Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - Tatsumi's Testament
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Chrno2
 Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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I really enjoyed this movie. I read the all the books released some time back including the bio. I was really impressed with this film I wish there was some extras on the DVD that showed the creative process. Because I really wanted to know how they got the animation to look so much like the source material. I had wondered if Tatsumi was involved with some of the art. Definitely recommended viewing.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I haven't seen the movie, but I have read Drifting Life, Abandon the Old in Tokyo, and The Push Man (the last two via my library). I enjoyed them, but not enough to buy them. I've actually been wanting to get more short story collections into my manga collection lately, but my favorite could only be A Drunken Dream and Other Stories. So yeah, I've read three Tatsumi and I kinda think he's ok.
Now I'm really confused on the term "gekiga" though. I've read the Tezuka manga mentioned, Adolf and Kirihito, I'm just not entirely sure how it's different from seinen, I assumed those Tezuka manga were seinen. What about other horribly depressing seinen stuff like Ikigami or Bokurano? I'm not sure else is gekiga now! |
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bravetailor
Posts: 817 |
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Having had my finger on the pulse of 'alt-comics' fandom for a long time now, I can say that Mike has it right that Tatsumi's been known by alt-comics fans for about a decade now, if not more. Much of his initial exposure in the west started with Adrian Tomine, actually, who made it his mission to promote Tatsumi's stuff to alt-comics fans about 10 or so years ago.
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Kikaioh
 Posts: 1205 Location: Antarctica |
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My first exposure to Yoshihiro Tatsumi was "A Drifting Life" --- mainly, in seeing it in bookstores and wanting to buy it, but never getting around to it. ^^; My first real exposure to his work was "Black Blizzard", which I did wind up buying. I thought it was a compelling read until the ending, where it felt like there was a lot of exposition to explain some of the revelations in the story. I'll have to get around to picking up Drifting Life eventually, I've been curious to read it for a while now, but maybe I've put it off because I've heard it feels wandersome and realistic, which sounded a bit like a downer I guess.
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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Oh yeah I've read a few of these things! I found both A Drifting Life and Abandon the Old in Tokyo at my college's library, really liked Life but just couldn't get through Abandon, just couldn't connect with any any of it and ended up abandoning reading it. Although I have to admit I'm also curious why some of Tezuka's stuff is also called gekiga if those comics were created partially as a reaction to his work/what makes it different from senien (since I've only read the first volume of Adolf and it felt rather different from Tatsumi's works, not exactly like a senien manga but closer to that anyway).
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Anime World Order
 Posts: 390 Location: Florida |
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Although I would probably not refer to the Tezuka works such as Ode to Kirihito, MW, Message to Adolf, Ayako, and the like as "gekiga" themselves, they are undeniably the sort of work that Tezuka made in response to the gekiga movement. Since seinen is the broadest of manga classifications, I sometimes say "gekiga-inspired seinen" to denote that I'm talking about titles that are a far cry from say, Yotsuba&!, such as the Tezuka works mentioned above. Much like how "film noir" was a movement during a specific time period, the production pipeline and the societal makeup are too different now for "gekiga" to really exist today. (There are, incidentally, some common societal elements driving both film noir and gekiga.) But perhaps if anything currently being published fits the bill, it would have to be Takao Saito's Golgo 13 which has held true to its roots all these years. Then again, something about Saito's "I'm just in it for the money" depiction in A Drifting Life makes me wonder if perhaps Tatsumi has an axe to grind with the guy. |
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Petrea Mitchell
Posts: 438 Location: Near Portland, OR |
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Hunter x Hunter volume 1 in the original Japanese, because it's high time I learned some more. How's it going? Um, let's just say there's no danger of me catching up to the TV adaptation before it finishes. |
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andyos
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 269 |
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Because of Chrno2's comment above, I thought it was worth noting that there's some material on the film on the ANN UK page (the film had a limited release at some British cinemas).
Interview with director Eric Khoo: animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2012-01-14/eric-khoo Press notes, including more comments by Khoo animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2012-01-03/tatsumi-u.k-cinema-release-january-13 My review of the film animenewsnetwork.com/review/tatsumi |
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Msag
 Posts: 50 |
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After approx. 2 years of following ANN, I finally registered to say I loved reading this, and I will definitely try reading and watching Tatsumi's work!
(sorry, I know drawing attention to the fact that I'm a newbie is off-topic, but I just had to say it) |
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Brad F
Posts: 3 |
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I too made an account after years of readership just to comment on this piece. I found the first two volumes of Tatsumi's work (Push Man and Abandon the Old in Tokyo) in a college library and they blew me away. I enjoyed every story and the best ones stayed with me for days and days.
It was a case of being torn between wanting to read more in one sitting and only allowing myself one or two stories at a time, so they would last longer. I'm not much of a manga or comics guy (anime is what brings me here) but his works really gave me a respect for what the form is capable of. I would advise everyone to go check out his work. Black Blizzard is probably a good starting point. It's not my favorite of his work, but still a hell of a read. The only caveat I would add is that some of his stuff (Especially Abandon the Old) is so unremittingly bleak that, if you connect with it, you're going to feel pretty damn awful. Ha ha. |
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Chrno2
Posts: 6172 Location: USA |
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Thanks for that update. I'm sure to take a look. 
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StudioToledo
 Posts: 847 Location: Toledo, U.S.A. |
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My library had it to check out so I did, and it was worth doing! |
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