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ウムヴェルト 五十嵐大介作品集 [Umwelt - Igarashi Daisuke Sakuhinshuu]
『ディザインズ』『リトル・フォレスト』『海獣の子供』などで絶対的な支持を獲得している五十嵐大介の作品集、待望の登場！ 2004年から2014年にかけて描かれた短編は、「この世界のどこかにいる、かもしれない」──そんな「未確認生物」をモチーフとした珠玉の10タイトル。『ディザインズ』の原型となる読み切り『ウムヴェルト』も網羅し、五十嵐大介の環世界が惜しみなく放たれた1冊！
196 pages, Paperback
First published March 23, 2017
2 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Daisuke Igarashi
49 books165 followersDaisuke Igarashi (五十嵐 大介, Igarashi Daisuke) is a Japanese cartoonist, acclaimed for his refined art style and philosophical themes. His manga often use sci-fi or magical elements to touch on the relation between mankind and nature.
Igarashi began his professional career in 1993 on the pages of the magazine 'Monthly Afternoon'. Therein, he published the stories composing Hanashippanashi (1993-1996), a few other shorts collected in the volume Sora Tobi Tamashii (2002), as well as his first minor success, the series Little Forest (2003-2005).
In 2003 the author started a fruitful collaboration with the alternative manga magazine 'Monthly Ikki', in which he serialised his most famous works to date: the anthological Witches (2003-2004) and Children of the Sea (2006-2011). Both series were awarded an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, respectively in 2004 and 2009.
Igarashi's latest works are Umwelt (2017), collecting short stories appeared in various magazines between 2004 and 2014, and the 5-volume long manga Designs (2016-2018).
Igarashi began his professional career in 1993 on the pages of the magazine 'Monthly Afternoon'. Therein, he published the stories composing Hanashippanashi (1993-1996), a few other shorts collected in the volume Sora Tobi Tamashii (2002), as well as his first minor success, the series Little Forest (2003-2005).
In 2003 the author started a fruitful collaboration with the alternative manga magazine 'Monthly Ikki', in which he serialised his most famous works to date: the anthological Witches (2003-2004) and Children of the Sea (2006-2011). Both series were awarded an Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival, respectively in 2004 and 2009.
Igarashi's latest works are Umwelt (2017), collecting short stories appeared in various magazines between 2004 and 2014, and the 5-volume long manga Designs (2016-2018).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 22, 2025
8.5/10
This collection features a bunch of short stories by Daisuke Igarashi, sporadically published between 2004 and 2014. Most of them are really short, ten-to-twenty pages, barely sketched narratives; the only exception being the sixty-something pages long titular story. (Book only translated in Italian and Chinese at the time of me writing this.)
I am not familiar with the author's longer series. Nonetheless, this book alone, together with his other more famous collection Witches are all I need to esteem him as one of my favourite cartoonists ever!
Igarashi's work sits pretty comfortably within the realm of (more or less) mainstream seinen manga. Yet, his narrative voice and visual style strike me as very singular and strong.
Coveted connection with nature is a recurring theme of the author. Igarashi filters the human experience, and life in general, through the lenses of some kind of naturalistic spirituality. Now, put it like that, it may sound like some new-age nonsense, but I guarantee you it's way more than that. The beasts and the flora, the earth and the water, everything contributes to a nourishing, yet mostly hostile universe in which the farse of life unfolds. Something as mundane as sheep eating grass can take the shape of a war between warrior dancers and giant oni. Something as simple as a mountain hike can end up with a cursed death, and then a cursed new life. A school girl desire to get 'pregnant by the moon' is fulfilled in the most bizarre way.
And when it's not living people trying to connect with the natural and the supernatural realms, it's the other way around: a ghost being summoned back to his hometown by the sound of festivities; or an awkward yokai made of rain looking for his place in the urban landscape.
In the action packed titular story Umwelt, a frog-like little girl escapes from a laboratory to move her first steps towards a new world of greater connection between human(oid) life and the universe.
When he wants to adventure in philosophical territories, Igarashi wonders about the relation between death, memory and visibility, like in the tale of a (literally) shrinking grandma.
Coupled with the thematic solidity of the tales, it's the magnificent art style of the mangaka. His ink strikes are sophisticatedly gritty, and a pleasure to contemplate. His ability to realistically reproduce plants and animals is unparalleled. On the other hand, his human characters vary in a significantly wide range of cartoonish-ness, yet even when stripped to the bones they retain a powerful expressivity.
Seriously, this guy is good!
This collection features a bunch of short stories by Daisuke Igarashi, sporadically published between 2004 and 2014. Most of them are really short, ten-to-twenty pages, barely sketched narratives; the only exception being the sixty-something pages long titular story. (Book only translated in Italian and Chinese at the time of me writing this.)
I am not familiar with the author's longer series. Nonetheless, this book alone, together with his other more famous collection Witches are all I need to esteem him as one of my favourite cartoonists ever!
Igarashi's work sits pretty comfortably within the realm of (more or less) mainstream seinen manga. Yet, his narrative voice and visual style strike me as very singular and strong.
Coveted connection with nature is a recurring theme of the author. Igarashi filters the human experience, and life in general, through the lenses of some kind of naturalistic spirituality. Now, put it like that, it may sound like some new-age nonsense, but I guarantee you it's way more than that. The beasts and the flora, the earth and the water, everything contributes to a nourishing, yet mostly hostile universe in which the farse of life unfolds. Something as mundane as sheep eating grass can take the shape of a war between warrior dancers and giant oni. Something as simple as a mountain hike can end up with a cursed death, and then a cursed new life. A school girl desire to get 'pregnant by the moon' is fulfilled in the most bizarre way.
And when it's not living people trying to connect with the natural and the supernatural realms, it's the other way around: a ghost being summoned back to his hometown by the sound of festivities; or an awkward yokai made of rain looking for his place in the urban landscape.
In the action packed titular story Umwelt, a frog-like little girl escapes from a laboratory to move her first steps towards a new world of greater connection between human(oid) life and the universe.
When he wants to adventure in philosophical territories, Igarashi wonders about the relation between death, memory and visibility, like in the tale of a (literally) shrinking grandma.
Coupled with the thematic solidity of the tales, it's the magnificent art style of the mangaka. His ink strikes are sophisticatedly gritty, and a pleasure to contemplate. His ability to realistically reproduce plants and animals is unparalleled. On the other hand, his human characters vary in a significantly wide range of cartoonish-ness, yet even when stripped to the bones they retain a powerful expressivity.
Seriously, this guy is good!
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November 9, 2019總覺得很多篇章那種點到為止的感覺很高明
一般說來，這種行為通常令人焦躁，
但五十嵐的作品有種魔力，是你明明就很在意後續，卻又莫名覺得停在這裡就很好
喜歡九井諒子短篇的人應該也會喜歡這兩本作品
沒有深不可視的陰暗，也沒有光彩奪目的正向
只有一個隨心所欲說著故事的漫畫家
一般說來，這種行為通常令人焦躁，
但五十嵐的作品有種魔力，是你明明就很在意後續，卻又莫名覺得停在這裡就很好
喜歡九井諒子短篇的人應該也會喜歡這兩本作品
沒有深不可視的陰暗，也沒有光彩奪目的正向
只有一個隨心所欲說著故事的漫畫家
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews