But really, the friction blaise describes is a big part of what draws me in. I think you only see the manga parts of their lives because there’s only manga in their lives. Tatsumi’s relationship with his brother is solely defined by manga, and his relationship with his father is solely defined by money, which manga provides. His dedication is fervent, all-encompassing, exclusory. I feel like there’s not much cut out, and the scene with his complete uncomfortability with the opposite sex underscores a profoundly limited existence. The fact that there’s nothing to the work except the work is, I think, deliberate, and successful.

Now, that said, should the work be annotated with more comics pages, more notes, MORE to give the comics content more context? Absolutely. I was gutted to see how sparse the annotations were.

The comparison to Yokoyama is interesting… I’ve got to think about that some more. His “Travel” is in one of the review piles I need to get to.

i enjoyed this friction. for such a lengthy manga there is a lot left unsaid, especially concerning relationships. seems like if there was a ‘sequel’ it would be about sex. but i liked how capitalistic the entire story was, in content and execution. human feeling makes cameos and otherwise provides a safe backdrop for capitalist drama to unfold. similar to yokoyama, i felt a ‘nonhumanness’ that felt poignant.