Good-Bye

I'm a newcomer to Japanese 'comics' & graphic novels, initially drawn to them as a result of my fascination with ancient & modern Japanese culture.I picked this book up whilst browsing in a local store, initially attracted & intrigued by the exquisite binding(!). I read some of the first story 'Hell' whilst my children looked for books & felt that I needed to own that story & probably the whole book. It really is that powerful.The short stories contained within reflect post-war Japan & the lives of ordinary people in a confused society, people struggling to find an identity - not as a Nation, but as individuals. Dysfunction is rife within these pages, but probably no more so than if we were able to peel away the layers of all of our lives & whitness each others' secrets.This is powerful, ordinary stuff - a lot like Haruki Murakami. Highly recommended.

the stories on here are more like the things you'd find at the back of magazinesthe book in general doesn't have enough pages to make any of the stories significant or attachableif it were 600 pages long, fair enough but it is 204 pages longmost manga-ka's would use about that many pages for volume 1 of a series of books