Title: Tokyo These Days Vol. 2
Author: Taiyo Matsumoto
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 227
Genre: Slice-of-Life
Publication Date: May 21, 2024
The Story
Shiozawa continues to pitch his idea about making a manga to all of his old contacts; however, he’s not getting anywhere with most of them. This volume is split into two sections with the first exploring each person’s story and why they cannot help Shiozawa with his venture. Meanwhile, Hayashi is worried about Shiozawa being able to self-publish his manga and tries to ask the sales department at the magazine for a favor to help him out. Meanwhile, Shiozawa himself is going around to different stores; however, they all reject him with the common answer being that they cannot lend space to an independent author. They will only accept someone attached to a major label. One person even suggested that he forget about physicals and try out ebooks instead.
The second half of the manga focuses on Aoki. His series, Silver Tent, ends up getting accepted through Hayashi’s efforts. Many in the editorial department questioned whether or not Aoki would be able to come through due to his attitude and his spotty work ethic; however, once he learned that he had become serialized, something inside of him woke up… for better or for worse. While he was managing to keep up with his deadlines, there was a part of him that was dying on the inside… so much so that he decided to take a trip back to his hometown. Hayashi became worried and offered another avenue for him… whether or not he accepts or declines this avenue will have to wait until the third and final volume of the series.
Characters
Shiozawa is continuing to think in an archaic way which is both noble and foolish. It’s noble in the way that it shows his experience in making manga as well as his experience as an editor. His viewpoints on several topics are wise and spot-on; however, when it comes to independent publishing, he doesn’t seem to fully grasp the situation he’s in. In addition to being rejected by almost everyone he has asked for help (including trying to poach someone from a formal rival company which is extremely taboo in his world), he was being rejected from every bookstore he approached. What he was doing was relying on his old editor skills and knowledge without applying them to an independent point of view. Even when Hayashi goes out of her way to help him, he rejects her offer because he is determined to do things his way… even if that means not getting his manga into a bookstore. This means you can tell he has a bit too much pride which could make all of his determination a moot point.
Chosaku is slowly starting to find his love for manga again, although it’s very subtle. He still thinks his own manga is trash but is still determined to help Shiozawa out. At one point, he was supposed to do a storyboard for Shiozawa and was late handing it in. He even remarks that he never used to be like this and it confirmed that the spark and love for manga he once had is now gone. Perhaps working on this series will reignite it but it’s too early to say. There was even a nice moment here where he met up with his ex and his daughter. While his daughter seemed to resent him at first, by the end of their visit, she enjoyed the time they had spent together. This shows how kind Chosaku can be all while maintaining that rough and gruff side of him. Plus, the reason his ex left him, was another example of how dedicated he used to be to manga which, again, accented his love for it.
With Hayashi, she didn’t do much but what she did do was impactful. When I say didn’t do much, she only did two things… one was to try and help Shiozawa by going to the sales department to see if Shiozawa could use their sale code to get his manga into bookstores, and the other was the convince the editor-in-chief to accept Aoki’s manga and get him on a regular production schedule. It shows that she has a big heart and cares about the people that are around her. This is accented even more when Aoki himself begins to slip mentally. She tries to be there for him but just like with Shiozawa, there are moments where she feels as if her efforts were in vain. She is being portrayed as a character who honestly tries her hardest but is never rewarded for her efforts. In some way, shape, or form, something comes back to marginalize them. You can’t help but feel sorry for her.
Lastly, there’s Aoki. At first, he seemed genuinely excited to have Silver Tree picked up for serialization and, at first, he was pretty gung-ho about meeting his deadlines. Then, he began to question his love for making manga and he began to slip into a drone-like state. He grew a beard, began drinking, and had all the markings of a person steeped in depression; however, he just did what he was told and pushed forward. In fact, when you look at some of the people Shiozawa met throughout this volume, these feelings were a common theme between them all. It makes you wonder how many mangaka in real life are just putting their heads down and drawing whatever just for the sake of pushing their work out there. How many of them are putting THEIR work onto the page versus what the editor wants? Are the stories we are reading truly crafted with the author’s love or by the will of what sells? Aoki is a perfect example of this because we saw the end result all throughout this volume but we never saw the journey… until Aoki. He was the journey and he was masterfully used to show it!
Final Thoughts
Incredible! At first, you thought that this was just going to be a volume about Shiozawa going around and asking old contacts for help. What you didn’t realize was that you were being set up for Aoki’s part later on in the volume. You saw the interaction between Shiozawa and Machiko Iidabashi. You heard how she fell out of love with manga and just became a drone. You heard Chosaku talking about how he doesn’t love manga as much as he used to. You were given the end results… then in the second half, we visit Aoki and you actually see him slip from a happy person into the same state. It almost gave the sense that being a manga author is a disease and that the whole manga industry is one giant epidemic.
In addition, you also saw Shiozawa woken up to reality when he tried to convince a bookstore to publish his yet-to-be-created manga. All of those years of experience as a mangaka and later an editor were useless. Even though Shiozawa didn’t outright state it, you could tell that he realized this was going to be a more difficult endeavor than he thought, and yet, he still believed that he could see it through on his own. Call it stubbornness; however, he’s going to have to learn to adapt and abandon his traditional ways if he’s going to succeed. Or maybe he doesn’t? There’s only one volume left so anything can happen but something tells me that he’s going to learn a completely different lesson and that, somehow, Aoki is going to be the key to that.
We’ll have to wait and see but this truly has been a gripping and, oftentimes, philosophical series! While short, I’m enjoying it immensely!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
