Yoshihiro Tatsumi (calling himself Hiroshi in this autobiographical memoir) is the man behind the alternative style of manga gekiga. Gekiga refers to manga that transcended flights of fancy, action, and humor. Gekiga is about drama, and change, and real life! He wanted the world to experience manga the way he did: as an emotional experience and not just pure entertainment. Gekiga has depth. This manga paralleled those themes perfectly.
A Drifting Life follows Hiroshi from is early days of creating manga to becoming a manga editor and professional mangaka*. The more he read, the more he wanted to create. And the more he created, the more he wanted the medium to evolve. Hiroshi started submitting his work to local manga publishers, which led him to meet his hero Osamu Tezuka. From then he realized that manga was his passion. He drew inspiration, not just from other manga, but from films, from prose novels, and even from the people around him.
I loved this book, but I will say, it's a LONG one. It's so detailed! My favorite kind of manga and anime is 60s, so this was right up my alley. Tatsumi also does a great illustrative job showing Hiroshi's age progression throughout the manga.
A Drifting Life inspired me to create more. Hiroshi would spend so many nights awake, and take on so many projects, and deal with so many toxic people in his life, and yet his love for manga still remained. It may have waned and grew as life took hold of him, but it always remained. Another great part of A Drifting Life was that Tatsumi included current events mixed in with the story. This helped me understand what Japan was going through at the time and how it may have inspired or deterred him from writing.
Which brings me to why I felt sad for him as well. He spent so much time trying to get people into the idea of gekiga all the while trying to make ends meet, that he ended up not writing as many long form stories in that style. He never felt like he did gekiga justice. He felt as if he kept coming back to those ideals, but real life kept getting in the way. Even if he didn't feel that way, he certainly made a lasting impression on readers.
RIP Yoshihiro Tatsumi (1935-2015)
*Mangaka: is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese.
Other Gekiga Mangaka:
Osamu Tezuka (Astro Boy, Kimba The White Lion)
Rumiko Takahashi (Inuyasha)
Tetsuo Hara (Fists of the North Star)
Kazuo Koike (Lone Wolf and Cub)
I am really enjoying your reviews- they are very insightful!
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