Ayako [Hardcover]

Osamu Tezuka (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 30, 2010

Long considered as one of Osamu Tezuka’s most political narratives, Ayako is also considered to be one of his most challenging as it defies the conventions of his manga by utilizing a completely original cast and relying solely on historical drama to drive the plot.  Ayako, pulls no punches, and does not allow for gimmicks as science-fiction or fantasy may.  Instead Tezuka weaves together a tale which its core simply focuses on a single family, a family that could be considered a metaphor for a rapidly developing superpower.

Overflowing with imagery of the cold war seen through Japan’s eyes, Ayako is firmly set in realism taking inspiration from a number of historical events that occurred over the American occupation and the cultural-revolution which soon followed. Believed to be Tezuka’s answer to the gekiga (dramatic comics) movement of the 60’s, Ayako should be considered one of the better early examples of a seinen (young adult) narrative to be published.

Initially set in the aftermath of World War II, Ayako focuses its attention on the Tenge clan, a once powerful family of landowners living in a rural community in northern Japan.  From the moment readers are introduced to the extended family, it is apparent that the war and American occupation have begun to erode the fabric that binds them all together.  The increasing influence of political, economic and social change begins to tear into the many Tenge siblings, while a strange marriage agreement creates resentment between the eldest son and his sire.  And when the family seems to have completely fallen apart, they decide to turn their collective rage on what they believe to be the source of their troubles—the newest member of the Tenge family, the youngest sister Ayako.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A 2010 About.com Best Manga of the Year Selection

“Best New Seinen/Josei Manga of 2010—Drama
Ayako depicts horrifying events, but it is beautifully presented. Connoisseurs of comics craft will find much to admire in Tezuka’s cinematic approach to paneling, pacing, and illustration. Peter Mendelsund’s striking design gives this 1970’s story a modern mood to attract mature readers.”—About.com

“Panel after panel flows effortlessly, composed in such a way that it draws you in, despite the cartoonish characters that Tezuka is so well known for. His scenery and backgrounds show a vibrant land slowly weighed down by filth and corruption… While I have been dismissive of Tezuka’s work in the past, I am fully convinced by Ayako… This book is one of Vertical’s finer achievements and a must-have for any Tezuka or intelligent comics fan. 9.5/10” —Comics Village

“It is a portrait of humanity’s dark side on par with Dante’s Inferno… With so many interlocking storylines, all meticulously charted up to the final page, this drama plays out on a stage so grand that only Tezuka could have conceived it. Even the artwork reaches heights that are yet to be surpassed today… For pure story and visual impact, one of the best ever. A-” —Anime News Network

“Like some of Vertical’s previous long-form Tezuka releases—MW and Ode to Kirihito in particular—Ayako isn’t afraid to get dark and dreary. In fact, Ayako may be one of the bleakest yet. That is, of course, said as a term of endearment; this nearly 700-page work sucks you into its twisted narrative from the very first chapter, and its grip only gets icier as the pages turn… From Peter Mendelsund’s elegant cover design to Mari Morimoto’s dialect-infused translation, this is another must for fans of Osamu Tezuka and comics in general.” —Otaku USA

“It’s all fearless stuff, and all in the service of a story that looks pitilessly at the way people cling desperately to scraps of power and influence even as it corrupts them from within all the more. No lie is great enough to tell, no sin mortal enough to contemplate, no life sacrosanct in the face of such need. What’s remarkable is how Tezuka’s storytelling makes such dank and horrific things into the stuff of compulsively readable, wide-gauge visual drama. You’re drawn in despite yourself, not just once but many times over.” —Genji Press

About the Author

Osamu Tezuka (1928-89) is the godfather of Japanese manga comics. He originally intended to become a doctor and earned his degree before turning to what was then a medium for children. His many early masterpieces include the series known in the U.S. as Astro Boy. With his sweeping vision, deftly interwined plots, feel for the workings of power, and indefatigable commitment to human dignity, Tezuka elevated manga to an art form. The later Tezuka, when he authored Buddha, often had in mind the mature readership that manga gained in the sixties and that had only grown ever since. The Kurosawa of Japanese pop culture, Osamu Tezuka is a twentieth century classic.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Vertical; First Edition edition (November 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934287512
• ISBN-13: 978-1934287514
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.3 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Osamu Tezuka (1928-89) is the godfather of Japanese manga comics. He originally intended to become a doctor and earned his degree before turning to what was then a medium for children. His many early masterpieces include the series known in the U.S. as Astro Boy. With his sweeping vision, deftly interwined plots, feel for the workings of power, and indefatigable commitment to human dignity, Tezuka elevated manga to an art form. The later Tezuka, who authored Buddha, often had in mind the mature readership that manga gained in the sixties and that had only grown ever since. The Kurosawa of Japanese pop culture, Osamu Tezuka is a twentieth century classic.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 71 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent graphic novel, but not "high literature." December 8, 2010

By Meatball Head

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Ayako weighs in at exactly 700 pages, making it a book to be reckoned with. It is in fact a Book, beautiful and well-published (but probably too big to carry around casually; an e-reader edition would have been awesome, but alas). Perhaps because of the way it has been published, in a tasteful, hardcover, single-volume edition, its ad copy attempts to market it as a Novel, stating, "Ayako looms as a pinnacle of Naturalist literature in Japan with few peers even in prose, the striking heroine a potent emblem of things left unseen by the war." I read the publicity, got really excited, and had Amazon ship it to me on the day it came out. If people were comparing Ayako to Faulkner and Tolstoy, why shouldn't I read it immediately? Unfortunately, although Ayako is certainly a major accomplishment in the field of graphic novels, I am going to have to put my foot down and declare that it is not in fact on par with the best of Japanese prose. Far from it. As literature, Ayako is riddled with problems.

Let's start with the storytelling. The plot is highly improbable from beginning to end, and its developments often don't make much sense if the reader begins to question them. The ending, which reeks of poetic justice, feels especially heavy handed. If one simply accepts the story as it unfolds, it's not so far-fetched that it's ridiculous, but "a pinnacle of Naturalist literature" it is not. The pacing is also highly uneven; certain key plot points happen way too quickly. This refusal to let the reader slow down and figure out what's happening is especially bad at the beginning and end of the book, which are obviously the worst places for a hastily drawn story.

Another thing I expect from the novels I read are a cast of deep, multi-faceted characters, but the dramatis personae of Ayako are all one-dimensional. The Tenge patriarch and his oldest son, for example, are evil simply because they're bad people. The two most complex characters, Jiro and Shiro, merely flip between "good" and "bad" like cutout paper puppets. Ayako, who has the potential to be the most interesting character, is the most disappointing. The cover of the book says everything you need to know about her: she is young, beautiful, and mysterious, and she very much wants to have sex with you. We see her breasts, butt, thighs, and panties more than we hear her speak. Of course she is seriously psychologically damaged, but Tezuka doesn't give this the narrative weight it deserves, choosing instead to have us view her through the eyes of his male characters, who regard her as both pitiful and sexually irresistible. A "striking heroine" and a "potent emblem," indeed.

Other minor characters are so cartoonish and caricatured that they don't add much of anything to the story. In fact, one might say they detract from it. Multiple clones of Popeye, Olive Oil, and Dick Tracy don't really help the story construct itself as "serious literature," and Tezuka's brief attempts at humor feel inane and misplaced. On that note, the art quality in Ayako can sometimes be shockingly bad. The cartoon character designs and the rushed artwork are much better, however, than Tezuka's occasional attempts at realism. Such drawings are, quite honestly, unlovely, and their effect on the flow of the story is akin to someone jumping onto the train tracks.

Such an awkward analogy brings me to my final point of contention: the translation. I believe that dialect is something that is much more natural and naturalized in written Japanese than it is in written English. Unfortunately, the translation of Ayako not only draws unnecessary attention to itself but also robs the Tenge family of any power, dignity, tragedy, or pathos they might have originally had by making them sound like the Beverly Hillbillies. There are also strange aberrations in the speech of certain characters, such as when a character with otherwise unmarked speech suddenly starts calling people "Guv'nor" in the last quarter of the book.

Any of these problem areas - narrative structure, pacing, characterization, art, translation - would potentially be a deal-breaker by itself, but together they make Ayako awkward and almost unreadable at times. Ayako is therefore a deeply flawed work, and its flaws are of the type that are simply annoying without adding any depth to the story. I am giving the book four stars, because, despite everything, it is an excellent graphic novel. If you come to it expecting a literary masterpiece on par with The Makioka Sisters or The Sound and the Fury, however, you're going to be sorely disappointed. Ayako is not high literature. It is a comic book: an engaging and thought-provoking one that was ahead of its time, but a comic book nonetheless. It is not for literary types seeking an introduction to manga, and it is not for casual manga fans seeking an introduction to Tezuka. Unless you're really sure that you want to read Ayako, warts and all, you're better off trying a Tezuka title like Buddha or Phoenix. Better yet, skip the history lesson and go straight to Naoki Urasawa, who achieves the beauty of art and novelistic scope and density of character that perhaps Tezuka could have aimed for had he not been working on a dozen projects at once.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars True Art. A Brilliant, Under-rated Masterpiece May 16, 2011

By Paige Turner

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

"Ayako" by Osamu Tezuka is a masterpiece. On the surface, it is a startling story of events in post-WW2 Japan. However, within those pages, it challenges how we think about life, death, family, and country. I thought "Buddha" was his opus until I read "Ayako."

"Ayako" is the story of a girl who is the daughter in the Tenge clan, a family in the Japanese countryside, coming to grips with the land reform that threatens to upend their way of life. More sinister and damaging yet is the degenerate patriarch of the family. I will not spoil the book for you, but some of his actions are reprehensible. It is a testament to the freedom of press in Japan that Tezuka was able to publish this book at all. Jiro Tenge, a son who comes home from the war, instead of dying valiantly for his country, is another main character.

This masterpiece is a thrilling way to understand both Japanese culture, especially during their own "cultural revolution" after losing WW2. If you have ever wondered what life is like in a country that loses a war, this work will let you understand some of the long-term damage it inflicts.

In many ways, the Tenge clan's evildoing and horrible fate is a metaphor for Japan in it's involvement in WW2. It is no secret that Tezuka is a pacifist, but in this work, he elegantly, violently, shows the high cost of WW2 to Japan. No one in the Tenge clan is spared; even the youngest, most idealistic, clever son is ultimately corrupted. That leaves Ayako.

I will not spoil the plot for you, but I will say that the brutal treatment of Ayako is metaphoric as well, perhaps on several levels. Is she Japan itself? Is she the natural world? Is she a metaphor for the old, ordered feudalistic society of Japan pre-WW2? Is her naïveté pure in nature as it appears on the surface, or does something more sinister lurk beneath? This masterpiece asks many more questions. Maybe "Ayako" is the Japanese (or greater human race) character itself, good in its truest form, corruptible, weak, yet not what it appears on the surface? Do societies, particularly traditional Asian cultures, have too much emphasis on "face" while perversion lurks beneath the surface? (If this sounds like it explores some of the same themes director David Lynch prefers, it does.)

"Ayako" has a compelling plot, so it is easy to be caught up in it and think that story is the only point. If you do that, you are missing a lot. The artwork is compelling; some of the imagery is so haunting and bizarre it will stick with you.

Some say this novel does not compare to "The Watchmen" and it is not "Shakespeare." I beg to differ. "Ayako" soars to the heights of the best of literature, graphic and text alike. If you want an experience that will achieve the ultimate goal of great art - to change your way of thinking forever - then you must read "Ayako."

Ultimately, Tezuka gives us a small whiff of hope at the end - or does he?

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Tezuka's entry into Shakespearean tragedy December 22, 2010

By animate ~

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Of all the reviews I've read of this book, the most strikingly off are written here. I found this work to be a near-masterstroke of comix genius, sans a few things here and there, which the other reviewers have pointed out well (and not so well). I couldn't help but feel this was an epic on the scale of "Apollo's Song", though "Ayako" follows a very different story arch (one of family and not of self). Sakuemon Tenge, in his most feverish moments, reminded me of none other than King Lear; a despot and a fool despite his title among the country's men. The characterization of many here is deep, and like most Tezuka (and Shakespeare), he is concerned with what Jacobethan's would've called "problem plays"-- the moral center of Tezuka's characters is never fully defined, we are only witness to their actions as they unfold. Some have called the narrative sloppy. No one dare call "Hamlet"'s narrative plot-holed; with epic tragedy some element of fantasy must be obtained while an element of disbelief must also be held to continue an otherwise ending narrative yarn (think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's "dilemma"). The titular character herself is left alone (literally and not) for much of the book. Those like myself, interested in the punishments that Malvolio faced in Twelfth Night, wish she had more introspective depth and poise. A minor complaint.

Those saying the ending was a little ham-fisted: we're in agreement, here. It feels rushed, and like "Dororo" and "Phoenix" was probably a result of Tezuka working on a dozen projects at once. If any man could pull off that work ethic, he could. The translation never bothered me while I read. This isn't Tezuka's masterpiece, but it's a beautifully packaged addition to your growing Tezuka library. At ~700 pages, it isn't for the initiate (start off with some Black Jack), but it is a glimpse into the hectic and intricate mind of the God of Comics.