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Ayako #1-3
Ayako
Long considered as one of Osamu Tezuka’s most political narratives, Ayako is also considered to be one of his most challenging as it defies the conventions of his manga by utilizing a completely original cast and relying solely on historical drama to drive the plot. Ayako, pulls no punches, and does not allow for gimmicks as science-fiction or fantasy may. Instead Tezuka weaves together a tale which its core simply focuses on a single family, a family that could be considered a metaphor for a rapidly developing superpower.Overflowing with imagery of the cold war seen through Japan’s eyes, Ayako is firmly set in realism taking inspiration from a number of historical events that occurred over the American occupation and the cultural-revolution which soon followed. Believed to be Tezuka’s answer to the gekiga (dramatic comics) movement of the 60’s, Ayako should be considered one of the better early examples of a seinen (young adult) narrative to be published.Initially set in the aftermath of World War II, Ayako focuses its attention on the Tenge clan, a once powerful family of landowners living in a rural community in northern Japan. From the moment readers are introduced to the extended family, it is apparent that the war and American occupation have begun to erode the fabric that binds them all together. The increasing influence of political, economic and social change begins to tear into the many Tenge siblings, while a strange marriage agreement creates resentment between the eldest son and his sire. And when the family seems to have completely fallen apart, they decide to turn their collective rage on what they believe to be the source of their troubles—the newest member of the Tenge family, the youngest sister Ayako.
704 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 30, 2010
190 people are currently reading
2682 people want to read
About the author
Osamu Tezuka
2,145 books1,301 followersDr. Osamu Tezuka (手塚治虫) was a Japanese manga artist, animator, producer and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion. He is often credited as the "Father of Anime", and is often considered the Japanese equivalent to Walt Disney, who served as a major inspiration during his formative years. His prolific output, pioneering techniques, and innovative redefinitions of genres earned him such titles as "the father of manga" and "the God of Manga."
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March 12, 2011
copypasta from a class essay @w@:
Osamu Tezuka was as invested in his fans as they were in him; the feelings of his readers were paramount, and he would often adjust the tone, pace, or emphasis of his work in response to the reactions of his audience. After achieving mainstream success and gratuitous accolades from very early in his career, Tezuka remained somewhat preoccupied with being liked. As such, his style would frequently change to suit the want of his constituency – sometimes in the middle of a series. The results of these shifts were mixed, but Tezuka would always persist until he reached another plateau of resonance with his readers.
In the late 60’s, with the dark and mature genre of gekiga on the rise, Tezuka’s work fell out of favor with critics and audiences; his comparatively simplistic plots and ideologies began to seem outdated and no longer relevant within a medium that was struggling to hold an artistic legitimacy within the mind of the public. Though he remained mostly dismissive of this movement as a frivolous fad, he could not ignore the market’s opinion, and the influence of gekiga ultimately left a mark on Tezuka’s work that never faded. In the early 70’s his work began to take on a heavier and more sober tone, due not only to gekiga and the waning spotlight upon his work, but also to his studio’s business difficulties – culminating with the folding of COM magazine which was, ironically, an anthology founded as a response to gekiga.
Though the somberness lasted for the duration of his career, the culmination of Tezuka’s “dark period” is, in many ways, 1972’s Ayako. Tezuka had previously been toying with a more realistic style in lightly sci-fi works such as Apollo’s Song and Ode to Kirihito, it is Ayako that first realizes a fully a serious tone and realistic ground. Tezuka mercifully holds back his infamous urge to punctuate the most serious scenes with off-color comic relief, and thus this work is relentlessly dry by Tezukan standards; jokes are rare, gags are even rarer, and caricature is used perhaps once or twice. Further isolating Ayako from the rest of his oeuvre is the absence of Tezuka’s “star system,” a device adopted at the beginning of his career that treats his cartoon cast as actors, allowing the same characters to return in different roles. Normally a new Tezuka work is populated with familiar faces that act as winking self-references, lending his stories a certain exclusivity that comforts and rewards the more experienced reader (as do the recurring gags and caricature that are likewise absent from Ayako). The absence of these standards creates an abject distance and discomfort for those used to Tezuka’s adventure stories, emphatically tethering Ayako to the real world, separate from Tezukan lore. At the same time, real events are weaved into the plot, marrying the narrative to real-life history.
The story takes place in the immediate aftermath of the war, as the P.O.W.s are being returned to Japan. This choice of setting is very purposeful, providing us with a keen and obvious metaphor for the state of Japan: Ayako herself. She is the youngest daughter of a land-owning Japanese clan who clings to feudal tradition, at the cost of their family’s welfare (and, ultimately, survival). The retrograde Tenge clan treats her with cruelty and intolerance, locking her away in a room for most of her life – a blatant metaphor for Japan’s centuries of isolation. As these old ways disintegrate, Ayako is “freed” and whisked away by her brother, a soldier in the war turned U.S. collaborator who is an embodiment of the American occupation and influence. Though he has the best of intentions, and grants her great wealth, she is also met with indirect ramifications of her brother’s violent and corrupt lifestyle (he is an individualist American-style gangster).
The traditional and retrograde family clan holding tightly to the old ways, and the misguided interference of a violent and callous guardian: both of these forces cause damage and distress upon the Japanese body (the naïve and virginal Ayako). She helplessly takes the brut of this abuse, and is raped, beaten, and stripped of her autonomy. Having been isolated from age 5, her mental and emotional growth is severely retrenched, akin to what General MacArthur said of Japan during the occupation: that the nation was “like a child of 12.”
Perhaps that is to be expected of Ayako, going through most of her life in what is essentially a dollhouse. In fact, she essentially becomes a doll herself. Ayako, as a character, is a completely flat and static failure. Her reactions and priorities are totally far-fetched, often disrupting the gravity and realness of a mostly straight-faced story. But this is not the way her “character” is meant to be read: she is purely a device. She is an experiment, a would-be woman who has been absolutely flattened by the aforementioned sordid circumstances. Analyzing Ayako as a person is missing the point entirely: she is, emphatically, an object. There is deliberately no depth to her psychology; her only value comes from what she represents. She is sexually desired by everyone who sees her, she is passed around her family like an heirloom, and she arrives (from dollhouse to dollhouse) in a box. This packaging keeps her pristine and attractive: “Her body,” says the narration, “in its youth and frailty harbored a purity that was beyond human, like that of a mannequin.” (Tezuka 419) The book itself drives this point home, it’s a flesh colored tome that features Ayako naked on the cover, with a child’s smile, striking a vulnerable pose.
Even her brother cannot withstand her sexual charm. In the beginning of the story, as a boy, he shines as the brightest hope for the family (and for Japan?), a precocious voice of dissent among his clan’s misdeeds. His guileful interrogation of his relatives meets a dead end after a certain amount of trickery and corruption; he resigns himself to the family, marked by his adoption of their kansai accent (used by Tezuka here and in other works to subtly obscure the dignity of his characters).
His older sister, Naoko, is politically and socially subversive, and her feminist politics also highlight her as the last beacon of her family’s decency. But as Ayako is abused and locked away, she takes flight, avoiding her family in the years to come. Her actions – or inactions – are similar to those of the progressive Japanese public, who were so overwhelmed by the virulent power dynamic in post-war Japan that they had no recourse but to run off and turn a blind eye, rendered totally helpless and disillusioned.
Every other character is likewise layered with meaning, and the cast is sizable, yet each actor is masterfully positioned in a stunning ballet of synecdoche. The resulting tapestry owes much to Russian literature (Tezuka was, like many mangaka of the time, an avid Dostoevsky fan), displaying a considerably grand narrative that is simultaneously poised and intimate. Though this pretension is mitigated somewhat by the tropes and the brisk, streamlined pace of genre fiction. There’s a pulp improbability to the somewhat cartoonish criminal motif – the incident in which Ayako’s gangster brother hides information in his empty eye socket.
This balance of literary aspirations and hard-boiled detective novel aesthetic is something that Tezuka has in common with the gekiga artists of the time. I mentioned earlier that Tezuka’s impetus for creating this manga, and for adopting the style therein, was the rising idiom of contemplative, adult-oriented manga. Ayako is, undoubtedly, a reaction to gekiga, but I also believe it is itself an analogical essay of the manga medium. The character of Ayako can be said to represent manga itself, an impressionable child at the mercy of conflicting ideas. Her old-fashioned family (traditional manga artists) circumscribes her potential by stowing her away without allowing her to mature. But the gekiga-like influence of her gangster older brother is equally harmful, imposing upon her a radical and dangerous new lifestyle marred by superfluous violence and absurd situational drama – yes, her elder brother is an embodiment of gekiga itself, and his failed attempt at ushering Ayako into healthy adulthood is a clear and scathing critique of what gekiga artists at the time were attempting. The work is a meditation of itself. At the end of the novel, all the characters are trapped together in a small cave, helpless and static. Ayako eventually consumes each of her influencers to stay alive, and when she is rescued she escapes into the wild, to be shaped by unknown circumstances.
It is important to note that in Japanese, Ayako’s name is written “奇子,” with the characters for “strange” and “child,” an apt description for Ayako, for post-war Japan, and for the nascent medium of gekiga.
Osamu Tezuka was as invested in his fans as they were in him; the feelings of his readers were paramount, and he would often adjust the tone, pace, or emphasis of his work in response to the reactions of his audience. After achieving mainstream success and gratuitous accolades from very early in his career, Tezuka remained somewhat preoccupied with being liked. As such, his style would frequently change to suit the want of his constituency – sometimes in the middle of a series. The results of these shifts were mixed, but Tezuka would always persist until he reached another plateau of resonance with his readers.
In the late 60’s, with the dark and mature genre of gekiga on the rise, Tezuka’s work fell out of favor with critics and audiences; his comparatively simplistic plots and ideologies began to seem outdated and no longer relevant within a medium that was struggling to hold an artistic legitimacy within the mind of the public. Though he remained mostly dismissive of this movement as a frivolous fad, he could not ignore the market’s opinion, and the influence of gekiga ultimately left a mark on Tezuka’s work that never faded. In the early 70’s his work began to take on a heavier and more sober tone, due not only to gekiga and the waning spotlight upon his work, but also to his studio’s business difficulties – culminating with the folding of COM magazine which was, ironically, an anthology founded as a response to gekiga.
Though the somberness lasted for the duration of his career, the culmination of Tezuka’s “dark period” is, in many ways, 1972’s Ayako. Tezuka had previously been toying with a more realistic style in lightly sci-fi works such as Apollo’s Song and Ode to Kirihito, it is Ayako that first realizes a fully a serious tone and realistic ground. Tezuka mercifully holds back his infamous urge to punctuate the most serious scenes with off-color comic relief, and thus this work is relentlessly dry by Tezukan standards; jokes are rare, gags are even rarer, and caricature is used perhaps once or twice. Further isolating Ayako from the rest of his oeuvre is the absence of Tezuka’s “star system,” a device adopted at the beginning of his career that treats his cartoon cast as actors, allowing the same characters to return in different roles. Normally a new Tezuka work is populated with familiar faces that act as winking self-references, lending his stories a certain exclusivity that comforts and rewards the more experienced reader (as do the recurring gags and caricature that are likewise absent from Ayako). The absence of these standards creates an abject distance and discomfort for those used to Tezuka’s adventure stories, emphatically tethering Ayako to the real world, separate from Tezukan lore. At the same time, real events are weaved into the plot, marrying the narrative to real-life history.
The story takes place in the immediate aftermath of the war, as the P.O.W.s are being returned to Japan. This choice of setting is very purposeful, providing us with a keen and obvious metaphor for the state of Japan: Ayako herself. She is the youngest daughter of a land-owning Japanese clan who clings to feudal tradition, at the cost of their family’s welfare (and, ultimately, survival). The retrograde Tenge clan treats her with cruelty and intolerance, locking her away in a room for most of her life – a blatant metaphor for Japan’s centuries of isolation. As these old ways disintegrate, Ayako is “freed” and whisked away by her brother, a soldier in the war turned U.S. collaborator who is an embodiment of the American occupation and influence. Though he has the best of intentions, and grants her great wealth, she is also met with indirect ramifications of her brother’s violent and corrupt lifestyle (he is an individualist American-style gangster).
The traditional and retrograde family clan holding tightly to the old ways, and the misguided interference of a violent and callous guardian: both of these forces cause damage and distress upon the Japanese body (the naïve and virginal Ayako). She helplessly takes the brut of this abuse, and is raped, beaten, and stripped of her autonomy. Having been isolated from age 5, her mental and emotional growth is severely retrenched, akin to what General MacArthur said of Japan during the occupation: that the nation was “like a child of 12.”
Perhaps that is to be expected of Ayako, going through most of her life in what is essentially a dollhouse. In fact, she essentially becomes a doll herself. Ayako, as a character, is a completely flat and static failure. Her reactions and priorities are totally far-fetched, often disrupting the gravity and realness of a mostly straight-faced story. But this is not the way her “character” is meant to be read: she is purely a device. She is an experiment, a would-be woman who has been absolutely flattened by the aforementioned sordid circumstances. Analyzing Ayako as a person is missing the point entirely: she is, emphatically, an object. There is deliberately no depth to her psychology; her only value comes from what she represents. She is sexually desired by everyone who sees her, she is passed around her family like an heirloom, and she arrives (from dollhouse to dollhouse) in a box. This packaging keeps her pristine and attractive: “Her body,” says the narration, “in its youth and frailty harbored a purity that was beyond human, like that of a mannequin.” (Tezuka 419) The book itself drives this point home, it’s a flesh colored tome that features Ayako naked on the cover, with a child’s smile, striking a vulnerable pose.
Even her brother cannot withstand her sexual charm. In the beginning of the story, as a boy, he shines as the brightest hope for the family (and for Japan?), a precocious voice of dissent among his clan’s misdeeds. His guileful interrogation of his relatives meets a dead end after a certain amount of trickery and corruption; he resigns himself to the family, marked by his adoption of their kansai accent (used by Tezuka here and in other works to subtly obscure the dignity of his characters).
His older sister, Naoko, is politically and socially subversive, and her feminist politics also highlight her as the last beacon of her family’s decency. But as Ayako is abused and locked away, she takes flight, avoiding her family in the years to come. Her actions – or inactions – are similar to those of the progressive Japanese public, who were so overwhelmed by the virulent power dynamic in post-war Japan that they had no recourse but to run off and turn a blind eye, rendered totally helpless and disillusioned.
Every other character is likewise layered with meaning, and the cast is sizable, yet each actor is masterfully positioned in a stunning ballet of synecdoche. The resulting tapestry owes much to Russian literature (Tezuka was, like many mangaka of the time, an avid Dostoevsky fan), displaying a considerably grand narrative that is simultaneously poised and intimate. Though this pretension is mitigated somewhat by the tropes and the brisk, streamlined pace of genre fiction. There’s a pulp improbability to the somewhat cartoonish criminal motif – the incident in which Ayako’s gangster brother hides information in his empty eye socket.
This balance of literary aspirations and hard-boiled detective novel aesthetic is something that Tezuka has in common with the gekiga artists of the time. I mentioned earlier that Tezuka’s impetus for creating this manga, and for adopting the style therein, was the rising idiom of contemplative, adult-oriented manga. Ayako is, undoubtedly, a reaction to gekiga, but I also believe it is itself an analogical essay of the manga medium. The character of Ayako can be said to represent manga itself, an impressionable child at the mercy of conflicting ideas. Her old-fashioned family (traditional manga artists) circumscribes her potential by stowing her away without allowing her to mature. But the gekiga-like influence of her gangster older brother is equally harmful, imposing upon her a radical and dangerous new lifestyle marred by superfluous violence and absurd situational drama – yes, her elder brother is an embodiment of gekiga itself, and his failed attempt at ushering Ayako into healthy adulthood is a clear and scathing critique of what gekiga artists at the time were attempting. The work is a meditation of itself. At the end of the novel, all the characters are trapped together in a small cave, helpless and static. Ayako eventually consumes each of her influencers to stay alive, and when she is rescued she escapes into the wild, to be shaped by unknown circumstances.
It is important to note that in Japanese, Ayako’s name is written “奇子,” with the characters for “strange” and “child,” an apt description for Ayako, for post-war Japan, and for the nascent medium of gekiga.
September 18, 2013
Buddha, Message to Hitler, Ayako, all very ambitious works that try to weave historical and spiritual themes and political commentary into exciting, masterful stories. Manga, but less cartoony, silly characters than in Buddha. Darker than either of these two works by far. Beginning in 1949 and extending maybe a quarter of a century to when he was publishing it, it is post-WW II Japan, a kind of allegory of despair and corruption within a kind of allegory, everything that happens in one fairly wealthy family, the Tenge family. These are the darkest themes I have yet to read in Tezuka so far: rape, incest, murder, extortion... and in one family...
In the important backdrop are several huge actual criminal cases in Japan (think Zola) that Tezuka sees as crucial to understanding the political and social and moral decay of the period.... so there is a political thriller aspect that is reflected in this family story which is effective. Ayako is the youngest daughter, born of incest victim of incest, imprisonment for many years... and she is a kind of symbol or emblem of Japan's innocence (and female innocence, importantly, as she is a sweet and spiritual little girl corrupted by her family's moral decay which Tezuka helps us see is a national condition... yikes, why would you even want to read it?! Well, I have to say it is a great story, told by a master storyteller, who paints on a large canvas, with broad social themes, such as Tolstoy or Flaubert or Kurosawa. And I am feeling this way in many ways about the political and environmental, etc etc landscape in this country, so I can relate to his sometime despair...
This is a dark, dark tale, but epic, and hard to put down, really, as with his other great works. There's one problem I have (maybe two) a kind of seventies romanticizing of the lovely, innocent Ayako, (look at her covering her nakedness on the cover) that sort of reinscribes her as victim in spite of the fact that she is a sexual victim in the book and Tezuka makes it clear she is a victim... yet on some pages she doesn't need to be naked in various positions, it feels prurient in a confusing way, given his general moral outrage... In this way he undermines his own critique of her family, depicting as he does these men (most of the men she meets except one or two!) who abuse her in many ways... who treat her as a sexual object... but he does, too... This is the one aspect of the book I didn't like, felt was "period" sexist in an ironic way, an another was the translator's struggle to depict the country dialect, which feels awkward and wooden, but overall, this is a powerful tale, an epic tragedy.
In the important backdrop are several huge actual criminal cases in Japan (think Zola) that Tezuka sees as crucial to understanding the political and social and moral decay of the period.... so there is a political thriller aspect that is reflected in this family story which is effective. Ayako is the youngest daughter, born of incest victim of incest, imprisonment for many years... and she is a kind of symbol or emblem of Japan's innocence (and female innocence, importantly, as she is a sweet and spiritual little girl corrupted by her family's moral decay which Tezuka helps us see is a national condition... yikes, why would you even want to read it?! Well, I have to say it is a great story, told by a master storyteller, who paints on a large canvas, with broad social themes, such as Tolstoy or Flaubert or Kurosawa. And I am feeling this way in many ways about the political and environmental, etc etc landscape in this country, so I can relate to his sometime despair...
This is a dark, dark tale, but epic, and hard to put down, really, as with his other great works. There's one problem I have (maybe two) a kind of seventies romanticizing of the lovely, innocent Ayako, (look at her covering her nakedness on the cover) that sort of reinscribes her as victim in spite of the fact that she is a sexual victim in the book and Tezuka makes it clear she is a victim... yet on some pages she doesn't need to be naked in various positions, it feels prurient in a confusing way, given his general moral outrage... In this way he undermines his own critique of her family, depicting as he does these men (most of the men she meets except one or two!) who abuse her in many ways... who treat her as a sexual object... but he does, too... This is the one aspect of the book I didn't like, felt was "period" sexist in an ironic way, an another was the translator's struggle to depict the country dialect, which feels awkward and wooden, but overall, this is a powerful tale, an epic tragedy.
August 1, 2011
Weird, creepy, violent. Lots and lots of men slugging women, lots and lots of sex (even creepier, most of it is incestuous), murder, and other violence. The dialogue is really disconcerting because it mimics American southern speech in a really stereotypical way (a la "L'il Abner, I think). I picked up this book because it's by Hiroishi Tatsumi's hero Osamu Tezuka, and I stuck with it because I did like one of the themes it explores (of a new generation offended by the sins of its father but fated to commit those same sins). I also liked Tatsumi's fluid drawing style. But I found the resolution of the story disappointing and was turned off by the incredible creepiness of the characters and story. I guess I learned something about manga by reading "Ayako" (e. g. the characters are blends of both good and bad, yin and yang), but I''d think twice about reading another book by Tezuka. (The blurb on the first page of the book did not exactly give me a good idea of what I was in for.)
July 3, 2016
Clocking in at one page shy of seven hundred, Tezuka's serialized epic is a feast for lovers of cartoons with literary notions. Following WW2, a backwoods clan on the financial decline tries to save face over the unwanted fruits of an incest (one of the many instances of familial over-familiarity prominently featured throughout the twists and turns this graphic novel takes) through the usual means: murder and the twenty-year imprisonment of the unwanted child beneath the family's barn. And as the clan inevitably falls apart, various family members distract themselves over the decades with post-war espionage, unsolved murders straight from the pages of a history book, Yakuza turf war, outsmarting police investigations, snogging communists and, most importantly of all, lusting and obsessing over the titular heroine losing her mind in the cellar--but not her sense of innocence or her killer bod! Tezuka's mangas are grand things; his instantly agreeable art style and his natural gift as a storyteller keep the reader's finger a-flipping. It's somewhat uncanny at first to see a style obviously influenced by the early work of Disney deal with dark eroticism and nihilism without losing its sense of humor of delight in adventure, but the end result is a captivating work that tries to tease through the changing shibboleths of Japan following its mid-century defeat and much-needed enema of Western culture.
February 22, 2022
As previously stated, this was a rough one. Disclaimers for rape, incest, domestic violence, and other various types of abuse. I feel similarly to this book that I did about "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo," it was good, but also just... really gross and hard to read.
March 28, 2019
To be certain, Osamu Tezuka is one of the acknowledged giants of Japanese manga. His works are so immensely influential that he is often referred to as the “father of manga.” Thus is it a bit intimidating to sit here and try and critique one of his works. My only real exposure to Tezuka before reading “Ayako” was the epic “Buddha” series, read in one long stretch last summer. But that only whetted my appetite for more Tezuka, and I had bookmarked “Ayako” a long time ago when it was first released. I finally bought a copy when I found a reasonably priced hardbound edition from a reseller, and I was very glad that I did.
But oh my, what a sprawling yet entertaining mess this is. First off, understand that this is 18+ territory. There is ample and graphic violence, (often incestuous) sex, and nudity to be found in this volume. Secondly, be prepared for a story that makes Shakespearean tragedy look quaint by comparison.
Focusing on the Tenge clan, a wealthy agrarian family, the book begins shortly after WWII and eventually ends in 1973. The war and the ensuing aftermath have deeply affected the family. They struggle to adapt to the progressive changes imposed by the occupying US forces, and this is exacerbated by the dark secrets that the family itself has harbored for years. Ayako, the child of an incestuous arrangement between the head of the household and the wife of his eldest son, becomes the focus of the family’s rage and need to save face after she witnesses the aftermath of what could possibly be a murder.
So many characters, so many convoluted but connected plot lines, so much drama and angst and dirty deeds spread out over an almost 30-year period. You pretty much get it all here….tragic drama, mystery, a few comedic moments, gangsters, guns, blood and guts and imprisonment and false identities and good grief……...just so much all packed into a compact space. “Ayako” is considered to be one of Tezuka’s most political works, and I do see some metaphor at work here. The Tenge family is a cipher for post-war Japan itself….confronting immense changes while dealing with it’s own closed and violently feudal and incestuous past. And of course all drawn in Tezuka’s signature Disneyesque style. If the thought of cute or comedic looking characters committing murder or having sex disturbs you , this might not be the book (or the artist) for you.
My only real critique is the somewhat abrupt ending. Yes, it ties up a lot of the loose ends, but not all. Yes, many of the most heinous characters get theirs in a fit of poetic justice. But it felt a bit forced, as if Tezuka had made his points and was eager to get the story over with and move on. I closed the book and reflected for a while, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was still more that could have been explored, more that could have been exposed. Nonetheless, this is a hugely important work by a master of his art. Probably not a great place to begin if you are unfamiliar with Osamu Tezuka, but certainly worth the effort to seek out if you enjoy any of his other works.
But oh my, what a sprawling yet entertaining mess this is. First off, understand that this is 18+ territory. There is ample and graphic violence, (often incestuous) sex, and nudity to be found in this volume. Secondly, be prepared for a story that makes Shakespearean tragedy look quaint by comparison.
Focusing on the Tenge clan, a wealthy agrarian family, the book begins shortly after WWII and eventually ends in 1973. The war and the ensuing aftermath have deeply affected the family. They struggle to adapt to the progressive changes imposed by the occupying US forces, and this is exacerbated by the dark secrets that the family itself has harbored for years. Ayako, the child of an incestuous arrangement between the head of the household and the wife of his eldest son, becomes the focus of the family’s rage and need to save face after she witnesses the aftermath of what could possibly be a murder.
So many characters, so many convoluted but connected plot lines, so much drama and angst and dirty deeds spread out over an almost 30-year period. You pretty much get it all here….tragic drama, mystery, a few comedic moments, gangsters, guns, blood and guts and imprisonment and false identities and good grief……...just so much all packed into a compact space. “Ayako” is considered to be one of Tezuka’s most political works, and I do see some metaphor at work here. The Tenge family is a cipher for post-war Japan itself….confronting immense changes while dealing with it’s own closed and violently feudal and incestuous past. And of course all drawn in Tezuka’s signature Disneyesque style. If the thought of cute or comedic looking characters committing murder or having sex disturbs you , this might not be the book (or the artist) for you.
My only real critique is the somewhat abrupt ending. Yes, it ties up a lot of the loose ends, but not all. Yes, many of the most heinous characters get theirs in a fit of poetic justice. But it felt a bit forced, as if Tezuka had made his points and was eager to get the story over with and move on. I closed the book and reflected for a while, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was still more that could have been explored, more that could have been exposed. Nonetheless, this is a hugely important work by a master of his art. Probably not a great place to begin if you are unfamiliar with Osamu Tezuka, but certainly worth the effort to seek out if you enjoy any of his other works.
July 13, 2016
Heavy content for a manga. Its not for the action lover or the science fiction fan (though it does have some violence and action in it). This is a pure drama. Quite emotionally effective. The book peels apart characters who you like, giving them pain and showing them to be imperfect, but also never satisfyingly punishes characters who you don't like. Very tragic tale. Everyone in it is a nuttier.
Comic wise it was professional. Cinematic illustrations and panel layout. I love that as the story takes place over multiple decades you see the characters grow up, or get old as the case may be. Translators did a good job too, especially with the footnotes explaining things internal to japanese culture or history which I'd otherwise not have picked up on, such as the Shimoyama incident which plays a big role in the story.
It takes place in post-war Japan, which is a really interesting period for japanese cultural development. The old landowning aristocracy is on its last legs, communism is an issue, there are Yankees doing all sorts of mysterious things within the country. The Yakuza are cropping up, and a new wave of industrialization is occurring. I looked up a lot of things about Japanese culture and history while reading this, so its a good portal for learning in that sense.
So pretty.
Comic wise it was professional. Cinematic illustrations and panel layout. I love that as the story takes place over multiple decades you see the characters grow up, or get old as the case may be. Translators did a good job too, especially with the footnotes explaining things internal to japanese culture or history which I'd otherwise not have picked up on, such as the Shimoyama incident which plays a big role in the story.
It takes place in post-war Japan, which is a really interesting period for japanese cultural development. The old landowning aristocracy is on its last legs, communism is an issue, there are Yankees doing all sorts of mysterious things within the country. The Yakuza are cropping up, and a new wave of industrialization is occurring. I looked up a lot of things about Japanese culture and history while reading this, so its a good portal for learning in that sense.
So pretty.
December 5, 2022
TA, tenho opnioes. Achei meio dificil de ler pela quantidade absurda de abuso sexual e violencia domestica que tem nesse manga. E nao estava esperando kkk comecei a ler e ja fiquei mdssss no que eu meti aqui?? Tem um posfacio e um prefacio que falam sobre isso, o prefacio é todo contextualizando esse role de mangas adultos terem sido praticamente criminalizados no pos guerra la no japao e como o autor foi um dois iniciantes nesse movimento de defender que o manga pode ser "sujo" e deveria poder ser de livre expressao. EU ENTENDO, OK, sem falar que é todo um contexto de outro pais e etc. Mas achei muito gratuito algumas cenas aqui. O livro tem essa premissa de mostrar um contexto historico no japao mas a partir de personagens, entao vc acompanha esse contexto historico real do pais mas a historia vai pra frente com esses personagens ficticios. Mas é muito dificil ler quase 800 paginas unicamente de personagens GROTESCOS com inumeras cenas de estupro e violencia domestica. Eu li Berlim mes passado, Berlim tem o mesmo objetivo: falar de um contexto historico real na alemanha (o surgimento do fascismo) mas a historia vai pra frente acompanhando a narrativa de alguns personagens. Achei Berlim 200% mais de boas de ler e se interessar pela leitura pq tem personagens interessantes. Aqui todos os personagens so sao deploraveis mesmo. De novo, eu entendo todo esse contexto envolvendo os mangas e etc que foi contextualizado no prefacio, mas nao comprei muito isso. Senti meio que o prefacio era quase que uma desculpinha, meio que sabiam que o livro tem estupro demais e deram dessa desculpinha de ah entao tem essa vertente de mangas adultos e tal. Sem falar que no posfacio o autor fala que ia escrever mais, que a historia ia continuar e etc e acho que tbm foi uma desculpinha de tipo eu sei que as mulheres so sofrem aqui gratuitamente, eu ia escrever mais, ia escrever sobre a vida da ayako depois dela ser conseguido sair dos abusos da familia pra ela nao ser so mais um token de chocar os leitores com inumeras cenas de estupro e sofrimento. EU IA ESCREVER MAIS onde eu iria tratar a personagem como ser humano e nao como objeto pros outros personagens, mas nao escrevi.
Achei muito dificil de ler, e eu ate passaria pano se tivessem outras crueldades explicitas sendo feitas aqui mas quem se fode o livro inteiro sao as mulheres. Quase um torture porn de simplesmente TODAS as mulheres do livro sofrendo abuso sexual, violencia domestica, assassinato e ate vivendo em cativeiro. Todos os personagens sao GROTESCOS. E é complicado vc ter quase 800 paginas so disso. O contexto historico japones eu inclusive achei que ficou meio de lado em algumas cenas gratuitas de estupro e etc. Se era pra contextualizar como as mulheres eram tratadas nessa cultura nessa epoca ja dava pra entender isso na segunda cena, nao precisava de outras 20 pra gente entender que AH TA as mulheres eram vistas como mero objeto. Sem falar da sexualizacao das personagens.
AI ENFIM GENTE, tenho varias opnioes nao gostei de varias coisas. A arte é incrivel, mas so.
Achei muito dificil de ler, e eu ate passaria pano se tivessem outras crueldades explicitas sendo feitas aqui mas quem se fode o livro inteiro sao as mulheres. Quase um torture porn de simplesmente TODAS as mulheres do livro sofrendo abuso sexual, violencia domestica, assassinato e ate vivendo em cativeiro. Todos os personagens sao GROTESCOS. E é complicado vc ter quase 800 paginas so disso. O contexto historico japones eu inclusive achei que ficou meio de lado em algumas cenas gratuitas de estupro e etc. Se era pra contextualizar como as mulheres eram tratadas nessa cultura nessa epoca ja dava pra entender isso na segunda cena, nao precisava de outras 20 pra gente entender que AH TA as mulheres eram vistas como mero objeto. Sem falar da sexualizacao das personagens.
AI ENFIM GENTE, tenho varias opnioes nao gostei de varias coisas. A arte é incrivel, mas so.
September 16, 2018
นี่มัน 'เลือดข้นคนจาง' ฉบับญี่ปุ่นชัดๆ เพียงแต่ซับซ้อนกว่าด้วยบริบทประวัติศาสตร์และเงื่อนไขของเรื่องที่ไม่ได้วนอยู่กับการแย่งชิงมรดก แต่ยังเป็นเรื่องของศักดิ์ศรีของวงศ์ตระกูลที่เราอาจทำทุกอย่างเพื่อปกป้องไม่ให้มันแปดเปื้อน
คาแรคเตอร์ตัวอะยะโกะเป็นตัวแทนของความพังพินาศที่ไม่อาจเยียวยาของครอบครัวเท็งเกะดีๆ นี่เอง ซึ่งถึงที่สุดก็ชวนให้เราสงสัยว่าครอบครัวนี่มันคืออะไร และเราควรสละอะไรมากน้อยแค่ไหนเพื่อมัน จึงจะพอดี
คาแรคเตอร์ตัวอะยะโกะเป็นตัวแทนของความพังพินาศที่ไม่อาจเยียวยาของครอบครัวเท็งเกะดีๆ นี่เอง ซึ่งถึงที่สุดก็ชวนให้เราสงสัยว่าครอบครัวนี่มันคืออะไร และเราควรสละอะไรมากน้อยแค่ไหนเพื่อมัน จึงจะพอดี
April 18, 2021
I am not sure if the cover page is a metaphor or irony or just proves the artist's several point that the titular character is nothing but a pawn - a thing to be used and abused by men in the story.
And the story isn't about her either - she is one of the primary character who plays an equally important part as few others in the plot (and the politics of 60s Japan). So, again, is this another subtext cleverly posed or a successful sales pitch?
Written by father of manga, Ayako is a story of messed up conservative rich Japanese family who are hit by reforms made by Japanese government post WW2. Every member of the family has a secret, and morals are pretty much out of the window. In this setting is a sweet girl Ayako, whose life we follow, along with the politics that change the world around her.
I liked the political part of the book and not so-much the plot surrounding Ayako. It was as if Ayako was born to be abused and got no break. All the men "loved" her and sexually abused/raped her. It was as if genuine kindness didn't exist for her or in this world. Or even decency. The moral degeneracy of the family was that of - well, he did it so I am going to as well and somehow it was an accepted argument. The stark contrast to this is the other plot thread which involves 60s politics, Japan's rapid industrialization and involvement of Yakuza in government business, which was pretty intriguing to read.
But in the end, this was tiresome. A chore. I finished it, because I wanted to see Ayako until the end. And I must say, it was an alright ending to a certain degree. I don't hate this book but its not something I would read again.
And the story isn't about her either - she is one of the primary character who plays an equally important part as few others in the plot (and the politics of 60s Japan). So, again, is this another subtext cleverly posed or a successful sales pitch?
Written by father of manga, Ayako is a story of messed up conservative rich Japanese family who are hit by reforms made by Japanese government post WW2. Every member of the family has a secret, and morals are pretty much out of the window. In this setting is a sweet girl Ayako, whose life we follow, along with the politics that change the world around her.
I liked the political part of the book and not so-much the plot surrounding Ayako. It was as if Ayako was born to be abused and got no break. All the men "loved" her and sexually abused/raped her. It was as if genuine kindness didn't exist for her or in this world. Or even decency. The moral degeneracy of the family was that of - well, he did it so I am going to as well and somehow it was an accepted argument. The stark contrast to this is the other plot thread which involves 60s politics, Japan's rapid industrialization and involvement of Yakuza in government business, which was pretty intriguing to read.
But in the end, this was tiresome. A chore. I finished it, because I wanted to see Ayako until the end. And I must say, it was an alright ending to a certain degree. I don't hate this book but its not something I would read again.
June 3, 2018
Quando falamos do nome Osamu Tezuka, logo associamos a histórias como Metrópolis e Kimba, com personagens inocentes e ingênuos e histórias com narrativas simples e temas como amizade, companheirismo e heroísmo. Alguns até mesmo chamavam Tezuka de o Walt Disney japonês. Mas, as comparações terminam por aí. Algumas das melhores histórias de Tezuka são Adolf, Buddha e Ayako. Com temas mais pesados, com aquela sujeira inerente ao caráter sombrio das pessoas. E Ayako é uma obra-prima neste sentido.
A narrativa de Ayako é um show à parte. Um roteiro bem definido que se expande por várias décadas mostrando a história de uma família e seus vários personagens. Apesar de levar o nome do mangá, Ayako não é necessariamente a protagonista. Vemos toda a família Tenge desempenhando um papel em uma narrativa de decadência, de ganância e de luxúria. A história gira em torno destes personagens e suas relações. O roteiro toma como base a vida de Ayako e se divide em três partes: sua infância, a adolescência e a vida adulta. Outros personagens como o inspetor Geta e seu filho Hanao orbitam em torno da família. A escrita do autor é bem simples e dá para entendermos tranquilamente o que ele quer dizer ao longo das páginas. O bacana é que Tezuka se inspirou na obra Os Irmãos Karamázov, de Dostoievski para escrever Ayako e ele pretendia fazer mais com a história da personagem. A ideia era trabalhar com a vida destes personagens após a derrocada da família. Mas, vários problemas fizeram com que ele precisasse abandonar o projeto.
Há de se comentar também acerca da edição da Veneta que está lindíssima. A capa está na cor rosa de um lado e bege do outro com uma cena em silhueta dos membros da família Tenge buscando escalar uma colina. Isso representaria a ambição sem limites dos membros. Do outro lado temos a reprodução de um belo quadro com Ayako chorando no final da narrativa. Esta imagem dá o tom da história. A edição é em capa dura e com folhas de papel pólen. Antes de Ayako ainda não havíamos tido nenhum mangá com esse tratamento. Até o momento, este mangá é o único que eu conheço que utiliza papel pólen, mais usado em livros. No final temos um belo ensaio de Rogério de Campos falando sobre o impacto da Segunda Guerra Mundial no Japão e como os mangás e mangakas estiveram na vanguarda de diversos movimentos sociais no Japão. E um pequeno texto de Tezuka sobre o mangá.
O traço de Tezuka está lindíssimo. Está em um outro nível em relação a Metrópolis, o outro trabalho que li do autor. Aqui os traços dele estão mais sólidos, mais rebuscados. Isso pode ser visto tanto nos cenários quanto nos personagens. Todos possuem muita expressividade, seus físicos são bem construídos refletindo como os eles são. Jiro é um homem estoico que impõe autoridade; Ishiro é um homem bruto, do campo e sua forma atarracada lembra muito a de Sakuemon; Naoko começa como uma jovem cheia de vida e mais para frente aparece como uma matrona; Ayako é delineada sempre como uma boneca. Os cenários são muito bem trabalhados pelo autor. Desde o ar bucólico do campo aos prédios de um grande centro urbano. a atenção aos detalhes como os templos budistas do interior, aos detalhes tradicionais da casa dos Tenge, ao Ministério do Interior. Também gostei das quadrinizações feitas pelo autor. Em alguns momentos ele não tem medo de inserir longos textos dentro de quadros maiores. Ou experimenta mudanças na forma como os quadros são apresentados. Algumas cenas muito interessantes são a da casa de Hanao com Ayako em que o mesmo quadro é repetido várias vezes apenas com os personagens atuando como se fossem atores em uma peça de teatro. Outra cena experimental nesses moldes acontece mais para o final na caverna. Mesma situação, mas o emprego de quadros alterna luz e trevas.
"Ichiro, lembra de quando eu era um garoto e brincava de fazer julgamentos? Lembro que tinha uma condenação para crime de guerra que era "crimes contra a humanidade". Mas o que é a humanidade? E por acaso aqueles que julgam tem moral para fazer isso? Eu finalmente percebi que esses julgamentos são apenas um espetáculo oportunista criado pelo lado vencedor."
O roteiro de Ayako é bem pesado se formos tomar como base obras anteriores do autor. Mas, o tema principal aqui é a forma como várias famílias tradicionais japonesas buscaram continuar a sugar os cofres públicos para manter o seu modo de vida. Isso em um Japão que havia sido severamente ferido durante a Segunda Guerra. Sob o controle americano, as instituições japonesas entram em um caos absoluto. O que vemos é que existe um confronto entre aqueles que querem retomar o controle e aqueles que empregam os norte-americanos segundo seus objetivos escusos. É até dentro deste cenário que a Yakuza prospera. Vemos isso pelos olhos de Jiro na segunda parte quando ele passa a comandar uma rede criminosa. Jiro volta para casa como alguém que foi derrotado e cooptado pelo outro lado. Os seus o enxergam como um traidor. Como ele acaba precisando fazer determinadas tarefas para manter determinados favores, este seu novo "trabalho" acaba entrando em choque com os interesses de sua família. Jiro apesar de ser uma pessoa razoável, tem um lado violento e isso acaba se revelando na forma como ele resolve determinadas situações quando colocado contra a parede.
Sakuemon é o chefe da família e revela toda a sujeira por trás das famílias tradicionais. Um velho que mantém todos sob seu controle através da intimidação, demonstrando quem é o chefe da família. Um homem ganancioso acima de tudo e que obtém aquilo que quer, quando ele quer. Curiosamente a única pessoa que ele mantém algum afeto é Ayako. Com ela, ele parece ter um claro sentimento paterno. Algo que não é compartilhado por Ichiro. Ao ter que compartilhar sua mulher com Sakuemon (algo que sabemos logo nas primeiras páginas) para ganhar sua parte da herança, ele se sente ultrajado e ofendido. Mas, claro, deseja manter as aparências. Ayako é fruto dessa relação extraconjugal. Ichiro trata sua mulher como um objeto a ser trocado ou vendido desde que ele alcance seus objetivos.
O curioso é que a pessoa imaginada por nós como o herói da narrativa, se torna mais um entre tantos nas partes mais à frente. Shiro parece ser um menino que defende a justiça e a coloca acima de tudo. Ele tenta a todo custo punir a família pelos pecados que cometem. Tudo só para cair no mesmo círculo vicioso deles. Suas boas intenções acabam esbarrando em más escolhas que ele toma depois. Ele poderia ter evitado aquilo? Talvez. Mas, o fato de ele repetir dia após dia aquilo não o tornou tão diferente assim de Sakuemon. Ele apenas vitimizou outra pessoa. Tanto que no final ele sabia os pecados que havia cometido em vida. Mas, e Naoko? Esta acabou pecando pela ausência e a indiferença. Impossível ela não saber o que estava se passando dentro da casa. Ela poderia ter tentado fazer alguma coisa. Em relação ao caso de Eno, de fato não havia muito o que ser feito. Mas, e quanto a Ayako? Vemos que ela se ressente disso também. Sabe que cometeu erros simplesmente pela inércia.
Mas, a maior vítima de tudo é Ayako. A gente sofre junto com ela. De uma criança promissora e fofa a uma mulher sem contato com as pessoas. A escolha da família de apagar a vida de Ayako é cruel. Na metade da história, ela de fato se torna apenas uma boneca tradicional japonesa: retirada apenas durante uma certa época do ano. A crueldade daquilo que os Tenge fazem com ela é absurdo. É como se eles estivessem limpando uma sujeita para baixo do tapete. As reações emocionais que ela tem quando adulta são de uma criança que teve pouco acesso às coisas. O que ela faz com aquele que gosta só demonstra o pouco trato social que ela tinha. Shiro mostrou a ela que aquela era forma que ela tinha de amar uma pessoa... e ela reproduz o que ela viu. Se é certo ou não, não vem ao caso. Ayako sofre de antropofobia, ou seja, do medo de um contato com outras pessoas.
Este é um daqueles mangás que vão te causar asco, repulsa e outros sentimentos ruins. Não é uma história feliz e não acaba feliz. Ele é a história de uma família fictícia, mas provavelmente é uma entre várias dessas famílias que saíram do pós-guerra. Ao mesmo tempo é uma obra de arte de um gênio dos mangás japoneses. Merece e muito a sua leitura.
A narrativa de Ayako é um show à parte. Um roteiro bem definido que se expande por várias décadas mostrando a história de uma família e seus vários personagens. Apesar de levar o nome do mangá, Ayako não é necessariamente a protagonista. Vemos toda a família Tenge desempenhando um papel em uma narrativa de decadência, de ganância e de luxúria. A história gira em torno destes personagens e suas relações. O roteiro toma como base a vida de Ayako e se divide em três partes: sua infância, a adolescência e a vida adulta. Outros personagens como o inspetor Geta e seu filho Hanao orbitam em torno da família. A escrita do autor é bem simples e dá para entendermos tranquilamente o que ele quer dizer ao longo das páginas. O bacana é que Tezuka se inspirou na obra Os Irmãos Karamázov, de Dostoievski para escrever Ayako e ele pretendia fazer mais com a história da personagem. A ideia era trabalhar com a vida destes personagens após a derrocada da família. Mas, vários problemas fizeram com que ele precisasse abandonar o projeto.
Há de se comentar também acerca da edição da Veneta que está lindíssima. A capa está na cor rosa de um lado e bege do outro com uma cena em silhueta dos membros da família Tenge buscando escalar uma colina. Isso representaria a ambição sem limites dos membros. Do outro lado temos a reprodução de um belo quadro com Ayako chorando no final da narrativa. Esta imagem dá o tom da história. A edição é em capa dura e com folhas de papel pólen. Antes de Ayako ainda não havíamos tido nenhum mangá com esse tratamento. Até o momento, este mangá é o único que eu conheço que utiliza papel pólen, mais usado em livros. No final temos um belo ensaio de Rogério de Campos falando sobre o impacto da Segunda Guerra Mundial no Japão e como os mangás e mangakas estiveram na vanguarda de diversos movimentos sociais no Japão. E um pequeno texto de Tezuka sobre o mangá.
O traço de Tezuka está lindíssimo. Está em um outro nível em relação a Metrópolis, o outro trabalho que li do autor. Aqui os traços dele estão mais sólidos, mais rebuscados. Isso pode ser visto tanto nos cenários quanto nos personagens. Todos possuem muita expressividade, seus físicos são bem construídos refletindo como os eles são. Jiro é um homem estoico que impõe autoridade; Ishiro é um homem bruto, do campo e sua forma atarracada lembra muito a de Sakuemon; Naoko começa como uma jovem cheia de vida e mais para frente aparece como uma matrona; Ayako é delineada sempre como uma boneca. Os cenários são muito bem trabalhados pelo autor. Desde o ar bucólico do campo aos prédios de um grande centro urbano. a atenção aos detalhes como os templos budistas do interior, aos detalhes tradicionais da casa dos Tenge, ao Ministério do Interior. Também gostei das quadrinizações feitas pelo autor. Em alguns momentos ele não tem medo de inserir longos textos dentro de quadros maiores. Ou experimenta mudanças na forma como os quadros são apresentados. Algumas cenas muito interessantes são a da casa de Hanao com Ayako em que o mesmo quadro é repetido várias vezes apenas com os personagens atuando como se fossem atores em uma peça de teatro. Outra cena experimental nesses moldes acontece mais para o final na caverna. Mesma situação, mas o emprego de quadros alterna luz e trevas.
"Ichiro, lembra de quando eu era um garoto e brincava de fazer julgamentos? Lembro que tinha uma condenação para crime de guerra que era "crimes contra a humanidade". Mas o que é a humanidade? E por acaso aqueles que julgam tem moral para fazer isso? Eu finalmente percebi que esses julgamentos são apenas um espetáculo oportunista criado pelo lado vencedor."
O roteiro de Ayako é bem pesado se formos tomar como base obras anteriores do autor. Mas, o tema principal aqui é a forma como várias famílias tradicionais japonesas buscaram continuar a sugar os cofres públicos para manter o seu modo de vida. Isso em um Japão que havia sido severamente ferido durante a Segunda Guerra. Sob o controle americano, as instituições japonesas entram em um caos absoluto. O que vemos é que existe um confronto entre aqueles que querem retomar o controle e aqueles que empregam os norte-americanos segundo seus objetivos escusos. É até dentro deste cenário que a Yakuza prospera. Vemos isso pelos olhos de Jiro na segunda parte quando ele passa a comandar uma rede criminosa. Jiro volta para casa como alguém que foi derrotado e cooptado pelo outro lado. Os seus o enxergam como um traidor. Como ele acaba precisando fazer determinadas tarefas para manter determinados favores, este seu novo "trabalho" acaba entrando em choque com os interesses de sua família. Jiro apesar de ser uma pessoa razoável, tem um lado violento e isso acaba se revelando na forma como ele resolve determinadas situações quando colocado contra a parede.
Sakuemon é o chefe da família e revela toda a sujeira por trás das famílias tradicionais. Um velho que mantém todos sob seu controle através da intimidação, demonstrando quem é o chefe da família. Um homem ganancioso acima de tudo e que obtém aquilo que quer, quando ele quer. Curiosamente a única pessoa que ele mantém algum afeto é Ayako. Com ela, ele parece ter um claro sentimento paterno. Algo que não é compartilhado por Ichiro. Ao ter que compartilhar sua mulher com Sakuemon (algo que sabemos logo nas primeiras páginas) para ganhar sua parte da herança, ele se sente ultrajado e ofendido. Mas, claro, deseja manter as aparências. Ayako é fruto dessa relação extraconjugal. Ichiro trata sua mulher como um objeto a ser trocado ou vendido desde que ele alcance seus objetivos.
O curioso é que a pessoa imaginada por nós como o herói da narrativa, se torna mais um entre tantos nas partes mais à frente. Shiro parece ser um menino que defende a justiça e a coloca acima de tudo. Ele tenta a todo custo punir a família pelos pecados que cometem. Tudo só para cair no mesmo círculo vicioso deles. Suas boas intenções acabam esbarrando em más escolhas que ele toma depois. Ele poderia ter evitado aquilo? Talvez. Mas, o fato de ele repetir dia após dia aquilo não o tornou tão diferente assim de Sakuemon. Ele apenas vitimizou outra pessoa. Tanto que no final ele sabia os pecados que havia cometido em vida. Mas, e Naoko? Esta acabou pecando pela ausência e a indiferença. Impossível ela não saber o que estava se passando dentro da casa. Ela poderia ter tentado fazer alguma coisa. Em relação ao caso de Eno, de fato não havia muito o que ser feito. Mas, e quanto a Ayako? Vemos que ela se ressente disso também. Sabe que cometeu erros simplesmente pela inércia.
Mas, a maior vítima de tudo é Ayako. A gente sofre junto com ela. De uma criança promissora e fofa a uma mulher sem contato com as pessoas. A escolha da família de apagar a vida de Ayako é cruel. Na metade da história, ela de fato se torna apenas uma boneca tradicional japonesa: retirada apenas durante uma certa época do ano. A crueldade daquilo que os Tenge fazem com ela é absurdo. É como se eles estivessem limpando uma sujeita para baixo do tapete. As reações emocionais que ela tem quando adulta são de uma criança que teve pouco acesso às coisas. O que ela faz com aquele que gosta só demonstra o pouco trato social que ela tinha. Shiro mostrou a ela que aquela era forma que ela tinha de amar uma pessoa... e ela reproduz o que ela viu. Se é certo ou não, não vem ao caso. Ayako sofre de antropofobia, ou seja, do medo de um contato com outras pessoas.
Este é um daqueles mangás que vão te causar asco, repulsa e outros sentimentos ruins. Não é uma história feliz e não acaba feliz. Ele é a história de uma família fictícia, mas provavelmente é uma entre várias dessas famílias que saíram do pós-guerra. Ao mesmo tempo é uma obra de arte de um gênio dos mangás japoneses. Merece e muito a sua leitura.
July 24, 2012
Wow, this is a brutal and unpleasant book - quite deliberate, but unnerving coming from Tezuka, and in his cartoony style.
The plot is set over roughly 25 years, and revolve around the Tenge family, who are coping with the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Every member of the family is culpable for some crime - legal or moral, and of differing severities. Every member that is, except Ayako, who is only 4 when the story begins. She becomes something of a scapegoat for the family's ills - the guilty secret that haunts each of them.
It's an impressive work, with a wide emotional range. Very affecting, as even though at times unpleasant it is also compelling, and does not descend into mere prurience. In the story of one rotten family, Tezuka illustrates a swathe of Japanese history, and enriches it with a powerful allegory of sacrificed innocence. A truly multi-layered, monumental work.
One thing - I found the translation a little jarring. There was lots of mimicking of American country talk, presumably to show the provinciality of the Tenge family. It didn't really work for me.
The plot is set over roughly 25 years, and revolve around the Tenge family, who are coping with the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Every member of the family is culpable for some crime - legal or moral, and of differing severities. Every member that is, except Ayako, who is only 4 when the story begins. She becomes something of a scapegoat for the family's ills - the guilty secret that haunts each of them.
It's an impressive work, with a wide emotional range. Very affecting, as even though at times unpleasant it is also compelling, and does not descend into mere prurience. In the story of one rotten family, Tezuka illustrates a swathe of Japanese history, and enriches it with a powerful allegory of sacrificed innocence. A truly multi-layered, monumental work.
One thing - I found the translation a little jarring. There was lots of mimicking of American country talk, presumably to show the provinciality of the Tenge family. It didn't really work for me.
June 21, 2014
Those who compare this to Greek tragedy are completely on the right track. The Tragic Heros are all from a formerly wealthy family of a nation who has suffered downfall due to its own hubris in warfare. The family feels they've already lost everything, when in reality they still have power and wealth to spare. They then go on to squander that as well. The story is at every turn a classic tragedy, and I love a good tragedy.
Even the ending is an allusion to classics. The theme of the cave is woven through the story, with the outside world a mysterious and alien thing for Ayako, the Tenge clan and all of Japan. Just like in Plato's cave, Japan knew the world by its twisted shadows, and only stumbled out into the light fully after WWII. Those who can't adjust to the world as it really is are left behind, like the Tenges, whose end is, without revealing too much, entirely appropriate.
Even the ending is an allusion to classics. The theme of the cave is woven through the story, with the outside world a mysterious and alien thing for Ayako, the Tenge clan and all of Japan. Just like in Plato's cave, Japan knew the world by its twisted shadows, and only stumbled out into the light fully after WWII. Those who can't adjust to the world as it really is are left behind, like the Tenges, whose end is, without revealing too much, entirely appropriate.
July 12, 2020
2.5 stars
I have mixed feelings about this one. I admire Tezuka's political commentary, even though the secret atrocities of the Tenge family was fifty shades of f***** up. What really diminished the rating for me was that I found the talk-to-text style of dialogue extremely annoying (at almost 700 pages it felt unnatural and was too much). Perhaps I would have felt differently about this had I been able to read the original Japanese version - for all I know it could have just been the writing style that the translator chose to write the book in English. That being said, the art style was also not my favourite, even though the coverart is beautiful in its simplicity. I am glad to check it off of my list since it is such an iconic work, but I would not read it again.
I have mixed feelings about this one. I admire Tezuka's political commentary, even though the secret atrocities of the Tenge family was fifty shades of f***** up. What really diminished the rating for me was that I found the talk-to-text style of dialogue extremely annoying (at almost 700 pages it felt unnatural and was too much). Perhaps I would have felt differently about this had I been able to read the original Japanese version - for all I know it could have just been the writing style that the translator chose to write the book in English. That being said, the art style was also not my favourite, even though the coverart is beautiful in its simplicity. I am glad to check it off of my list since it is such an iconic work, but I would not read it again.
February 9, 2019
Mestre, né? Não dou cinco estrelas porque achei corrido na parte final, na resolução da história.
August 1, 2025
Even bluffers and beginners in this stuff like me know that at some point, master of the cute and charming Osamu Tezuka noticed young hipsters doing brutal manga about sex, violence and political corruption, and decided to have a go at it himself, but without, notably, changing his extremely cute and charming drawing style. I've read a couple of these now and they're mostly fantastic, lurid, surreal tales, sometimes cosmic, sometimes filthy, often both, and....this one is rather the step too far, much nastier than Human Insects or Apollo's Song, with central characters either perpetrators (mostly) or victims (our heroine) of incest and practically constant sexual abuse, tied to a labyrinthine plot about gangsters, leftist activists, the assassination of railway managers, land redistribution, the arrested decline of the feudal family...all of which has been translated into a preposterous approximation of Deep South dialect. It's almost unreadable at times, but it is wild, and the Looney Tunes style catastrophe ending is almost worth slogging through a story that is both incredibly dense and relentlessly horrible. Almost.
August 7, 2023
Ayako consists of three volumes concerning the Tenge family from "The Grandfather of Manga" Osamu Tezuka. The story begins in 1949 and uses the basis of the Shimoyama incident, the Mitaka incident, and the Matsukawa derailment that plagued the Japanese National Railway. The story follows the Tenge family members for the next 25 years.
Ayako is a heavy hitter containing everything from family secrets to rape, murder, incest, politics and espionage.
Ayako is a heavy hitter containing everything from family secrets to rape, murder, incest, politics and espionage.
May 19, 2024
Thanks to this work I’m now in the process of reading the rest of his manga starting with A Message to Adolf.
October 12, 2023
Omnibus edition of the entire run of a comic book from the 1970's, adding up to a labyrinthine 700-page epic telling the "secret history" of post-WW2 Japan through the perspective of a dysfunctional Japanese upper-class family involved with the post-war rebuilding of the country. Took me an entire year to read, but I am glad that I managed to finish it.
The title character is a young girl who's the product of an incestuous relationship within the bloodline, hence her existence being kept secret from the outside world for much of her upbringing - the plot following her as she breaks out from her isolation, with the myriad plotlines being tied together by somehow being connected to her in one way or another. This labyrinthine story shows the shadier parts of modern Japanese history in fine detail, all of which the above mentioned dysfunctional upper-class family is involved with: Repression of organised labour during the Cold War by any means necessary, oligarchs making secret pacts of varying legality with the CIA, alliances between big business and the Yakuza. (Japan's equivalent to the Mafia)
All this adds up to something that feels like "Dallas" or "Dynasty" as written by a Japanese James Ellroy. In the final third act, the focus of the story shifts to the Yakuza and the whole thing starts feeling like a classic hard boiled crime story with tons of double-crosses, criminal conspiracies piling up on each other and whatnot - adding to the Ellroy feel. Here, artist and author Osamu Tezuka shows himself to be exceptionally adept at drawing big action scenes here, which surprised me considering how few of those the first two thirds of the story contain.
I also wonder if Tezuka had been reading quite a bit of Dashiell Hammett while writing "Ayako", Ellroy setting out to do what Hammett would have been capable of were he not hamstrung by 1930's era censorship: Hammett's fixation on class conflict illustrated with pulp fiction shows up as a central theme here in "Ayako". The conclusion of the story arc sees the old landowning aristocracy, which the main characters come from, displaced by the nouveau riche of the industrialised cities, a theme underscored by the English translators giving the landed gentry Southeastern United States accents to contrast with the new money speaking unaccented English. I guess they saw the parallel to the Northeastern industrialist upper class like the Rockefellers and Morgans becoming more powerful than the Southern plantation owners in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While I understand the motivation behind this decision by the translators, the result is often unintentionally comical since it's difficult to not raise your eyebrow at seeing kimono-wearing Japanese aristocrats talking like people from the Southeastern United States.
I don't know if I enjoyed reading this, but "Ayako" is as impressive a storytelling achievement as you'll find in the comic book medium. The myriad of characters have each their own well thought out motivations and poignant often disturbing character arcs. As mentioned before, it's also extremely informative for Westerners about post-WW2 Japanese history - in particular the least savoury aspects. The art is very good as well, more rounded and less pointy than newer anime styles and even more minimalistic, yet at the same time having extremely varied character designs. The backgrounds of both rural landscapes and modern cities showcase an impressive balance between complex motifs and a minimalistic art style. (which reminds me of James Ellroy in another way - a hallmark of his writing style is a deliberate contrast between sparse clipped prose and labyrinthine narrative structures) If I have to pick any high points in the artwork, they have to be the many elegant dream sequences and fantasies which become more graceful the more disturbing their content gets.
Recommended for people who want something ambitious and challenging, but not exactly pleasant, from their comic books.
The title character is a young girl who's the product of an incestuous relationship within the bloodline, hence her existence being kept secret from the outside world for much of her upbringing - the plot following her as she breaks out from her isolation, with the myriad plotlines being tied together by somehow being connected to her in one way or another. This labyrinthine story shows the shadier parts of modern Japanese history in fine detail, all of which the above mentioned dysfunctional upper-class family is involved with: Repression of organised labour during the Cold War by any means necessary, oligarchs making secret pacts of varying legality with the CIA, alliances between big business and the Yakuza. (Japan's equivalent to the Mafia)
All this adds up to something that feels like "Dallas" or "Dynasty" as written by a Japanese James Ellroy. In the final third act, the focus of the story shifts to the Yakuza and the whole thing starts feeling like a classic hard boiled crime story with tons of double-crosses, criminal conspiracies piling up on each other and whatnot - adding to the Ellroy feel. Here, artist and author Osamu Tezuka shows himself to be exceptionally adept at drawing big action scenes here, which surprised me considering how few of those the first two thirds of the story contain.
I also wonder if Tezuka had been reading quite a bit of Dashiell Hammett while writing "Ayako", Ellroy setting out to do what Hammett would have been capable of were he not hamstrung by 1930's era censorship: Hammett's fixation on class conflict illustrated with pulp fiction shows up as a central theme here in "Ayako". The conclusion of the story arc sees the old landowning aristocracy, which the main characters come from, displaced by the nouveau riche of the industrialised cities, a theme underscored by the English translators giving the landed gentry Southeastern United States accents to contrast with the new money speaking unaccented English. I guess they saw the parallel to the Northeastern industrialist upper class like the Rockefellers and Morgans becoming more powerful than the Southern plantation owners in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While I understand the motivation behind this decision by the translators, the result is often unintentionally comical since it's difficult to not raise your eyebrow at seeing kimono-wearing Japanese aristocrats talking like people from the Southeastern United States.
I don't know if I enjoyed reading this, but "Ayako" is as impressive a storytelling achievement as you'll find in the comic book medium. The myriad of characters have each their own well thought out motivations and poignant often disturbing character arcs. As mentioned before, it's also extremely informative for Westerners about post-WW2 Japanese history - in particular the least savoury aspects. The art is very good as well, more rounded and less pointy than newer anime styles and even more minimalistic, yet at the same time having extremely varied character designs. The backgrounds of both rural landscapes and modern cities showcase an impressive balance between complex motifs and a minimalistic art style. (which reminds me of James Ellroy in another way - a hallmark of his writing style is a deliberate contrast between sparse clipped prose and labyrinthine narrative structures) If I have to pick any high points in the artwork, they have to be the many elegant dream sequences and fantasies which become more graceful the more disturbing their content gets.
Recommended for people who want something ambitious and challenging, but not exactly pleasant, from their comic books.
June 19, 2017
Σκληρό, καινοτόμο για την εποχή του, η πιο σκοτεινή και ακραία δουλειά του Tezuka. Αυτή είναι η πιο άμεση κριτική του μεγάλου δασκάλου των manga στην μοίρα της Ιαπωνίας στο μεταίχμιο της ολοκληρωτικής ήττας. Είναι ασυνήθιστα απομακρυσμένο από τις συμβάσεις των κόμικς και σκηνοθετιμένο με σκοτεινό ηδονοβλεπτικό χιούμορ, αποτελώντας ταυτόχρονα πρωτοπόρο της φυσιογνωστικής (σε σαρκικό επίπεδο) Ιαπωνικής λογοτεχνίας. Ο κεντρικός άξονας είναι μια ηρωίδα έμβλημα των άνγωστων πτυχών που ακολουθούν ενός πολέμου. Αυτό που με τράβηξε αρχικά είναι ότι η θεματολογία που διαπραγματεύεται ο δημιουργός είναι ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα μυστήρια της σύγχρονης Ιαπωνικής ιστορίας που μέχρι και σήμερα παραμένουν θολά. Τι ακριβώς συνέβη στο aftermath του πολέμου; Πως επηρέασε τα γεγονότα του κάθε σπιτιού πίσω από τις κλειστές πόρτες; Ο Tezuka το πάει στο επόμενο επίπεδο, αποκαλύπτοντας την ασχήμια που κρύβεται πίσω από το προσωπείο καθαρά πραγματιστικά και χωρίς taboo.
Ο τίτλος είναι πραγματικά page-turner και δεν πρόκειται να το αφήσεις να δεν το τελειώσεις όλο. Δυστυχώς η επίσημη μετάφραση της Vertical δεν είναι καθόλου προσεγμένη μιας και ακολουθεί την μέθοδο μετάφρασης dynamic equivalence (όταν οι μεταφραστές προσπαθούν να δώσουν ακριβώς την ίδια εμπειρία ανάγνωσης με την αρχική έκδοση, αφαιρώντας όποιο στοιχείο είναι πολιτιστικά ξένο προς το κοινό που απευθύνεται η μετάφραση), με αποτέλεσμα οι περισσότεροι χαρακτήρες του cast να φαίνονται σαν γιδοβοσκοί που προσπαθούν να διαβάσουν Πλάτωνα. Οπότε στραφείτε προς τα scanlations. Προφανώς και το προτείνω, είναι ένα μικρό διαμάντι που συνδυάζει τον ψυχολογικό ρεαλισμό του Ντοστογιέφσκι με την κοινωνική συνείδηση του Ζολά και του Τολστόι. Κανένα θέμα δεν είναι εκτός ορίων για τον Tezuka: Φόνοι, κατασκοπία για τους Αμερικανούς, προσάρτηση στο Κομμουνιστικό κόμα, η φυλάκιση μέλους της οικογένειας σε ένα υπόγειο κελί και η προσπάθεια για αιμομιξία. Η ιστορία είναι καταδικαστική, απίστευτα δυνατή και σοβαρά ενοχλητική, με το τέλος να είναι ίσως παραπάνω γεμάτο με συμβολισμούς απ'ότι θα έπρεπε. Το Ayako αναγκάζει τον αναγνώστη να αντιμετωπίσει τις σκοτεινότερες και πιο διεφθαρμένες γωνίες της ανθρώπινης ψυχής.
Ο τίτλος είναι πραγματικά page-turner και δεν πρόκειται να το αφήσεις να δεν το τελειώσεις όλο. Δυστυχώς η επίσημη μετάφραση της Vertical δεν είναι καθόλου προσεγμένη μιας και ακολουθεί την μέθοδο μετάφρασης dynamic equivalence (όταν οι μεταφραστές προσπαθούν να δώσουν ακριβώς την ίδια εμπειρία ανάγνωσης με την αρχική έκδοση, αφαιρώντας όποιο στοιχείο είναι πολιτιστικά ξένο προς το κοινό που απευθύνεται η μετάφραση), με αποτέλεσμα οι περισσότεροι χαρακτήρες του cast να φαίνονται σαν γιδοβοσκοί που προσπαθούν να διαβάσουν Πλάτωνα. Οπότε στραφείτε προς τα scanlations. Προφανώς και το προτείνω, είναι ένα μικρό διαμάντι που συνδυάζει τον ψυχολογικό ρεαλισμό του Ντοστογιέφσκι με την κοινωνική συνείδηση του Ζολά και του Τολστόι. Κανένα θέμα δεν είναι εκτός ορίων για τον Tezuka: Φόνοι, κατασκοπία για τους Αμερικανούς, προσάρτηση στο Κομμουνιστικό κόμα, η φυλάκιση μέλους της οικογένειας σε ένα υπόγειο κελί και η προσπάθεια για αιμομιξία. Η ιστορία είναι καταδικαστική, απίστευτα δυνατή και σοβαρά ενοχλητική, με το τέλος να είναι ίσως παραπάνω γεμάτο με συμβολισμούς απ'ότι θα έπρεπε. Το Ayako αναγκάζει τον αναγνώστη να αντιμετωπίσει τις σκοτεινότερες και πιο διεφθαρμένες γωνίες της ανθρώπινης ψυχής.
November 12, 2015
A somber, sober narrative of the lives and times of the Tenge family in post-war Japan. The Tenge, rich landowners of Yodoyama prefecture, are vile in every sense of the word; their vices and moral frailties run the gamut from lechery, treason and greed, to submissiveness, abyection and indolence. Here are Tezuka's best natural landscapes, rivaling those found in Buddha. Background work is outstanding. Characterization is immaculate and facial studies on point. I have filed this book as Japanese literature, and sure enough this manga rivals and surpasses, in execution and scope, much of the literary production of its time. Urgently recommended.
March 29, 2020
This is a masterpiece of story telling that delves in the crossroads of the historical and the personal. Tezuka depicts the political and the individual struggles in a post IIWW Japan. The feudal relations of power in the economy and life are well summoned by the oppressive dynamics encountered in the Tenge family who, for greed and lust breaks norms - and trust - with a sense of consented entitlement and impunity. In this sense, it is a story about dehumanization and its possible - or impossible - repair that also introduces us to a cast of complex and deep characters who will make the reader reflect on the various facets of the human condition.
A must read.
A must read.
December 25, 2020
fantástico!!! um épico histórico e familiar do Japão do pós guerra sobre uma família completamente PODRE e disfuncional. não esperava uma história tão repleta de elementos pesadíssimos, mas fiquei impressionado com a profundidade da narrativa, com muita coisa acontecendo e cada personagem tendo seu espaço na obra. cheguei a esse mangá achando q o Jiro seria o grande protagonista e essa fosse uma saga familiar mais "comum" e dei de cara no chão. bem q o autor disse q tava tentando criar seu próprio OS IRMÃOS KARAMÁZOV rsrs. expectativas altíssimas agora pra começar RECADO A ADOLF!! amém, Tezuka
August 15, 2021
I know I said that I don’t rate graphic novels
but this was just a different experience. It’s a relatively well-told story but I do not recommend it to anyone. Though I thought that it would subvert the “born sexy yesterday” trope, it was rather too unironically voyeuristic for my taste.
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but this was just a different experience. It’s a relatively well-told story but I do not recommend it to anyone. Though I thought that it would subvert the “born sexy yesterday” trope, it was rather too unironically voyeuristic for my taste.
twitter ☆ instagram ☆ youtube ☆ tiktok ☆ blog
January 30, 2022
Ayako comes with Tezuka's usual baggage from his "Dark Period", but it's also one of his better stories. His art and writing are at the peak here and his sense of characterization is as strong as ever. It also seems like he was beginning to weed out his usual shock tactics with this book, as the rape and incest shown earlier only get talked about towards the last quarter. Tezuka also remains a king of espionage fiction, seamlessly mixed with an intense family drama. Not among Tezuka's best, but definitely great.
March 4, 2014
A great companion non-fiction piece for reading this title would be Alex Kerr's "Dogs & Demons". Although it may not prepare a n extremely rich political foundation, it's treatment of Japan's declining agricultural and expanding urbanization endeavors after WII would be enlightening.
October 8, 2022
Ayako was mind blowing. Tezuka showcases Post-WWII Japan through the crumbling structures of a feudal family. You get espionage, incest, Communism, industrialization spread across a multi-decadal story here.
January 19, 2017
Like Mw, great build up with disappointing ending.
February 7, 2022
Ayako é uma obra-prima dos mangás, com uma complexidade dramática próxima a Poderoso Chefão no cinema. Gostaria de estudar mais sobre o Japão para entender mais profundamente as metáforas. Mas, mesmo assim, aproveitei muito e recomendo fortemente.
May 10, 2025
2.75 stars
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