Daily Breakdowns 033 - What A Wonderful World!

When there's only one thing you need to own
And that is hunger, hunger itself"

--U2, "Disappearing Act"

What A Wonderful World! Vols. 1 & 2
Story & Art by Inio Asano
Published by Viz Signature. $12.99 USD (ea.)

In these two volumes, Asano tells a number of short stories dealing with people who are ready to give up, either on their dreams and aspirations or even life itself. As one can guess from the quote above, I'm listening to U2's The Unforgettable Fire reissue while writing, the album itself inspired by a museum exhibit of the same name, featuring drawings by survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The traumas of the characters in What a Wonderful World! do not compare to those atrocities, of course, but they are traumas more relatable to you or me. Achievement is emphasized in Japan over personal expression or fulfillment, and several of Asano's stories deal with characters in "cram schools" that prepare them for college entrance. Those who fail to be accepted by a university are jokingly referred to as ronin, diminished academic warriors searching for an institutional master. Some skip class, some struggle to please their parents, some drift through school, friendless and miserable. Some drink, alone or with others, perhaps with sex involved, and none of it with much desire or purpose other than killing time.

Several stories are linked, and there are a few recurring characters such as Horita, the young mohawked punk who gives up music for faceless corporate life, only to return much later in the second volume, in a bad relationship, out of work and numbed by failure, only a glimmer of life left. There's also Tae, raised by her older brother and sister after her mother died, who disappears for a week every year around the time her mother died, a coping mechanism. Asano's linkages are rarely forced; although his character designs are often samey, once recognized, recurring characters are invariably welcome. Once or twice there's a pedestrian linking device like a wandering stray dog but it's inoffensive. For the most part, Asano's use of animals is not sophisticated, but effective nonetheless. A turtle in an aquarium represents a character feeling trapped by the expectations placed on her. Black cats and dogs symbolize a guileless, non-accusatory resilience; i.e., they know how to get by without moping and self-destructive behavior, unlike many of our characters.

As with the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors' drawings, and as with some of the better U2 work, Asano's stories here fall under healing arts. There is a strong feeling of identification with these sad, disillusioned souls, but Asano seems always to be fighting pessimism to rescue them. The characters fall often--literally and figuratively--and there is usually something around the corner to pick them up, or to rekindle a dim spark of the will to live and go forward. Magic realism abounds, with crows and other aspects of death, but Asano doesn't give up on them. And as some of the characters grow, so too does Asano, the more cartoonish figures in the early stories--bundles of awkward nerves against the rigid, precise architecture--evolving into a more refined and open style, with more delicate shading and some time for more reflective moments of beauty. As he refines his style, so does he seem to refine his worldview, the punkish extremes getting deeper and mellower, and often kinder. The first volume has a more attractive energy to it, but the second volume, while more somber, pays off the investment made in the characters as we see a little farther along in how their lives have been playing out, not to mention that the art becomes pretty gorgeous. Excellent work.

Christopher Allen

Complimentary copies were provided by the publisher for the purpose of review.