Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Leopard recently saw Tatsumi, an animated biography/documentary about one of my inspirations, the great manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi. Directed by Eric Khoo, The basis of the film is the book A Drifting Life, about his fascinating career. It's a wonderful tribute to Tatsumi's art.
Tatsumi started out in children's manga, but was an early founder of gekiga style, which was alternative Japanese comics, often touching on adult themes of loneliness, depair and hopelessness, reflecting on then post war Japan.
The film not only animates A Drifting Life but also some of Tatsumi's best known stories, some of which are quite shocking in their violence and and especially sexual content.

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