Cinematic Point Of View

Over the past year, I’ve found myself drawn back into exploring the world of comics and manga. After watching Tekkonkinkreet, an incredible anime based on the manga by Taiyo Matsumoto and directed by Michael Arias, I started exploring more of the manga works by Taiyo Matsumoto. I instantly fell in love with his style and storytelling.

Having just finished the 3rd volume of Tokyo These Days, his most recent work to be translated into English, I can easily say it’s one of the most subtle and beautiful pieces of art I’ve come across in years.

I haven’t written much about comics or manga before so I’ll keep it brief and without spoilers.

Tokyo These Days is a slice-of-life story full of quiet, personal, reflective moments. We follow an aging manga editor named Kazuo Shiozawa, who is retiring but has a hard time leaving behind the work that gave him an identity over the course of his life.

We meet aging artists who struggle to remain relevant or have given up on manga all together. There are new artists and new editors trying to make a name for themselves. Bookshops trying to remain profitable. People living their lives just trying to survive, make difficult choices, and find a purpose.

Through flashbacks and every day interactions, we see how the manga market has changed over the years and witness the incredible demands, both physically and emotionally, it puts on the artists, and the editors, trying to connect with the ever changing, high demand needs of the consumers and bookstores.

It’s a moving meditation on an artist’s self-worth and the manga world market that’s always in motion, always changing, and craving something new.

Matsumoto’s art style is unlike any other to me. Faces are often misshapen and out of proportion in ways that could feel absurd yet don’t. They are absolutely perfect. You learn volumes about a character from a single frame.

He also really brings the vibrant city of Tokyo to life, full of beautiful full page shots and detailed, hand-drawn close ups of little unseen corners of the city. Dogs barking, phones ringing, traffic buzzing by. There is an energy in every panel that leaps off the page. I found myself moving quickly through the story yet also wanting to stop and spend more time admiring each and every panel. I’ll definitely go back and re-read this series with my eye on the loving care Matsumoto shows to every moment.

Ultimately, Tokyo These Days is about aging, personal growth, and all the changes that come with life. Beautifully drawn, written, and translated, this is a quiet, melancholic masterpiece of storytelling that breathes life into an array of interesting characters. I can’t recommend it enough!