A manga artist completes his years-long series - and then finds himself lost as he listlessly tries to decide upon a new project. Meanwhile his marriage is failing and his melancholy feelings begin to build, making it harder for him to move forward and create again. What happens when you put all of your time and effort into a creative field, at the expense of all else - and find that success is hollow?
The premise of Inio Asano’s Downfall was intriguing to me but I felt that the story lacked meaning and direction - which I totally understand could be what Asano was going for. If this is a semi-autobiographical story, and it’s meant to convey a certain time/feeling in Asano’s life, without real answers because he didn’t find them, then that’s fine - but it also doesn’t make for a satisfying narrative.
Asano’s main character Fukazawa flounders in the wake of his completed series, we see his marriage is completely dead - he and his wife barely talk on the few occasions they see each other (it doesn’t help that both are workaholics) - and he reverts to seeing prostitutes for the only moments of happiness we see him allowing himself.
But what are we meant to take away from all this? Fukazawa continually shit-talks the manga industry and it’s clear that success hasn’t done anything to make him any happier - so it’s a superficially simplistic message of pursuing your dreams doesn’t necessarily bring you contentment (made more complex by the idea of not following them and whether that would make you happier)? Or even just a means of Asano getting some stuff off his chest?
The story then takes a turn for the corny when Fukazawa falls for one of the prostitutes, the manic pixie dream girl character (minus the manic - but she literally has a pixie-cut), and the two embark on a short, shallow relationship that of course goes nowhere. What was the point of that??
Asano makes the interesting choice of making his already-unlikeable main character even worse by implying he SA’d one of his assistants and we later see him SA another character. It made me think of the recent Neil Gaiman allegations, even though this book precedes those by several years: that someone who is undeniably a talented creator with a devoted, large audience could also be a monster in their private life.
The reason why I suggested this might be semi-autobiographical is because Fukazawa’s life is very similar to Asano’s: they’re both successful, young manga creators, and so maybe Fukazawa’s cynical feelings towards the manga industry are felt by Asano who has also been in the industry for years himself. And then Asano does draw Fukazawa to look exactly like him too…
Asano’s art is really beautiful. His characters are drawn flawlessly expressive and the one good thing about the affair with the prostitute is the change of scenery from city to country and Asano is able to show the reader some really gorgeous images of the Japanese countryside. I don’t think his writing and storytelling is as good as it could be but his artwork is incredible.
Downfall is a decent book. The downbeat tone and introspective look into manga creators and the industry as a whole is different from what’s routinely pushed to manga readers (ie. popular guff like Demon Slayer and its derivatives), which I appreciated. But I also think it lacks focus and meaning - parts of it were quite dull and I’m still not sure what I was meant to take away from it besides Main Character Is Depressed. For a book so full of feels, it wasn’t able to convey any of that depth and power to the reader.
As a result, Downfall reads like a meandering bellyache from a malcontented manga creator perhaps grappling with his own complicated feelings of his chosen profession, fused with a half-baked romantic fantasy. The subject of choosing career over real relationships and discovering the emptiness of success are potentially fruitful but Inio Asano doesn’t realise this in Downfall unfortunately. Still, it’s a wonderfully-illustrated look at a complex character - just don’t expect the most engaging narrative if you choose to pick this one up.
No comments:
Post a Comment