Graphic Novel Review: Offshore Lightning by Saito Nazuna

Posted on February 22, 2024 at 7:41 am by Gene Ambaum

Offshore Lightning by Saito Nazuna. Translated by Alexa Frank. Essay by Mitsuhiro Asakawa. Drawn & Quarterly, 2023. 9781770465053.

Drawn & Quarterly’s English publications of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s work introduced me to gegika. This book is right up there with Tatsumi’s Abandon the Old in Tokyo for me.

I love Saito’s illustration and storytelling style, and particularly the way she writes and draws older folks in her work. Manga artists and people at the end of their lives appear in several of the stories in a way that seems to build to the last story, “House of Solitary Death”, which, according to the essay at the end of the book, Nazuna is still creating new episodes of.

This is a compelling, realistic collection of short manga that will defy most people’s expectations of manga. I believe it belongs in all adult public library collections.