false 2862344 1 <div><div><div><b>A true cornerstone of the Japanese underground scene of the 1960s</b></div><div><br>Seiichi Hayashi produced <i>Red Colored Elegy</i> between 1970 and 1971, in the aftermath of a politically turbulent and culturally vibrant decade that promised but failed to deliver new possibilities. With a combination of sparse line work and visual codes borrowed from animation and film, the quiet, melancholy lives of a young couple struggling to make ends meet are beautifully captured in this poetic masterpiece. Uninvolved with the political movements of the time, Ichiro and Sachiko hope for something better, but they&#8217;re no revolutionaries; their spare time is spent drinking, smoking, daydreaming, and sleeping&#8212;together and at times with others. While Ichiro attempts to make a living from his comics, Sachiko&#8217;s parents are eager to arrange a marriage for her, but Ichiro doesn&#8217;t seem interested. Both in their relationship and at work, Ichiro and Sachiko are unable to say the things they need to say, and like any couple, at times say things to each other that they do not mean, ultimately communicating as much with their body language and what remains unsaid as with words.<br></div><div><i></i> </div><div><i>Red Colored Elegy</i> is informed as much by underground Japanese comics of the time as it is by the French nouvelle vague, and its cultural referents range from James Dean to Ken Takakura. Its influence in Japan was so great that Morio Agata, a prominent Japanese folk musician and singer/songwriter, debuted with a love song written and named after it.</div></div></div> 2888484 22 7 2008 Red Colored Elegy total:75|5:0|4:1|3:2|2:4|1:0| 75 249 111 25 3 1 false false Wed Dec 03 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 06:17:13 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 03 06:18:15 -0800 2008 4 2 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 09:31:41 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 07:05:11 -0800 2009


I just finished Nate Powell's Swallow Me Whole which was a fantastic combination of comics experimentation and narrative, but Seiichi Hayashi's Red Colored Elegy takes experimentation in comics to another level. As such, the narrative is...more...]]> 2 1 false false Wed May 20 13:55:14 -0700 2009 Thu May 21 12:46:44 -0700 2009 experimentation.. like it was trying to do early modernism all over
again, but from...more...]]> 3 2 false false Fri Jan 23 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 09:09:21 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 09:10:33 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Thu Sep 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 23:36:21 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 23:41:27 -0700 2009 1
Overall...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Oct 23 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 23 01:09:17 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 23 01:20:22 -0700 2008
So, it's just a story about a Japanese hipster couple in the 70s, being broke, fucking, fighting, breaking up and getting back together. Sometimes it's touching. Sometimes it makes me feel shitty about all of the awful things I've ever done in ...more...]]> 1 0 false false Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 16:42:58 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 16:47:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 15:59:16 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 16:08:33 -0800 2009
I probably need to read this a few more times to appreciate it. Not a book t...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jun 21 09:59:47 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 10:03:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 09:41:38 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 09:45:04 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jul 31 10:15:14 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 10:16:17 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jun 14 21:09:42 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 21:11:50 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Feb 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 13:07:24 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:31:56 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Mon Oct 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 14 08:05:36 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 14 08:10:33 -0700 2008 I would give the cover 5 stars, but the story was stilted (I think that was the point?) and the art was stilted (also, maybe the point) and the dialogue was stilted (translation issues?) and I had no idea what was going on--was something going on?
...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Oct 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 07:29:17 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 02 09:07:56 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Tue Jul 28 22:08:55 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 22:09:34 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Mar 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 20:33:09 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 20:40:57 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Jan 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 08:30:53 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 08:31:02 -0800 2009 4 1 false false Sat Jun 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 08:05:05 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 19:10:31 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sat May 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 02 00:15:59 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 02:51:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2862344