Some of the opening words of this graphic novel are “Studying the art of tankery will help you to gain the essential skills of becoming an elegant woman! …We challenge you to start down the path of tankery and strive to become a vibrant and beautiful woman today!” The premise of this series is totally ridiculous but it works. In the world of this series, high school girls are encouraged to take up ‘tankery’ as an after-school sport which involves actual combat in actual military […]
Art, life and a long journey
Target: Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life. Translated by Taro Nettleton. English design and lettering by Adrian Tomine. Profile: Autobiography, Manga, Graphic Novel A Drifting Life is a wonderfully thick tome of a graphic novel. Equal parts autobiography, national history and understated drama; the book chronicles the story of one of the founding fathers of Japanese Manga. The style pioneered by Yoshihiro Tatsumi was one of the first attempts to turn cartoons into a medium for serious works. Appropriately, his story is a serious one, touching on the themes […]
You Filthy Cockaroaches
I have never met Yu Sasuga. I have never read an interview with Yu Sasuga. I do not presume any knowledge about Yu Sasuga. And so, I will not accuse Yu Sasuga of being a racist. In fact, it’s pretty difficult to levy a strong complaint against Terra Formars as being a racist work. I may be a little bit racist (maybe it’s a fact we all should face) in saying that there has, however, been a certain level of tone-deafness that arises in Japanese pop […]