Continuing with our season of manga about being a manga artist, we talk about the first volume of Shunju Aono's fictional story 'I'll Give It My All.. Tomorrow', (Orewamada Honkidashitenaidake). Where a 42 year-old Salaryman quits his job to become a successful manga artist. How delusional is such a man is something we will find out. Skip synopsis @ 5:08
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079: I'll Give It My all… Tomorrow vol. 1
By Shunju Aono
Translation by Akemi Wegmuller
Lettering by Steven Rhyse
Synopsis:
The middle aged Shizuo Oguro quits his fulltime job as a salary man to become a manga artist, or colloquially speaking a mangaka. Much to the malaise of his father and his teenage daughter, Suzuko, who he lives with. In between drawing manga and meeting publishers he works part time slinging burgers and serving fries.
Shizuo is an easily distracted man, he likes spending time drinking with his long-time friend Miyata and playing videogames at home, during one of his distractions he discovers that Suzuko is a sex worker, as a favour he asks her to leave and instead to focus on her exams. He is also quickly swayed by the influence of others, he'll do stunts on his bike when he sees kids are off school, simply to gain some semblance of glory. Shizuo will also project his insecurities onto Miyata and when he sleeps, he dreams of a person, presumably the voice of God if not Shizuo's subconscious, confronting Shizuo on his laziness.
When Shizuo meets the 26-year-old Shuichi Ichinosawa he finds inspiration to draw up a hard-boiled delinquent manga. In a bonus chapter we are also introduced to Yukiko, a young woman who struggles to find purpose and meaning in her life. And it seems that by befriending Shizuo it has in some ways saved her life.
Topics:
- Shunju Aono's humour, particularly Shizuo's dad crying when told his son wants to be mangaka. And walking in on Shizuo as he sees him dressed in school uniform.
- Shizuo's beliefs and tenants, how they are formed by the people around him. We see characters have fully formed beliefs in fiction all the time but it is a sign of a good writer when you can see how the character develops them and reflects the views of other characters if not project their views on to others. James compares the Shizuo character to Alita in Yukito Kishiro's Gunnm series; both characters have strong beliefs yet one is amnesiac.
- People who have found success later in life and the stakes of attempting to do so.
- Purpose and Meaning of Life.
- What the Shizuo character and the story tells us on a personal level and how it speaks to our own fears of growing old.
Other references:
- Aika – At the time of the manga's original published run she was a very popular real life Japanese singer and saxophone player that Suzuko listens to. Her music tends to be categorized under the pop genre with rock and jazz influence. Furthermore, in 2011, Aika released "Dancing Arrows" that was used as the official theme song/promotion song of the Hollywood movie "Ironclad" featuring Academy Award nominee and golden globe winner Paul Giamatti (Barney's Version, 12 years a slave), Brian Cox (Troy, X-men), Kate Mara (House of Cards), James Purefoy (The following). Aika also sings the theme song for the award-winning movie "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" featuring Tina Fey. Furthermore, Aika co-wrote the song "Save Your Life" for platinum artist Daniel Powter, featuring Ayaka Hirahara. Her latest release "Heard and Angel" debuted at Spotify "Best of Indie" playlist.
- Konowata, despite the name "Sea Cucumber", this is not a vegan food and is basically salty seafood.
- Apparently, Suzuko reads "Dazai", most likely a reference to the Japanese writer/author Osamu Dazai. His most famous work outside of Japan is 'No Longer Human', which has been adapted to manga form twice now by Usamaru Furuya and Junji Ito. Its fair to say that this has been an influence on Shunju Aono.
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