Tokio día a día núm. 01

東京ヒゴロ [Tokyo Higoro] #1

by Taiyo Matsumoto, Alejandro Sánchez Herrera (Translator)

The winner of multiple Eisner Awards, author Taiyo Matsumoto explores the relationships between a manga editor, manga creators, art, and the rhythm of life these days.

After 30 years as a manga editor, Kazuo Shiozawa suddenly quits. Although he feels early retirement is the only way to atone for his failures as an editor, the manga world isn’t done with him. 

On his last day as an editor, Shiozawa takes a train he’s ridden hundreds of times before to impart some last advice to a manga creator whose work he used to edit. Some time after, he is drawn to return to a bookshop at the request of a junior editor who wants Shiozawa’s help dealing with an incorrigible manga creator who refuses to work with any editor but him. For this manga editor, Tokyo these days is full of memory and is cocooned in the inescapable bonds between manga creators, their editors, art, and life itself.

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels, Comics, Japan, Fiction, Slice Of Life, Bande Dessinée

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2021

About the author

See also: 松本大洋 and 松本 大洋

Although Taiyo Matsumoto desired a career as a professional soccerplayer at first, he eventually chose an artistic profession. He gained his first success through the Comic Open contest, held by the magazine Comic Morning, which allowed him to make his professional debut. He started out with 'Straight', a comic about basketball players. Sports remain his main influence in his next comic, 'Zéro', a story about a boxer.

In 1993 Matsumoto started the 'Tekkonkinkurito' trilogy in Big Spirits magazine, which was even adapted to a theatre play. He continued his comics exploits with several short stories for the Comic Aré magazine, which are collected in the book 'Nihon no Kyodai'. Again for Big Spirits, Taiyo Matsumoto started the series 'Ping Pong' in 1996. 'Number Five' followed in 2001, published by Shogakukan.

Source: Lambiek website bio .

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, slow, melancholy story about a couple of manga editors and several mangaka, mostly focusing on retiring manga editor Kazuo Shiozawa, who decides he wants to produce one more book, so he approaches several older mangaka to get them out of retirement and working on his book.



I've always loved Taiyo Matsumoto's idiosyncratic art in his weird and/or sci-fi stories, and here that very fine, delicate art works perfectly to show the lives of fine, delicate artists. The book is quite profound and has an incredible stillness about it. Just great.

(Thanks to VIZ Media for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)

[Alwynne]

I can see why this series is so admired. I really liked the complex storytelling and the atmospheric, detailed artwork. But I was forced to abandon this fairly early on. The main character has a pet bird and regularly talks to them about his life. Unfortunately the bird is kept in a tiny cage, there's no room to so much as spread their wings. It wasn't an image I wanted to be continually confronted with - when it comes to caged birds I stand with William Blake!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shiozawa leaves his job as a manga editor, but the trappings follow him wherever he goes. Unsure what to do with himself, it turns out that, much like the Mafia, it’s probably easier to die doing manga than it is to up and quit it.

I’m hardly making a bold statement by saying that most manga is black and white, but, even with a spattering of colour pages, this story feels like it’s black and white. And maybe French. It reads like a foreign film to me.

Which is to say that it takes its time and presents itself as a study of various characters and we really get to know them and their interactions. The question becomes… how interesting is that?

Shiozawa is interesting enough - he’s throwing himself on his proverbial sword over a failed magazine, lamenting that he’s out of touch with what people actually want. He’s very good at his job, if a touch poor at self-examination, as he uses his retirement to point out how out of touch some of the mangaka he knows are.

It’s the classic story of an industry that has run away from its artistic roots and become more and more focused on commercial success, leaving very little by way of unique voices. Every facet of this is backed up when a new isekai comes out.

This is a very quiet story that doesn’t necessarily appear to be going anywhere, merely an examination of the triumphs and detritus of one man’s career, until the very end, which appears to be suggesting that Shiozawa is intending to make something he would love in the medium he loves.

As time passes and tastes change, what if you could do the thing you loved the way you wanted to, one last time? That’s Shiozawa’s true victory lap, potentially, which we see him being sowing the seeds of. The moment he recognizes what he’s losing by abandoning his profession is both a polite homage and real moment.

Some of it is bizarre - the female artist whose son is throwing his money away on absurd nonsense, for example. Yet, even in that story there is a reflection of the passion of a creator and how it waits for a spark to rekindle it.

This feels mostly real, possible talking bird aside, and it’s very interesting taking this journey and meeting these unique characters and seeing what has driven them or how their passion has faded.

Which is odd, because when I finished I genuinely felt that I had read exactly enough of this story for my tastes. There’s clearly more to come, but do I want to see more? I’m pretty content with what was on offer here to the point that I have no real intention to read another volume.

It’s a lovely, mature, engaging piece that aims rather higher than the usual fare, so I certainly don’t regret any of my time with it. Maybe I’m just as basic as I think I am though.

3 stars - it’s good, most assuredly, and I wavered with giving this less than 4 stars, and if it sounds like your jam then it is most definitely worth your time, but the simple fact is that if I’m feeling done with your story after the first volume, then I don’t think it’s quite as ‘for me’ as I was hoping.

[Maia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manga editor Shiozawa decides to quit his job after a magazine he founded folds. He plans to find some hobbies and start a new life. But manga won't let go of him so easily. Editor colleagues continue to ask him for help, especially with their more difficult artist clients. He has to pay last visits to artists he worked with in the past, which often turn into emotional conversations. He tries to sell his entire manga collection to a used bookstore, but at the last minute has a change of heart and keeps it. Then he decides he wants to work on one more story. But who to ask to write and draw it? This is an elegant, understated book about how deep the comics industry gets under your skin, and the very wide variety of people who fall for manga and can't let it go, even after it's broken their hearts.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A slow but engaging character-driven story about a manga editor's midlife crisis.

Kazuo Shiozawa has resigned from his job, embarrassed that the magazine he was editing has been canceled. He vows to leave manga behind forever, but finds himself talking with manga creators (living and dead) and another editor and a plan for the future slowly starts to form in his mind.


FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Chapter 1. Today: I'm retiring for personal reasons -- Chapter 2. 4 p.m.: In front of Yamada Shoten in Jimbocho -- Chapter 3. Today: An early morning visitor -- Chapter 4. Today: Contact used bookstore, move on from manga -- Chapter 5. Ofuna, 11 a.m.: Funeral for Reiko Tachibana Sensei -- Chapter 6. Pay a visit to Shin Arashiyama Sensei -- Chapter 7. Aoki's cat goes missing -- Chapter 8. Request work from Kaoru Kiso Sensei

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kazuo Shiozawa quits his job as a manga editor and explores life without manga in it at all. Explores what life is like when it's nearly 100% just your work. Personal and quiet. I liked the start where we see the hustle and bustle of a manga creator. It's good enough that I'll want to read this series when it's completed. Matsumoto is a phenomenal cartoonist.

[Moira Macfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nog meer dan anders voelde dit als een arthouse film, zo'n hele trage ingetogen film, en dat ik dan in het kleinste zaaltje zat met nog drie andere mensen. Ik hou intens van zijn stijl, vind die prachtig met die altijd melancholische ondertoon.

Over-
Na 30 jaar als mangaredacteur te hebben gewerkt neemt Kazuo Shiozawa plotseling ontslag. Hij vindt dat hij heeft gefaald als redacteur, omdat hij heeft moeten buigen voor de steeds dwingender commerciële mangawereld. Getalenteerde mangaka hebben het veld moeten ruimen, omdat ze een te selectief gezelschap aanspreken om nog uitgegeven te worden. Hij zoekt ze één voor één op, veel van hen zijn eenlingen die worstelen hun hoofd boven het water te houden in het dagelijks leven, zowel mentaal als financieel. Dat maakt het geen vrolijke trilogie, maar wel eentje waar ik een grote compassie voor de personages bij voelde.

Voor een inkijkje: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDhtyG6go...

[Frédéric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a great affection for Taiyo that I don't think I can really explain. Apart from Tekkonkinkreet - a favourite - I don't particularly like his drawing, and I have to admit that some of the scenes elude me.
And yet there's a contemplative side to his stories, tinged with a deep, muted melancholy and that moves me far beyond the pure drawing.

These elements can be found in this book, which revolves around a tanto (editor) on the comeback trail who decides to make a last stand with some more or less forgotten former artists now building caretakers or supermarket cashiers. This gives Taiyo the opportunity to depict the manga scene from a human perspective, with all its joys, sorrows and compromises...

An interesting read for fans of manga who want to go beyond the object itself and see the world of the men and women who create them. There are other mangas on this theme, but Taiyo's proposal probably makes it unique.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

What does it mean to work in a creative field? What happens when you need to take a break from it? Can you ever really escape what it means to be creative, whether you're in the writing, drawing, or editing aspect of it?

Matsumoto's book seems to suggest that you can't, that manga (or any other creative field) is in your blood, and even if you think you're ready to move on, a piece of you will never be able to. I've never wanted to leave my own creative work, so I can't truly relate to some aspects of this, but I think at the end of the day Matsumoto wants to explore the relationship between the creators, the editors, and the art itself. It's an uneasy one, but maybe that's why it's worth having.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book. The cover is gorgeous and sometimes the artwork is also stunning and sometimes it is not so pretty, but this manga is attempting realism and real life isn't always pretty.

This is an interesting look at the "man behind the curtain", or even seeing how the sausage is made. Our MC is disillusioned with his passion of creating manga, seeing the art form denigrate into crass consumerism, being written and drawn for sales and not for heart, for soul, for ART.

He retires, blaming himself for the failure of the last publication he worked on, but he can't seem to let it go. (I was legit holding my breath when he was going to sell his massive collection of manga. The entire time I was thinking, "No no no no no no no, you will regret it, don't do it!")

He seems to be shooting for one more opus, the ultimate tribute to the work that he loves, his passion making him hopeful that the art and the desire for it, is still out there. Almost a "if you publish it, they will read it" hope. Not a lot of action happens in this, it's very cerebral and almost French in the black and white color scheme, the moodiness and the "talking" bird, but it sits with one long after it has been read and the cover is closed.

As I type this review, I realize that it sat with me longer than I thought it had. I didn't always agree with the characters in this and sometimes I didn't really follow what they were saying and the meanings behind what they said, but it stuck with me.

4, unexpectedly grabbed me and will stay with me longer than expected, stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and VIZ Media LLC for an eARC of this book to read and review.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tokyo These Days is a quaint and wistful tale, a staple atmosphere in many of Taiyo Matsumoto's works. The story is centered around Kazuo Shiozawa, the long-time editor of a manga magazine who decides one day to retire. Despite having spent thirty years at the magazine, he feels a sense of discontentment in his achievements during this tenure, and that his retirement will serve as atonement. The feeling that he could have done better enflames in him a new passion - to spearhead a new variety manga magazine featuring some former greats. Much of this first volume follows Shiozawa's recruiting of older mangaka to aid him in bringing his new project into fruition, whilst also following the people who were left behind at Shiozawa's previous magazine.

The story moves a fairly brisk but comfortable pace, feeling both contemplative but engaging at once. Artistically, this is Matsomoto at his best, with intricate details shining through amidst simple composition choices. Matsumoto's artwork remains singular in its aesthetic, and the sporadic color used in some of the opening pages of new chapters is warm and inviting.

[Ludwig Aczel · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10
This first volume (of three) is interesting and obviously well-crafted, but the story and his protagonist have not completely captured my attention yet. I reckon that a realistic tale of existential disillusion (and possibly artistic rebirth?) of a 50 years old man calls for a measured approach in storytelling and visual style. But I am not too sure what to do with a measured Taiyo Matsumoto. Let's see how it goes.

[Victor The Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Middle aged Kazuo Shiozawa has just retired from his longtime job as a manga editor where he has recently felt that he has lost his love for manga in general. He meets up with a peer whom he has met for years along with a few other associates who are all dealing with their own work issues. He unexpectedly slowly reflects on his life while we continue to look at the other characters and their bonds with their work and personal lives.

It’s a grounded and very relatable story about work, life and manga. The characters are a bit diverse as some are serious and others are very eccentric. Matsumoto’s art continues to look very unique, though not as vibrant as his “Cats at the Louvre”. “TTD” is not your average manga read, but one that has a great and familiar message. A- (91%/Excellent)

[Cristina Di Matteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splendido. Un manga introspettivo e delicato, un piccolo gioiello per chi ama le storie sull’arte, il tempo e la nostalgia. Seguiamo la vita di un ex editor manga che, in pensione, riscopre sé stesso e il significato della creatività. Il tratto di Matsumoto è unico, poetico, quasi malinconico — perfetto per raccontare il passaggio del tempo e il silenzio delle piccole cose. Un’opera matura e intensa, che lascia il segno.

[Anna Quilter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels like a slow beautiful love letter to creating Manga...and can you ever leave?

[J.M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this because I miss Tokyo. Not bad, it’s nice reading a serious manga for once.

[François Vigneault · Rating 5 out of 5]

It may come as a surprise that Taiyō Matsumoto’s low-key, quotidian drama Tokyo These Days Vol. 1 (Viz Media) borrows the rhythms and tropes of heist films such as Steven Soderburgh’s Ocean’s Eleven or Christopher Nolan’s Inception: A disciplined yet dishonored professional gathers an unruly band of talented misfits to pull off “one last job” to secure lasting glory and redemption. But rather than a career criminal robbing a trio of casinos or plumbing dreams for industrial secrets, Matsumoto’s unlikely hero is one Kazuo Shiozawa, a soft-spoken veteran manga editor who is living in self-imposed retirement after the magazine under his direction tanked, and the “heist” he is planning is a new manga anthology featuring work from a range of creators both old-school and modern.

Tokyo These Days is a slow-paced tale by a master of his craft, and any fan of the medium will find much to love in these pages, from the insider look at the manga industry to the low-key thrills of watching grim professionals pull off “one last job.”

Full review on The Comics Beat.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

After collapsing a manga magazine imprint because he is out of touch with readers, an editor who has worked in manga for 30 years retires. Rather than quitting all together he cashes in his retirement money to work with a team of professionals he admires to write a manga outside of the traditional publishing world. This is a slow paced, gorgeously illustrated, meditative look into the creation of manga by an old veteran of the industry. I think this book captures so well the burnout that can come from the high expectations placed on creators, as well as the relentless nature of the publishing industry to push artists into obscurity. It’s a beautiful look at artists trying to make art when the business demands mere content.

This work really spoke to me from having friends who have worked in comics, animation, art, and film who have quit their professions for their own sanity and well being, but have held onto the ART itself as meaningful despite being burned by the companies they worked for

TL;DR, It’s hard out here for sensitive creatives in a capitalist hellscape and yet we persist. I loved this book so much

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

After 30 years as a manga editor, Kazuo Shiozawa decides, seemingly on a spur of the moment (despite his magazine folding), to quit his job, his career. His initial impulse is to get away from manga utterly & completely even going so far as to have his book collection assessed for sale, but as he sorts through the last few remaining volumes he realises that he can't go through with it and gets the assessor to stop, before his evaluation is complete.

As the book progresses and he meets up with other creators and editors, he realises that he isn't finished with manga after all.
The cast:
Kazuo Shiozawa: a diffident, shy man, who knows his craft, but wants to break free of commercial constraints. He also has a pet bird to whom he talks, that also talks back (not a parrot) - I'm not sure if the bird is real or totally in Shiozawa's imagination; when it's there as Shiozawa talks to other people, nobody else remarks upon its presence...
Miss Hayashi: a protégé of Shiozawa who lacks a bit of confidence in her skills as an editor.
Aoki: a manga artist who is working on a project for Miss Hayashi, but who is temperamental and finding it hard to produce good work under her guidance. He also has an apartment full of cats (I counted 7 in total).
Chosaku: a well-established manga artist, a chain-smoker, divorced father of one, who Shiozawa identifies as also not producing his best work...
Reiko Tachibana: an artist who's funeral Shiozawa attends (his first signed artist as an editor all those decades before), which appears to be the birthplace of his idea to get back into manga, but now independently, without any studio involvement.
Shin Arashiyama & Kaoru Kiso: both of them are no longer working as artists, Shin as a caretaker in a housing complex, Kaoru in a supermarket (called Maruken) supporting her family (including her deadbeat son). Shiozawa approaches both of them to work for him on his new independent project.
Shiozawa has the knack of inspiring others and I am very much looking forward to the next 2 volumes and how all of these characters progress and live their lives - this volume of fairly mundane interceptions & interactions could have been boring, but I was gripped, whilst the magical realism & imaginative touches made it a great manga read.

[Carlos J. Eguren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Editar, dibujar, escribir o crear manga es lo peor que hay.

[Adam M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Already in the running for most interesting book I will read in 2024, Tokyo These Days is a cinematic, engrossing, reflective book. It asks the reader to think about what one's life is really for, where is the line between work and art and how do the two tie together. Shiozawa's journey has a profound affect on the lives around him as he strives to make sense of his 30 years editing manga when he thinks he's reached the end of the road.

This book is incredibly easy to read and also deeply introspective. I read reread certain sections to better absorb the broader implications to the world around Shiozawa and how everyone he comes in contact with finds themselves unpacking the themes he introduces. Truly the work of a great artist, Taiyo Matsumoto immediately made a new out of me and I cannot wait to read vol 2. In the mean time, I'll check out more of their award winning work.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manga artist retires only to get the crew back together to write THE manga. A great slice of life… interested to see how it ends.

Reread July 14, 2025

The story is much less of a slice of life and more so a story of change. What happens when our passions become our hurdles and we cannot seem to get back to our interest. I want to feel as alive and connected to art as I did when I first began reading, or even thinking deeply about the art I consume. The people in this story are all regular folk who seem to have lost that sparkle that made them creatives and now they need to kind of figure out how to continue living- perhaps returning to their original passion is the right choice but perhaps not. I wonder how it will come together.

[Sara Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matsumoto has made a really charming book about a manga editor who is older and realizes that he was out of touch with what young readers wanted and that’s why the magazine folded. he quits the company to atone for his sins. the rest of the book is about him wanting to make one last manga but the one of his personal dreams, regardless of what ppl think is cool. there’s only a few color pages, most of it is black and white and i absolutely love the illustrations. Matsumoto is a really great cartoonist. i kinda wish the storyline stayed as strong as it was in the beginning but i felt like it kinda fell off a bit. still, i would recommend!

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I DNFd the first volume of Oshi no Ko to read this instead and I have no regrets.

[marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's Taiyo Matsumoto. Of course the art and paneling are fantastic. The story is very subdued and didn't click for me until chapter 5. Still, I'm excited to see where it'll go next.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully drawn. Especially the detailed city scapes. Interesting characters and an emotional story that is engaging enough to make me look forward to part 2.

[Bat Man · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifying. Why would anybody make comics for a living. you'd have to be slightly insane

[kaitlphere · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a man retiring from working in manga, visiting people he knows, then working to put a team together to make one very good manga.

I love the dark lines and the large dialogue text in the art and lettering. There is a right lean to much of the background in this book. It lends a feeling of action to a book that otherwise begins with someone retiring and presumably slowing down. (Notably, it reads as action to me because I read left-to-right as an English reader, but perhaps due to the Japanese right-to-left reading order a Japanese reader may interpret a right lean as a hesitating or slowing down.)

In chapter 1 there is a storm blowing in. The panels show the storm to break or enhance tension in a scene. It adds to the feeling that there is more happening in the story than what's in the first few pages.

The main character talks to his bird, as if having a conversion. I liked the whimsy of talking to himself via his pet. The panel cuts back to the bird when Shiozawa leaves and it's just chirping, which I appreciated so that it's clear that the bird is just normal bird.

In chapter 8 I really liked how mundane daily life was interspersed with action- and emotion-packed panels of the manga being drawn by the new artist in the story.

This is a well-paced but ultimately fairly slow story. I would read more of this.

[Wendelle]

an award-winning graphic novel about a disillusioned manga editor who consults with several renowned and retired manga artists about how to revive his manga passion, after he quits the magazine he works for.

[Vincent GAILLARD · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ambiance prenante dans le milieu du manga. Un mangaka qui doute, a moitié fou, un éditeur un peu raide qui quitte la sécurité pour créer son propre journal. Caractères bien typés, décors évocateurs et narration toute en ellipse. Du tayou haut de gamme.