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Monday, 6 October 2014

Alive (Hajime Taguchi)

Synopsis:
GEN Manga is Indie Manga from the Tokyo Underground.
GEN Manga was made to give fans an exclusive look at real doujinshi, otherwise known as indie manga, that they had heard about, but until now, unable to get their hands on.
In its essence, doujinshi is manga traded among other manga artists. Manga for manga lovers!
Seemingly mundane events twist with an unusual presence of the unreal as the psyche of ordinary people is explored.
Depression, time, and thought are redefined.
Alive is a collection of melancholy love stories saturated with sadness.
Characters struggle to connect with one another but never quite succeed. They are essentially alone.
Enter a world that is dark and disturbing — suicide is constantly contemplated and feelings of guilt, inadequacy, and suppressed sexuality surface as identity itself becomes a terribly fragile thing.

Review:
I got this ebook from Netgalley in return of an honest review.
I have been having a real adventure reading graphic novels and mangas lately, and this was no exception.
This is another Gen Manga production, but I enjoyed it a lot more than Sorako. It was still about normal people, but it had an tiny something of surreal and it made of this a very good read.
The stories had no logical sequence, but in this one that was okay, because there wasn't a main character: it combined a lot of people, living their everyday lives... and discovering that life isn't always as our narrow vision imagines it.
Although it was quite weird and, I'd say, eccentric, it was still emotional at times and I felt it dealt with themes we don't often see in literature, serious themes. And because of the themes handled in Alive, as well as the way it dealt with them, I think it was an extremely bold book. Very, very graphic, I would not recommend this to younger readers, but I found it to be an extraordinarily brave way to write a manga about such matters.
Finally, I reckon there is more to this than what it looks like on the surface. It was an intense and profound story to existencial levels and I think I still have a lot to discover beyond the beautiful illustrations used in here.