I’ll Give it My All… Tomorrow 2

Shunji Aono – Viz – 2010 – 4+ volumes

This is… this is a weird series. Much like the main character’s life, it seems a little aimless and happens across all the plot points it addresses, but it’s still very compelling. I’ve read criticisms of some slice-of-life stories along the lines of them being mundane to the point of making you want to put them down and live your own life. This one has that effect, but not because it’s uninteresting. No, I felt a little bad for staying in and reading a comic because I felt just one step closer to Shizuo that way.

Bizarrely, I think Shizuo’s lifestyle isn’t always criticized by the characters. He has certain outlooks that sound almost positive (living for the day, liking yourself, stuff like that), but on the other hand, he is terrible at what he does and doesn’t work very hard at achieving his dream of drawing a manga. If possible, that’s downplayed even more in this volume. He does visit editors twice to deliver scripts, but the characters have mostly ceased talking about it, including Shizuo himself. Usually, his lifestyle reads more negatively in the context of his father and daughter’s company and positively when he is in the company of Shuichi, the twenty-something he befriended last volume. Granted, he lives with Shuichi and sponges off him most of the volume. Shuichi is mostly stoic and gives off a somewhat angry air, but also seems fond of Shizuo, and Shizuo somehow gives him a lot of good advice. Most of which he needs to hear.

I love Shuichi, by the way. It’s almost impossible to get a bead on what he’s thinking or how he is reacting in any situation, but I love the way he contrasts so well with Shizuo’s situation. He’s got no direction and can’t hold a steady job, and neither can Shizuo’s situation. He can’t hold a steady job, and neither can Shizuo, but it bothers Shuichi that his life doesn’t have direction, whereas Shizuo sees this as a positive quality.

I couldn’t get a handle on the tone of the story, whether the portrayal of Shizuo was supposed to be positive or negative throughout (I think it’s neither, in the end, I don’t think the storytelling passes judgment on Shizuo, you’re meant to draw your own conclusions), but even among all the meandering, there are still genuinely touching moments. Shizuo and his father really don’t get along, and in a very clever transition (we see his father praying at an altar after Shizuo falls (?!) out a window), a flashback starts where we find out about both of them about 25 years ago, along with Shizuo’s mother. Their relationship was much the same, with both antagonizing one another, but the moments of love were pretty extraordinary. Between father and son the love is awkward and strange, but still there, and both clearly love Shizuo’s mother.

I like it. I like it a lot. It is strange beyond words, and I can see how a lot of people would read it and not know what to make of it, but I do love it for being a slice-of-life story, and also for leaving its themes ambiguous. It’s not something that leaves me with a burning desire to pick up the next volume immediately, but that’s not its nature. All the same, I’ll definitely keep coming back for it.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.