Broken Frontier

The title says it all really.  Well, maybe the book itself isn’t quite so succinct, but it’s the idea anyhow.

The author of solanin returns with another story about those in between college and real life.  Again, the struggle to find one’s place in the world is the centerpiece of Asano Inio’s writing.

The oppressive nature of Inoue’s story made it depressing and to be honest, it felt contrite.  Here there is a fluidity and honesty that was hindered in the larger work.  What a Wonderful World! is made up of nine vignettes.  Asano calls them “tracks” and like solanin, music is a big deal here.  Like being a manga artist or a photographer, for many of the characters that flow in and out of these stories, the artistic life is a dream, or freedom, of soaring.  Maybe it is an opportunity to have a voice in a society so concerned with success.

For the characters of Inio’s world, much is placed on being successful.  Voice isn’t important, so one character leaves his dream of being in a band to become an office worker only to watch the remnants of the band become a huge pop success.  Little does he know that the band is embarrassed that they gave up their creative soul to have a shot at the big time.

Many of the characters are fresh out of college or are “ronin” (here, the word means “failed student” instead of masterless society).  The freshly graduated struggle with what it means to be a “responsible” member of the greater organism known as Japan.  The ronin are directionless and seem like a lower caste, untouchable and undesirable.  All are facing the same insecurities and struggles at making a comfortable life for themselves.

Eventually, the main characters find that there is something that makes it all worth the trouble.  Be it a loved one or independence or a turtle.  It is a unique piece of comics writing, like a collection of Tomine stories with an uplifting message that all interconnect like Love Actually.  More than any other manga I have ever read, there is the imprint of Yoshihiro Tatsumi on this work.  It is experimental and bold.  This, of course, causes unevenness.  There is a magic realism present in the first two stories with anthropomorphic turtles leaving the shell and crows magically catching humans.  Whether this was an attempt to capture a more mainstream audience in Japan with these first few stories is unknown, but the magic disappears and real life takes over.  Maybe, put that way, at least, it is an accomplished literary feat.  Who knows?  But, it is odd that the magic disappears so completely... while some stories acknowledge it, “Syrup” especially with its eponymous character flying to his end, it never truly enters into this first volume again.

The art will be a delight to those who read the earlier work by the artist.  Here is that cartoon take on traditional manga.  The designs would be perfect in something like a manga adaptation of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, if that makes any sense to anyone other than my 13 year old daughter.  It is an interesting way to portray these characters.  It denotes their youthfulness and demonstrates their transitional stature.  Maybe the whimsical lines are meant to make their struggle more noticeable, to help the reader appreciate what these stories are all about.

What a Wonderful World! is distinct in the market of slice of life stories.  It is not a saccharine feel good piece, but it isn’t as dark as the works of Tomine or Tatsumi.  It is a brave piece of writing and infectious in its delivery.  Immensely readable and very likeable, it is almost like Beverly Cleary for older readers.  Hopefully, that’s what the author is after, cause in its own way, that is the highest praise I think this book could get.