Have you read...? Mangas from Inio Asano
What a Wonderful World!
My first contact with manga author Inio Asano was in the Sol Bookstore ⤴ in the ethnic Liberdade neighborhood ⤴ of São Paulo. I was just browsing random manga and the cover of What a Wonderful World! ⤴ stood out for me: just a guy with a weird, childish bear mask holding a gun and a suitcase. I read it and I thought it was interesting, different, a little weird. These were somewhat ordinary, somewhat philosophical stories that didn’t directly propose or state anything. They were stories about life and how people live and go on with their lives, with all its joys and problems.
Goodnight Punpun
Some time later, a cousin came to me with the first volume of Goodnight Punpun ⤴, one of Asano’s most famous works. The weirdness and general upsetting feeling of the story ended up making me buy all the 6 volumes. Following the life of Punpun Onodera from his childhood until his early 20s, it delves into incredibly heavy topics such as depression, child abuse, trauma, rape and murder, that I rarely see shown or even discussed in manga in general (or maybe I’m just not looking at the right direction). The most striking visual characteristic of this manga is that Punpun and his family members are depicted as crudely drawn bird-like creatures, even though they’re regular humans. It was definitely an interesting story about growing, mental illness and finding one’s path in life, but it’s certainly not for everyone. I joke that I still haven’t decided if I like it or not.
I like the art, and I really love how Asano definitely doesn’t suffer from the “same face syndrome” that a lot of other manga artists do. There’s so much personality in each character and each one of them stands out on their own. The scenarios, in particular, which I believe are processed real-life pictures, are amazing. One thing that bugged me though is that many times I felt that the dialogues and narrative in general didn’t make much sense, in a kind of non-sequitur way, but I wonder if that was on purpose, given the tone of the story, or maybe translation issues.
Solanin
Now that I was more familiar with Inio Asano’s style and general mindset, I read Solanin ⤴, a short, coming-of-age story of a young couple starting their life in the big city. It was published before Goodnight Punpun, and I appreciated the lighter tone of the story and how it was told. Loved the cuter, less creepy art style compared to Punpun. The story felt satisfying and heartwarming. It even originated a live action movie that I’ve yet to watch, with music by famous band Asian Kung Fu Generation.
Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction
Now I’m reading Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction ⤴ (gosh, what a weird title). I absolutely love the art and the character design, Asano’s stylistic variety and versatility really shines here. I think his art is a lot more mature and confident, especially compared to his aforementioned previous works. Also his penchant for creating weird characters also really appears here.
The premise of this manga is that there was an alien invasion on Earth, specifically in Japan. The invaders weren’t actually powerful, so humanity was able to fight back and reach a sort of stalemate. The alien mothership is still hovering over Tokyo, but there isn’t actually much fighting - it actually seems more like humanity, or more specifically the Japanese, are using the invaders as a sort of scapegoat to their economic and social problems. The main story follows the life of a group of high schooler girls, almost graduating, and what they intend to do with their lives, all while the mysterious invaders’ threat still looms in the sky.
I thought the story started a little slow, but now I’m really into it, and absolutely love how Asano mixes themes such as politics, prejudice, gender discussion, xenophobia and a great deal of self-criticism for Japan. And the characters, weird as they may be, are very deep, relatable and human. I think most people can relate to their experiences and struggles. I just finished the 5th volume, so I’m not even halfway through the 12 volumes yet, but this is becoming one of my favorite comics already.
I can definitely see why Inio Asano is one of the most acclaimed Japanese manga authors nowadays and, if you want to read some more mature stories than your usual manga, you should definitely read his works.