Downfall

by Inio Asano

From the Eisner-nominated, best-selling author of Goodnight Punpun and solanin, a dark look at what happens when living the life of your dreams becomes your downfall.

Selling copies is the only thing that matters.

So what if your first series just ended and you have no idea how to start the next one, your marriage is breaking up, your pure love of manga has been destroyed by the cruel reality of the industry and nothing seems to fill the sucking void inside you…

Find the secret combo for a new hit manga series and everything will be okay.

Right?

Genres: Manga, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Slice Of Life, Japan, Seinen

246 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2017

About the author

Inio Asano (浅野いにお, Asano Inio) is a Japanese cartoonist. He is known for his character-driven stories and his detailed art-style, making him one of the most influential manga author of his generation.
Asano was born in 1980 and produced his first amateur comics as a teenager. His professional debut happened in 2000 in the pages of the magazine Big Comic Spirits. Since then, he has collaborated with most of the major Japanese magazines of seinen manga (comics for a mature audience). Among Asano's internationally acclaimed works are: the psychological horror Nijigahara Holograph (2003-2005); the drama Solanin (2005-2006); the existentialistic slice-of-life Goodnight Punpun (2007-2013); the erotic A Girl on the Shore (2009-2013); the sci-fi Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction (2014-2022).

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am reading Inio Asano’s most commercially accessible manga series right now, the dystopian Dead Demon DeDeDe Destruction, but Downfall can’t very well be commercially successful. . . can it? But that is in a way what Asano is asking: Can people create darkly realistic manga and survive? By the end of the story, you may not care about that question, though.

Downfall is a one-volume manga about a mid- to late-career manga-ka, Fukuzawa, who has hit rock bottom, created by Inio Asano. He (Fukuzawa, like Asano) has been quite successful in his career, and then just hits a wall. He becomes estranged from his manga-editor wife and begins turning to a range of “escorts,” as he self-destructs. He has no new ideas, and he decides he loathes manga, manga artists and the whole industry. He’s depressed, of course.

There are a couple spoilers in here, but I’d say some of you might like to be warned about the content.

At one point he begins to make a connection with a young college-age escort--the conceit is that she has “cat-like” eyes, just as did a woman he went out with in college, who left him because he was inaccessible--but he seems to assume he can develop an actual relationship with her. He’s more than twice his age, she’s making good money, she has life goals. In case you think this might be a sweet prostitute-reclaims-artist story, we are in the hands of Inio Asano, who is not sentimental, folks. Fukuzawa is almost completely unsympathetic, and almost as if to crush our hopes for a happy ending where he gets the career and the girl, he hits the worst point, when he actually sexually assaults his estranged wife. Disturbing. At a glance, I see that is a deal-breaker for some readers, mostly women, and I fully understand that.

To follow that observation about sexual assault with a discussion of what a great manga-ka Asano is seems almost offensive, but nevertheless, here I go: Asano is a terrific artist, and has always been pretty consistently (and convincingly) sad and dark to the point of disturbing--Nijigahara Holograph, Good Night, PunPun, A Girl on the Shore. If you don’t like unlikable characters, if you don't like grimly honest stories, then down pick this up, but Fukuzawa is a fully-rounded character, and he exists in the world. Self-destruction happens, and this is a powerful story about it, as uncomfortable as it may seem.

Near the end of Downfall---the title is accurate, at least---someone calls him a monster, which in some ways seems right, at least at this point in his life. When a long-time fan tells him, tearfully, that he is amazing, that he has kept her alive, he tells her he is wrong in her assumptions about him. This is a one-shot volume, but it ends ominously. It feels like this is the rawest, darkest of Fukuzawa’s work. It might even be better than the four stars I give it. But yes, I read it all the way through. It reminded me of the darkness of No Longer Human, rock bottom. A dark portrait of the artist, of the cut-throat and unforgiving and often superficial only-profits-matter manga industry, and of the sex worker industry. Powerful and provocative and sad, and clearly anger-producing.

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally got to read an Asano book, and though I heard he's had better stories, Downfall is definitely his work. He's got a unique way of drawing faces that's realistic but still cartoony. His backgrounds are stacked, and his buildings way too detailed to be hand drawn.

Downfall is the story of a manga author who decided his worth is based on the volume of manga he sells. He's also too absorbed in himself, to the point where he has little empathy to offer to those around him. The end of his long-running manga spiraled to breakdown in this marriage, and compensating with paid sex.

It's a depressing read, and I got through it by taking it in doses. I really like how the author captured the abyss that you stare into when starting a blank page. It's a daunting task that can despair the weak-willed.

I still say that I wished I popped my Asano cherry with another work, but this book will have to do.

September 24, 2024

I have to give the Viz Signature line its flowers. This is a wonderful English edition. It comes with French flaps that gives it elegance. The printing is also sublime. The ink is not entirely black but is printed in multiple hues of grays. It also includes some color pages. I only noticed it four years later on my latest reread.

[The Artisan Geek]

8/7/20
[content warning for rape]
Definitely got No Longer Human vibes from this one. Wow, this was really depressing. It just goes to show how fame and success really really isn't a guarantee for a fulfilling and happy life. Very distressing to read at times.

8/7/20
I have been looking for some darker manga that wasn't necessarily horror with supernatural stuff -- like Junji Ito's adaptation of No Longer Human. I think this is exactly what I have been looking for :)

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[Briar's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Downfall by Inio Asano is a coming of age tale about a struggling manga artist trying to figure himself out in his mid-life crisis.

This story is depressing, sad, low and down yet it is powerful and moving. Our lead protagonist's life is in turmoil: his manga series is finished, his marriage is crap, he's seeing ladies of the night, and he just seems down in the dumps. His life continues to spiral, and we watch everything unfold before him.

As the story progresses, we learn more about the manga industry (or book industry in general - some people get a hit and then phase out), and our lead's past. We see why he became such a workaholic and is nothing but toxic. It's truly intriguing to read this little masterpiece on loneliness. Despite this man not being top tier, I felt sympathy for him. He truly leads a lonely, miserable life but he's not trying to pull himself out of the rut.

I think this story is truly intriguing, especially if you're looking for something a little more sad. It's not going to bring you out of the blues, but it will make you think and examine your own life. What happens when you go down a troublesome path but don't help yourself out of it? Honestly, if anything, this book made me think a lot and reflect on myself.

I can't really see any negatives for this book, if I'm being brutally honest. Yes it's sad and you need to be in a good headspace to read it, but it's not bad. It's a character study on flawed characters and I can respect that. I'd like to read more by Inio Asano and follow his characters again. This was truly marvelous.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media for an opportunity to read this wonderful book!

[Jon Ureña · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.

After Asano's "Oyasumi Punpun" tore my heart out, injected it with poison, and then shoved the organ back into the wreckage of my torso, I promised myself that I would take a break from fictional stories. But I broke my promise immediately, because that's the kind of man I am, and started reading the new manga from this author that I bought.

It's his latest, or second to last. All I knew coming in, that I had read on social media, was that the work was autobiographic to a very significant degree. Although I don't know where the lines are drawn, the author clearly wanted to show the people involved in making mangas, starting with a thinly veiled version of himself. Unfortunately, the more I think about the events and the psychological state of the protagonist, the more tragic all of it becomes.

He starts telling us about a girl he went out with back in college, when the protagonist was trying to publish his first manga. From the little he tells us of this person, she was an odd, irritable and withdrawn person who seemed to need to wear a mask in order to interact with others. She's the first one who liked one of the protagonist's works, or at least that told him so. However, they broke up suddenly, apparently not long after after she reflected back to him that there was no space in the protagonist's mind for anything but creating art, and going somewhere with that art. That his single-mindedness and depreciative attitude towards people would keep hurting others. She told him she knew what he was deep inside: a monster. While unexplained beyond that, the protagonist, and presumably the author, knew it to be true in a way difficult to put into words. "Oyasumi Punpun" also deals with it, the fact that just by being yourself, when you are "poisoned", you will inevitably hurt others sometimes in ways that will last them for the rest of their lives. The fate of monsters dressed as people is to end up alone.

We meet the protagonist a couple of years after he finished a long running series that took him around 7 years and that had 13 volumes; those details, along with how some characters describe the series, pretty much tells you he's talking about "Oyasumi Punpun". The protagonist had started it in his mid to late twenties, he dated and married an editor along the way, and now that the fictional "Oyasumi Punpun" is finished, he finds himself on the wrong side of thirty and as if he had gotten out of a long, narrow tunnel. The protagonist seems perpetually dysthymic and anhedonic as he meets with some assistants under his employ, who are waiting for him to get his act together and start some big project soon. His employees seem to be the "manipulative careerist" type. We meet his wife, a very busy editor who's representing one of the female hotshot mangakas of the day. You can tell that the protagonist needs some real human contact, for someone interesting and caring to take time and just talk. Even when they ask him to speak in an industry event for the fictional equivalent of "Oyasumi Punpun", nobody seems to be paying much attention to what he says. Many are on their phones.

It's beyond attention, though: it's the disappointment. As the protagonist says, while creating this alternative "Oyasumi Punpun" he believed that creating art was fighting the good fight, and he was ready to put everything on the line until his last day. He threw in all his joys, his pains, his health. Nobody knew him yet, nobody expected anything from him. After a very narrow seeming path from college to being close to forty, he realizes that he doesn't need to say anything else, or at least remotely close to what "Oyasumi Punpun" required, but his savings will run out eventually, and he will face different challenges for the rest of his career: people's expectations along with the fact that the kind of stuff he does never sold that well. And many artists in his industry are constantly maneuvering for the limited places at the top. It's not long before he questions deeper assumptions about everything he has fought for up to this point. Making that alternative "Oyasumi Punpun" didn't exorcise his depression, didn't cure him of his inability to connect with most people, didn't erase the monster in him. And now what?

The protagonist's most extensive interactions seem to involve social media. The fans praise his past work, ask about what he's doing next; all their interactions necessarily focus on his work, because they know close to nothing about him as a person. For deeper human contact, the protagonist does something that probably will make most readers turn on him: he regularly rents escorts, obviously cheating on his wife, and he interacts with them like the depressed person lacking significant human contact that he is: sex is involved, but he does it for the connection. During the first scene with an escort, a particularly ugly girl, he can't get it up until he sees the scars on her arms from cutting herself, and he immediately gets hard. When he's finished he cries softly while laying his head on her lap. If you've read "Oyasumi Punpun" (some spoilers for it) it's impossible not to remember the scene when Punpun cries after having sex with someone, and how Punpun only managed to connect properly with Aiko, a girl with a very troubled life and a consequently disturbed personality.

EDIT: While looking up some images of "Oyasumi Punpun" I realized something about a somewhat random moment in this manga when the protagonist sees a stuffed toy in a claw machine and he takes the time to win one. The face of that stuffed toy is pretty much the same as the one in "Oyasumi Punpun"'s protagonist's clock during the harrowing "remember each other on Tanabata" scene in the last volume. I find terrifying the undercurrent of references to "Oyasumi Punpun" in this manga, given that they imply that the author himself has become haunted by his own story, forced to repeat it over and over in his mind. Also, when the ugly escort came in, I noticed that she had a very similar haircut to Aiko from "Oyasumi Punpun"; I feared that other escorts would sport the same hairstyle for obvious reasons, but that's not the case. What's worse about those references is that they are very private for those who have gone through "Oyasumi Punpun": you only understand them if you've been haunted yourself.

The protagonist meets with some of his friends from college. Many if not most of them have had children. They ask him if he'll be having children of his own. He answers that he has never talked about it with his wife, who will soon become infertile. His friends tell him that they work as hard as they do because they have a family to support, but the protagonist feels like he has nobody, and with his passion seemingly gone, why would he be sacrificing himself exactly?

Back home, he again fails to extract enough attention and human contact from his wife, even in the form of sitting down to talk, as she's way too overworked as an editor. He's had enough, and dispassionately asks her for a divorce. He'll sleep in his office for now. She's stunned and saddened. She says that she doesn't want to break up, but mentally he's already out.

Regarding the industry, the protagonist feels like an outsider. When asked a few times he says that he doesn't even like mangas; he doesn't seem to enjoy anything his contemporaries create, and back when he was starting out, many of the old mangakas didn't like that he didn't respect nor was influenced by the established greats. "Oyasumi Punpun" is a very uncommon work in many ways, with something of a niche audience of ill-adjusted people, that has only managed to land him that fame and a significant amount of money, or at least enough to spend a few idle years, because of its extreme quality. But in the end your future in the industry depends on how many volumes you sell, and the protagonist seems to have exhausted the passion that would create another monster like "Oyasumi Punpun".

He meets and becomes infatuated with an escort who looks like his odd girlfriend from college. They have that kind of relationship in which he's too clearly needy and looking for something more than sex, and it's not clear whether the girl actually enjoys the presence of that now almost forty year old man, or if she's planning to use him for economic reasons. It's sad to watch him trying to learn more about that girl's personality, her likes and dislikes, when she probably just sees him as a creep.

We get new examples of how nasty the relationships in the manga industry can be. The female assistant he had to fire isn't happy about having lost that opportunity, given that she had to give up another one for it, and after they argue, she tells him he'll hear from her lawyer about "the harassment". We never get to learn about whether or not there was.

The protagonist gets together some more with that escort he likes. They spend most of the time taking baths together and talking. He tries to avoid divulging details about himself. When she asks about what he does for a living, he says that he's an astronaut, and adds a soft smile. A particularly depressing statement after having read "Oyasumi Punpun"; its protagonist had promised to the love of his life that he was going to become an astronaut and colonize other planets. A terrible contrast between that story and this one's protagonist's, and therefore author's, present life stripped of meaningful human relationships.

He learns from the agency that provides the escorts that the girl the protagonist likes is quitting. He panics, and rents her for what could be the last time. After embracing her for a while, he learns that the girl has to travel back to the countryside for some family business. He offers, very pathetically, to travel with her, and she surprisingly agrees, but demands some social media handle in order to communicate. The protagonist doesn't realize that he's giving her all she needs to know to learn about who he is and what he does.

Some other day they travel together to her hometown. He mostly listens to stories about her life. When he learns that she'll have to rent a cheaper place because her roommate is moving out, he offers her to live with him. She seems amused by this. She admits she knows he's a manga author, and ends up asking him to sign a volume of his work that she bought, even though she has never been fond of manga. She suggests that he's orchestrated this situation to get inspiration for his next work. He acts as if he's been found out. They have a nice enough time and they eventually separate. As she leaves, the protagonist imagines having a child with this girl, starting a family. He feels terrible, and admits that he has no clue what he's doing.

Back in Tokyo, the protagonist pushes himself to start a new project, but it feels like an insurmountable task he no longer has the energies for. Paraphrasing his words, as a twenty year old he was able to face his deepest feelings thanks to the anxiety and irritation produced by not having a place in the world nor a clear future, but as an almost forty year old he wonders what's left. He feels tired. He left his joy, his sadness, his merits as a human being on his past mangas, and now he has nothing left to say. At this point he isn't sure why he had wanted to become a manga author to begin with.

He messages the escort he liked; although she clearly read it, she never contacts him again.

We get a sad scene between his still wife and himself. She's reluctant about signing the divorce papers, and seems tired in general. An exhausted adult with too many responsibilities and personal problems that she doesn't even talk about. They put their regrets and bitterness on the table, discussions that they should have had along the way. The protagonist gets rapey, but a phone call from work interrupts his still wife. Afterwards she says that if having sex will calm him down, she's up for it, but he has to do it properly. As they lie in bed afterwards they keep bringing up who failed to support the other and how. Eventually the protagonist says that all of it had been meaningless. She sobs quietly. The protagonist leaves the apartment.

A year or so passes. He has divorced his wife and is working on his next manga, one he had intended from the beginning to make more mainstream. He rents another escort, a poor girl with terrible teeth. He wants to talk to her. When she learns about him being a manga artist, she seems very impressed.

The protagonist's publishing company has organized an autograph session to celebrate his new manga. A girl in the line is one the protagonist had been replying to on social media. As her turn to meet him comes, she starts crying. She says that she has been a fan of his since she was a teenager, and whenever she was depressed she came back to his fictional "Oyasumi Punpun" to get strength. She adds that when the series ended she was so sad that she didn't see a point in living anymore, but that reading his new work has allowed her to move past those characters she loved and keep going. She tells him that he had taught her how wonderful fictional stories can be, and knowing that other great stories are waiting for her gives her strength to make an effort and live for a bit longer. She says that he's like a god to her, and begs him to keep creating beautiful stories. The protagonist is first stunned by her sincere words and tears, but as she holds his hand, and tears begin to fall from his eyes, he tells her that she doesn't understand anything.

Where do you go after creating a story like "Oyasumi Punpun"? Nowhere, really. He clearly squeezed from himself every drop of meaning and put it in those volumes. You shouldn't need to go anywhere after such an effort. You should be able to rest. Unfortunately you need to pay the bills, you need to keep living. By the time you finish the work you truly needed to do you are too old, too tired, and pretty much everybody else has left you behind.

The night after I read "Oyasumi Punpun" I woke up at five in the morning to a bright flash behind my eyelids of a drawing of Aiko Tanaka, and I felt an urge to check on the wellbeing of a person that has never existed. Artists are the means through which poorly understood forces trap life in canvasses and pages, and when those forces are satisfied, they have little use for the people left behind.

[Briar's Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Downfall by Inio Asano is a coming of age tale about a struggling manga artist trying to figure himself out in his mid-life crisis.

This story is depressing, sad, low and down yet it is powerful and moving. Our lead protagonist's life is in turmoil: his manga series is finished, his marriage is crap, he's seeing ladies of the night, and he just seems down in the dumps. His life continues to spiral, and we watch everything unfold before him.

As the story progresses, we learn more about the manga industry (or book industry in general - some people get a hit and then phase out), and our lead's past. We see why he became such a workaholic and is nothing but toxic. It's truly intriguing to read this little masterpiece on loneliness. Despite this man not being top tier, I felt sympathy for him. He truly leads a lonely, miserable life but he's not trying to pull himself out of the rut.

I think this story is truly intriguing, especially if you're looking for something a little more sad. It's not going to bring you out of the blues, but it will make you think and examine your own life. What happens when you go down a troublesome path but don't help yourself out of it? Honestly, if anything, this book made me think a lot and reflect on myself.

I can't really see any negatives for this book, if I'm being brutally honest. Yes it's sad and you need to be in a good headspace to read it, but it's not bad. It's a character study on flawed characters and I can respect that. I'd like to read more by Inio Asano and follow his characters again. This was truly marvelous.

Four out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media for an opportunity to read this wonderful book!

[amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strange and disturbing. I liked it well enough up to a point but that completely went out of the window when the protagonist assaulted his wife near the end of the manga.

It’s not enough that he cheats on her constantly because he’s a struggling mangaka artist but to attempt to rape her and basically coerce her to have sex with him...

I could have had more sympathy towards the main character if he didn’t have such a bad personality and morals. It was just constant whining and violence.

The art is beautiful however.


Thanks very much to Netgalley.

[Lina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good friend of mine who's a big Inio Asano fan lent me this manga and said to me for the 78th time: "READ OYASUMI PUNPUN LINA YOU GONNA LOVE IT!" (he wasn't yelling at me, he's just loud) and I said "YES IT'S ON MY TBR LIST I WILL READ IT SOON!" (I wasn't yelling at him, it's just that I'm a dwarf and he's a giant so I gotta shout to make my mouse voice heard)
So I went home with Downfall in my bag and a smile on my face. I read it the same day and reread it 3 days later, and that says A LOT guys! Because god knows how much of a lazy and distracted person I am.

The review:

Downfall is a oneshot manga by Inio Asano published in 2017. It tells the story of Kauro Fukazawa, a successful manga artist who falls into depression as his series comes to an end. The last volume of his series not selling as well as the previous ones takes its toll on his mental health and puts him in a 2 years state of self-doubt and depression; he dwells on his past, his marriage crumbles, he loses the passion he once had for mangas, and he doesn't know whether he should be drawing what he actually wants to draw or what is likely to sell best.

I love how realistic the manga is in both the drawings and the characters.
The story although simple is very gripping and entertaining.
It also gives a good sneak peek into the manga industry and how life-sucking it can be. It depicts quite well the struggles of a mangaka, especially when sales become a factor in the recognition of their talent, and how this affects their creativity and well-being.

It was a good read but also depressing and sobering. It made me think a lot about my own life. And, I mean.. who doesn't love a book that make you go through a mini existential crisis eh!

Checking out the different reviews written for this manga reminded me of how different our perception of things and people may be and that we should always keep that in mind.

The art work y'all! It's just... excellent!



Trigger warnings: nudity and sexual assault.

Thank you Assirem for lending me this manga ❤ Yes I will read Goodnight Punpun very soon.

RIP Assirem.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every single time I pick up a Inio book I should prepare myself to be depressed. And here I am, again, fucking depressed. Probably not the best thing since I'm stuck at home due to this stupid fucking Virus but that's a complaint for another day.

Inio decides to give us a manga author who can't figure out what he wants in life. A lot of Inio work is actually focused on personal health issues, sexuality, depression and more. I think here we get a author of a famous Manga series, Kaoru Fukazawa, and he can't stand himself or his other co-workers. Not only is he lost on what to write next but he also is breaking off his marriage with his wife as well.

With all that happening he is trying to rediscover what is maybe important to him. He gets escorts to help him through his sexual frustration but it isn't till one girl, with cat like eyes, that things begin to change. He seems semi-happy while with her and even goes with her on a trip. But everything in his mind is crashing down around him and soon he reaches a boiling point where he finds out who he really is.

So I'm not 100% sure if this is actually based on Inio. I'm sure some of it is. Manga artist life aren't always easy, with the extremely long work hours and the quick fan-base drop that it can do to you. I appreciate the brutal honest look at it all. I also enjoyed watching a character like Kaoru try to find himself but maybe not get the answers he wants. This book isn't for everyone as it involves a lot of depression and people go through that regardless. There's also a moment of sexual assault, which is disturbing to say the least but not uncommon unfortunately in the situation he was in and she was in. But I can understand the distaste for the scene.

However this is a honest look at it all. I really did enjoy reading it even if there was no happy ending. But the ending itself had a reveal I didn't fully see coming and I actually liked it. Maybe not his best work but Inio does a good job here. A 4 out of 5.

[Repellent Boy · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5. Puede que Inio Asano sea el mangaka con el dibujo más espectacular que he visto hasta el momento. Las ilustraciones están cuidadas de una manera espectacular. Cada detalle está tratado con mimo. Es una pena que la historia no me haya terminado de llegar.

Fukasawa es un mangaka, que tras un manga exitoso, no encuentra la inspiración, ni la motivación para sumergirse en su siguiente creación. Esto se sumará a la mala situación que vive con su matrimonio, lo que le llevará a una depresión y buscará consuelo en chicas de compañía.

A priori, la idea me parecía interesante, pero el protagonista no me ha terminado de caer bien y no he terminado de empatizar con él. Me resultaba antipático. Para colmo, hay una escena en la que fuerza sexualmente a su mujer que me dejó muy mal cuerpo y que se refleja como si nada. Me terminó de disgustar.

El 2,5 es única y exclusivamente gracias a la pasada de dibujante que es. Una gozada que merece ser comtemplada. Leeré más del autor, porque necesito ver más de sus ilustraciones. Esperemos que otras historias me gusten más.

[সালমান হক · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how Inio portrayed the struggles of a creative artists. Sometimes it's the sells that matters. It bounds the artists. The passion sips away day be day. Depression settles in.

[Carlos J. Eguren · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Mientras sigas dibujando manga, mientras no desistas de tu sueño de ser mangaka, seguirás hiriendo a la gente. Estarás solo hasta que mueras…”.

¿Qué significa estar solo? ¿Es una maldición de la que podemos escapar alguna vez o, simplemente, nos mentimos creyendo que estamos unidos a alguien? ¿Puede el arte ser la desolación para su creador? ¿O lo es el pasado, las historias que creemos acabadas, pero que nunca llegaron a cerrarse?
Tengo la habilidad de leer cada cierto tiempo obras que me hunden en la miseria existencial (es mi superpoder) y este es el caso del manga autoconclusivo de Inio Asano: Reiraku. Ha sido mi primer acercamiento a este prestigioso autor nipón, después de que me lo recomendasen en la tienda de cómics a la que voy habitualmente, y puedo decir que Reiraku, publicada por Norma Editorial, es una historia sumamente interesante sobre cómo el pasado y la soledad pueden destruirnos, pero igual que es interesante, también es demoledora.

Reiraku narra la caída en picado de un mangaka que ha culminado su serie de éxito, pero se ha quedado sin ideas para una nueva historia. Ha sucumbido en una espiral de vacío artístico que está destruyendo su vida. Varios años atrás, que su primera novia lo abandonase, le afectó tanto que dicha aflicción ha llegado hasta el presente. Pese a que está casado, los fans lo adoran y sus ayudantes lo tratan como una eminencia, nuestro protagonista se siente solo, abandonado, despechado… Y busca conexiones con otros, aunque sea a través de prostitutas, tuits o engaños, para evitar pensar que tiene lo que merece o emprender una vida nueva donde no se sienta un monstruo.

No es una vida ajena a otras en Japón (https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2018/11/06...) o vidas que ha reflejado el arte. En un eterno proceso de deshumanización, que bien podría recordarnos al personaje principal de El extranjero de Albert Camus (salvando sus múltiples diferencias) y con la devastación que el abandono puede producir en una persona (tipo de historia donde Haruki Murakami es una de sus máximas eminencias), Asano traza el camino hacia la destrucción de un personaje que no puede salvarse. Mediante la analepsis, acabamos descubriendo el origen de su temor, qué hace que en el presente se esté saboteando constantemente: él quiere dejar de ser aquello que, según su pasado, es lo que hace que nunca haya tenido una vida feliz, pero ya es tarde, muy tarde. Siempre lo ha sido.
Podemos caer en el error habitual del lector al desear ver hasta qué punto una obra de ficción puede ser autobiográfica (si es que la autobiografía no es también ficción, que sería otro debate decente, pero que no nos atañe en este momento), pero sea como sea es un relato interesante sobre cómo el pasado nos destroza y cómo nos hundimos si no pasamos página y perdemos el amor por el arte que nos hace sentir vivos y nos obsesionamos con nuestros propios medios.

A todo este trabajo le acompaña el dibujo de Asano. Se caracteriza porque convierte la estética manga en una más realista, sin sacrificar alguno de los rasgos de este tipo de ilustración, pero añade unos matices propios para crear imágenes cotidianas de gran fuerza. Por tanto, por argumento, guion y estética, es un manga perfecto para aquellos que suelen leer, pero, sobre todo, para los que todavía no le han dado una posibilidad.

Por último, la sensación que queda al final de Reiraku es de haber contemplado el hundimiento de una vida. El lector debe decidir en ese punto si se somete a dicho hundimiento él también o aprende. Muchas veces, elegimos lo segundo, pero no es tan fácil de conseguir…

Más muestras de mi superpoder para hundirme la vida mediante lecturas desoladoras en mi blog: https://carlosjeguren.com/critica-man...

[Brian O'Connell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pushes the self-loathing pretty far, even for Asano, but it’s all in the service of a pretty grueling portrait of labor—this is the first time I’ve seen Asano directly address the misery of capitalism—and, more typically, the horrors of heterosexuality. Even at its most melodramatic moments, the naturalism and stunningly graceful staging of Asano’s images and dialogue keep things tethered to a cold, poignant plane of reality.

[Rubén Moragues · Rating 3 out of 5]

[3.75]

De nuevo, Inio Asano logra hacer una brutal disección de la sociedad japonesa. En este caso se centra en la industria del manga, retratándola como la escaramuza comercial que es. Quizá algo repugnante en algunos momentos, pero por lo general, una obra más que notable.

[Alyssa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have very mixed feelings about this manga. 😕

It was released this past week here, at the same time as a new omnibus edition of Solanin from the same author. It's an author my favorite booksellers have been telling me about lately, recommending some of his other series to me, and it caught my attention. I was initially more interested in Solanin, but my booksellers had a very exclusive, very limited, very pretty, ex-libris for this one, I ended up getting this one instead. (I'll try to find a place in my budget to get Solanin some time in April hopefully.)

Back to the point. The art is clean and nice, nothing to complain about here. But it's the story that irks me a bit. The part about writer's block was what interested me, but it didn't feel like having enough focus in the whole thing for me. Also, the protagonist is such an ass that I quickly kinda lost interest in his story to be completely honest. And, oh gosh, the marital rape. That's the point where it definitely lost me. I can (maaaybe) see where it plays in the "monster" part of the story, but I just can't get over what follows it: the wife who just goes like "let's just have sex properly and we might enjoy it better". LIKE, GIRL NO, YOU SHOULD RUN AWAY.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaoru Fukazawa is a bestselling author close to wrapping up his most popular series, but he’s never felt more hopeless and miserable. No one seems to care about him now that his greatest work is over and done with. His sales are dropping. His relevance is falling into obscurity. Reprints of his works are no longer on the market. He’s lost all passion for his work and his marriage is on the verge of a divorce. Fulfilling his lifelong dream wasn’t the beautiful miracle he always imagined it would be. He tries to fill the void by spending nights with various prostitutes that fail to drown his sorrows. Thus begins the mental, emotional and literal downfall of a once beloved artist.

This story is brutal, especially for anyone that’s ever dreamed of being a writer, a musician or any kind of artist really. It tackles the harsh reality of dreams being unfulfilling, losing your passion for the craft as you get older and being crushed by the industry as you spiral into obscurity. It paints the life of an artist in a very gross and unromantic light, giving attention to the dangerously addicting, soul-sucking and self-destructive nature that often comes with the lifestyle. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Sometimes becoming a master at a craft you once felt passionate about can make you hate it until it starts to feel like it’s poisoning you.

The story isn’t meant to be discouraging or insulting, however, it’s simply made to be a cautionary tale about the potential dangers and risks of choosing such a lifestyle. It also has much to do with knowing your own limits, choosing your own personal style over mindlessly chasing what’s trendy or what can make you the most money, it also has a lot to do with perspective, mindset and personal goals. Whether the industry crushes you or not has much to do with your own choices, preferences and outlook. Sometimes you have to make the hard choices that won’t bear as much fruit but will make you feel more free, happy and passionate about your craft.

Asano never fails to punch you in the gut with incredibly grim potential realities and seriously messed up characters that will make you rethink your life.

[Sugar Pill · Rating 1 out of 5]

Lošija verzija Laku noć, Punpune, koju inače ne smatram previše dobrom mangom.

Inio Asano piše u okviru kalupa u kom mora da postoji sepresivan lik sa osećajem beznadežnosti i silovanje ili pokušaj silovanja. Nije problem da se piše o morally gray likovima, niti da se piše o depresiji i beznadežnosti, ali Asano ne daje nikakav dublji uvid u stanje svojih likova i ne produbljuje priču.

250 strana je lik u krug bezvoljan, bezbadežan, hejter, zove prostitutke... I to je to.

Nema dubine, nema objašnjenja, čita se kao depresivni dan mrmota.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

Asano's meditation on the pressure of an artist and the industry is one wrought with pure emotions and an annoying amount of contemptuous prattle.

While Fukuzawa has many hardships brought onto him, I can't dismiss that the large bulk of them are self-imposed. As his bestselling series ceases publication he feels uninspired and fervently despises the craft that earns him an income. Asano's art has a unique way of triggering the veritable melancholy of the atmosphere in a way that evokes sympathy from the reader. However, I relinquished a very little amount, because I found him pathetic.

The overall tone of the piece shifted from a dense philosophy of self-doubt and stagnant preservation within a sea of change to no one understands me. The only comfort he finds within his calamity is in the arms of much younger women. Especially the 'cat-eyed women', who enraptures his attention and condescends the man, yet he keeps coming back with his salacious appetite. The overall narrative is just not entirely that captivating for me. I did enjoy like how Asano attempted to have an open discourse about the way industry and integrity clash.

Obviously the manga is incredibly depressing, the title and description give that away as much. I had no problem digesting that particular aspect, since I had an idea of what I was getting into. On a personal level I didn't really connect or feel that attached to any of the characters. Fukuzawa's way of dismissing everyone and everything really irritated me to the point I was tempted to give up halfway.

Asano is clearly imposing himself into the story, with Fukuzawa's image changed within certain parts to look like Asano. Fukuzawa is essentially a disjointed caricature of Asano's own experiences.

Overall I feel indifferent this manga, not entirely satisfied with it, but still wading through the plot to find more symbolism. The ending signalled a full circle with him still feeling misunderstood and even perhaps undervalued.

[Lucy Goodfellow · Rating 1 out of 5]

⭐️1 Star

My thoughts about this book can be summarised by one phrase ‘what a waste’.

I normally enjoy books with unlikable protagonists but I feel let down by this manga. Although I really enjoyed the discussion it provokes about burnout and the creative process as a whole, I am conflicted because I feel like the protagonist's stagnancy simultaneously took away from and really established his arc.

The depression of the character is palpable. It seeps into all aspects of the story and informs the readers' opinion about all of the other characters we meet. However, this focus on the mental health of the protagonist meant that these secondary characters were one-dimensional foils and the women in this manga were heavily cliched and obviously viewed through the lens of the male gaze. Many of the scenes that included female characters were uncomfortable to read and I considered DNFing this book more than once. The rape scene was one of the worst scenes I have read his year so far and although I understand that it was the cumulation of the protagonists desire for control as seen by his encounters with prostitutes throughout the mange, I hate that he faced no consequences for this.

I think this is my main issue with this book. I didn’t enjoy that there were no consequences for his actions and this meant the ending was underwhelming. I think that this book could have been a startling commentary on power, depression and creation if it were handled in a different way.

Should Read This Book if you Like:
+ Unlikable Protagonists. 🙍🏽♂️
+Commentary On The Creative Process And Burnout.🧠
+Male-Centric Plot Focussing On Unhealthy Relationships With Women.👫

Trigger Warnings: Depression, Anxiety, Self-Harm, Prostitution, Sexual Assault.

I received an advance review copy for free via NetGalley. I am leaving this review voluntarily 📚.

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for self-loathing protagonists struggling to find their purpose, so I knew within the first few pages this was going to hook me.

It isn’t perfect. The way it tries to weave the entire story by beginning and ending with his cat-eyed girl he met in college seemed anti-climactic.

But everything in between was wonderful. The protagonist walked the line between likable and unlikable wonderfully. He’s isolated by choice, but often makes out like it is by design. He’s self-pitying. But I kind of like it. I can understand working hard for something and then not understanding what it all means. It seems like the book is a portrait of a mid-life crisis, but there’s not much of a resolution, sadly.

Still, it was a great story.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to think a bit more on this, but it feels like one of Asano's more, if not precisely personal, than at least expose-flavored pieces about not only the manga industry, but also how other people's views of you can influence how you see and present yourself.


Full review eventually appearing on ANN.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fellow image sequentialists, are you looking for more panels to follow from right to left in your never ending quest to provoke those who detest the crass fusion of words and pictures? Then look no further for yet another such abomination, made worse by pretensions of realism and significant meaning. Are you someone who is visited nightly by a giant ichneumon wasps who make painful love to your tender navel with their hypodermic stingers, injecting their young into your belly while you’re suffering sleep paralysis, leaving you helpless as their diabolical progeny liquify your insides and drink your internal organs like a ravioli smoothie? Yea, that’s similar to reading Inio Asano, so you’re well prepared.

Ladies. Gentleman. I think we can all agree that, at some point in our lives, we all wanted to be Ninjas. That’s a safe assumption, right? Then let me convey to you some of the themes of this book by reference to my autodidactic ninjutsu.

Having read a manual of ill repute about the dark arts of manipulating pressure points, striking down foes with chi based projectiles, and climbing walls using only your underwear and superhuman quantities of urine to assist with adhesion, I came upon an ancient recipe for homemade mace: Metsubushi, as it was called. Now, details were rather hazy on what ingredients made for a premium blend, but the common theme was pepper. Needless to say; I thought I could do much better than that. I began gathering up all the supplies in the house that I knew (or suspected) to be hot, irritating, or generally argumentative when lobbed (in powder form) into a conversation with a sentient being. I began mixing these under the house in a small cellar where dad then kept his tools. Now, you may have preemptively reached the conclusion that a small enclosed space with a witches cauldron spewing noxious fumes makes for an adversarial work environment, and you’d be right on the money. Up until the point that some of this solution lifted itself on diaphanous wings and diffused into the air (I knocked over the bowl), I had labored in careful silence. Knowing full well that, due to my previous failed experiments, I was no longer permitted to muck about beneath the earth. After that, I began coughing, sneezing, and gagging with annoying frequency.

Above I hear footsteps and muffled voices.

Mom: “Honey! What is that little idiot doing in the cellar again?”

*Pause*

Dad: “Oh god.”

*Hurried footsteps*

Dad: “*redacted*! What are you DOING in here?”

Me: “An ominous star has appeared in the western sky.”

Dad: “Go to your room!”

Moments later, after scolding and further threats from mom, we both stop and hear my dad shuffling about beneath the kitchen floor, coughing, snorting, and bellowing: “Ah, SHIT!”

“SHIT!”

Where was I going with this? Ah, yes! Disenchantment! The growing divide between the heroic ideal of being an invincible assassin and the reality of ruining your dad’s workspace. This was later driven home by a very unsuccessful deployment of a DIY grapple hook.

The interesting issue that this book examined for me was the tension between artists being free to create art versus the commercial necessity of pandering in order to make a viable product, and the disillusionment that some Mangaka must feel when their passions are thwarted by the realities of popularity polls and audience orthodoxies. How someone’s love for the medium could turn to hatred from laboring many years under the vicissitudes of the mob.

This very thing sends our disaffected protagonist spiraling down Dante’s anus. Rudderless and surrounded by vacuous relationships cultivated on transactional grounds, he’s now desperate for something genuine. Having poured his heart and soul into the craft while other things of vital importance quietly atrophied, he desperately attempts to find some semblance of meaning now that his long running manga series had ended and ennui has evaporated the remaining creative energies necessary for him to continue his career.

It’s as deep and dark as Godzilla’s cloaca, with a taste and texture similar to a used Fleshlight. All around a good time!

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

"La libertad es una herramienta, jamás debe ser un objetivo."

Se sigue la vida y luchas de un mangaka que se ve enfrentado a grandes cambios.

Aquí nos muestra la industria del manga, la vida japonesa en varios aspectos, siento que fue una historia buena pero simple.
Me ha gustado, pero no me ha parecido tan buena en cuanto profundidad en los temas, si es verdad que toca varios aspectos interesantes de la vida adulta, luchas internas y externas, el sentido de las cosas que hacemos, los objetivos, como también cuestionamientos y la búsqueda de lo que nos mueve en la vida, en directa relación en como es la sociedad en Japón, no me ha gustado tanto como otros del mangaka.

[Curious Madra · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Warning there is one rape scene in this which was inexcusable!!!!** *

Basically the great Akidearest talked about this manga today and it definitely is a really sad story about a mangaka. He basically hits rock bottom because he's going through a divorce and feels he just lost interest on creating more manga series.

If you need a realism manga that explains the "behind the scenes" of a mangaka, this is for you friends!

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Asano knows how to write realistic morally/emotionally bankrupt characters in a compassionate way better than any writer I know. Is it odd to call this book hopeful? I think anything that attempts to remove the illusions we hold about our existence and meaning in the world and allows us to see exactly what is can be called hopeful. Because we cannot make something better if our starting point is removed from reality,right?

[Candice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow ok, I didn't expect it to be _this_ dark and depressing.

[Kesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of dull and miserable ngl. At this point I think Inio Asano's works aren't for me. I couldn't even enjoy Goodnight Punpun, what many consider his magnum opus.

[marko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sjajna manga i za mene možda i jače delo nego njegova najpoznatija “Laku noć, Punpune”. Iznova se Asano bavi sličnim temama, ali ovog puta je okruženje potpuno drugačije. Ova čitalačka godina mi je počela čitanjem Tanigučijeve mange koja takođe govori o svetu izdavaštva, mangi i mangakama i interesantno je videti kako dva autora, koja imaju potpuno drugačiji pogled na svet, razmišljaju o istim temama. Za razliku od Tanigučija, Asano je iznova zaokupljen temama depresije, nesnađenosti i beznađa. Prisutan je motiv autora koji pati od manjka inspiracije, kao i motiv umetnika koji ne voli svoje delo i svoj poziv. To glavnog lika mange čini u isto vreme odbojnim i kompleksnim jer konstantno obitava u moralno sivoj zoni. Njegovi postupci su krajnje upitni, a odnosi sa ostalim likovima (a naročito ženama) su za potpunu osudu. Pogled na svet glavnog lika je izuzetno pesimističan i negativno nastrojen, ali ga to čini zanimljivim za čitanje, jer duboko u sebi želite da se promeni iako ste svesni da svakim postupkom sve više tone u “sunovrat”. Asano se dotiče teme izdavaštva, istražuje odnose potrošača, autora i tržišta, prikazuje mučnu sliku ponude i potražnje… Bilo je interesantno pratiti realnost izdavaštva iz ugla osobe koja osuđuje svoj lični poziv, a prezrivo gleda na sve što je popularno bez obzira da li je to kvalitetno ili ne.


P. S. Kao i inače - upozorenje na eksplicitan sadržaj, pokušaj silovanja i 18+ scena. Iako se tako nešto u ovom trenutku već očekuje od Asana, bolje je znati…

[Lou (Lou and Life) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warning for this manga: sexual assault

I went into this manga not really knowing anything about it other then the fact that it was about a manga artist finding his way through life after his best selling manga series finishes. The manga is quite a dark one, especially in the beginning. I was reading it and I could feel the sadness and depression coming through the book to me. It's not always like that, but in the beginning I though that it was quite a bleak and dark take on the world because the main character was not in a good frame of mind. I am surprised to know that I did like this manga. I didn't think I would during the beginning but there is something captivating about this book. I wanted to know what would happen in the end and if the manga artist would still be one by the end. I sped through the 2nd half of the book and I wanted more when I finished. If this was a series I would pick up the sequel.

The characters aren't likeable but I don't think that you are supposed to like them. The are very flawed characters but I think that is what makes them seem more realistic. I didn't like a single character in the book but that doesn't mean it was a bad thing. You don't have to like the characters in a book to like the book.

Overall, I did enjoy this book to my delightful surprise and I think I would recommend it if you were looking for a darker contemporary manga. This manga is not for younger audiences as there are graphic sexual scenes.

[Julien · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this, but it ended up being a very good, if difficult read. The main character is a person who is stuck in a depression of his own making. He feels the hollowness of a life spent in pursuit of something he no longer feels was worth the effort and he slowly comes to the realization over time that maybe he wasn't as worthy a person as he wanted to believe either. I'll be frank, he's not only unlikable, but he does awful things and abuses the people around him in multiple ways. It's a very interesting character study of the extremely banal yet harmful existence of a narcissist. The art is definitely the sort of thing you'd expect from a more literary graphic novel. It's detailed, but just as stark and bleak as the character's life.
I would recommend it, with a lot of caveats (I feel I should definitely add a tw: spousal rape here.), for someone who likes characters studies of absolute messes in realistic settings.

FTC disclosure: I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review