ですぺら（ロマンアルバム）

by Chiaki Konaka, 小中 千昭

『ですぺら』というタイトルは、大正時代のダダイスト（既成の秩序や常識に対して否定や破壊、虚無を行う「ダダイズム」の心棒者）であり、詩人でもあった辻潤の散文詩のタイトルからの引用。Desperado＝ならず者、という意味合いも含まれている。 『ですぺら』は辻潤が生きた大正時代、1922年＝大正11年の日本を舞台に、「あいん」と呼ばれる不思議な少女と、彼女が作った「未来を覗く装置」、そして大正に生きた様々な人々を描く。大正の帝都にネコ耳ヒロインが登場！？ 『lain』以降、日本画を基調とした独特の画風で多くのファンから支持されている安倍吉俊のイラストを、描き下ろしを含めてふんだんに収録。

161 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 2011

About the author

Japanesehorror writer and scenarist best known for work in anime (Trigun, Hellsing, Gungrave, Serial Experiments Lain etc. Konaka's serious works generally have a dark, psychological tone. As a Cthulhu Mythos writer, he tends to add Lovecraftian elements to his works.

"Chiaki J. Konaka" is a very unusual name, as Japanese names typically do note include middle names; the "J." in this pen name is not part of the original Kanji writing of his name, but rather a convention the author adopted for published works requiring the romanized version of his name.

Associated Names:
Chiaki Konaka (English)
小中 千昭 (Japanese)
小中千昭 (Chinese)

Reviews

[xenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

in the wake of the kantō earthquake of 1923, thousands of socialists, anarchists, and koreans were assassinated and lynched by far right nationalists and the japanese military and police

to this day, these events are denied by the japanese state — in fact,

Books denying the massacre and repeating the government frame story of 1923 became constant bestsellers in the 2010s.

when i was in japan, my friend told me how the ordinary japanese person thinks koreans are just "angry, rude people;" they don't wonder why they're angry, they don't connect it to the many war crimes the japanese state has inflicted on foreigners and immigrants

despera circles the jūnikai tower in its final days, a symbol of international capital (the first modern skyscraper) that is demolished after the kantō earthquake — omen to the tides of nationalist fervour that would wash over japan in following years

though the kantō massacre is never explicitly described, an atmosphere of dread and melancholy haunts despera, a sense of inevitability as we trace the lines between dadaists and anarchists, tesla and the bolsheviks, modernity and fetishism

but despera ends before it really begins; the slow unravelling of the collective trauma that is authoritarianism is displaced for a trite exploration of the main character's — takeshita's — trauma

history disappears in the face of psychoanalysis — all the lines rife with meaning go nowhere. i learnt about the kantō massacre from secondary material, not from despera itself

i'm hoping the anime, having had much more time to develop, will go into this . . .

[epitáfio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A verdadeira Ain são os amigos que fizemos no caminho.