Barefoot Gen Volume 9: Hardcover Edition

by Keiji Nakazawa

Beautiful new hardcover edition of Barefoot Gen Volume Nine! Striking new design with special sturdy binding.
Barefoot Gen is the powerful, tragic, autobiographical story of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath, seen through the eyes of the artist as a young boy growing up in Japan. The honest portrayal of emotions and experiences speaks to children and adults everywhere. Nakazawa's manga illustrates the true impact of nuclear weapons when used against a civilian population. It is vital reading for people of all ages, and especially for today's youth. By keeping this tragedy in our collective consciousness, we can strive to never repeat it and guide humanity towards a course of peace.
Barefoot Gen Volume Nine ― "Breaking Down Borders" ― Gen continues to confront one setback after another -- the loss of his home, the death of a friend -- when a chance encounter gives new direction to his life. An impoverished but talented artist takes Gen under his wing and teaches him to paint. Inspired by the artists assertion that art has no borders, Gen vows to become an artist himself, and takes a job as apprentice to a local poster painter. Despite merciless bullying from his boss and the older apprentices, Gen perseveres in the pursuit of his new calling.

Genres: Manga

264 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2018

About the author

Keiji Nakazawa (中沢啓治; Nakazawa Keiji) was born in Hiroshima and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. All of his family members who had not evacuated died as a result of the explosion after they became trapped under the debris of their house, except for his mother, as well as an infant sister who died several weeks afterward. In 1961, Nakazawa moved to Tokyo to become a full-time cartoonist, and produced short pieces for manga anthologies such as Shōnen Gaho, Shōnen King, and Bokura.
Following the death of his mother in 1966, Nakazawa returned to his memories of the destruction of Hiroshima and began to express them in his stories. Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain), the first of a series of five books, was a fictional story of Hiroshima survivors involved in the postwar black market. Nakazawa chose to portray his own experience directly in the 1972 story Ore wa Mita, published in Monthly Shōnen Jump. The story was translated into English and published as a one-shot comic book by Educomics as I Saw It.
Immediately after completing I Saw It, Nakazawa began his major work, Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen).This series, which eventually filled ten volumes, was based on the same events as I Saw It but fictionalized, with the young Gen as a stand-in for the author. Barefoot Gen depicted the bombing and its aftermath in graphic detail, with Gen's experiences being even more harrowing than Nakazawa's own. It also turned a critical eye on the militarization of Japanese society during World War II and on the sometimes abusive dynamics of the traditional family. Barefoot Gen was adapted into two animated films and a live action TV drama.
Nakazawa announced his retirement in September 2009, citing deteriorating diabetes and cataract conditions.He cancelled plans for a Barefoot Gen sequel. In September 2010, Nakazawa was diagnosed with lung cancer and in July 2011, metastasis from lung cancer was found. He died on December 19, 2012.

Reviews

[Russell Darren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the start of the story of Gen Nakaoka, paving his own way through the post-war society. No longer bound to his family as the three brothers split in the last book. With the aftermath of the bomb still taking lives, Gen has to deal with the loss of one of his close friends. I found it quite interesting to see the negative perspective that the Japanese had on the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. From the third-party view that we have, it seems that it would be in the best of everyone's interest for the bodies to be studied to see what destruction the Atomic Bomb had done, but from their perspective, they were being used as guinea pigs without consent, refusing to give their bodies as the most minimal form of non-victory. I am so excited to move on to the last chapter of the series.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5
This is starting to become a tedious read. The dialogue is crass, repetitive and over the top preachy. When the characters aren’t preaching at each other they are pissing and shitting on everything often quite literally.