A drifting life, an epic 800 page thick book that got me some questions and attention when reading it in public. A thick books is the comment i got from some and plenty of curious looking eyes, according to friends with me during my reading.
From the outside this seems like a daunting journey to jump on, but once you have started the first page, one will be easily absorbed by the history and the strangeness of how Manga was defined, compared to how it is like today.
It’s in this story that, Hiroshi Katsumi, goes from doing non-related 4 panel gag mangas to his own version of Gekiga or the predecessor of the current mangas with a story themed for adults. It can be considered a revolution by itself as the whole point of view at that time is to be changed, displacing gradually with Gekiga, then the War between publishers as the short story bloom dies down. An epic for all manga historians, depicting the most importance age for manga, for without it, Manga might be nothing more than 4 panels instead of the current full spread, moving panels and etc that brings the story alive.
This manga is something like or is an Omnibus, with the main theme being the story of Hiroshi Katsumi. With many real life references, the story can be divided into 3 parts. His Childhood, when he discover Manga in the manga magazines. His professional career, where he begins drawing manga as an career, his rise, then him moving away from shadow and his first home publisher, and the establishment of the Gekiga, after he finished high-school. And the beginning of the end, when the short story bloom got out of control, and the end of Gekiga Workshop, an establishment he and fellow artist started.
Art style wise,the art is not what you would expect, if you are never into classics like Astro boy or Doraemon. It’s a lot simpler, and not as beautiful nor complicated like the works for modern artist like Kubo Tite or Hatori Bisco. But it nonetheless works, enough to tell a convincing story.
Translation wise, the translator, Taro Nettleton, did an awesome job at making it easy to understand and not breaking the flow of the story. It even includes an appendix, to explain the text not translated due to spacing.
Printing, Drawn and Quarterly did an similarly good job on it, although it’s just a paper back production. Not defect prints have been found on my copy of the manga, not only that small texts are readable and the quality of paper is not yellow.
Verdict, is something that I cannot give, but this book, A drifting life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi is a master piece. And I’m glad I bought the book.
This book is now retailing Kinokuniya main store, for SG$51.24.
[Related Sites: Kinokuniya | Drawn and Quarterly | Yoshihiro Tatsumi Wikipedia]
