Abandon the Old in Tokyo

Tatsumi's short stories #2

by Yoshihiro Tatsumi, Yuji Oniki (Translator)

Abandon the Old in Tokyo continues to delve into the urban underbelly of 1960s Tokyo, exposing not only the seedy dealings of the Japanese everyman but Yoshihiro Tatsumi's maturation as a storyteller. Many of the stories deal with the economic hardships of the time and the strained relationships between men and women, but do so by means of dark allegorical twists and turns. A young sewer cleaner's girlfriend has a miscarriage and leaves him when he proves incapable of finding higher-paying work. When a factory worker loses his hand on the job, the parallels between him and his pet monkey prove startling and significant.

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Japan, Short Stories, Japanese Literature

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Yoshihiro Tatsumi (辰巳 ヨシヒロ Tatsumi Yoshihiro, June 10, 1935 in Tennōji-ku, Osaka) was a Japanese manga artist who was widely credited with starting the gekiga style of alternative comics in Japan, having allegedly coined the term in 1957.

His work has been translated into many languages, and Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly have embarked on a project to publish an annual compendium of his works focusing each on the highlights of one year of his work (beginning with 1969), edited by American cartoonist Adrian Tomine. This is one event in a seemingly coincidental rise to worldwide popularity that Tomine relates to in his introduction to the first volume of the aforementioned series. Tatsumi received the Japan Cartoonists Association Award in 1972. In 2009, he was awarded the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize for his autobiography, A Drifting Life. The same work garnered him multiple Eisner awards (Best Reality-Based Work and Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia) in 2010 and the regards sur le monde award in Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2012.

A full-length animated feature on the life and short stories of Yoshihiro Tatsumi was released in 2011. The film, Tatsumi, is directed by Eric Khoo.

Source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories from the street...everyday people dealing with the pain and disappointment that we all must face throughout life. As I read more GN I can't fail to notice how Japanese writers/artists have never been afraid to tackle controversial issues. In many ways I think that this book is a good example of this fearless.

[E. G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introduction, by Koji Suzuki

--Occupied
--Abandon the Old in Tokyo
--The Washer
--Beloved Monkey
--Unpaid
--The Hole
--Forked Road
--Eel

Q&A with Yoshihiro Tatsumi

[Helly · Rating 5 out of 5]

One has to be comfortable with a perverse representation of the world around us, one that reflects it's darkest and most twisted Psychologies. The illustrations creep into your mind and stay there for many a day, and after Junji Ito it's Yoshihiro Tatsumi who captures a twisted psyche so perfectly without delving completely into the realm of horror.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Abandon The Old in Tokyo" is Tatsumi's second collected edition from Drawn & Quarterly and shows a marked shift in tone from the dark, satirical humour in "The Push Man" to a much darker worldview in this book. The first thing to notice is that the pieces are longer this time around. Tatsumi uses this length to go deeper into the minds of his protagonists and the Japanese society of this time.

The title story is about a young man, torn between a life with his fiancee and a more restricted life looking after his invalid mother. Flashbacks show the mother to be neglectful of her son in his youth while she forgot to feed him and went drinking with men instead. The story ends with the young man purposefully leaving his mother in a room for several days, coming back and finding her dead.

"The Washer" is about a window cleaner whose daughter gets taken advantage of by a president of a company, leaving her pregnant and alone.

"Beloved Monkey" is about a factory worker whose pet monkey, depressed being kept in a small flat all day, is released into a monkey enclosure at a zoo and is torn to pieces by the other monkeys. The factory worker gets his arm ripped off and loses the severance money to a prostitute.

"Unpaid" features a bankrupt old man whose crushing debt and personal unhappiness leads him to spend time with a well bred dog whose teeth have been pulled out. In a shocking sequence, the two thrash about in a frenzy of misery.

"The Hole" features a young woman whose body has been ravaged by plastic surgery gone wrong and gets her revenge on men, one man at a time, keeping them in a hole until they die.

I love Tatsumi's work but having read a summary of just some of the stories here, my, aren't they bleak? I was left feeling really depressed when I finished the book. Nearly everybody in the book is wronged somehow and undergoes crushing misery without respite.

The storytelling and artwork is more confident and shows Tatsumi's skill as an artist that despite the sorrowful tone throughout that he mesmerises the reader with compelling stories.

Definitely not for those looking for a pick me up, but a brilliant comic book nonetheless. A great read if emotionally exhausting.

[Drew Canole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really just some of the best short story manga I've read. Mostly stories of men suffering through traumatic events or dealing with trauma from the past.

Abandon the Old in Tokyo published in 2006 collecting the best of Tastumi's 1970 output. It's such a shame we only ever got 3 of these collections! Just 1969-1971. What does his other work look like?

"Occupied" (はいってます, Haittemasu)
A manga creator gets fired because his children's manga is uninspired. He ends up getting inspired by pornographic manga but gets caught doing pornographic graffiti in a bathroom.

"Abandon the Old in Tokyo" (東京うばすて山, Tōkyō Ubasuteyama)
A guy is working his ass off caring for his invalid mother who just keeps shitting on him for being lazy. She says she worked so hard for him when he was a kid. We slowly get some flashbacks revealing that - no, she wasn't a good mother at all! He ends up abandoning her but feels guilty about it and rushes back.

"The Washer" (洗い屋, Arai-ya)
A window cleaner sees his daughter sleeping with a company president. He forces his daughter to shower and scrubs her clean. Later he's caring for his daughter's baby and sees the president having another affair.

"Beloved Monkey" (いとしのモンキー, Itoshii no Monkī)
A guy has a pet monkey and resigns from his factory job unfortunately losing his arm in an accident on his final day. He releases the monkey into the zoo where the monkey gets beaten to death by the other monkeys!

"Unpaid"
An older man has a failed company. This one was odd... he ends up having sex with a dog...

"The Hole" (あな, Ana)
This reminds me of the novel The Woman in the Dunes - a Japanese novel from 1962 - so a potential influence perhaps? A hiker gets abducted by a deformed woman and is left in a pit. His girlfriend comes and finds him but just leaves him there! It turns out he wanted a divorce, she agrees with the deformed woman that men are awful.

"Forked Road" (わかれみち, Wakaremichi)
Ken gets drunk and recalls when he saw his friend's mom having sex. This one has some nice artwork with some heavy photoreferenced pages which look great. The visuals include a tram that I suppose is a visual metaphor for the forked road.

"Eel" (うなぎ, Unagi)
About a sewer cleaner, who finds eels in the sewers, who's wife has a miscarriage.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely, haunting short stories about urban life. Tatsumi originally wrote and drew these in the late 60's and early 70's, but they don't feel dated. His protagonists struggle to survive in dead end jobs against a sea of troubles. There is melancholy to these stories, but never despair. His characters are resolute and stubborn; one can't imagine them ever giving up. They are not chipper or plucky or spunky or overly optimistic about their chances--this isn't Barefoot Gen, after all. They're just prepared to stick it out for the long haul, more tortoise than hare. There's an afterword in which Adrian Tomine, who edited this volume, interviews Tatsumi. One of the points he makes is that there's a certain kinship between these stories and the work of some of the American underground comics artists of the period: Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez, Trina Robbins, etc. I can definitely see some parallels with Spain's work, not to mention Justin Green and Harvey Pekar. Tatsumi denies such an influence, but it was probably just generally in the air at the time as it's not too difficult to point to trends in movies and TV from the same era that echo the tone of these stories. In general, this is some fine work, very different from the typical manga that are published in English. Highly recommended!

[Vishy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got 'Abandon the Old in Tokyo' by Yoshihiro Tatsumi as a present from a friend sometime back. When I was thinking of reading a graphic novel today, I decided to pick it up.

Japanese writers believe in presenting stories in comic form. They are pioneers in it. Comics probably occupies a bigger literary landscape in Japan than regular books - there are probably more readers of comics there than there are readers of other kinds of books. One of the reasons for this is that there are comics written for both kids and grown-ups. Writing comics for grownups was a quintessentially Japanese thing, before others started copying it. Sometimes these comics weren't just fictional stories but were biographies and memoirs. The Japanese were much ahead of comics writers from other countries on this front - in presenting nonfiction books in comic form.

Why this long rambling passage on Japanese comics? Because this book is a perfect example of Japanese comics. It has eight stories. It doesn't tell one story in eight chapters. It has eight short stories told in comics form. It defies the norm that a comics story should be long, should have a longer narrative arc. Who defies the norm, who writes a comics short story collection? A Japanese writer, of course.

The first thing about this collection of stories is that it is not for children. The stories are on themes which are of more interest to grownups. One of the stories might make even grownups squirm with discomfort. The first story 'Occupied' is about a comics writer who loses his job. What he does when he hears this news forms the rest of the story. 'Abandon the old in Tokyo', the title story, is about a young man who takes care of his old mother. His mother is domineering and tries her best to make him feel guilty and hold on to him and not let him go. Our young man is engaged to a young woman though. How our young man manages his relationship with the two women in his life forms the rest of the story. This was probably my most favourite story in the book. 'The Washer' is about a man who washes windows of tall buildings. One day when he is washing a particular window, he notices that his daughter is inside that apartment and she is having an affair with someone. What this window washer does about it forms the rest of the story. 'Beloved Monkey' is about a worker in a factory who has a pet monkey. It is a beautiful story about modern life in a big city in which a person feels alienated and lonely. It reminded me a lot of the Vittorio De Sica movie 'Umberto D.' 'Unpaid' is the story about an old man whose business goes under and who is hounded by creditors. This is the story with some shocking scenes. I won't tell you what they are. It is a heartbreaking story. 'The Hole' is almost a horror story - it is dark and scary and gripping. 'Forked Road' is about a young man who is always drunk and we are taken back to his past to find out what happened to him which made him be this way. 'Eel' is the story of a young man who works as a sewer cleaner.

One common feature across most of the stories is this - there is a young man who lives in a big city which is undergoing major change and modernization, he feels lonely and alienated from others inspite of the hustle and bustle around, he is awkward with women, he is introverted, his life is hard. This is the central feature of most of the stories. Alienation and loneliness are key themes in every story. How the story's central character reacts to this alienation and loneliness is the main part of the story. It is beautifully and realistically told and sometimes it is insightful, and at other times it is heartbreaking. Yoshihiro Tatsumi says this in the interview featured at the end of the book, about his storytelling style - "My basic approach was to come up with a 'bleak story' gekiga style that completely eliminated the requisite gags and humor so prominent in mainstream manga. The gag style defied realism. Unlike my contemporaries, I felt no need to incorporate humor into serious stories. I wanted to represent reality." Yoshihiro Tatsumi's artwork is beautiful - it looks deceptively simple in its quintessential Japanese style and Tatsumi plays brilliantly with light and shade throughout the book. There is also an insightful one page introduction at the beginning of the book by Koji Suzuki, who wrote the acclaimed 'Ring' trilogy.

I loved 'Abandon the old in Tokyo'. I discovered that more of Yoshihiro Tatsumi's work has been translated into English, including his memoir. I can't wait to read them.

[Sheila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I thought this book would give me more of an insight into post-war Japan. It succeeds in showing some of the underbelly of life, but I found the stories repetitive and annoyingly misogynistic. Nearly all of the main characters in the stories (all helpless, distraught men) blame their problems in some way or another on women. Adrian Tomine is supposedly really influenced by Tatsumi's work, but I'd rather read Tomine any day. At least he offers a bit of redemption in his stories.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book while searching (fruitlessly as it turned out) for another book by a different author. I was very, very impressed by both the artwork and the storytelling. In fact I liked it so much, that I lent it to someone in my office whose tastes overlap much of my own.

But I am shocked to find that not only did I read it before (according to my Goodreads log), but that I did not write anything about it! I guess I was both lazy and artless in those days.

The most troubling thing is that there was no sensation of having seen the drawings or the plots before. Wow. I guess my mind is slipping away.

But the book, a collection of powerfully drawn and written manga from an alternative Japanese artist, is something that I do strongly recommend. While some may not find the artwork "compelling" or very intricate, the figures and backgrounds are there to push the story forward, as most good graphic tales do. The author draws his protagonists in fairly plain and similar fashion for each tale, but that does not detract from the way it captures our attention and holds it firmly.

There are eight different tales in this collection along with an introduction and interview with the artist. It is the middle book in a three part series of his work. I have not seen the other two volumes. I will look for them, though.

Years ago, I gave this book a "4" and it deserves that or even a "4.5". You will not find many books from the 70's that have such strong and well-crafted stories. I can't you will enjoy this book, as the tales are not at all happy or light-hearted, but you will be impressed.

[Jaymee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soft and yet gritty drawings of everyday life in Japan during the 70's. The sordid reality of the characters is very tangible in Tatsumi's work; however, it is balanced with light humor. This graphic medium has succeeded in bringing together the Japanese of today and yesterday, as well as bringing in the readers to experience their reality. Tatsumi's perspective is spot on, and his eye serves as a perfect record of humanity's destruction, as well as occasional glimpses of beauty, as shown in this series of oftentimes-strange stories. He never leaves anything out; the buildings and the walls pop out at you, and they are also characters in the stories. Delving into the deeper characters of people and how they cope, no matter how strange or repulsive, at the end of the day, it shows that it is man's survival that is important. And though the characters may seem to be defeated and weak, the stories' importance lies on the fact that the characters have indeed survived, even if they still live in their "one room castles." For they still recognize freedom and they continue, and this is just enough to save them.

[Przemysław Skoczyński · Rating 4 out of 5]

Druga z trzech części serii wydanej przez D&Q, przedstawiającej dorobek Tatsumiego z lat 60/70. Komiksy tworzone dla "Garo", ale także (o dziwo) dla dziecięcych magazynów komiksowych. Sam autor przyznaje, że tematykę rzadko czerpał z własnej biografii, a częściej z podrzędnych magazynów dla dorosłych czy kryminalnych kartotek. W stosunku do części pierwszej więcej tu niuansów zarówno w treści i rysunkach. To nadal przygnębiająca, okrutna czy wręcz szokująca sztuka, a jednak pozostaje wrażenie, że coraz więcej tu głębi.

Głowni bohaterowie to zawsze przeiciętniacy (zresztą wyglądający tak samo w prawie każdej historii), którzy nawet jeśli robią rzeczy obrzydliwe, nigdy sami do końca źli nie są. To powojenna rzeczywistość i społeczeństwo stanowią kontekst dla wszystkich depresyjnych sytuacji, w jakie zostali uwikłani. Everyman u Tatsumiego jest przede wszystkim zdesperowany i samotny. Jeden z kadrów, przedstawiających człowieka w ogromnym tłumie podpisano sentencją: "The more people flock together, the more alienated they become" - wydaje mi się, że to najlepsze podsumowanie tego kapitalnego zbioru.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this in Greenlight Bookstore and thought it looked interesting. This series of graphic short stories seem to be connected by a similar character - a man lost in society. These male characters all have feelings, urges, dreams and all but somehow they always seem to come up short. It is only through the unexpected chance that they find anything that takes them away from their daily misery. What takes them away is not the women in their lives: the mothers are whores; the girlfriends, fiancees and wives are all disappointed in the men and constantly nag them. What they find momentarily is a life away from what they've known. For one man that is nude images on the wall of a public toilet (the stories are set in post-war Japan and are much more innocent than a more contemporary story might be.

The author notes in an interview at the end of the book that he depicts Japanese life as it really was but his graphic art was not a normal theme of that time.

[Michael Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of the series on Japanese daily life by TATSUMI Yoshihiro that also includes Push Man and Good-Bye, Abandon the Old in Tokyo is a collection of short stories depicting Japan probably just after the war (the dread, the sacrifice of everyday salary men for the sake of re-growing the economy, etc.) The topics included here are drawn as "gekiga" (realistic drama), so by no means "easy"; they also include some of the really eccentric parts of the series.

Tatsumi focuses on the lives of working class outcasts, which he depicts in realistic, if slightly edgy and extremely pessimistic, circumstances. The characters seem permanently on the edge of collapse, physical or moral, and usually fall during the first dramatic event. The art is clean, with cartoonish characters but a certain photo quality for the backgrounds. Unfortunately, the stories are based on extreme situations reported by the police or pulp news items, which makes this collection a portrayal of a dystopian Japan.

"Abandon the Old in Tokyo", the story that gives the title to this collection, depicts slices from the life of a poor worker who lives with his mother and is pressured into marriage by a young woman. Caught between duty and life, the protagonist begins an internal struggle that pushes each character in an unwanted direction. This is one of the few detailed, slow paced stories in the collection and series.

In the other stories this collection, a washed up manga artist rediscovers his passion for art when seeing the smut drawn in a toilet and lands a job in the business, only to be caught by police while decorating a public toilet ("Occupied"). In "The Washer", a window washer observes powerless how white-collar employees sleep with the secretaries and maids, girls like his daughter. In "Beloved Monkey", a poor worker struggles to find himself a place in the society; his life is metaphorically paralleled by the life of his pet monkey. In "Unpaid", an old businessman loses his company and all his savings, and ends up having sex with a dog. In "The Hole", an innocent traveler is trapped and killed by a lunatic, after being betrayed by his fiance; this story reminds me of Kobo Abe's The Woman in the Dunes. In "Forked Road", a boy witnesses two adults having sex and is scarred for life. In "Eel", a cleaner is left by his girlfriend and later commits a gesture equivalent to abandoning hope.

The series also includes aspects that are either typically Japanese (or do not have a real correspondent in European and American post-WW2 life). The women are second-class citizens, and are only depicted as either extreme villains (money-grabbers, cheaters, etc.) or target of abuse (typically, sexual harassment or even rape). The topics also include sexual deviation (bestiality), entrapment, capitalist exploitation, collision of social classes, etc.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Raymond Carver was a Japanese Manga artist...he would be something like Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

This is collection of manga short stories about various down-on-their-luck people in the increasingly urbanized Japan of the 1970s. Tatsumi's working stiffs live far from the prosperity and largesse of the 'Japanese Economic Miracle' of that time.

They struggle to hold down dead end jobs, care for decrepit loved ones, and combat their refreshingly non-romantic dissolution with sex and drink. What's most impressive here is the profound sense of anxiety and loneliness that Tatsumi invokes in nearly every frame. His characters are spooked by a modernizing japan that has changed so quickly, they can often only muster a sense of numb solitude.

Tatsumi's artwork is lovely, and he can switch on a dime between sly moments of dark humor, and a gorgeous sense of private ennui that could give Edward Hopper a run for his money.

[Vanya Prodanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Втората книга сборник с комикси на Yoshihiro Tastumi се оказа още по-добра и красиво направена. Определено ще си купя всичко що намеря на него преведено за моята лична библиотека.

Този път историите ми се сториха много по-добре подбрани в сборника, рисунките му ме караха да се спирам и възхищавам на отделни сцени, а някои истории така съвършено са свързани с рисунките, че само стоях, гледах и се възхищавах как му е хрумнало да го направи.
Истинска комикс нирвана. Самите истории са разкошни и болезнено реални. Доста хора предполагам, че биха ги намерили за неприятни и крайно депресиращи, но аз им се радвах. :)

[Oneirosophos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very strong, some nonsensical, slice-of-life dark stories, in the '70s. But could have happened even today.

[Kaj Peters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik blijf een sucker voor dit soort macabere verhalen over geperverteerde, vrouwenhatende loners. Schitterend hoe Tatsumi het grootstedelijke Tokyo van z'n tijd tot leven brengt met sfeerplaten waarop alles herrie maakt en individuen in de anonimiteit verdwijnen tussen de beklemmende mensenmassa's- walgelijke pulp, maar met een onverwachte schoonheid. Het titelverhaal is voor mij een van de hoogtepunten van de bundel.

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okaay.... ????

I expected to like this collection a lot more, since it's bizarre, dark, and culturally significant. And I do tend to enjoy the bizarre, but this collection threw me for a loop. Perhaps its weird-level is beyond me, or perhaps my brain isn't working hard enough; I'm not sure. But the intense combination of weirdness and visual/thematic ickiness is very unappealing.

Some primitive descriptions of each story's weirdness under the spoiler tag:

Occupied: kodomo mangaka who has digestive troubles becomes obsessed with lurid bathroom graffiti + draws some + is accused of being a pervert + ????

Abandon the Old in Tokyo: unfulfilled and unspeaking trash collector feels trapped by his life + takes note of planned obsolescence + moves his demanding elderly mom out of his home + she commits suicide + he carries her dead body piggyback down a crowded street + no one notices she's dead in "pedestrian paradise." i liked this one but i'm guessing it makes more sense if you have more knowledge of 1970s japanese culture.

The Washer: window washer looks through a window and sees his adult daughter having sex with a company president + fixates on her + later forcibly removes her clothes + washes her down in the shower + in the end he's washing windows with a baby + idk who that baby even is but yikes misogyny + ????

Beloved Monkey: alienated factory worker feels claustrophobic + has a monkey that he keeps in his apartment + it wears a t-shirt and stares at the wall + the guy decides to quit his job + he gets in a workplace accident and loses his left arm + he decides to liberate the monkey by putting him in a zoo with the other monkeys + the other monkeys beat up the t-shirt wearing monkey + i guess this is about the urban spaces and the workplace being unnatural + unhealthy + ????

Unpaid: inhuman-looking old man has lost his business + is sad + is berated by everyone in his life + has crying sex with a dog + ???? + ???? + ???? ...holy shit it's unsettling, and not in a good way. this is the only one that i really wish i could unread.

The Hole: man gets lost while hiking in a forest + is led into a hole + trapped by a woman who hates men because of her botched plastic surgery + the guy's soon-to-be-ex-wife comes + she finds him in the hole + decides to leave him there rather than bother with the divorce + he drowns when the hole fills with rainwater. there's relatively palatable art + creepy fairytale vibes + misandrist themes. by far my favorite in the collection. if only all the other stories were this coherent yet complex + sinister but not sickening!

Forked Road: ???? ....there's a forked road + tram tracks + a drunk guy + a flashback involving two preteens walking in on adults having sex + ????

Eel: an uncommunicative sewer worker's storm drain tunnels are mysteriously full of eels + his wife has a miscarriage + she leaves him + he cries + puts eels into the sewer. this is one of the most interesting but least comprehensible stories for me.

If you can both identify the deeper meaning in these stories and enjoy reading them, I commend you for that. I have no doubt that there is meaning here, but I can't be bothered with it when so much of the content is so repellent.

Except for The Hole. Not The Hole. That's a damn good story.

[Titus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of bleak, dark comics about the alienation of modern, urban life. They’re gritty stories of blue-collar drudgery in post-war Tokyo, serving in part as a historical document of that time and place, and feeling almost like works of social realism. However, I’m hesitant to label these comics as realistic, as they all have a definite strangeness to them. They never become outright surreal or fantastical, but they’re often enigmatic, their characters behaving in ways that don’t quite make sense. Rather than simple vignettes of real life, they’re almost like folk stories, laden with symbolism.

They’re very much tales of the downtrodden. Their protagonists are all men with menial jobs and difficult lives, left behind by Japan’s so-called “economic miracle” – several of them make their livings by clearing up society’s mess. Relationships with women are a prominent theme: the protagonists are generally unable to impress or satisfy the females in their lives (whether wives, girlfriends, prostitutes, mothers, daughters, colleagues or strangers). Inter-gender relations are generally depicted as debasing, the male characters left humiliated or otherwise agonized by their interactions with women. Sex and sexuality are also shown as a source of humiliation, never of joy.

There are two comics in the collection that I think stand out above the rest. The 31-page comic that lends its name to the book, “Abandon the Old in Tokyo”, is the most immediately relatable and emotionally resonant one here, with a more straightforward plot and a high degree of universality, focusing on a poor young man torn between the demands of his ailing mother and his optimistic fiancée. The 30-page “Beloved Monkey” – my personal favourite – is at the other end of the spectrum, one of the collection’s weirder and more cryptic works. Despite its obscure plot, it employs powerful imagery to speak of alienation, degradation and social anxiety in a direct and highly impactful way.

The collection’s other six comics don’t connect with me as much, but they’re unfailingly interesting – both as windows into working-class 1960s Japan, and as explorations of the themes mentioned above. They have some affecting moments, but generally they’re more interesting than enjoyable – my appreciation comes more from reflecting on them afterwards than from the actual process of reading. Some of them suffer from feeling slightly underdeveloped – like they just sort of present an idea without going anywhere – and a couple have somewhat limp endings. The art style doesn’t really grab me much either, though the use of visual storytelling is great, and there are a few gorgeous panels dotted throughout.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this, but it doesn’t leave me feeling compelled to seek out more of Tatsumi’s work.

[~:The N:~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually, I don't know how to describe my feelings about this manga.
⭐⭐⭐ for the time being.

[Vim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one gem of a manga. It shows a gekiga story telling style (alternative, underground, not mainstream) which I really appreciate because I've been a follower of alternative comics published in the U.S. Now that I found out that they have these kinds of mangas has broaden my reading choices.

Furthermore, I agree with Adrian Tomine ( a well known alternative comics writer) during his interview with Mr. Tatsumi in the question an answer portion in the book, that a lot of people have a limited point of view with mangas wherein they have this perception that it caters mostly or only to young readers and fantasy/ adventure fanatics. ( I had this notion before) Well, as I've recently discovered there is more than meets the eye, you just have to look for it, and then you might just stumble into something different like I did.

It was so nice reading this book, not only did it remind me of works by graphic novel authors I've read like Craig Thompson (Blankets and Habibi) Brian wood (New York 4) Art Spieglman ( Maus) but it reminded me of the independent comics that are thriving here in my country the Philippines where portrayals of realism mixed with humor are quite common. I guess, the setting can change but the message can still be the same. Wherein experiences and emotions connect people from one another.

I would definitely recommend this book
To all alternative comic readers. =]

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a relative newcomer to a lot of comic books and graphic novels so I can't really comment on how this fits in with the whole genre. However, this collection of short stories is really excellent. Perhaps the most eye-opening thing for me was the society portrayed. We tend to think of Japan in it's most modern incarnation but these stories point to a period after the war where Japan was at a very interesting point in terms of deciding it's identity. The stories are extremely elegant - an emotion or narrative thread conjured up within a single frame. A lot of this is due to the beautiful subtlety of the drawings. The fact that they are all in black and white also contributes to a feeling of drabness and sleaziness that brilliantly conveys the underbelly of Japanese society. It's impossible to sum up the narrative of any of these stories without doing them some discredit - they are too subtle and too much is conveyed in the intersection between the drawings and the words. It reminds me slightly of other Japanese novels I have read where as much is summed up by what is not said as by what is. Definitely recommended.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up after watching Tatsumi, the film dedicated to Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

while Tatsumi presents a wide variety of gekiga, aka manga/comics that aren't mainstream, I didn't really enjoy Tatsumi's work because it was too dark for me. the stories told within Abandon the Old in Tokyo are well-told with a distinct drawing style but I just felt like I needed a shower afterwards...as far as classic manga goes, I still think Osamu Tezuka>everyone else.

the stories within Abandon the Old in Tokyo are very gritty and none end with a distinctly happy conclusion. yet, the stories are very realistic and you can tell Tatsumi dug in the deepest dirt to create these unfortunate stories. at some moments I was wondering if Tatsumi was trying to make misfortune look beautiful? also, once again, this Japanese work gets branded with the adult content label. lots of explicit material in this collection but hardly any foul language or illegal drug usage.

in conclusion: good for the devoted manga fan or weebo but not for a casual reader looking for a vivid, upbeat experience as provided by most manga.

[Bruce · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this anthology and its companion The Push Man and other stories are any indication, here's Tatsumi's basic plot idea, repeated in endless variations. A wordless working class, pre-middle aged everyman is partnered with an alcoholic fishwife who frequents (or is employed at) an offscreen strip club or brothel. Sexually frustrated and browbeaten, he ultimately discovers her infidelity. About half the time the catharsis is a violent retaliation, the other half entails his death or other escape.

I have little idea from whence this tawdry little idee fixe derives, and frankly, I don't really care. The author is incredibly prolific and only beginning to see publication in English language-translated works (entailing painstaking re-paneling, as the originals were drafted with Manga's typical right-left orientation!), so if you have had a different experience, by all means please share.

Otherwise, if new to Tatsumi, well... don't. Just don't.

[Hannah Garden · Rating 1 out of 5]

Woof. Nope. Did not like that. The interview in the back has him talking about a style of comics he and some friends invented to get away from straight manga, less fantastical and more true to life. These stories are not fantastical, and I don't read manga, but I guess he accomplished his goal? It's all grim or gross or gruesome shit, but it's all stuff that could actually happen, so. Idk it just felt really snotty and juvenile, like someone who kills a puppy in his story and you're like that story sucks and he's like IT'S ABOUT HOW REAL LIFE IS. Meh.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dude. Dark.

[Maria]

Simple and short, dark and very human.

[Tom Ewing · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bracingly bleak Christmas Day read, short stories of frustration and misery from the underbelly of early 70s Tokyo. The typical Tatsumi protagonist - they’re almost all drawn identically, as representatives of a kind of luckless urban Everyman - is poor, ground down, socially or sexually unfortunate, and the story puts him into a situation where he gets what seems like an opportunity to better his lot or escape his rut… except it ends disastrously. The litany of woes that befall the hero of “Beloved Monkey” - written for a children’s magazine! - make it one of the most hopeless short comics stories I’ve ever read, and it’s not even the darkest thing here.

If Tatsumi was a less skilled cartoonist the remorseless ugliness would wear thin pretty quickly. But he’s terrific - these are wonderfully paced stories, never lingering in the misery but simply showing it before moving the story on. Small incidents are often set against a backdrop of wordless panels of work, construction, commuting, building the atmosphere of the booming, sprawling city which holds these empty lives.

[Alex Niederberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from the unexpected foray into bestiality in "Unpaid", this is a much more mature and interesting work than it's predecessor. The titular "Abandon the Old in Tokyo" is a wildly impressive messy look at the modern world's willingness to throw away it's elderly population contrasted with the fact that sometimes members of said population suck ass. Similarly, "Beloved Monkey" is a bummer but one of the best protagonist arcs in any of these shorts with a wildly impactful final panel or two. The final three are a little less strong but each one is interesting: "The Hole" is a simple horror tale that feels quite modern and is uncharacteristically focused solely on female interiority. "Forked Road" is somewhat avant garde in its pacing and structure although a bit thin. "Eel" is basically a story from the first collection in that society and women are mean to a poor poor man and is a helpful reminder of the author's faults.

[Ilvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐ for this one.