The protagonist’s last name is Shiosawa. He is an influential manga editor who at the age of 50 has decided to leave his job, but has not yet thought about what he will do from now on. He simply wants to close a stage of his life. He says goodbye to those who have been his co-workers and wants to get rid of the comic book collection he has at home. However, he soon sees that it will be difficult to take that step. This is how the first volume of Tokyo Day by Day begins, written and drawn by Taiyô Matsumoto and published by ECC Ediciones with a translation by Alejandro Sánchez Herrera.
The reader senses that Shiosawa’s decision has been caused by a commercial failure that he assumes as his own: the magazines he edits, their authors, no longer sell as much. He opts for an author’s comic, which sells less than other more commercial titles, and in a vignette he even accuses himself of having been “incapable of bridging the gap” between what readers want and his taste as an editor. It is the human tone, deeply human, that permeates the entire story.
Mixing with this main story, Tokyo Day by Day vividly portrays the longings and anxieties of other cartoonists. We note that the editor’s job consists, among other things, of accompanying these creators, reading their work and polishing it, guiding them to bring out the best in themselves; Listen to them when their creative side falters, encourage them to bring out the best in themselves. That has been Shiosawa’s job for years and it is what Hayashi is now trying to do, a young editor who sees a teacher in him and to whom she turns for advice.
Tokyo immerses itself day by day in the world of manga but actually tells a much more global story, which will interest not only those who know the manga industry but also anyone looking for an intimate, sensitive and wonderfully well-told story. Tokyo day by day tells the story of an era that is ending, the story of passion for work, the story of friendships that were forged over years and that now do not want to end. Shiosawa himself refuses to put an end to his stage, as we will also see in this book, which is, in reality, the first volume of a broader story.
Taiyô Matsumoto has drawn these pages with a delightful sense of detail. The staging is superb. His ability to portray the city is magnificent, whether he does it with panoramic views full of skyscrapers or portraying alleys or store interiors. Through small details that accumulate in the reader’s mind, Matsumoto creates an emotional portrait of Tokyo. It is not strange then that the name of the city stars in the title of this manga because Tokyo is one of its protagonists.
Matsumoto draws with a trembling line full of charm, precise and imaginative. With many changes in shots, perspectives and framing. The comic captivates the reader but its pace is slow – we are far from the acceleration of the most popular mangas. The drawing style also moves away from the most canonical manga, the one derived from Osamu Tezuka with his cartoonish style and large, expressive eyes. Matsumoto is far from that style. It is not unusual, for example, that one of the authors mentioned in these pages is Tsuge, and that we understand as a nod to Yoshiharo Tsuge, author of intimate and hypnotic works.
