“Prepare to be disturbed and blown away. The stuff is remarkable, amazing.”—Los Angeles Times

I don’t really know why I picked this one up, I was perusing the graphic novel section of my local store really just bought in on impulse. Specialist publishers Drawn and Quarterly have done a really nice job in presenting it.

I’d never even head of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, or the gekiga style of alternative comics which he is credited with starting.

While, the stories and images focusing on the devastation Japan felt post WW2 are powerful and shocking and as the Los Angeles times said, disturbing, I think much is lost, if not in translation, then in context.

I would imagine, that when these stories were first published in 1971 and 1972 in Japan then the readers would have drawn much more relevance, from Tatsumi’s work, than a modern day Westerner could, that’s not to say one can’t take quite a bit from it, far from it, but like any political/social commentary, knowledge of the subject helps, but experience is everything.

Saying that, I do highly recommend that if you get the opportunity to look through a copy, then I heartily recommend do so.

Rating:

Buy, Good-bye at Amazon