02 May / Japan As Viewed by 17 Creators produced by Fanfare/Ponent Mon, translated by Shizuka Shimoyama, Elizabeth Tiernan, and Vanessa Champion
Here’s an uncommon venue for an East/West cultural exchange: manga across borders! Under the auspices of the French Institutes and Alliances in Japan, 10 French-speaking “comic creators” and seven Japanese manga artists wrote 16 chapters (two French creators worked together) inspired by their experiences visiting or living in various cities throughout the country.
Not surprisingly, as with Japan‘s companion title, Korea As Viewed by 13 Creators, this collection is uneven, ranging from the nostalgic, bittersweet, gorgeously rendered childhood memory of lost chances in Jiro Taniguchi’s “Summer Sky,” to a strangely insulting conversation between two friends condemning French ex-pats first, then Japanese customs and what they think are Japanese-specific characteristics in Joann Sfar’s “Waterloo’s Tokyo.”
The most standout chapter is not so much for its literary achievement, but contextual timing: Fabrice Neaud’s “The City of Trees” is a travelogue of the artist’s visit to Sendai (!). As he wanders the shopping centers, beaches, temples, and city streets, the immediate reaction is a realization that his detailed drawings are now historical remnants of places past, given the recent destruction of the coastal town by the devastating tsunami in March.
Other noteworthy chapters include Taiyo Matsumoto’s “Kankichi,” about a young boy ostracized because he wants nothing more than to draw, who eventually saves his village with his artistic prowess, and Étienne Davodeau’s closing “Sapporo Fiction,” in which a Japanese fisherman goes to visit his “twin brother” for their 60th birthday and meets a French comic artist along his journey who uses his pictures in lieu of foreign words to communicate.
Readers might do better just reading single-author works, perhaps those of Jiro Taniguchi or Taiyo Matsumoto, for example. Both manga artists from this collection are highly recommended. That said, for newbies unfamiliar with any comic artists, this collection could certainly be a useful introduction which might lead to the next manga title. The more manga, the merrier always!
Readers: Young Adult, Adult
Published: 2006 (United States)