Manga Michi
Gives You Postwar Manga History in Japan

Date：18, Nov, 2015
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
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Saying frankly, just a little bit, I hesitated to feature this as essay manga. That is “Manga Michi” written and illustrated by Fujiko Fujio A. He had done intermittently since 1970, and finished in 2013.

Fujiko Fujio A said it is almost an autobiography. The two main characters met and got to head for becoming manga artists together. Needless to mention, they mean Fujiko F Fujio, his late partner and him. In the stories and realities, they became pupils of Tezuka Osamu.

How come I felt hesitation, then? It is because the main characters’ names are fictional. That works as essay when you tightly recognize Fujiko Fujio A. “Manga Michi” will be just a fictional comic featuring boys who long for being manga artists, however, if you read without any preliminary knowledge. It is supposed to be what he aimed at, although.

Anyway, “Manga Michi” is an essay comic which includes precious memories. Fujiko Fujio A was born in 1934. Postwar manga history exists there for sure, therefore. The pages vividly show how manga has improved and grown up within Japan after the war ended.

Described there is Tokiwa-so; a cheap apartment which Tezuka Osamu, Fujko Fujio, Akatsuka Fujio and others had lived in. It looks like utopia or something ideal today. Not a pro studio, that was the space youngsters who resolved together stayed and grew up. Nowadays we have Twitter or Facebook instead? However, I believe it is important such a place happens to be real.

My conclusion says all librarians at libraries must collect “Manga Michi” and put at a corner “Modern Culture History.”