I SAW IT by Keiji Nakazawa + DISASTER DRAWN by Hillary Schrute - It's a Bad Time in War Time

 

 Hillary Schrute's analysis of Keiji Nakazawa's I saw it in her paper Disaster Drawn describes Nakazawa's experience with the atomic bomb of Hiroshima during World War II and explains what emotions he was attempting to evoke through his work. Before having read the story myself, the intended emotion of the story being told felt to still seep through Schrute's paper. I remember reading the portion of her story where she explains that Nakazawa was at school when the bomb dropped - and that he survived only because a wall he was standing by outside had collapsed upon him. After regaining consciousness, the city he once knew had transformed. Akin to waking up in a nightmare, Nakazawa having been greeted by what was left of the people of Hiroshima become monstrous. It's difficult to imagine what living a reality like that would be, but even then simply reading just Schrute's account of the manga was still effective. 

Many people would be afraid or disgusted of this work, if explained in concept and even moreso while reading it but that is what makes Nakazawa's piece powerful - because despite the horror, it is real. Schrute managed to stage the story and capture the main beats of the narrative, but reading the manga itself delivered a much more raw impact that I could not have gotten from Schrute's analysis alone. With its graphic depictions and even just seeing what it was that Nakazawa thought, it's easy to understand how this comic gained such merit and success. 

In the manga itself, Nakazawa explains that when he went to retrieve the bones of his parents that the bomb had even taken those away from him. It wasn't until then that the effects of him having lost his mother and father really begin to settle in - they were taken and they are gone forever. In a lot of popular media, a character can witness an event and will often react with great emotion immediately, yet Nakazawa's delayed understanding of the situation felt much more powerful than many other death scenes what I've seen in many of the movies I've watched and I think that's because we live as well. We suffer shock in greatly traumatizing events and the pain doesn't settle in until later.

Cigarette Girl by Masahiko Matsumoto - The Stresses of Marriage

To start, I thought the artistic style of Cigarette girl was weird - weird, yet it felt perfect for the type of characters that are seen in the story. The way every character's lips are sticking out of their silhouette reminds me of the dreaded 'duck face' trend that graced the internet for some period of time a while ago. It was a selfie-phenomenon where people would, for some reason, poke their lips out (I assume to look like they are blowing a kiss of some kind to look attractive). These people were flamed on the internet for looking so silly and I myself also thought it was a weird wave of how people took pictures of themselves - annoying almost - but these 'duck faces' placed in the context of just the art style of Cigarette Girl placed a lot more innocence and character on the story's universe. Even if the people weren't doing anything, it always looked like they were reacting to the world around them in some way (o3o).

With that said, following Hidari-san's story of trying to approach relationships was funny yet made me feel almost sympathetic for the character. Being that bum that he is while also not having being the smoothest of men meant he suffered a lot of awkward moments while trying to approach various women. One part that stuck out to me as especially funny was when he was told to squeeze the hand of his cigarette girl. He heeded this advice and squeezed her hand, after falling down the stairs and having her come to his aid. A frame of milk spilling followed a couple panels later by the greasy man who gave him the advice saying, "Didn't ya say you blew your load without actually doing anything?" was hysterical.

I know that marriage is, not unlike a lot of what seems to happen here, constantly pushed upon the upcoming generation once they become of age. A few of my friends have told me their parents are constantly bombarding them with "WHEN ARE YA GONNA COME HOME MARRIED? WHERE ARE MY GRANDCHILDREN?" This story was a more, I guess, realistic picture of what it's like to be in that situation - where the pressures of your parents nearly force you to find a significant other.

The Gekiga Expert: A few questions

     Gekiga's influence is seen through a lot of manga and anime - both past and present. What manga(s) do you think set the groundwork for gekiga as we know it today?

     Are there any examples of manga that have become controversial - socially, politically, or whichever - and changed the medium altogether?

     Are there even more recent developments in Manga that have changed the way we experience manga (such as the art styles, panel layouts, story etc.)?