Inio Asano is perhaps the most important mangaka of his generation, with masterpieces like Solanin , Good Night Punpun, or his current series, Dead Dead Demon's DeDeDeDe Destruction . As of last summer, 20 Minutes devoted an interview to him, making him a meeting (from a distance) with Shuzo Oshimi ( Les Liens du sang ), competing and contemporary author, with whom he shares the same obsession: Japanese youth, its mystery , his spleen. Guest of honor at the 47th edition of the Angoulême 2020 festival which ended on Sunday, Inio Asano chained masterclasses, dedications and meetings to celebrate and talk about his work, available mainly at Kana. The publisher took the opportunity to reissue the collection A wonderful world and release a new anthology. He comments on them all for 20 Minutes .
大 充 実 の ア ン グ レ ー ム か ら 帰 っ て き ま し た ー。 pic.twitter.com/ORvGKIJt3b
- 浅 野 い に お (@asano_inio) February 3, 2020"A Wonderful World", "Inio Asano Anthology" and other short stories
“When I started my mangaka career, I had read, frankly, only short stories. So, for me, it was the most accomplished form of manga. Long series were more of a necessity for living. The short format also allows you to focus on a specific theme, and only talk about that, while on a series, the theme is not enough, you need characters to carry it over several volumes and years. Heroes appreciated by readers too, it's better. ( laughs )
The author of "Bonne nuit Punpun" and "DDDD" is back with a new book: "Inio Asano Anthology"!
It will be available from January 31, 2020, so we have made available to you an excerpt from the first story.
To read the extract: https://t.co/YfigWTFUiA pic.twitter.com/TB6BFEui1p
If I had to advise only one short work to discover my work, it would be the last collection, Inio Asano Anthology . Already, because it is the most recent, and therefore more technically successful. I can show it with pride. The first story, Restuko, the monster and its schoolgirl with an insect head, and the last, Mushroom, bamboo shoot , a war story with Lilliputians, at the origin of my DDDD series, are very representative. "
A Wonderful World, Inio Asano Anthology, The Quarter of Light, The Field of the Rainbow … (Kana)
"Solanin"
“Through the story of Meiko and Naruo, I speak of the ideal of a youth, and the defeat, the disillusionment that follows. It is ultimately something quite universal, many people experience it, go through it. I experienced it myself. Solanin is really what we call a work of youth. I was then in my early twenties. She is a snapshot of that moment in my life, and in my career. "
Solanin , integral (Kana)
"Good night Punpun!" "
“Before Solanin , I did not yet consider myself a full-fledged mangaka. Afterwards, I realized that if I wanted to make it my profession, I had to be able to draw long series. I then thought about the theme, the subject, which could allow me to tell a long-term story. And my driving force is introspection, I draw on who surrounds me, who is close to me, in me too. But I wondered if this very personal approach would be impacting enough, that's why I tried to do graphic experiments, to get out of the manga codes.
Punpun is a fairly negative, pessimistic, even depressed hero. If I had drawn him realistically [he still appears as a funny bird], I'm not sure the readers would have been comfortable with him. It was necessary to add a form of lightness. Represent the dark part of man, the violence of society, in a dark and violent way, it is agreed, expected. These subjects are an integral part of our lives, of our being, I do not want to exacerbate them. My drawing is therefore more refined, bright, poetic. "
Good night Punpun! , 13 volumes (Kana)
"Dead Dead Demon's DeDeDeDe Destruction"
“With DDDD and its gigantic spaceship over Tokyo, the idea was to talk about Japan and its youth after the Fukushima accident, how life has changed, how we have a new way of seeing and feeling things. But I also wanted to create pleasant and engaging characters. Or two things that are a priori opposite, contradictory. DDDD is therefore a story of cohabitation, in every sense of the term, between my personal obsessions and a more mainstream manga. "
Dead Dead Demon's DeDeDeDe Destruction , 8 volumes, in progress (Kana)
The beach girl, wonder of Inio Asano. pic.twitter.com/uNgPVcLWOw
- Joan (@_Meloku) July 2, 2019"The girl on the beach"
“Sex has always been present in my works, as an event, an element of everyday life. I never made it the main subject. But I felt that it would be interesting, important, to tackle it head-on, entirely. It fell at the same time that there were more and more restrictions on the representation of sexuality in the manga. I was lucky to be able to publish La fille de la plage in a magazine open to these questions, Manga Erotics F , which does not exist anymore today [It ceased to appear in 2014]. So it was a good time, and for me as a designer, an important stage in my career. "
The girl on the beach , 2 volumes (IMHO)
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