Tokyo These Days Volume 1 by Taiyo Matsumoto. Translation: Michael Arias. Viz Media, 2024. 9781974738809. 216pp.
After thirty years Shiozawa is leaving his position as a manga editor because the magazine he started a few years back has folded. He feels he was out of touch and that he “betrayed the trust of all the artists and writers [he] pulled in.” His first stop is to have a drink with a creator whose work he loves, but whose recent work lacks life. He tells the artist this, that his work is empty. And then Shiozawa loses his umbrella on the way home.
Shiozawa is moving away from manga, even going as far as selling his massive collection. But (minor spoiler) he just can’t do it. He is very moved by the funeral of a manga creator he admired. And then he’s soon contacting others about a new project — Shiozawa has decided to fund a new manga out of his retirement savings. He begins approaching those whose work he admires, whether they’ve produced anything recently or not, to see if they want to contribute.
Worth noting: Shiozawa doesn’t just talk to mangaka, he also talks to birds.
Matsumoto is a master of comics, and his work stands out from other manga because of his distinctive style and how emotionally complex his characters are. He’s the noted creator of Tekkonkinkreet (there’s a new edition out in English) as well as Sunnny, Ping Pong, and the totally weird No. 5.
Volumes 2 and 3 of Tokyo These Days have already been published, and the series is complete in three volumes.
