador del gekiga. El mangaka que contó su vida en el premiado manga Una vida errante disecciona aquí el milagro económico japonés para desvelar las tensiones, los deseos y las angustias de millones de jóvenes que acudieron en masa a las ciudades y vieron sus sueños frustrados.
En sus historias, Tatsumi pone en escena la banalidad de la vida moderna y sondea las profundidades de la juventud perdida de los años setenta. Los pescadores de medianoche deambulan por clubes nocturnos, tristes suburbios y desangelados estudios sin baño… ser joven en aquel entonces no tenía nada de romántico.

Wanted to read a Japanese comic that was not mange to prepare for a trip to Japan. These short stories, mostly about Japanese men with various forms of frustrations and problems and of various degree of likeability, did not appeal to me.

It was a stroke of good fortune on my part that, as I was finishing A DRIFTING LIFE, I looked up and realized I had Tatsumi's first gekiga breakout hit, BLACK BLIZZARD, from the library, waiting for me to remember it was there. It's quite brilliant visually and has a good story, and Tatsumi's style is very cinematic noir with a good deal of influence from Osamu Tezuka so it should appeal to film fans and manga fans alike.

While I appreciate the work that went into this graphic novel, and the work that it describes, I did not feel at all engaged while reading it, though I persisted to the end. Perhaps this is due to lack of knowledge about the context or the setting or the history, but I can't see myself reading this again.

Tatsumi se erige por derecho propio en una de las personalidades más influyentes del manga en Japón y del cómic adulto en Occidente.
Su obra ofrece una visión punzante y desgarradora de la sociedad japonesa de posguerra y retrata la naturaleza del ser humano de un modo realista y fiel, sin ofrecer lecciones ni juicios morales. Sus personajes vagan confusos entre la desesperación, el aislamiento y los placeres fugaces que destellan de vez en cuando en las vidas de hombres y mujeres anónimos. Sin pretensiones estilísticas, pero con un trasfondo humano conmovedor, Tatsumi reduce su arte a una simplicidad esencial y demoledora gracias a un trazo aparentemente sencillo, pero inconfundible, que despliega toda su maestría en la expresividad de sus personajes y en los fondos de paisaje urbano.

Stylistically, there is not much to be said: this is a work by a master. Both the drawing and the text dance and merge so well together, over time, that this, more-than-800-pages, leaps out at the reader and makes for an interesting read, no matter if you're "into" comics, graphic novels or manga (and, indeed, gegika) or not.

Tatsumi writes of his life as a young manga lover. He reads, discovers, and at the same time experiences life, love and family troubles, mainly through his ill brother.

While this is a far cry from modern graphic novels, Tatsumi uses space - both in text and in drawings - to great advantage, which I always feel is one of the hallmarks of a master at her or his trade. His tale is one of marvel: at the manga world, at reading, at creating, at becoming forced to deal with the business side of his passion for manga, while growing up. His family's problems and fortés spring at the reader, and he, our protagonist, finds love, in some ways.

I found the ending to be the most non-likeable part of this book. While it's explosive in one way, it's still left the reader hanging, and I wonder: is there more?

There is a line that runs through our lives. It is where we would like our lives to go. We straddle it as best we can. Some gifts of birth make it easier, some make it virtually impossible. Then life intervenes. Somewhere along the way most of us fall off that line to the one side or the other--by events we couldn't foresee or the myriad choices we are forced to make. Some stray so far from that line that they forget it may have ever existed. That describes many of the characters in Yoshihiro Tatsumi's GOOD-BYE. A ground-breaking writer/artist who re-imagined what comic books could be in Japan the way western writers did by differentiating Graphic Novels from Comic Books. The writing is sparse, the images seem simple but as they flow one to the next the stifling frustration and angst, desperate grasping for hope beyond their reach....seeps into the reader. It is sad but beautiful in it's honesty. A fine collection of stories...my favorite being the first entitled HELL set right after the atomic bombing of Japan but they all are marvelous. There is hope here....but it costs...and it's worth it.

I'm a sucker for the 800 page comic you can really sink your teeth into.

> Par Anne-Claire Norot (Les Inrocks) : "Une vie dans les marges", l'autobiographie lumineuse d'un des pères du manga
04/04/2011 ... La magnifique autobiographie de Yoshihiro Tatsumi, un des pères du manga adulte, enfin publiée en France.
... On voit naître sa volonté de se différencier, d'expérimenter. "Je compte bien inventer quelque chose de nouveau", déclare-t-il, passionné. Ambition atteinte avec cette autobiographie lumineuse ...

> Par Anne-Claire Norot (Les Inrocks) : "Une vie dans les marges", l'autobiographie lumineuse d'un des pères du manga
04/04/2011 ...La magnifique autobiographie de Yoshihiro Tatsumi, un des pères du manga adulte, enfin publiée en France.
... On voit naître sa volonté de se différencier, d'expérimenter. "Je compte bien inventer quelque chose de nouveau", déclare-t-il, passionné. Ambition atteinte avec cette autobiographie lumineuse ...

These sixteen stories from 1969, republished by Drawn and Quarterly in English in 2005, brought a master of gekiga manga to recognition in North America. The stories are dark, typically with underclass protagonists with little or no hope, yet with all of the drives and will of their better-off brothers. Sexually frank, violent, and usually involving the shredding of personal vanity to the point of self-harm. Stories like “Piranha,” or “Black Smoke,” or the title story “The Push Man,” see protagonists pushed (literally in some cases) beyond the breaking point. Others, such as “Projectionist,” “Test Tube,” “Bedridden,” peel back the surface on real but repulsive individuals.

Uneasily riveting.

The eight graphic short stories collected here were originally published in Japan in 1970. Tatsumi is the originator of the gekiga style of manga, which uses a cinematic style and involves adult themes. Both are in evidence here. Tatsumi’s focus is often on underclass protagonists who are barely eking out a living. Sometimes they are so set upon by burdens or responsibilities, or just unending back luck, that they despair. And in despair their lives slip across the border of the human. To describe these stories as bleak would be an understatement.

Since the stories were originally published for differing audiences (some for young people, and some aimed solely at the underground adult market), there is a significant variety in tone. Humour is typically a component of the stories, but in some the humour is exceedingly dark.

Recommended, with caution, to anyone interested in the growth of alternative manga in Japan.

This graphic memoir by an acknowledged master of the gekiga style of manga recounts the early of development of that during the turbulent post-war years. Picking up in 1945 when Hiroshi is 10, we see his early love of manga and his attempts to draw brief four-panel stories that he would send off to contests. His dedication to this hobby developed into a full-blown career even before he graduated from high-school. And though the vicissitudes of the manga industry would mean that his earnings were often precarious, the fervent competition also opened up opportunities for experiment and influence from other media, especially film. Tatsumi patiently recounts these years through to 1960 when he renews his commitment to gekiga.

Along with the personal history, important moments in post-war Japan are highlighted, giving this memoir a more solid context, especially for those unfamiliar with either the history of manga or post-war Japan. But it is the relationships that Hiroshi develops, both amongst his fellow artists and within his family that drive the story along. It provides a fascinating glimpse into a time and milieu that might otherwise be inaccessible.

Gently recommended.

Quick short stories that are goodish.

Good, but I've now lost interest in Tatsumi.

Mega bio and history of j-comics. Good.

Still good, but steadily losing interest in Tatsumi.

A very interesting collection. I wish the afterword had been a foreword instead to give a little context to readers unfamiliar with rakugo. I jumped right into the first story with no background, and found myself a little puzzled by the "punchline," which came so abruptly and didn't immediately come across as humor to me. I think I was expecting more of a moral lesson, like in a fable, but now I see that that isn't the point. After I read a little bit about the form of rakugo, I enjoyed the stories a lot more. I could picture how the stories would come across in a live performance, and had fun picturing a single storyteller portraying such a variety of characters. The art style is very elegant and a pleasure to look at, which made it easy for me to get acquainted with the storytelling format.