Offshore Lightning

by Nazuna Saito, Alexa Frank (Translation), Mitsuhiro Asakawa (Afterword)

Nazuna Saito began making comics late. She was in her 40s when she submitted a story to a major Japanese publishing house and won an award for newcomers. She continued to work through the 1990s until she stopped drawing to take care of her ailing parents. In her 60s, she took a job teaching drawing at Kyoto Seika University and became inspired by her talented students. When she returned to teaching, her storytelling interests had shifted. Before suffering a stroke she drew “In Captivity” (2012) and “Solitary Death Building” (2015)—both focused on aging and death. Offshore Lightning collects Saito’s early work as well as these two recent graphic novellas.

Stories like “Buy Dog Food and Go Home” and “Offshore Lightning” focus on middle-aged men caught in a cycle of self pity and self reflection. Saito gently pokes fun at their anguish and self-involvement while capturing the pathos of these men as they revisit childhood friendships and lost loves. By contrast, “In Captivity” follows three siblings visiting their ailing mother who is succumbing to dementia and resentful at her loss of agency. The siblings take a drive as they reckon with balancing the painful legacy of her caustic personality with attempting to honor this woman at the end of her life. “Solitary Death Building” documents an eccentric cast of elderly gossips as death descends upon the housing complex where they all live.

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

384 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2018

About the author

Nazuna Saito (JP: 齋藤 なずな) was born in 1946 near Mount Fuji. She became an illustrator almost by chance when a co-worker left and Saito replaced her. She drew her first comics at the age of 40.

Reviews

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quiet sombre stories - mostly from the early 90s.

The stories reminded me Tadao Tsuge's slice-of-life meandering stories from D+Q collections
Trash Market and Slum Wolf. Men struggling and pitying themselves but, unlike Tsuge, Saito adds an element of ridicule. Some stories you feel like Saito just set up a camera in the corner of a room and randomly recorded the interactions.

There's a couple stories from when Saito returned to comics in the 2010s, but those stories I really didn't connect with. Saito struggling with life, taking care of aging family, and trying to reclaim her creativity.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dull and depressing domestic drama. Little literary stories about parents and children, aging, dementia, dying, death, and grief.

I look forward to Dave Schaafsma one day explaining on Goodreads why this is really a four- or five-star book.


FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Towards the Sunset (Hanashi no Tokushu, April 1991) -- Offshore Lightning (Hanashi no Tokushu, July 1991) -- Parakeet God (Hanashi no Tokushu, February 1992) -- Buy Dog Food, Then Go Home (Hanashi no Tokushu, March 1991) -- Countdown (Hanashi no Tokushu, March 1992) -- A Mother of Pearl Ship (Hanashi no Tokushu, April 1992) -- Gingko (Hanashi no Tokushu, June 1991) -- Upskirt (Hanashi no Tokushu, June 1992) -- In Captivity (Kitsch 3.5 Revival Issue, December 2012) -- House of Solitary Death (Ax vol. 108, December 2015) -- Saito Nazuna: Living to Tell the Tale (essay by Mitsuhiro Asakawa, translated by Alexa Frank)

[Seung · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is for experienced manga readers who understand the history of Garo and gekiga manga ex Tsuge (which also has some recent collections including ones about countryside hotels). This is an important manga to read and appreciate. The author herself is unique as she only started creating manga around her 40s then stopped then started again in independent magazines. As I've gotten older I've started to appreciate slice of life and I manga. The majority of the stories in this book occupy the far end of the slice of life genre that is unique. There is no protagonist, no main character just a slice of a random person's life regarding mundane events and passing thoughts. Then The last two stories are what I would call a slice of death. The other end is her two most recent stories which she wrote decades after her original works in the 2010s to 2020s. The last story House of Solitary Death is one of the greatest manga novellas I've read in recent years. The other story: In Captivity deserves to be read twice. That one is about dementia and the effects it has on family and reconciliation in the last moments.

What can I say? This book is difficult to get into bc its slice of life elements operates on the extremes of the genre. Most people would find it hard to get into the stories since they're so mundane and manga and anime have definitely shifted from that in recent years. From truly a random slice of life and thoughts to slice of death as life trickles down to nothing.

Ironically there is a quote from an interview with the author where she states I don't care if I'll be miserable, just don't make my life boring. But all of her stories are mundane cuts of NPC's lives; culminating with people at the end of their lives.

This book makes me think, if I write an I manga or someone adapts my life, would I appreciate the boring parts or the fun parts. Would I appreciate my lives in London, NYC, Chicago, Denver, Alaska, and so forth? Or my mundane moments with my first love drinking chamomile tea and being hungry? Or feeling ennui as I enter my 30s being a NEET before ultimately getting my Doctorate.

My rating for this book went from a 3 to a 4. But now I'm giving it a 4.5 because it forced me to think. This manga isn't for everybody but if you get it, you get it.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique collection of everyday mundanity of middle-aged and elderly folks in Japan captured by the mangaka over time.
I found the last two stories about old age and death fascinating, but found many of the earlier stories to be too mundane and unfocused (e.g., no clear point or meaning) to really appeal to me.
From reading the essay, I know the author’s work was unique for exactly that reason, but it wasn’t my personal preference. I would recommend the last two stories to read, but the casual reader may not enjoy most of the book, as was my experience.

[katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some of the art was nice! That’s it

[Paige · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite stories from this collection (each of these I would consider 4-5 stars by themselves):
Towards the Sunset
Parakeet God
Gingko
House of Solitary Death

These are the ones I found most memorable and left the biggest impression on me. I like the slice of life stories, some of them are like a haiku sort of--short and allusive. And the good ones really grow on you, too.

At first I felt a bit disappointed because some of the blurbs I read led me to expect something else. From the NYT: "The solitude and anguish of life in postwar Japan are portrayed in crisp black-and-white drawings." I mean... first, these drawings aren't crisp (nothing wrong with that--it's a worthy style, just not a crisp one), but besides that, this implies a scope that I don't think the author was even intending, even if there may be glimpses of it. I read the included essay and looked over some of the Goodreads reviews, and I think a lot of the praise comes from the context and how the author was situated. Some of the stories are quite good on their own, but it seems like fans make a big deal about how this author is "post-Garo" (never heard of Garo before I picked this up), in the gekiga tradition (ditto), with a nod to other artists that I've never heard of. As a reader, I personally don't care about those details (at least at this point in my ~journey~), I'm more interested in what the story itself does. But that context did help me understand that "slice of life" stories, especially where protagonists are just normal people, were apparently a huge outlier when Nazuna was active. It gives me an idea of what her work might have meant to me if I were born in Japan in in the 1940s, and it probably would have been a lot more meaningful to that version of me than to the actual version of me, born in the 1980s in the USA, already exposed to much "slice of life"ness. Once I realized that the blurbs had led me astray (as they so often do!), I was able to better appreciate the stories in the collection. I think they are better read spaced apart than reading multiple on the same day as well. Overall this is one I will almost certainly revisit as long as the library keeps its copy.

[Patricia Q · Rating 1 out of 5]

I absolutely did not like it and thought many times about putting it down and not picking it back up.

[Chris Brook · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really struggled with this one and almost didn't finish. There were a few really beautiful moments here, sandwiched by a lot of hard-to-follow, incomprehensible bits.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was very grabbed by this one bc it's a collection of manga made by a lady who first started drawing seriously at age 40. The first handful of stories are nothing special, but feature a handful of standout moments that suggest a greater talent. The last 2 stories, however, are pretty excellent and feature much stronger art.

[Maya Liang · Rating 3 out of 5]

其實是有餘韻的。但太過寫實，看了更覺老年是場恐怖劇（但仍無法避免）。

摘句：
對認真努力的女人，男人是感受不到什麼魅力的。被性格惡劣、任性的女人吸引的男人，其實相當多呢。

[Moniquilla Guajara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Las ilustraciones son maravillosas, pero las historias...

Es un manga con 10 historias diferentes, como me pasa con los libros de relatos, hay historias que son maravillosas y otras que te dejan indecente.

Infancia, senectud, padres e hijos, historias cotidianas, con una gran carga de crítica social.

Me gustaron mucho las historias de los ancianos.

Como dato curioso cada uno de los personajes tiene una cara diferente

Préstamo bibliotecario.

Pd: Si puedes sacarlo de una biblioteca, mejor.

[M Pod · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Parakeet God" and "Countdown" will stick with me for a long time. If you find yourself in a room with this book, please take the time to at least read those.

Offshore Lightning won't be a 5/5 for everyone. It hit me in a personal way, like I was reading the stories of a slightly older friend I've known for many years. It means that the strangeness of some of the art was endearing and the confusion in some of the stories felt correct. (If you don't feel that connection, those elements will probably be annoying.)

Sometimes the best way I can explain my love for a book is to say it makes emotional sense, even when it doesn't make literal sense (see Laura van den Berg's The Third Hotel).

[Fluffyroundabout · Rating 4 out of 5]

## Key Takeaways
- “Even supporting characters have their own lives.” So begins a collection of stories revolving around the overlooked and unassuming, conveying “the idea that ordinary people are still protagonists of their own stories, despite not being especially attractive or brimming with talent.”

- A female gekiga mangaka who started her career in her 40s with much of these stories first releasing in 1991 and 1992.

- Stories intertwined with weather add another layer to decipher as you find the links between ice shattering and the loss of childhood or offshore lightning and the pressure on women pearl drivers to become geisha at night to help absolve their husbands’ debt.

- Really enjoyed the odd and touching “Parakeet God” where a young mangaka struggling to find success and an older nurse growing apathetic to patients deaths find happiness in each other. Their passion for creating manga, nursing people back to health, and even their combined love in caring for parakeets withers and wains. Yet, their affection towards each other remains and, in moments of giving up on other aspects of their lives, grows.

- More struggle with the responsibility of daily life in “Buy Dog Food, Then Go Home” where a middle-aged man with a young family drinks his sorrows, ruminating about his life choices and in the end, stepping away from that place to uphold his duties, even if it is not what he really wants.

- “Countdown” and “A Mother of Pearl Ship” deals with the death of parents. The latter was particularly strong as a daughter contemplates her relationship with her mother who always ‘played’ mommy, seeming perfect and kind to everyone, likely trying to meet the imagined standard of her own mother who passed away young. The former is a deeply personal tale as the author wrote it shortly after her own father passing and recalls a sighting of a wagtail instigating her first outpouring of tears.

- A poor Grandma in “Gingko” witnesses her descent ruin their lives as she fondly looks back at when it was just her and her husband watching the gingko leaves fall glittering like gold.

- In the final two stories written much later in 2012 and 2015, it’s all about death as the author lost her mother and husband a few years prior. We witness an old woman feeling captive in a nursing home, ruing her lot in life as she couldn’t choose where or who she was born from, and in the end must die alone as we all must. This story was really powerful and resembled a fever dream of an angry, bitter, dementia-ridden, and ultimately, pitiful woman with incredible artwork showing these later stories took a lot more time and focus, likely not facing tight deadlines of the former serialised tales.

- The final story sets place in a danchi (housing complex created after post-war baby boom) where “so many people die alone”. A poignant reflection on how we were all young once, having led vastly different lives before reaching our final resting place.

## Quotes
> Parakeet God: “In that case, I need you, too…I’m at the mercy of the gods, just like everyone else.”
> In Captivity: “Why did you throw me away when I can’t live without you.”
> In Captivity: “When death comes for you, death comes for you alone.”
> House of Solitary Death: “You know…I’ve never cared much for reality. That’s why…I still live to dream.”

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you know even an inkling of the history of manga, this collection is striking.

Saito's style shifts between simplicity and remarkable refinement, but what makes these stories so remarkable is the depth of their humanity, and their profoundly literary character. Deep, human pathos, articulated at a precise and measured place, makes this the sort of collection that you digest slowly, over multiple evenings. The stories explore desire, sexuality, loss, the subtle hues of relationships, dementia and the death of parents, so...yeah...One Piece it ain't. Each vignette is rich and thought provoking and penned deftly, coupled with effective paneling.

If you like the films of Terrence Malick, you'll find much of value in this collection.

[Don Flynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The passage of time, the imperfection of memory. Just a couple of things that Nazuna Saito's lit manga from the early '90s (along with a few pieces from the last decade) deals with. The stories accrete toward a nascent understanding of life, an understanding that proves to be as elusive as time and memory. In the end, we're left with these brief spotlights into average lives, beautifully rendered in a fragile line, that left me wanting more. Another wonderful discovery of a female gekiga, more than holding her own with the boys.

[Gabriel Mauel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of moments of a serene mundaness, many of which deal with aging, death, and family. There are no grand ideals or layered narratives, simply characters dealing with the complexities of everyday life. The art is presented similarly; pieces do not have meticulous details or action shots, save some of the panels from the later years, but rather excel in their simplicity. Take a breath, take comfort in the fact that everyone has their own struggles.

[Geve_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
This wasn't particularly compelling or interesting. I didn't particularly like a few of the stories, but most of them were totally fine. I did like the last two, which dealt with aging and looking towards death. The last one was quite good at showing how much life there still was in people near the end.
I did enjoy the art, it was simply but expressive.

[Erick Mertz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really admired the artwork, especially in the later two stories, as well as the breezy tone to the stories. Missing for me was the feeling of there being an "it factor". I didn't feel the pull to these stories and what they offered. I wanted weird. I wanted a bit of zest for the strange, but it just wasn't as compelling as I had wanted it to be.

[Owen Hatherley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of often bleak stories of everyday life, subtly feminist but mainly about death and ageing: so not cheery, and resistant throughout to even the slightest tweeness, but impressively controlled, pared-down and compassionate.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through Edelweiss.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories about everyday people told with a quiet weirdness.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

An assortment of short stories with odd plots and very tiny type.

[Rich Farrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some interesting series of panels but no one story really struck me from beginning to end. Those bits that directly dealt with aging were most successful.

[Kara :^) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, a bitttt boring.

[Rebecca Dawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that the characters were ordinary people. All the stories felt very grounded even when they became more fantastical.

[Philip Decloux · Rating 4 out of 5]

The two late works included in this collection make it a must-read, they were some of the best comics I've read in a long time.

[Turid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories were (for me) just ok, but the last two more recent stories were fantastic, and strong enough to lift this to four stars.

[Al Capwned · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slice-of-life short stories starring average people, in contrast to what we usually get. "Anticlimactic" on purpose and it still manages to get me.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saito Nazuna writes and illustrates a form of manga called gekiga, a form devoted to depictions of everyday life, rather than the fantastic and super-hero tales most American devotees of manga are familiar with. Nazuna is also unusual in that her career as a manga artist didn’t begin until she was 40 (she was born in 1946), when her first published story garnered an honorable mention in a national competition held for novice manga artists. Given her starting age, it’s no wonder that her gekiga concern the lives of common people—neither rich nor poor nor well-positioned in prestigious occupations—exploring the relationships between men and women, middle-aged children and their elderly (often hospitalized) parents, and include prostitution to earn income above subsistence level (pearl divers by day, geishas by night), children born out of wedlock to concubines (still a thing in Japan, apparently), job insecurity, and economic calamity. You won’t mistake it for Pokémon.

The book’s penultimate tale concerns a family of siblings who compare notes after each of their regular visits to their mother, a woman who is wasting away in a nursing home, with dementia, osteoporosis, and an anger toward her children, hospital roommates, and approaching death that only increases. In the last story, the protagonist—an older woman—lives near an apartment building filled with elderly people biding away their days until death. But they are living as much as they are dying, tending to stray cats, helping each other with chores, keeping an eye out for each other. It is in death that the author finds joy in life, in life’s mundane chores and little friendships. Just in time, too, because she’s run out of stories and no longer has the energy to compete with young manga artists who lack her insights into life’s triumphs and indignities.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...