Day 22 — My Recommendations for Foreign Manga
It’s the end of another year 2021, wow.
This year I read as many movies, comics, and novels as I could, although the number is much smaller than when I was a student. In particular, I read a lot of manga in e-book format or bought a set of manga with a small number of volumes.
And one of the things I got into this year was “foreign manga.”
The foreign manga I’m talking about here is not American hero comics such as Marvel or DC.
(I’m also interested in such kinds of comics too, but I don’t know where to start. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. I like stories with a lot of depth or that are completely unpredictable.)
I mean, a type of manga called Bande Dessinées or Graphic Novels.
I will dare to call them “foreign manga”.
There are different definitions in different countries and cultures, so you can think of it as foreign comics other than MARVEL and DC.
The content ranges from novel-like stories to autobiographies and essays.
The reason why I am intrigued by foreign manga is that many of them have themes that are not often covered in Japanese comics.
They are often about life abroad, historical stories, or autobiographical stories, and can be enjoyed in a context that is completely different from Japanese works, like watching a foreign movie.
The reason I bought these foreign comics was that I wanted to read the graphic novel masterpiece “MAUS” again.
It is a story about the relationship between a man and his father who survived Auschwitz, and although the characters are anthropomorphized into animals, the content is quite fierce.
I had read it when I was in college, but I wanted to read it again, so I bought it.
Then, when I was in a bookstore and saw a shelf of foreign manga, I thought to myself that I didn’t know much about foreign manga.
I did a little research and found out that there is a lot of foreign manga that have been translated into Japanese.
I’m going to introduce two books that I found interesting.
I think they are pretty royal choices for people who know what they’re talking about.
＜Sabrina＞
The story begins with the disappearance of a woman named Sabrina.
It’s a picture that doesn’t show much of the character’s facial expressions, and to some extent, we have to guess what’s going on with less amount information. The unseen emotions are the theme of the work. The story is interesting because it is related to the current age of social networking and false information, and you never know where the story will lead.
<Rebetiko>
This is a work about the musicians of “Rebetiko,” also known as the Greek blues.
The composition, design, and dialogue are just great. This is a work that you will want to read again and again.
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When I first came to Tokyo, I thought about many things, such as how many people there were, or how cold it was in the winter, and how I wanted a kotatsu, but one of the things that impressed me when I came to Tokyo was the bookstores. There are so many bookstores in Tokyo, wow.
This is how I came across foreign comics at the bookstore, and I go there at least once a week for some reason.
Every time I go there, I try not to buy any books, but just look at the bestseller shelves or the books on the flat pile to see what’s popular, but I end up buying several books.
I’ve been trying to refrain from buying books lately, but every time I go there, I find books I want to read.
The two bookstores below are the ones I often visit for foreign comics.
This is Kinokuniya’s Western bookstore in Shinjuku. It has a rather large floor with books written in English and other foreign languages.
You can feel that most of the books in the world are written in English, and only a few are translated in Japan, which makes you feel that a knowledge of the world is too big.
Books that have been translated into Japanese are often placed side by side, so it is interesting to compare them with the original titles and designs.
In the case of books, the Japanese versions often have better titles and covers than the tragic reality of the Japanese titles and posters of Western movies.
There is also some foreign manga whose Japanese translations are out of print, so my wallet often evaporates.
This is a generic name for a group of second-hand stores located on Nakano Broadway.
There are stores for each genre, and the third floor has shelves that sell foreign manga, so I often go there to look around.
Some of the foreign manga that is rarely sold as new are sold there, so I find my backpack bulging and my money disappearing.
In addition, large bookstores such as Junkudo Ikebukuro, Kinokuniya in Shinjuku, and MARUZEN ＆ Junkudo in Shibuya, as well as used bookstores (like book-off), often sell this book along with American hero comics.
We can get information about books from newspaper reviews, Twitter, and magazines that feature books, and I’ve heard recently it is popular to get information from Tiktok, but it’s also fun to just wander around bookstores.
I’m still trying to reduce my stack of books, so I miss my long vacations sometimes. This was 2021, my second year as a working member.
Let me know if you have any recommendations for foreign manga or bookstores.
Have a happy, and healthy new year!
This article is part of the 2021 HENNGE Advent Calendar. An Advent calendar is a special calendar used for counting down the days till Christmas. 2021 HENNGE Advent Calendar presents one article by one HENNGE member per day for 25 days until Christmas, 2021
